What an adventure we had! I'm so glad I write this blog because I get to revisit this time in a way I wouldn't otherwise. When we first started planning, we were going to do a Pacific Northwest road trip. We were going to go through Oregon, Washington, maybe even get to Canada!! Then we started thinking about it. Three kids 8 and under, some very long days in the car. We remembered how much there is to see in California! We'll get up north another year. I should also add, we started dreaming about the Pacific Northwest last summer when we were driving across vast stretches of desert in California, Nevada, and Arizona on our way to and from Colorado.
Our first stop was Salinas, CA. I was searching for roadside attractions and oddities like we often stopped to see on last year's trip. For some reason there aren't as many in California as there are in the middle of the desert. Hmm. But I found this cool thing! It's called Hat in Three Stages of Landing by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen. It's a bit out of the way, and the folks hanging out at the park were probably thinking, "who are these weirdos taking pictures with the hats?!"
Then we found this lovely accessible playground called Tatum's Garden.
Santa Cruz!! We got there and we were a bit too early for dinner with Kamryn, so we drove to UC Santa Cruz (Brian's alma mater) and looked around. We visited our old stomping grounds, Cowell College, posed with the statue at Porter, and visited the coy pond. Everett named the coy. I still need to ask him if he remembers the names.
Then we headed over to Seabright Brewery for dinner and dancing! Kamryn met us there, and afterward we went on a walk with Kamryn and Marge!
After dinner, we descended on Katherine and Darby's house. We watched a little bit of Honey I Shrunk the Kids, but our kids were so excited to make new friends, the movie didn't last long.
Kids love new toys and games. They were insistent on setting up MouseTrap. Darby had to help.
Staying with a vegan family led us pretty naturally into visiting Dharma's. It was so fun to see our kids in that place. Lydia especially had a blast goofin' with Bernie. I was happy Bruce was there, of course. So many people still work there 15 years after we left. A testament to it being a pretty great place to work, I suppose.
After Dharma's, we drove around and found a roadside attraction. Kitchen's Court of Mysteries. Pretty interesting, built by some creative brothers in 1946. The kids were asleep, of course.
Brian read this and pointed out he's known about Kitchen's Court of Mysteries since his UCSC days. Hard to really "discover" an attraction in a place you lived for years. We also tried to check out the Mystery Spot, but you have to reserve far in advance and it's expensive! Way to promote, Mystery Spot!
After an awesome brunch at Saturn Cafe, we said good-bye to our friends. These kiddos got along so well. Awesome to make best friends the first stop you make on a road trip but so hard to leave. Look at Lydia's sad little face. We should help these girls become pen pals.
We left Santa Cruz and headed to San Francisco. All we wanted to do in San Francisco (this trip) was see the Golden Gate Bridge. Well, it was so foggy, we couldn't see it at all. We'll have to come back!
We then drove up to the Russian River area. We camped in Bullfrog Campground out of Armstrong Woods. It was a nice little campground tucked up behind the woods.
There wasn't cell service where we were camping, so Brian took the kids back up to the top of the mountain to contact our friend Chris who we would meet the next day.
We found a huge, spotted banana slug!
The next day we met up with our friends Chris and Carmen at the Russian River. We all had a blast swimming, chasing ducks, collecting shells, and pulling Chris's beard.
It was great catching up with Chris and getting to know Carmen. Lydia also made some new friends. Adult women with a tiny dog floating in innertubes. She straight up asked to use one of their floating thingies, and they let her! This girl is not afraid to ask for what she wants. Good skill to have, I suppose.
At this camp, the kids started performing for each other, which included lots of bows and ovations "bravo! bravo!" It was adorable, and would continue for the rest of the trip.
Before we left Guerneville, we explored Armstrong Grove a bit. Good thing we did, because despite our plans, we didn't end up stopping for many more redwoods. It's a really accessible park with wide, flat paths. Before we left town, we grabbed sandwiches at this place called Coffee Bazaar. That may have been my favorite food of the trip.
After leaving Guerneville, we headed to Miranda to meet the Shawseolis! And jump directly back in the water apparently. Miranda is just south of Eureka on the Avenue of the Giants. Janna's parents own a piece of land right on the Eel River, and every year at Fourth of July, her family camps there. This year we crashed the party!
Janna's mother Janette threw a tea party for the kids. They were so happy to be with their buddies from home.
In the morning we explored the river. The big kids went with Brian, Chris, and Jordan through a tunnel to a creek on the other side of the highway. Roz and I floated. When they got back we went down to a cliff and a rope where some brave young people were jumping in.
That evening we had the boat race!! The moment we'd all been waiting for! The kids made a boat. I threw together my own boat at the last second so there would be more. Ray and Massimo's boat won, and Lydia was very sad. We're still working on being a gracious loser. But she's already planning her boat for next year that will beat everyone!
The drama of the entire trip happened after the race, before dinner. A truck ran off the road and hit a tree right above the river where the teen girls were playing. It was a HUGE bang. We weren't sure if it was a crash or a firework. The driver was ok. He ran out of the truck calling for help and someone's name, but no one else was in the vehicle. Everyone leapt into action to help, running to the scene, calling 911. In the end, everything was ok, but everybody was a little shaken
Communal dinners are fun. After dinner the kids were inspired to make us all a surprise dessert. So so sweet. Literally sweet, it was fruit salad mixed with Pop Tarts and unripened plums (so a little tart I suppose—I didn't eat it, sorry kids). Brian said he ate some. What a good dad!!
It was hard leaving our friends, but we got to see them again soon!
We drove through beautiful Eureka to get to the windy, green highway 299. I included a picture of Everett's puke in the panorama. We stopped at the Strawhouse Resort to replenish some fluids before heading to Redding. We were going to stop and stay before Redding, but we couldn't find a hotel, and we needed to do laundry, so we kept driving. The kids were so happy to watch TV again!!
The next morning we went to Turtle Bay! What a fun/interesting place that is. Part zoo, part museum, part theme park, part botanical gardens, part architectural attraction. There's a hotel there, a restaurant, cafe and gift shop. I was wondering while we were there if Atascadero could create a similar place. Build a hotel by the zoo, a water feature, it could be a whole thing.
We left Turtle Bay and drove to Dunsmuir. We checked into our hotel, grabbed some pizza, and lucked out that this beautiful meadow was behind our lodgings.
I'll stop here. This is halfway through our trip. I'll save, post, and come back with many, many more pictures.
