In the Forests of Endor...

This past week was dominated by the Birthday trip that Gwyn and I took over the long weekend.  However, I will say that the prior week went pretty well.  We survived the first Girl Scout meeting of the school year.  Our group was a little small, only 17 instead of 27.   Maybe the numbers made it a little easier, but I think the meeting went well.  And since Lyla is official now, we had Daisies through Cadettes represented at our meeting even though the troop is officially a Junior troop.

 School went well too.  We got finished "on time" more often than not.  Lyla was a little more cooperative.  We're working on finding ways to turn Celee's dread of math into something she can be proud of.  I really hate that she's has this stigma that she's "not good at math."  Math is way too diverse and there are way too many different ways to do things for her to think that already.  Oh,well - we're taking small steps toward her math wizardry.  I also think that Gwyn has figured out that she can work ahead on certain things and be done with it for the week.  Like her writing assignments for co-op.  That's cool though because then she has time the rest of the week to do creative writing or journaling. 

I realized that I do not have a picture of Celee working this week.  What I do have is a picture Lyla took of me while we were waiting on Gwyn at her violin lesson and I was doing some couponing.  I hope it doesn't always look that hard.

Anyway, so Gwyn and I flew out Friday to see the Redwood Forest.  Gwyn's 10th birthday was on Labor Day this year and her present from us was to go wherever in the 48 she wanted to with just me.  She chose the Redwood Forest, which was cool with me because I'd never seen it either.  So all was great until we got to San Francisco and our connecting flight to Redding was cancelled due to weather, which I guess meant fog.  There were no other flights there or any other little airport near where we were going.  So I had to cancel our car reservation in Redding and get one in San Francisco and drive.  That of course cost more than the original reservation, so I was a little miffed.  Add to that a 367 mi. drive to Klamath instead of the 200 mile one from Redding and I was a little worried.  Thankfully the Lord kept me awake and alert enough to get us to our cabin at 12:30am Sat. morning.  An 8 hour car ride!  It shouldn't have taken 8 hours, but traffic for the 90 or so miles north of SanFran was terrible and then the last 150 mi or so alternates between 4 lane highway with 65 speedlimits and 2 lanes with 35mph curves.  I say alternates, because it was 2-3 miles of one then 2-3 miles of the other the whole way.  Needless to say on unfamiliar roads in an unfamiliar car in the middle of the night after all day travelling, I took it slow.  Never mind that I still didn't know how to sort out the return flight from Redding to San Fran when I had a car that had to be returned to San Fran.  My phone didn't work where we were going so that couldn't be worried with anyway.  Gwyn did get to see the Golden Gate Bridge though! 
So after a good night's sleep and using the restaurant phone to let Jason know we were alive, we headed out to see what was to be seen.  We did discover that behind our cabin were montrous blackberry bushes covered with ripe berries.  It was also covered with banana slugs.  I guess these are a sort of pest in Northern California because everywhere we went there were banana slug novelties like little magnets that said "Banana Slug crossing" or yellow glass paper weights in the shape of slugs.  Fresh, free berries was a good way to start the day. There were also these amazing blue hydrangeas all around.  So pretty!
 Our first stop was the Redwood Forest Information Center which happen to be on the beach.  Gwyn was loving that there was so much driftwood everywhere and people had made little houses here and there on the beach.  We also happened to see a sea lion really close to the shore catching fish!

Then we were off to "hike" a trail in one of the groves of the Redwood Forest.  I must say the park ranger sent us to the perfect one!  We kept alternating between expecting Ewoks to jump out from behind bushes to musing that if there was anywhere in America where fairies lived, it would be there.  The tree of course were colossal!  The Prairie Creek section of the park was particularly awesome.  It was like being in another world.  And we didn't meet any other people on the trail until we crossed a scenic road and onto a more travelled part of the trail.  So for quite a while we were alone with the trees and birds.  I intentionally took pictures with Gwyn in each one because I was scared that a picture of the trees alone would underwhelm unless there was a person in it to gauge the size by.  It was just amazing.  And to think that some of these trees have been there for over 1000 years!  We did see one that had a plaque that said it was over 1500 years old.  It boggles my mind. We also saw lots of other neat wildlife, apparently there are lots of mushrooms here too.  In the ranger station store there was even a book about the joys of shrooms. 

We went and took a much needed rest after our hike.  After a nap we were off again.  Gwyn wanted to see if we could ride in a boat, so we headed off to the Klamath River where there is a Jet Boat tour.  So much fun!  The captain was super nice and funny.  He gave us so much info too!  He apparently helps the local biologist count and study the osprey and eagle nests among other things.  We saw sea lions, salmon, Bald Eagles, ospreys, wild cows, and beaver houses.  The captain also thought it was fun to swing the boat around 360 or slam on the "brakes" - most everyone in the boat thought this was super fun too!  We also learned that in 1964 a huge flood wiped out the original town of Klamath which was apparently somewhat properous, and the town couldn't rebuild beneath the high water mark.  This is where the wild cows come in.  A ranch was washed away in the flood, as was the road to access it but the cows just went up the mountain until the flood receded and then came back down and have lived free around a sand bar on the river ever since.  There is a town of Klamath but it's not in the original spot and it is much reduced in size now.  Anyway - the new bridge over the Klamath River is called the Golden Bear Bridge and was built just above the 1964 flood water line. 


Seal Lions in the Klamath River

We drove into Crescent City that evening to eat, mess around, and sit at McDonald's so I could use the WIFI and make calls.  There is a weird little aquarium/store there called Ocean World that we played around in for a bit.  The highlight was a creepy robotic pirate in the store that would turn and look at you when you sat on the bench with it. 



















The next day we decided to take one of the coastal trails.  We detoured the trail for the beach however and ended up walking/climbing approx. 2 1/2 mi. down the beach to a "hidden" beach which isn't very hidden because it's marked on trail maps and there are signs off the trail to it.  We got to it from the beach though and got to see a lot of really cool stuff!  We saw lots of star fish and little sea anenome.  We climbed huge boulders and saw the tide coming in.  We ate lunch in a driftwood house someone else had erected in between some boulders.  We even saw the carcass of a dead sea lion, which was yucky and really neat all at the same time.  The whole time and when we got to the beach, we were the only ones there.  We played in the black sand and built a driftwood house of our own.  Finally just as we were about to leave some other people did come down a path from the trail.  Which was good because then we saw how to get up the hill to the trail without trying to pick our own path, which had not worked out so well earlier in the day.  After all that walking and climbing we were pooped.  My ankles were actually tired from walking so far in all the rocks and boulders.  What an amazing day though. 

So that evening I finally had some salmon.  Oh how I wish I could have brought some home!  Fresh salmon caught right off the river - Yum!  Then we watched TV until it was time to go.  The only way we could figure out the plane/car situation was to drive back to San Fran that night and get to the airport prior to the 6am departure in Redding so that we wouldn't be marked as no-shows in Redding and have the San Fran flight cancelled.  The agents had advised me not to try to do anthing until Monday morning to ensure that the flight we actually needed would not be cancelled.  I don't really know why they couldn't cancel one without the other, but that's what they said.  So rather than sleep 2 hr. and get up to drive, we opted to leave at 9:30pm and drive so I would have an easier time staying awake.  It only took us 6 hours this time, and the scary parts of the road were in the beginning so it was much easier.  We even geo-cached along the way to get our California sticker.  So we ended up at the airport way earlier than our flight so we "slept" a little at the gate.  We had our boarding passes for the flight to Chicago and I had filled out a form to try to get a refund for the Redding flight so all was good.  Then our boarding passes didn't work and I had a silent panic moment.  Thankfully the agent at the gate didn't really question a whole lot, and even though the plane was full they moved us to different seats and we did get to fly home.  We even got to Chicago 30 min. early - how often does that happen?!  Jason and the girls were there to meet us and then we drove the 3 hours home.  All in all I slept around 3 on and off hours the whole time.  So I was pretty useless when we got home, and probably will be today too.  But life goes on and the yard must be mowed so we press on.  I am once again reminded of one of my favorite and encouraging verses, "but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."  Isaiah 40:31
So Happy 10th Birthday Gwyn!  I hope you had as much fun as I did!  I'm so glad we got to go on this adventure together!