Random Redwoods Vacation Moments

Redwoods Video

Secret Sea Cave Near Sisters Rocks

We wish you all could have been there with us, so this was our solution...

The Burches hit the Redwoods!

Read this post from the BOTTOM-UP please...

We caught a wave back home. Great adventures--we're grateful to have such a fun family with Daddy the Driver, Momma the Planner and Claire the Destroyer.
Claire sizes up with the shark scale.
The most darling seafood you'll ever see. Adam's caption: "We got eated by a shark--but we got better!"
Claire communicates with a California Sea Lion named Cora.
We saw out of season whales! Okay, did the chain and hook give it away or was it the whole, "Don't Orcas sort of eat people?" thing?
Self-explanatory. The parents prevailed soon after and she slept in her travel crib (I'm unconscious at left).
Claire is tired after a day of Paul-sized fun, but she tries to convince me there's always time for more "jokes" (she babbles nonsense at me and then holds her tummy while she laughs this little guffaw that resembles something a yacht owner might produce).
Elk abound
Can you spot the little Laurel in this hollow giant?
Claire wouldn't be parted from this little Babe the Blue Ox doll she saw in the gift shop. Even a tightfisted penny pincher like me couldn't begrudge a momento of what just may be the center of coolness in the universe.
Claire fingers "Momma Bear", a cool chainsaw carving in the Tall Tales Trail at Trees of Mystery.
We decided to hike back down the mountain rather than being return tram pansies. Boy were we glad for the complementary walking sticks. It was stee-eep! Very fun to be out on our own with sporadic vistas of the ocean though...
We ride the new Sky Trail feature at Trees of Mystery to the tops of the redwoods at Ted's Ridge.
"Hey Paul!" (Or the way it really went, "Hey! Hi! This guy! Hi!")
Daddy's girl off the beaten path. We found the deep dark stillness very centering and peaceful. A natural temple-like atmosphere prevails amidst the ancient giants.
I'm wearing hiking boots in case you were thinking I had my Birks with me.
Claire and the great Coastal Redwood share a common hugeness.
We officially arrive at the Redwoods--notice the similar vantage? It's photography ala "I don't have anywhere to rest the camera while the timer goes off, nor is there any sentient life with opposable thumbs handy..."
The sea cave was really cold and full of bugs but we felt proud to have made the hike. The crashing waves in the cave made the nippy bugs worth it. Claire thought it was hilarious that I kept blowing on her hair to get the flies off.
Frankport Beach, from the vantage of a secret sea cave hike (secret because although Oregon's lottery paid to improve the area, they only put up a small nameless state park sign just before the blind turn next to a bluff).
What Claire saw.
Claire looks up in wonder.
Claire adores dinosaurs and we were pleased to take her to Prehistoric Gardens. A bit less psychedelic than when I was a kid, but still awesome and a great opportunity to practice one's "terrible roar."
Battle Rock Beach at Port Orford.
Little toes take a stand.
Claire takes her first sand steps.

Mushroom Hunting

Willamette National: We've got books, knives and permits, but little experience so we don't ever bring anything back with us but pictures...
Claire helps make sure the Umpqua jetty gets a proper climb-upon.
The Siuslaw Pioneer Trail is an awesome hidden treasure if you're out near Florence, OR. The trail was built in the 1970s and has obviously fallen into disrepair (great for adventurous mushroom forays!).
This growth is over one foot wide and the orange was nigh on neon. Likely to be Chicken of the Woods, an edible mushroom.
I caught a crawdad! Scroll down to see my wet boots.
Adam and Claire at an interpretive trail sign (on the Pioneer still)--check out the growth on this tree!
Gross to have squishy boots, but awesome to have caught one of the flaming red crayfish clogging the McLeod Creek here at Pioneer Trail.
Baby loves ocean...
Bliss' Burgers in Florence is AWESOME; not just because they have a 1960s fiberglass Burger Boy!

New Home: Eugene

All the angles anyone could possibly desire of our new home in Oregon at the University's family apartments...Notice our awesome "new" living room table--Adam and I refinished it and laid in a new top over the last two days. We paid $30 total for it, yeah buddy! Also check out the rainbows in the background courtesty of Adam's fishtank and the wind spinner he made with lenses and copper wire. I'll post again when Adam's fish move into their new home.