Land of the Giants

So we just got back from our trip to the coast to see the giant coastal redwoods of northern California.  It was a long trip (maybe a couple of days too long - we were all pretty tired at the end), but it was fun and a great experience for all of us.

Day 1 - We drove from Boise to Portland.  This is mostly a pretty boring drive, but just outside of Portland we stopped at Multnomah Falls, which is very pretty.

Day 2 - We stayed overnight in Portland so that we would have a chance to visit the OMSI - the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry.  If you ever get a chance to take your kids there, do it.  This is such a fun place!

After visiting the OMSI, we drove to Newport, which is a beautiful little city on the coast.  We stayed in the Elizabeth Street Inn, and our room had a great view right on to the beach.

Day 3 - In Newport is the Oregon Coast Aquarium, which is a really fantastic place to visit.  The girls love sea life, and there is a lot of it on display here!

After our visit to the aquarium, we spent the afternoon on the beach.  It was a beautiful day, and the girls had lots of fun.  It never gets really warm in Newport, but it was quite nice and comfortable.  The water was too cold for me, but the girls didn't seem to mind!

Day 4 - We drove down the coast to Crescent City, California.  This was our home base as we visited the redwood forests.

Day 5 - Our first visit was to a privately owned area of redwood forest called "Trees of Mystery".  This was pretty fun - the highlight was a ride in a gondola several hundred feet up a mountain to look down on the redwood canopy.

Standing next to Paul Bunyan at Trees of Mystery

After we came back from Trees of Mystery, we visited a little privately owned aquarium in Crescent City called Ocean World.  It's small, but it had a really fun show.  We really enjoyed it!

Holding a mutant four-legged sea star

We heard a lot of noise down by the docks, and went to check it out.  A whole pack of sea lions had taken over the end of one of the boat docks, and we were able to get quite close to them and take pictures.

Day 6 - We drove down to Humbolt State Park to see the redwood forest there.  There is a scenic byway called The Avenue of the Giants which we took for several miles.  It was really really pretty.  I kept being reminded of Endor from Return of the Jedi, which I understand was actually filmed in some of the forests around Crescent City!

These trees are really amazingly huge

The girls really liked to climb up on the huge stumps and downed trees

Standing by Founder's Tree

Did I mention how huge these trees are?

I wasn't the only one taking pictures, but I had to be sneaky to get pictures of Christine taking pictures.

Drive through tree!

Stopped on the way back to the motel to get this picture of the sunset on a rocky beach

Day 7 - We spent some time on Crescent City's beach - much colder and very foggy, but still nice.

Looking for sea life in the tide pools.  Lots of hermit crabs, sea stars, and anemones, and a few big purple crabs.

Day 8 - We headed home by way of Crater Lake.  It's really high up, and really beautiful.  Watch out for the edge, though!