vacation catch up, part 4: redwoods, stinson beach

Summer time is busy with fun & trips, but then Fall starts and doesn't let up with the beginning of school, field trips, harvesting and canning. I have five posts in my draft box that I want to get published, so I'm just gonna crank out these last couple vacation posts.

The day we went to Muir Woods and Stinson Beach was probably one of my favorite simply because I love dark forests, fog and the drive up the Pacific Coast highway was breath taking! The beach was much colder than Lake Tahoe, but fun in spite of the fact that everyone was growing hungry. We drove about 20 miles up the coast & inland a bit, to a gas station and then stopped for pizza. That was a fun break & the kids all watched the Avatar cartoons in their dinning hall and Morgan finally went poo for the first time since we left home! She was a happy camper for the rest of the trip. After dinner we made our way back over the foggy Golden Gate Bridge to our hotel for our last night's stay in San Francisco.

I don't have a picture of my favorite memory, which is: as we drove North, away from Stinson Beach (hoping to get to the Point Reye's lighthouse before the fog hit) we drove past a lagoon with a white house on the opposite side of the lagoon facing us. Immediately behind the house were steep Pine covered hills--shading the house and lagoon in the setting sun--with the most ominous looking fog rolling over the top of the hills. And, like milky-white bony fingers, the fog laced it's way through the trees, slowly creeping it's way to the house, seemingly in orchestration with the darkness to overcome the house all at once. For what seemed the longest time I just stared at the house, with it's accompanying fog, and wished that I could live there, for just a week or so to be able to experience this daily routine of the fog rolling in, like the reliable visit from an old friend, and to schedule my life around the fog.....but before I knew it the house was out of sight and I'd wished I would have thought to stop the entire caravan so that I could've taken just one picture, but alas.

Our family at the entrance of Muir Woods Redwood Forest S.P.

Gene w/ Morgan in front of a giant Redwood tree (the Redwood's are tall, the Sequoia's are fat).

A cross section of an old Redwood that was born in 909 A.D. and fell in 1930!

Walking through Muir Wood's and taking tons of photos of all the beauty...

A view through the tree tops...

I love the perspective of this shot!

The flora & the fauna (look closely in the middle of the photo and you'll see the deer).

So incredibly amazing! I loved Muir Woods!!!

Gianna, Sarah, Nathan & Emma inside a Redwood log.

Morgan, Emma & Sarah inside a giant Redwood living tree.

Then we drove to Stinson Beach. And Brandon & Gene were the only ones brave enough to get DEEP in the water without wet-suits! It was COLD!

Sarah getting her toes wet in the Pacific Ocean.

Me, getting my toes wet in Pacific foam.

Gene found a crab walking along the coast.

Emma chasing the Seagulls (getting in the salty ocean hurt her eczema).

There were so many seagulls hovering, I started snapping away. I like this one.

Looking northward up the coast. That long 'cloud' to the left is the famous San Francisco fog rolling in...it reached us a couple hours later.