Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Happy Thanksgiving


Crescent Beach, CA    November 17 - 21 , 2012

Let me first say Happy Thanksgiving to our family and friends.  We are now in a spot without cell service and wifi.  So please know we are thinking of you one and all.  I also want to mention that Joe was admitted to the hospital on Sunday with a blood clot and is still being treated.  Please lift up prayers for a quick recovery.

The day we left Heceta Beach and headed to Crescent Beach, our first stop in the California redwoods, it rained the entire way.  This is the first time we had to pack up and set up in the rain.  Luckily we are pretty quick now so it wasn’t that big of a deal.  We decided on Hiouchi RV Resort (we call it hoochi mama resort) which was off the coast about 7 miles, set in the middle of the trees.  Their pull-through sites were different than we were used to.  We had to pull into a crescent shaped site almost like parallel parking.  We were set up on a large field of grass so it was great for the dogs to run and play.

We used our first day to take a drive through Jedediah Smith Redwood State Park.  A one lane gravel road winding through the magnificent Coast Redwood trees.  Thankfully there were lots of turn-outs since we are LARGE and not the only crazy people touring the northwest in the pouring rain.  The redwood trees are really something.  Their bark can be up to one foot thick which makes them impervious to disease and insects.  They also lack resin so they don’t easily burn which is why they can live for 2000+ years.  They are the tallest living trees in the world often more than 300 feet high.  We then drove into the town of Crescent City to see the beaches.  There was a high wind warning in affect for the entire area and they meant it!  We drove out to the Crescent Beach viewpoint and the wind about blew us off the point.  Zoe had her swerve on!  The ocean was crazy rough!  We then drove out on the coast guard jetty by the main harbor and the waves were crashing over the rocks and gave the BAT a nice salt water shower.  At this time we were so glad we had decided to stay in the trees instead of the coast!
 
 

The second day was still pouring and windy so we used it to get our shopping done.  Since we are completely addicted to Fred Meyer, we drove back to Oregon to get gas and do our shopping.  The gas prices are .35 higher in California than they are in Oregon!  We had a crazy stormy night.  There was about six inches of rain water in the bucket we had left outside overnight.

We decided to go to the Trees of Mystery on our last day.  They have a hiking trail with all sorts of fun redwood tree facts and then a seven minute gondola ride to the top.  The fun part is they allowed dogs everywhere including the gondola.  We saw the Cathedral Tree, Candelabra Tree, Brotherhood tree and many more.  Once you get to the top you can either take the Gondola back down – which everyone except us did; or hike one mile straight down!  OK I am exaggerating, but it is very steep and they have placed rope handrails to hold onto while climbing down.  We used them!  We had to check in with the attendant before heading down so he could make sure we had on the appropriate foot wear and he  gave us the go ahead with a “I hope you have good knees” comment.  We lied and continued on.  It was great fun.  When we returned to the visitor center at the bottom, we were rewarded with an impressed volunteer who gave us free fudge.  Delicious.  They have a tremendous Indian Artifact museum filled with so many items from many different tribes – very impressive.  We then drove back to Suni to get ready to have dinner with our friend John whom we met in Issaquah.  We had a delightful dinner down on the pier with yummy steamed clams, broiled prawns and really fresh fish n chips.  It was a great night filled with conversation and laughter.  Thanks John!  We will miss you and Romeo – Happy Trails.
 
 
Coming soon… Garberville, CA and the Avenue of the Giants

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