Courtney's Blog July 24th, Day 19 of the Epic McFarland Journey!

We're excited to go this morning and see some more of the redwood forests. We have a couple of stops to see within the park. The park is so big that you drive through a bunch of it (which is great to see the overview), but we don't want to miss the details! We find some small hikes we can do. One includes a beautiful HUGE tree which is cleverly called "the Big Tree". It is amazing and you wonder what this tree knows and remembers that we can't even imagine. Redwood trees are almost indestructible against fire, bugs and disease. Did you know that? They have two main killers: 1. Us, and 2. The Ice Age. After the last ice age, most of them were killed off, but some from Nevada survived!! It was fun to get out of the car and get moving. We did a .5 mile trail that is not busy at all. We thought that would be better with the kids and all. Part of the trail was on a ledge (not good for the kids). Gideon was in front of me. He isn't paying attention even a little bit. I try to get him to look forward by saying "Gideon, look at that tree!" He looks backwards instead, does a spin, and whelp, he's on the ground. He stepped off the ledge (not steep at this point) and slid down on his belly a little ways. After comforting his cries, kissing imaginary boo-boos and healing a bruised ego, we keep moving. Soon after, we come across a guy with a dog, who most likely heard the screams from Gideon and assumed we had a lost a limb. He looked panicked but when he surveyed our whole party, and realized no one was hurt, he was confused. He just kept moving, and so did we. His wife went by us about 5 minutes later, so I really do think he ran to ensure we were ok. Haha, thank you, sir! On the way back, Gideon tempts that spot again and almost falls again. Luckily, he was distracted by another family coming down the trail and he missed his cue.

When we get back to the car, Gideon asks me a simple request. "Mommy, can you change the smell in here?" The car smells like Redwood Forest. I can't recreate the smell, and neither can Yankee Candle. It smells like pine needles, ocean, and various flowers with some strong moldy undertones. It is pleasant and unpleasant at the same time. Much to Gideon's dismay, I cannot change the smell of the forest. I give him some Island Margarita hand sanitizer and we're on our way. I see a Billboard on the side of the road advertising the "Trees of Mystery". I try to review the website, but we've lost cell service for the millionth time. (HOW DO PEOPLE LIVE LIKE THIS!!!) And we drive BACK about 15 minutes into the one-lane-is-open-Pennsylvania-type-construction, but back to cell service. The website says that it is a half-a-day park and that they have a sky-ride. The sky-ride sells it because we know Abby and Gideon will love this part. Especially since Gideon asks if we are going to Disneyland every single morning now.

We have a good couple of hours until we get to the Mysterious Treeesssss. On the way there are lots more stops like there were on the PCH. Thank goodness. We stop only a little, and make it to the Trees of Mystery. We are greeted by a huge Paul Bunyon Statue. He is talking about the different trails in the park. We listen and realize he is actually LIVE. Then he starts interacting with us and tell us to have a great trip on the trails. Gideon gets a huge kick out of this. We pay the inordinate about of money to do this and start walking. They have lots of cool carvings and stories marked and recorded on the trail. This is about the time when the kids start making multiple requests to "take a picture of me doing this!" and "take a picture of me here!". We do - you'll see evidence of this in the pictures. Maybe they both have instagram now?We walk for awhile and still see no entrance to the sky ride. Finally, we see it. There is a sizeable line, but remember we just came from disneyland, so we're not affected. We wait patiently and we're off! The ride goes slow, slow, slow, SUPER FAST. Gideon loved guessing when we were going to go fast again. Abby loved the sites, and my reaction to the bumps we encountered. When we got to the top, the view was nothing impressive. In fact, we saw better views from our other trail travels. But the ride was fun, so we spend only a little time at the top, and then decide to come down. We walk back out through the park where Gideon begs us to talk to "the big man" on the way out. We also see another huge carving of a big head. Gideon does what he was born to do....pick noses. Abby goes to stop him - the moment is caught on film (digital), see below.

On the way out, Gideon gets to chat with his man. He shouts BYE! and Paul responds. All is right with the world. We head into the gift shop and there is a fountain filled with pennies in it. Anticipating the requests, I open my purse and grab the first penny before I hear the "can I have a penny" from Gideon. They both get their pennies and I tell them to both make their wishes. Abby's remains a secret, as it should. Gideon wishes outloud..."I want a guitar, God, please get me a guitar". Apparently, this is some sort of praying station, or a letter to Santa. I'm not sure which.

We get back in the car and head to our original destination of the day, the Sea Lion Caves. When we get in the car, we realize we have gone 5,000 miles so far! Holy Schmoley! We keep driving and much to the family's dismay, I stop at more "vista point"s to take more pictures of more ocean that looks exactly the same as the last stop. I can't help it. I didn't expect much of the Sea Lion Caves. I expected that there would be this cave you walk down to on the beach, that you would be held back 43890 feet and barely see some large blubbery mammals not distinguishable from the rocks. Boy, was I wrong! We go down a path towards an elevator that took 3 years to build because it goes deep into the ground and they only built it during the time that the sea lions were not in the caves (2 months a year) so that they didn't disturb them. We enter an underground museum which has one side all open (with bars) to see the Sea Lions from INSIDE their cave. They barely notice us and we are in awe. Abby just adored watching them, and we could not tear Gideon away. They both were amazed how close we were to them. We loved hearing them bark (grunt?), and Gideon giggled at a little guy that was playing in the waves. He would ride the wave out, swim back and then ride the wave again. I think he saw a surfer, or vice versa? There was also another walk down to a point where you could see the Lions sunning. Also, amazing.

We begin the trek to the hotel and start arguing about what unhealthy God-awful food we are going to injest next. We discuss a restaurant that has hot dogs for the kids. I tell Abby "Gideon doesn't like hot dogs". There is silence. Then she pipes up with a thought: "What kind of american doesn't like hot dogs?" My point exactly, Abby.

Summary:

Gideon is un-american (maybe dutch?), Sea Lions are playful, Oregon has a funny smell and we're all sick of fast food.

Ended the Day at the Holiday Inn Express, Newport, OR

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