Hi! You may have noticed a recent lack of recipe & fitness posts. That’s because me & my family have been road trippin’ the past few weeks. Here’s the latest installment (other posts from our journey, here).
We spent some time on Ventura beach before going to Yosemite over the weekend. After Yosemite, we took the windy, mostly-desolate mountainous drive to the northern California coast to see the beautiful Redwoods.
Pictures of our weekend to come, but for now, here’s day 1 of our venture into the Redwoods.
We took the auto tour of the “Avenue of the Giants.” This included 8 or 9 stops along a scenic route of the freeway.
That is really a tree behind us.
A born & bred Washingtonian, I’m hard to please when it comes to nature.
We have it all–the trees, the greenery, the mountains, the Puget Sound, the coast.
When we lived in Utah, I had to internally chuckle whenever a Utahan would mention how Utah’s mountains & terrain are “so amazing.” Yes, Utah’s got some beautiful stuff, but I never felt like it came close to what Washington has to offer.
Being in the Redwoods, I was truly impressed. Awed.
Amalia picking a bouquet of leaves.
The kids played hide-and-seek.
At 17 months, Salem asserts her independence by insisting on walking (instead of being carried).
This doesn’t always work, since her pace tends to be much, much slower than her siblings.
Often, there’s a lot of wrangling, wrestling, & to smooth things out–hugging & kissing.
Can you believe this uprooted tree?
The roots of the redwood trees are often widespread, but shallow.
We came across a lot of downed trees, which we found out later, we technically weren’t supposed to be climbing on the downed trees in certain areas. Oops.
The world’s largest tree, downed.
There’s no way to capture just how tall these trees are. Here’s a futile attempt.
Trying to be educational by reading the walking tour guide. No one seems to be listening.
Yes. I am standing inside of a tree. Despite being split, it’s still alive & growing.
Standing inside of another tree, looking up. Hollowed out from a fire.
Glad we had Salem there to help.
Again, in the Founder’s Grove, we weren’t supposed to be doing this. The kids thought this was the best playground they’d ever been to, though.
We stopped at a picnic area on the side of the road.
The kids had PB & J sandwiches, baby carrots & cut up melon.
My lunch: Tasty Bite spinach dal (really, quite delicious), spring mix salad topped with roasted edamame & balsamic vinaigrette.
You’re supposed to heat & serve, but it’s already cooked, so heating it up is just a matter of preference.
Gluten-free, vegan, healthy, convenience foods do exist.
Found some blackberry bushes, & lucky us, they’re ripe for the picking.
Lots of places to stop along the route to get out & hike around.
We explored small foot paths through the forest.
Mali found lots of flowers to pick along the way.
We stayed at the Best Western, Country Inn, in Fortuna.
This was the nicest place we’ve stayed at so far. Our first night we stayed in a room that had a mother-in-law suite, which means it came with a separate, adjoining room, that Joseph & I slept in (so nice to finally have a bit of privacy!).
The second night, we switched to the Redwood room, a suite that included couches.
♥♥♥
Since we were busy enjoying the Redwoods, I didn’t post a Marvelous Mondays edition yesterday.
You may have missed one from the past, check out the older editions, here.
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