Day 1: Crescent City, CA

Mark's dad granted us a spontaneous and unforgettable trip to see the Coast Redwood forests in the very-most-northern California area: He arranged it on a Saturday, we left the following Thursday (in his 6-seater plane no less). The kids were thrilled to be flying and it was only made more exciting when Sam labeled our destination "CaliFUNia."

Charlie refused to stay buckled in the back and for a short time Mark relieved my kid-wrangling duties by letting him co-pilot.

It took just over 2 hours flying time, then we had to get the rental car, check into the Travelodge, etc... We'd left after noon in a successful attempt to avoid the heavy morning fog in Crescent City. It was a beautiful afternoon so we decided to explore the small city, show the kids the ocean and the historic Battery Point Lighthouse.

We searched the tide pools and found lots of crabs, hermit crabs and other fun creatures. It was a nice little hike across the low-tide isthmus and up the hill to the lighthouse.

Unfortunately the museum portion was closed for the day, but we happened upon the caretakers and talked with them a while. Those pink wildflowers were wonderfully fragrant and the whole area was very picturesque... but there was a lot of little boy chasing so I couldn't stop for too long.

That is a whale carved from an enormous piece of driftwood behind Isaac, but those are real whale bones next to him on the ground! On the way back to the car, we stopped and talked to some fishermen and crabbers. Well, some did. "Some" of us couldn't stand the stench of fish guts in our current condition (and Isaac returned to the car pretty quickly too).

Next post: our first walks in the Redwoods.