Seals and Sea Lions - by Luke

There are many types of seals and sea lions off the Oregon Coast.  One of them is the Harbor Seal.  It is gray with black or gray spots.  Another is the Stellar Seal, which is gray and brown.  It has a mane and it looks like a lion.  It is about the size of a pickup truck.  The Elephant Seal is gray.  It is larger than a pickup truck and weighs about 5,000 pounds.  A final sea lion is the California Sea Lion.  These are the most known sea lions that do tricks, like at Sea World.  They are slightly larger than the Harbor Seal.  There are many aquatic animals off the coast of Oregon.

Today we visited Simpson Reef Overlook.  It was foggy, but in the distance we could see many seals and sea lions.  All four of these animals haul out at Simpson Reef!

We climbed a mountain! By Isa and Gabi

One of the big snails we saw.  They went slow.

Today we climbed a mountain.  All the way to the tippy top. The name of the mountain is Humbug Mountain.  Our feet were hurting a lot.  And Gabi whined a lot.  We found a bunch of big snails, a green slug, a spotted slug, and a ghost flower plant.   

A green slug!

Does anyone know what this plant is?   

We called it: ghost flowers, see-through flowers, and dead flowers. 

 There were lots and lots of plants. It was very green – Isa’s favorite color.   

Everything was very green.

The top of the mountain was 1756 feet up.  That’s not as high as the mountains in Colorado, but it felt big.  The path to the top was three miles and then we had to hike back.  It took us about 3 ½ hours.  We climbed so high we climbed into the clouds.  Luke wanted to catch the cloud in a jar and see what happened.  We didn’t have a jar, so we didn’t do that.  There were other humans climbing too.  We are exhausted, but it was worth it.

We made it!

This is one of the only times Gabi was smiling, unless there was a critter to look at!

Bandon Beach Riding Stables

After we got to Oregon, we surprised the kids with a horseback ride on the beach!  It has been on my bucket list, so it had to be done.  We went on the 10 am ride and it was so majestic – riding a horse on the beach.  We felt special!  Michael’s horse was Big Red, Luke's was Keeper, Isa rode Modock, Gabi had Star, and I had Cherokee.  Great horses, great guides, great views.  Even saw a seal playing in the surf.  Totally worth it.

Then we headed to the Crazy Norwegian Restaurant and stuffed ourselves with seafood.  As Isa put it – BEST DAY EVER!!!!

Coastal Redwoods

What an amazing time we spent in Jedidiah Smith Redwoods State Park.  The trees are unfathomably tall here – so tall that most of the time we couldn’t see the top! 

The Stout Tree

They are much more secretive about where the tallest tree in the forest is – it is about 380 feet tall, but we never figured out if we saw it or not.  We did find the Stout tree – which is like the 23^rd tallest in the world – so that will have to do.  It’s 360ish feet to the top – worked great for us.

 

I am sure lots of people know that Return of the Jedi was filmed in this area – I didn’t, but I do now!  We had the movie with us and had to cue up a part for the girls to watch.  It looks exactly like Endor.  It’s a temperate rainforest and its gorgeous.  The only thing we found disconcerting was that the sun barely made it though the canopy, so it was dark all the time.  It was like twilight all the time unless we went out to the beach!  Then it was like coming out of a daze – blinking the sunlight back!

The kids took some time to play in the Smith River – it’s the only river in California that has never been dammed.  The water is cold, but its refreshing!

We also thought the banana slugs were awesome! 

In our campsite.  Totally cool to sleep in under the canopy of a Redwood.

MacKerricher State Park

We finally made it to MacKerricher State Park.  Our tire was replaced because it couldn’t be patched (a razor blade got into it and sliced through three rows of tread!) and off we went. 

MacKerricher is a beautiful park with tide pools, super loud surf, black sand pebbly beaches alternating with regular brown sand, and this time of year – harbor seals and their pups.











We parked the RV and went straight to the beach to see the seals.  They were beautiful – Michael thinks they have the perfect life.  Bask in the sun all day, move only when necessary, repeat again tomorrow.  We dug out the binoculars and got some great seal watching in.  We all loved it.

The seal in the middle was staring right at the camera!  So fun!

 They have the skeletons of both a Humpback Whale and a Gray Whale at the entrance to the campground.  They had a sign up that said that they no longer have a complete skeleton due to theft.  How sad is that….

 We took the kids tidepooling and saw a gazillion tiny hermit crabs, two anemones, a jelly fish, and a purple sea urchin.

These are the moments that we take vacations for!

The views from the boardwalk were amazing!  The waves are SO LOUD - Michael and I had to yell on the beach to hear each other.  They sounded so fierce, they freaked Gabi out pretty badly - we only got her to approach the water to see the seals and rinse the sand off her hands.  Otherwise she wasn’t having it.

We loved it here!

Ukiah.....

The Golden Gate Bridge "Fogged In"

Michael was so excited to cross it!

Well, every vacation has at least one hiccup.  We had one with our reservation for the RV park in San Fran, and today we got another one.






Today we traveled through downtown San Francisco, and then much to our delight, had the glorious opportunity to cross the Golden Gate Bridge.

We were running low on lots of food, so we planned a stop in Ukiah, California at a Walmart. It is just 60 miles or so from our next destination, so it seemed like a good place to stop.  When we got there I walked around the RV and heard a hissing sound - Oh NO!  We went into Walmart, shopped, and came back out and it was still hissing.  Michael popped off the wheel cover and checked the tire pressure, and the inner passenger tire on the back dually was down to 20 lbs of pressure instead of 70.  YIKES!

Once again we had tire problems on a Sunday - and nothing was open or able to fix the tire. Impossible that this happened two years in a row! Michael went over to the local farm and ranch store, borrowed a phone book, and called every tire place in town, just to be sure we couldn't fix it, and then gave up.  Then there were calls to the campground to tell them what was going on and I then went on a very hot (102 degrees!) walk trying to find a hotel that had a room and would take the dog.  That took a while.  I finally found a Comfort Inn that was within a few blocks that had a pet room available.  I was happy to just hand over my VISA at that point.  Back I went and drove the RV very slowly to the hotel and dragged the kids, the husband, and the dog in.  After finally cooling down we headed across the parking lot to use every Starbucks card anyone ever gave us to buy enough food for dinner.  Pannis galore.  Michael and I each got a lemonade to symbolize our lemon of a day.  Then a dip in the pool, a couple movies on cable - pretty sure that the kids will think this was the best day of the vacation.

Stressed out parents, but happy children!

Cable TV.....  Oooooo......

It is quite pretty, really.  We are in the middle of wine country.
For some of my friends, breaking down here would be fabulous.

Piedmont

Today we headed into Piedmont to visit the Coen Family.  I have known Dede Brodeur Coen since I was a little girl, but this was the first time that we visited the family at home.  We have always seen them at Grandma Chris and Grandpa Don's house in NJ or at Great Gran's former home in Phoenix!

My girls loved playing with a high schooler- what fun that was!

To get there, we caught a bus to get a BART train - our kids LOVE using public transportation when we get the chance since we seldom do it at home - so that was fun in itself.

Dede picked us up at Rockridge Station and we were whisked away to their house for a day of food and fun.  Dede's husband, Michael, has a phenomenal train collection - and Luke was able to run the train in the basement.  He LOVED that.  Their kids, Elizabeth and Patrick, were so kind to our toy deprived children!

All the kids in one spot.

The girls discovered a gigantic box of My Little Pony figures and they were ready to move in with the family.  Its always a good day when you spend it with friends.