No, I'm not talking about the musical. Even though it was pretty hilarious when performed while I was in high school.After much deliberation and swaying back and forth with the plans I talked about earlier- we were able to make our trip to the Redwoods after all. And it was amazing!
Day 1:We left on a Sunday morning, traveling down the coast all day, sight-seeing and pretending to be tourists. We stopped for a cone at the Tillamook Cheese factory, going on down, we saw the Sea Lion caves (!!!) Newport, Gold Beach, went on into California to Cresent City and finally reached our hotel in McKinnelyville.
Day 2: We saw a huge herd of elk just hanging out on the side of the road, and visited a couple of state parks. We saw the "Big Tree" and were able to spend time in Jedediah Smith State Park, part of the Redwood National Park system. It was amazing.
This one was called "The Cathedral Tree" It looks like about 9 different trees but its really only one, people have actually gotten married in it.
So they can withstand fires for the most part, only leaving them black in parts and hollowing them after time. Which is kind of scary since you could walk through the hollow part of a tree that is upwards of 300ft tall. The sacredness you can feel in a forest is so neat. To know that some of the trees had been growing there for hundreds of years.We finished our itinerary early and decided to venture out to see "The Lost Coast." A two hour ride on a terribly paved road filled with hairpin turns.Also, wild turkeys and cows roaming at will on the roadway, all this to see the nation's largest stretch of un-developed portion of coast. (Black sand beaches too) Consequently since it is so under developed, there was no spot to pull over and take a brake, the camera battery also died that morning so we have some rather shaky home video shots of this beautiful beach.After the long venture to the Lost Coast we stumbled upon Fernville, the cutest old-western-style town I've ever seen. Complete with two token old-men sitting outside the Creamery playing chess...the Humbolt Creamery had some fantastic shakes too!
Day 4: We left McKinnlyville and took Hwy 299 to Redding, for the sole reason to partake in some In'N'Out Burger, (and to get to I-5, I guess).
Can I just say, that was one of the prettiest drives I've been on. I took some pictures, but they don't do justice to the river and the snow capped mountains in all their glory, did I mention it was a perfectly sunny clear day, 70 degrees even! (Well not at the 4000ft we eventually hit but it was in Redding) We ended the day in Medford, Oregon catching a glimpse of the Temple before tucking in.
Day 5: Homeward bound, driving up the 5, not nearly as interesting as the roads we had been on so far, we stopped in Winston to see the Wild Animal Safari! This was pretty cool, seriously giraffe's, peacocks, ostrich's right out side the window.
It was so nice to take a break from the city life and slow things down for a few days seeing some of Natures finest.
Moving on to more serious matters. Hayley is turning 1 this month! We can't believe it, (and then again we can!) remembering some of our early beginnings of parenthood in the wee hours. Coupled with watching her grow, learn and begin to mimic. The tender moments of seeing her take her first bite of real food, rolling over, getting chatty, dancing, and just this last week, taking her first steps.
Later this month Skyler will be going back down to Anaheim, California, this time for a NIRSA conference, at which he'll hopefully secure a Graduate Assistantship for next year. Like last year, this is an exciting time for us (in different ways this time around!) as we wait to hear back from colleges all around the country, potentially moving to an unfamiliar city this summer.
Celebrating 1 year of Hayleyroo/parenthood,
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