From Oregon we traveled into California. The day was cloudy, but that added to our ability to see, so we weren't upset about it at all. We traveled along US 101, straight down the coast.
We spent the second night of our trip in a cabin in the Redwood National Forest. The cabins were right along US 101 and surrounded by the magnificent, tall Redwoods. We arrived at 8 pm for check in. We had been bumped to an upgraded cabin from the one we originally booked online- it had a memory foam mattress. That was really the only difference from what we could tell.
All around the cabins were huge banana slugs! Apparently, they are famous there. You could even buy a magnet with a picture of a lovely slug like this one on it. That is my husbands thumb, to give you some perspective.
This is a slightly blurry picture of Paul Bunyan. Apparently, the man was everywhere because they have statues of him in Minnesota, at least one of the Dakotas, and Washington, too. This one is just outside of a hiking and gondola tour that we thought of going on but decided against. It was a little expensive and the day was so cloudy that the gondola ride would not have been worth the price of admission. We planned to spend a few hours here, but since we didn't, we got to do one of the events I had nixed from our itinerary, thinking there would be no time. More on that to follow.
We did drive through a good deal of the National Park, as US 101 runs directly down the middle of it.
This is one of several drive thru trees. Sorry it is so blurry. I got a lovely panoramic shot of its height. We couldn't see most of the tops of the trees as we drove because the cloud cover was so low. But this one turned out.
Daddy taught Milli all about tree rings. He has been showing her trees for months- whenever he would give me a break during my maternity leave, he would walk with her outside and let her touch park and leaves.
We stopped at one point to get a picture of an elk. We were on a narrow
stretch of road, not quite wide enough for two cars to pass quickly,
completely surrounded by dense trees. We had just left an elk pasture
lookout which was completely empty, when my husband spotted antlers
peeking out of a small gap in the trees. I let him out and drove off to
turn around, praying that he would be careful and cars would see him in
time to give him space. He took a couple great shots of this lone elk
and two minutes later we came upon this...
After the Redwood Forest, we headed for the previously deleted destination...
For those of you who don't know, Frances Ford Coppola's Merlot is my favorite wine (my apologies to any of my dry friends- not trying to be a stumbling block, and we can chat about wine and the Christian in person if you want to). My original itinerary had a biking tour of Napa Valley on it, but Milli is too young for the bike trailers they have- or, at least, too young for their insurance coverage. So the bike tour was nixed and the hike was its replacement. without the hike, we had time for lunch and a tasting at FFC! FFC is not in Napa Valley or Sonoma- it is just off US 101, making it a very convenient stop for us. The place was packed, it being a Sunday, but we had a very nice lunch and the tasting was also good. We bought a bottle to take as a hostess gift to our next destination: the Senior McWhirter house in San Jose.
We don't have any good San Jose or San Fransisco pictures as we were busy driving. We also have no Sr. McWhirter pictures, as we were too busy enjoying the good conversation.
I met the Sr. McWhirters in Michigan at their oldest son's college graduation. He was the guitarist on the worship team I was on and his roommate was the pianist. They are two of my favorite people and they married two wonderful women who happened to be best friends. I was involved in their lives throughout their college experience and am still close with all four of them and some of the extended family. I hadn't seen the Sr. McWhirters since their son's wedding, but they remembered me and were willing to feed us and give us a trailer to sleep in for a night of out trip. Jim McWhirter is a physicist like my husband. He used to be a professor in New York and is now in industry. He and Ed had a lot to talk about because their two passions are science and theology. They talked for hours, which is pretty amazing if you know my husband. He doesn't usually talk much and almost never with strangers- but they were bonding.
Carol McWhirter and I had a great talk, too. We talked about children and homeschooling as well as some social issues and family background. I had forgotten how much I really liked her. It was a late night for all, but a really good one. I'm hoping to keep up the relationship with them.
Next morning, it was on to the shore! We took highway 1, one of the most beautiful stretches of road I have ever seen! Edward was really surprised by the drive. He had seen it on the map, but I think he expected to see more beaches and fewer cliffs, more houses and less wild sea. It was a lovely drive.
We stopped for lunch at a cute little park. Ed took Milli to see the ocean up close before we ate. The waves were impressive, even on a calm day like this one. It was much cooler than we expected it to be, I went back to the car to fetch jackets and hats- IN JULY! I had a little bit of a flashback to our moving experience two years ago, when we essentially winter camped in Yellowstone in August.
 |
| Milli s can be a messy eater. She had a bit of Daddy's pb and j. |
 |
Milli's first experience in the ocean! The "sand" was really rocky, so it wasn't really fun to have our feet on it. Plus, the water was fairly cool and very rough. She wasn't sure what to make of it, but she is unafraid of anything. She let me dip her repeatedly in the water with no cry, just a curious face.
After lunch, we kept driving. This is a theme. We drove around Santa Barbara and had seen Northern California turn to Central California and then into L.A. It is truly amazing how one state can hold so many different forms of beauty.
 |
| Note our new sun glasses. Milli doesn't have hers because she just chews on them. But we are cool! |
In L.A. we stayed with the Junior McWhirters. Daniel and Bethany have two and 1/4 lovely children: Annika (my second favorite girl's name), Eliot, and to be named. We stayed with them for two nights. Daniel was only home in the evenings, so Bethany took us on a nice hike to the observatory. We each carried a kid.
 |
| Note the sign above Bethany's head. |
 |
| Bethany said this would make a super cute picture- so we let her take one. |
I discovered that it is very difficult to get a good picture of a Tesla coil going off. All of my pictures look kind of like this. But, still, it was cool to watch and Milli was fascinated. Annika knows all about the Tesla coil, and she is only 3!
Annika thought I was the best thing ever, so she wanted to lead me all over the place. We ate lunch together on a hill under a tree while Bethany and Eliot ate on the grassy lawn in the sun because Eliot kept trying to run off the edge of the very steep hill! Then Annika took me to the roof to see the view.
Edward took another hike that began on the other side of the observatory parking lot and was much longer than Bethany had remembered. He did finally return and we hiked back down, tired and thirsty and a bit sunburned.
It was a nice day.
We spent the rest of the day indoors. Milli had a lot of fun playing with the other kids. She was a little wary of Eliot, though, because he played by swinging and throwing things a lot. The funniest moment for me was watching her sit with her arm hanging over that basket to the right. She had been reaching in to remove toys from it but stopped to watch Eliot swing a rubber snake. She watched him very closely with a slightly worried expression on her face; "I think that might be dangerous" was the thought she seemed to convey. This thought did not translate, however, to "I think I should move my arm out of the range of that snake." Within a minute, he had hit her arm with the snake and she began to cry. But this did not stop him from swinging the snake nor make her move her arm. He hit her three times before I picked her up. A mother shouldn't laugh at her child in pain, but it was very hard not to. Poor thing is going to be emotionally scarred for life.
