Vacation - Day Four

Day Four of vacation started much like day three - out on the balcony watching the ocean.  So fascinating.  And as I was gathering and repacking clothes I've got to tell you....I started worrying about that drive out of Shelter Cove.  Yowser.  

Chip spotted this awesome rainbow right off the balcony.  He wanted to run down there to see if there was a pot of gold.  It was definitely the end of the rainbow, right?  Sadly, no gold.  

We loaded up the car and started back out to the highway.  Strap in.  Hold on.  Try not to barf.  

No one barfed, but we stopped immediately at this gas station and purchases 7up and crackers to settle all the very unsettled stomachs.  Ugh.  Farewell Shelter Cove!   One and only visit for this old girl!  

We headed for San Francisco, California.  It was a beautiful drive through some famous wine country.  Saw lots of winery's on the side of the road and I might have started drooling a little bit.  We found a great sandwich place called Boudin, SF where we had lunch.  I had a terrific salad with half a sandwich.  The sandwich had ham, brie, apples and chutney. Right up my alley!  

The boys sandwiches were on the famous sourdough bread and they loved it so much we bought a whole loaf of bread on the way out to eat in the car.  Why is bread so good?  

Our first stop was O.co Stadium...home of the Oakland A's.  On this particular day, the A's were having a Cespedes Bobblehead Giveaway and were opening the stadium three hours early for batting practice.  Young Mr. Cespedes won the Homerun Derby this year and puts on a pretty good demonstration during batting practice.   

Now the A's don't usually have very high attendance so we assumed there would not be many people there.  Boy were we wrong!  We pulled up at 2:30 for a six o'clock game and the place was packed!!!  They were tailgating and huge long lines were forming to get in when they opened the gates.  It felt like  playoff atmosphere.  

We got in line and it was a different world than we have ever experienced at a major league baseball game.  Fans were carrying CASES of beer and trying to down them before they got up to security and went through the gate.  They were handing out their extra beers to people - it was a party!  Security was out in the parking lot yelling "You better finish those bottles before you get to the front of the line!"  We were stepping over bottles and boxes and piles of trash.  It was like a massive parade and run through there.  I kinda liked it!

This is three hours before the game even started!!  Crazy Town! 

We thought we might not score a bobble head because we were so far back in line, but we got some of the last few!  More sports treasures. 

The weather was spectacular and the stadium was not bad.  The boys said it was voted the second worst stadium in the MLB.  I did not agree with that at all.  I enjoyed it very much. 

Mostly, I think I enjoyed the fans.  They love their A's.  And the weather?   Forget about it!!!  Gorgeous!  Sunny and you would get a little warm but there was a cool breeze that just perfectly cooled you off.  It was spectacular.  

We did have a ruckus a couple sections over from us and a couple of Indians fans got escorted out by Security. The As fans cheered like they had won the world series when those guys were walked out.  Then maybe one other guy, who thought he was being funny by fake punching a police officer was handcuffed and escorted out.  But otherwise it was lovely.

Well, we did have the one other incident where black smoke started billowing over the stadium during the game.  Apparently three cars caught on fire in the parking lot.  You don't see that every day either.  Maybe that excessive drinking in line is not such great idea.  Otherwise, it was great!

We left the A's game in the top of the eighth.  The boys were giving me sad eyes because I wanted to leave early, but we got here three hours before the game started.  I was ready to hit the hay!  

We still had to drive over to downtown San Francisco to our hotel for the night.  We fell into bed about 11:00.  We were on the 15th floor of the hotel and just as I was about to doze off I thought about an earthquake.  Do you run out?  Stay in?  Get under a desk?  Stand in a doorway?  Get in the bathtub with a mattress over you?  No, that is tornado.  Definitely don't get in an elevator, right?  Or is that for fire?  Damn, they should have some earthquake instructions around here. 

I somehow managed to fall asleep despite my lame knowledge of earthquake procedures.  Thankfully, I  woke up the next morning with no evidence of an earthquake occurring!  Hurray! 

Vacation - Day Three

We woke up super early and promptly crawled out to the balcony to see where we had landed after the treacherous DRIVE OF DEATH!  You have to type that in all caps, because lowercase just does not give you the impact that is necessary! 

Me and Chip waiting for the sun to come up.  Note the blankets and coats.  It was chilly! 

Once it was light enough we headed down to the shore.  Let's see what these Tide Pools are all about. 

In all the little crevices of the rocks that had been covered overnight by water were now little ocean treasures.  A whole slew of them.  With all kinds of awesome sea creatures.

The fog was heavy and it we were all soaked in our coats but it was very cool!  

The sand was a dark coarse grey rock.  I have not seen anything like that before. 

This is a view of "The Tides Inn" where we stayed.  

I would recommend it, but you have already read about the drive.

But look what else we found on the beach! 

Seals.  In the wild.  In their natural habitat.  Tons of them. AWESOMENESS! 

What a precious creature.  He probably would have eaten our faces off if we had gotten any closer.  For the record we were pretty darn close. 

Hubby took 1850 pictures this trip (That is the official count. For reals.)  He took most of them in Shelter Cove. 

I took a few.  Mostly of my boys butts.  Looking for treasures.  Daring each other to touch something.

 What an adventure. 

Cool crab.

Chip was going in after something in a big tide pool  I was trying to save him from getting wet. 

What are you after??

A starfish!  How cool!!!  Harry was doing a running commentary that went something like this...."Hey there Mr. Starfish.  The Clampett's are here and they are going to rip you from your natural habitat so they can hold you.  Not to worry, I think you can grow one of your arms back if they accidentally dismember you."   Good times.

We crawled all over this joint.  Climbing up and over rocks.  Jumping up.  Jumping across.  Exploring all the cracks and crevices and screaming for everyone to come see what we found.  That was mostly Chip. He found a lot! 

Right up the road a piece, about 1/3 of a mile was the Lost Coast.  Bill told us not to miss it.  This was after I hunted him down and said "In all that great advice you gave me yesterday, you never mentioned the road into this place!"  He smiled and said "Well, we want people to come."  

There was this awesome path to the Lost Coast Beach.  What wasn't awesome was that there was a Bear Warning sign cautioning you to carry a bear canister.  What the hell is a bear canister???  Do you hide your food in it?  Spray a bear with it?  Hide inside it if you see a bear???  We aren't from these parts.  We wouldn't know a bear canister if it ran up and introduced itself so we just risked it and made lots of noise heading down the path.

At the base of the path, right on the ocean was this spectacular little stream.  Oh, it was so beautiful.

The place was practically deserted.  Way to dangerous to get in the water because the rip tides are supremely powerful.  There were warning signs every where not to get in the water.

Bill told us this was the highest mountain range (4,000 ft) that was on a beach in the U.S.  

It was foggy so it was hard to get a good picture, but it was very sheer cliffs with gorgeous trees.  Just stunning.

It looked like Jurassic Park and Land of the Lost combined.  I could totally picture a giant dinosaur coming out of the woods or Will Ferrell.  You choose. 

These grey and white rocks covered the beach.  Can you guess how many my boys threw in the ocean?  A TON!!  I am surprised there were any left.  

I did bring one home to make a necklace.  

We meandered down the beach and rescued a couple of starfish that had gotten themselves beached and then folks started getting hungry!  We needed to find some food around here! 

Later I asked Bill about the bears and he said "Oh yea, we have lots of bears.  In fact, they have recently been in the garage here at the hotel."  

Damn Bill, you left out a lot of pertinent information in your brochure.  Drive of Death and Bears on Property are some things I would like to know ahead of time!  But he is probably smart, cause I probably wouldn't have ever come.  

We drove past the local lighthouse and went in to see a little history while we waiting for the lunch places to open at 1:00.  Doesn't that seem a little late?  Shelter Cove runs on its own time schedule.  Speaking of schedule, the lighthouse guy told us that most kids are home schooled in the Cove, but those that ride the bus have a two hour ride to school and a two hour ride home.  Four hours of your day on that hideous road.  I cannot even imagine.

This little pizza place was perfect.  I had a lovely wedge salad and the boys ordered pizza.

It was really good!  We enjoyed eating outside on the lovely patio.  I could never, ever, ever live here but I could understand how some people could.

After our late lunch we hung out on the beach some more and then finally went in to get cleaned up and maybe take a siesta out on the little balcony.  The sound of the ocean and all that fresh air can make a person tired! 

  Hubby and Harry went back down to the beach before we went next door to dinner.  They saw the coolest thing ever.  A sea otter.  Eating a crab.  It jumped right out of the ocean and hauled that crab with it.  They said the crab was fighting it like crazy.  The crab lost.  And the sea otter ate his dinner. 

You won't see that in Texas!  What a treat!  So glad he had the camera so I could check out the otter. 

Later in the evening we went next door to a restaurant called The Cove.  I told the boys to bundle up because it was going to be getting cold.  They looked at me like I was a loon.  Mom, it is literally like a one minute walk to the restaurant.  We will be fine.  I had on a coat and scarf.

We walked into the place and it was like a furnace!  I was sweating immediately.  Stripping out of the scarf and coat before we even sat down.  They got a big laugh out of that.  It was a nice dinner...only marred by the local guy singing with his guitar.  Oy...painful.  Why is that so awkward.  I had a beautiful bowl of chowder and grilled fish. Yummy!   Chip tried Fish and Chips for the first time and loved them.

We wound down our day watching the tide come in and the sun go down.  We were all ready for bed at 8:30.  It was a terrific day.

Vacation - Day Two

We woke up the next morning to some nippy weather!  Such a welcome change from the heat!  Look at the hanging flower baskets at our hotel!  Spectacular! 

They were so pretty and I gotta believe you can grow anything in the northwest!  

We were close by Oregon so we cruised by there to see their stadium.  It was really cool and the new part they added that is a workout area was really modern.  Neat place. 

Then we headed south.  The view was so pretty.  It was a lovely drive.

Lots of logging trucks on the route with some really big trees!  We also drove through some smoke from a forest fire.  It was way off, but the smoke was definitely in the air. 

We stopped at a rest stop and the boys threw a football around.  Chip and his new receiver gloves.  Pretty sweet. 

Cute boys with Dad.  Look how tall Harry is getting!  Stop it!  Right now!  Just stop that growing! 

Cute boys with Mom. 

TUNNEL!!  You would have thought hubby spotted a million dollars in the road.  He was so excited about this tunnel.  He pulled over to take a picture and then did a celebratory donut with the car in the dirt parking lot.  The kids thought it was awesome.  I was looking at him like he had lost his marbles.  He looks at me with a shrug and says "I like tunnels.  What can I say?"

We pulled over at lots of little places along the way, but this one in Smith River Canyon was one of my favorites.  Isn't it beautiful? 

The water was crystal clear and ice cold. 

And just babbling like the beautiful mountain brook that it was. 

Harry was trying to jump out to the middle of it.  I was sure he was going to get wet, but he didn't. 

Then we saw our first Giant Redwood!  I mean, can you even grasp the scale of that tree!  Look at the people.  Look at the car!  It is a HUGE tree!  At this point I am able to mark #3 off of my 50 Things To Do Before I Am 50 List.  I have a ton of things left to do, but it was surely a treat to see these natural wonders. 

We continued down Hwy 101 and just kept pulling over to admire the view. 

We ran into lots of interesting smells on our drive.  At one point Chip says "Do you smell Pencil Lead?"  It smelled exactly like pencil lead.  Then later Harry says "God, it smells like Cheerios with a hint of urine."  He was dead balls on with that one....it smelled exactly like Cheerios with a hint of urine.  So funny!

We were getting no where fast.  Too much to see!   All along this two lane winding road there were people on bikes. Bicycles.  The pedaling kind with no motor.  What is wrong with these people?  

Then we cruised by the Trees of Mystery and it is kind of a corny Redwood park that we just couldn't resist.  This is a Giant Paul Bunyan and his Ox.  

The boys are highlighting the giant private parts of the ox.  

Nice. 

The boys waiting on the Sky Trail. 

Inside the Sky Trail, a lift going high up the mountain.  

Me and Harry!  We spent about an hour or so here and then we needed to get to the Avenue of the Giants to see the real Redwood Forest. 

This was another of the most remarkable places we stopped.  It was not even a mile into the Avenue of Giants.  There was a downed tree which gave such a different perspective on the size of these babies.  We were the only car pulled over and it was really kind of eerie.  It is dark in the Redwoods.  Very still and quiet. 

Look at the root of this tree next to Chip!  My goodness it was enormous. 

Then Harry scampered up on top of it, then that caused the other two fellas to find a way up on the tree. Then they walked the whole length of it.  Taking pictures.  I'm all....let's go!  We have 25 more miles of Redwood Forest to see!  We need to find the tree to drive through.   I believe they could have hung out on this tree all day long.   

We stopped at many other places.  Look at Chip at the base of that tree.  HUGE. 

I wish you could understand the scale of these trees.  It is hard to grasp in person, so I know these pictures are just not doing it justice!  

The drive thru tree!  We found it!! 

Damn - it is going to be tight!  

Pull in the side view mirrors! 

Everyone suck it in!  

We made it through!  

Once we exited the Avenue of the Giants we were heading to our hotel for the next few nights.  It was a little place in Shelter Cove that was about 21 miles west of Hwy 101.  Right on the water.  I had called and talked to the owner before we left and he was great. Gave us lots to tips which we followed for our drive down from Portland.  He told us to stop in Redway for some groceries cause they didn't have anything in Shelter Cover.  We did.  It was a Hippie paradise.  

Then came what will forever be known to me as...

THE DRIVE OF DEATH!!! 

The road from Redway to Shelter Cove was hideous.  The sun was going down fast and the fog was rolling in.  This road was supremely curvy, steep, winding, foggy, mountainous, one lane in some places, no guard rails....twenty one miles of nail biting (maybe a little bit of screaming) trying not to barf horror.  

When we finally came out at the hotel the brakes were literally SMOKING!!!  

It was horrible.  It would have been hysterical if it hadn't been so terrifying.  Harry was singing a crazy made up song the whole time we were driving that was just distracting enough that I didn't make Hubby pull the car over so I could walk.  

Chip had on his motion sickness bands and was still turning green.  

But we made it!  Sweaty, frightened mess (that was probably just me!) and thankful to be alive.  It was getting late by the time we arrived so we unloaded everything and went to bed.  I dreamt all night of hiring a helicopter to lift our car out of Shelter Cove so we wouldn't have to drive out.  Can you even imagine?  Thinking that flying in a helicopter, lifting a car would be a better option that driving?  It would too!  I totally would have paid for that!