Crescent City, California

It didn't take the kids and I long to get ourselves together and get back on the road.  One quick stop for some fancy coffee drinks (travel day tradition...any excuse for some caffeine, ya'll!) and we set our sights south...back to California!  Say whaaaat???  California?  After all that talk about seeing Oregon?  Hahaha...yes, California was calling to us that morning.  So we went :)!  Why not, right?  Right.  So anyway, away we went all caffeined up down to Crescent City, California.

Just so ya'll know, we weren't just aimlessly going around in circles.  We did actually have a destination in mind in Crescent City.  I have mentioned before that we really enjoy the National Parks Junior Ranger program and the kids have collected quite a few badges from our travels around the country (around 200 at last count!).  We spent a good chunk of time the day before in Redwood National Park, but the visitor center in the forest was closed for the season.  With Dan and Trevor off on the Chetco for the day, the 4 younger kids and I decided to zip back down into California for some junior rangering at the Crescent City Redwood NP visitor center.

The visitor center was fun, the rangers all friendly and cheerful.  We learned even more about the park and the history of the area...banana slugs, fire activated pine cones, and the gigantic earthquake/tsunami of 1964...

that blue line just above the boys heads...tsunami high water mark {{shiver}}

Only a block or so away was a really nice waterfront park.  We headed over there next to check out the Crescent Harbor...

From there, we noticed a lighthouse in the distance.  I just love lighthouses, so of course we had to get a closer look :)...

We got close and then realized that it sits on an island!  How neat is that??!  There is a road leading to it and it is actually open to the public...but only at low tide :).  We would just have to be content with viewing from afar on this day (some interesting history about the light here)...

With our path to the light cut off, we turned back around towards the harbor.  There was a fishing pier that grabbed our attention so we headed thatta way next.  What we saw over there...WHOA.  There was a real strange fella out there communing with his bird brethren.  Ahem.  Yeah, for real...

Bird Man standing near his camper...

We watched as a car drove by... not really fast, but fast enough that it scared away all "his birds" and he completely FREAKED out.  Screaming, wailing, all manner of carrying on.  We eased on by real slow when he wasn't looking (eeek!)...

...that poor woman looked too scared to move ;)

Before leaving the harbor, we made one last stop over on the far side.  There is a little restaurant that looks out over the water (and the seals swimming, boats coming and going) so we decided to grab some lunch.  The food was just ok, the view however was awesome...so overall it was a good lunch.  Not great, but good. 

When we were in the vc, the ranger told us about a place we could go to maybe see some elk.  Elk at the beach?  Say no more :)!  Even though it would take us further south into California (the opposite direction we were supposed to be going), we just had to go check it out...

...aaaannnnd boom.  Fog bank. 

Don't get me wrong, I love the fog and mist.  It's a part of what makes the west coast what it is (and oh so pretty).  Fog is nice when you are walking on the beach or just hanging out, but not for spotting elk (or anything else).  So...we went just a bit farther and decided to turn around and head back.  We were driving along and out of the corner of my eye...something brown!  Screech!  Baaaaack up...it was a field full of elk!  Well how about that :)...

West...

Out of the 50 states, we had visited 46...the final four being Washington, Oregon, Hawaii, and Alaska.  This road trip would take us to two of those...Washington and Oregon...bringing our total visited to 48!  Woohoo!  I love the traveling lifestyle :)...

I mentioned before that we were headed for the Pacific Coast...Brookings, Oregon, to be exact.  We had formed a rough plan to start at the bottom of the state and head north(ish) to the top then into Washington.  But first, we had to get there...from North Dakota, across Montana with a peek into Glacier NP, through Idaho...first north to within shouting distance of the Canadian border...then back south, cutting across the corner of Washington, following the Columbia River west through Oregon...then the Willamette Valley south...before finally turning west again, towards the ocean.  My favorite.

To get from Grants Pass, Oregon, to Brookings, Oregon, you have to dip down into California.  There is no straight west road.  We have visited California numerous times, but never have we seen a state welcome sign quite like this one...

HAHA!  I think it's my favorite of all :)!  Funny.  Anyway, we stopped to get a picture of the sign and while I was doing that, my husband heard some turkeys chattering in the trees.  He chattered back at them to see if they'd come out and THEY DID!...

I am SO glad that I wasn't standing outside the car when these things came up.  Turkeys can be mean! 

Well, they strutted right up to our car...then circled around and around.  Chattering and looking for their turkey friend that had called to them ;).  I have never seen anything like that! 

I took a few more pictures of the sign, the turkeys had walked away from the car, and it was time to go.  Uh oh...

super blurry, but that EXPRESSION!  HA!

Hahahahaaaaa!  A wild turkey chase ensued!  Welcome to California, ya'll ;)...

and yes, I am easily amused...just in case you hadn't already figured that out.

Ok, so crazy birds behind us (we hope!) we continued on our way towards the ocean.  We were following the Redwood Highway and it proved true to its name.  Redwoods, indeed...

There is something so completely magical about a Redwood forest...

the Smith River

It doesn't matter how many times I find myself among these giants, each and every time I am stopped in my tracks.  Head thrown back, mouth agape in awe...and I'm not the only one :)...

We slooooowly made our way through the beautiful woods and on towards our destination:  the ocean.

where we stayed x2...

I realized I never did tell ya'll about the campground we stayed at in the Monterey area.  I like to make a note of where we stayed not only to provide some input for any of you that may be considering a stay of your own, but for future reference should we be returning to the same area.  Anyway...the park we were in for a month was called Marina Dunes RV Park.  It was different from any other park we stayed in on our travels...the sites were separated by trees/shrubs and privacy fences.  The fence was on three sides and it really made the site feel like a private little yard :).  Each site also had a chiminea and a small patio with picnic table.  The beach was a fairly short walk just across the dunes, that was nice :).  It was a bit on the pricey side, but for where it was we felt like it was worth it.

our campsite at Marina Dunes

After our short stop in South Dakota, we hit the road again with an RV park in north Florida as our next monthly destination...Pine Lake RV Park in Fountain.  We had looked at campgrounds closer to the beach, but because we were making last minute reservations there just wasn't anything available.  It worked out for the best anyway since the park in Fountain was closer to the grandparents (the main reason we were even in Florida).  My opinion of this park is mixed.  Positives...in the country, very quiet, safe.  Negatives...cramped site, crazy strict rules.  The rules were a bummer...my kids were not allowed to even ride their bikes right in front of our camper on the campground road (there was zero traffic of any kind).  My oldest son, who at the time was one month away from turning 13, was told that because he was only 12 (he needed to be 13 per their rules) he couldn't leave our site without a parent. Not even to take the trash to the dumpster (which we could see from our site) and this is a chore he has done for me at campgrounds across the country.  I understand that rules are rules and all that, but it just seemed a little extreme.  So, if you plan to stop for a night or more with kids just know what to expect.  Oh, and their laundry had only I think two very high priced machines...so we would take our laundry to Panama once a week, not a big deal.

Overall, they were both good campgrounds and we would stay at either of them again :).

a little bit of San Francisco

As soon as Dan got back to us on his days off, we took a little drive up the California coast.  I had been wanting to go to San Francisco and it was finally time :)!  We took the scenic route, Hwy 1 all the way up, and it did not disappoint.

We didn't get a very early start, so we decided to stop for lunch in Half Moon Bay.  On a whim, we decided to try Thai food for the first time ever...so glad we did!  We all got something different and it was all delicious.  Over lunch we realized that there was no possible way we were gonna be able to see everything in the city we (I) had hoped to see that day, so we narrowed it down to just two things...a trip across the Golden Gate Bridge and then to the Golden Gate National Recreation Area for the kids to participate in at least one of their Jr. Ranger programs.

I had seen the Golden Gate Bridge in so many movies and things throughout my life that I gotta admit, I was pretty excited to finally be there - on the bridge!

Growing up in a very small town in the deep south, California seemed worlds away.  But it's really not...not that far I mean...

I'm glad that our kids are growing up with pretty much the entire country as their back yard.  Pretty special :)

I took sooo many pictures as we crossed the bridge.  My family got a good laugh out of it ;)

Here's a little peek of Alcatraz...

Just past the north end of the bridge was the beginning of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.  We went into the first visitors center we came to, the one at Marin Headlands, for the kids to get their Jr. Ranger booklets.  After a tour of the exhibits in the vc, we set out to explore as much as we could.

At the trail head to the Point Bonita Lighthouse, we had an awesome view of the bridge with the city behind it...

We were too late in the afternoon to go to the lighthouse, the trail had already closed for the day, so after soaking in the view we headed over to Rodeo Beach.

This beach had sand like none I have ever seen before.  It was made up of teeny, little colorful rocks!

It was nice to just hang out for a little while enjoying the scenery as the kids worked on their books...

 
There were a few people surfing at the north end of the beach...

...until whales started breaching!!!  We had been staying on the coast for a little over a month and had yet to see a whale actually jump up out of the water...until this day!  Dan was the first one to spot it, he got to see one jump entirely up and out of the water :)!  He pointed to the spot and just a minute later a whale pushed half its body straight up out of the water and straight back down.  Wow!  I wasn't able to get a picture, I was too busy gawking, but you can google it if you've never seen it and there are tons of pictures online.

It was time to go back to the vc so that the kids could go over their books with the Ranger.  With all of their activities completed, they were each awarded a Marin Headlands Jr. Ranger badge that is made of wood instead of the usual golden ones.  The kids were happy :)

We didn't have time to go to Muir Woods like we had hoped and didn't really want to go into the city at 5pm, so we started the drive back to Monterey.  As we were leaving, I took a couple random pictures of some row houses.  I know these aren't the well known Victorian ones, but still ;)...

California is just so pretty...

...don't you think?