Redwoods and Northern California

After we left San Francisco we started on our road trip up the coast.  The views were breathtaking and the trees were indescribable unless you see them. The size of the trees is amazing and the entire forest is so beautiful.  We hiked around all day one day and I am not sure that Gonzi loved that much hiking, but I loved it.  Gonzi kept saying "So now what".  Shane made it into a joke and they kept saying it all week long.  We stopped at many different beaches because Braxton said we needed to go to the ocean everyday.  It wasn't ever very warm, but we swam one day and still loved walking on the water and playing soccer.  

We stayed in 4 hotels and camped 4 nights.  It was a great mix of beds and tents.  The air matress kept deflating so Shane chucked it and bought us a new one along the way.  

This lighthouse hike was so beautiful.  It is very foggy everywhere along the coast this time of year, but it makes everything a little damp and dreary, and I think it is beautiful.  There were like 300 steps to this lighthouse and of course the boys ran both ways.

This was a hidden beach that you had to go through this tunnel when the tide was low or else you got trapped out there.  We had quite the experience getting out there when it almost washed me and Cam away with our gear in tow.  A wave came quickly and we did not expect the drop off.  It was pretty funny and we got a bit wetter than anticipated.Shane loves to find places like this that there aren't any other people with us on the beach.  The boys played for hours until the tide was getting high and we had to head back.

Mexican food was our meal of choice if we went to a sit down restaurant.  It was pretty rare but it is about all we could agree on.  Other than that we went to Burger King 4 times, pizza twice, and ate a ton out of our cooler and whatever we could pack in the van from the grocery store.  We ate sandwiches for 10 days straight and sometimes even two times a day.  Gonzi is not particularly fond of sandwiches but he was a trooper and just ate whatever he was given.  Food costs are high on the road with 6 people but we did a great job, I think, keeping costs at a minimum and still checking out some local hot spots.

We had to stop at this awesome street named after this awesome boy!

One of our camp spots.  It was $44 a night to park our tent here.  At least we got a shower out of it.  Gonzalo was obsessed with being able to shower and he hated when we said there wasn't one at certain places. Man we really loved that van.  It was so comfortable.

This camp spot was right on the beach.  We had been looking and looking for one of these, but there are signs everywhere in California that say you can't camp and I didn't dare risk getting told to leave. This place was like a KOA that had spots right on the beach.  It was beautiful and the walk the next morning was amazing.  Everyone around was so nervous that our kids would get cold, little did they know we live in Utah and love to camp.  It was actually warm for us.

This was our first drive thru tree place.  Our van barely fit, but it did.  We all through this was pretty spectacular. The tree was 2400 years old.

Both Shane and I thought this was a really cool poem.  It has a really good message.

We hiked at a place called Fern Canyon.  It was like an 8 mile drive on a dirt road to get back in there, but the hike was worth it.  The ferns climbed up the walls of a slot canyon, it was amazing.  We have hiked in Moab and it was just like that but wet and green and beautiful.  Look at all those awesome boys, they are always up for any adventure.

After the hike we camped in the campground and woke up to this herd of elk literally all around our tent.  Shane took off the rain fly and we could see them surrounding us.  It was so neat.  They are very tame but when we tried to pass them earlier one got a bit defensive if you didn't look straight at her.

Giant Slug!