My wonderful in-laws, Fabio and Esperanza (AKA Dado and Dada) flew down from Washington state for an incredible weekend exploring the majestic California redwoods with us. We chose a stretch of redwoods called the “Avenue of the Giants“. Located along a 31 mile road parallel to Hwy 101 in the Humboldt Redwoods State Park, some of these trees are documented as the tallest in the world.
Just south of the “Avenue of the Giants” was our first tourist stop: The Chandelier Drive Through Tree. We did not drive our van through, but were able to watch smaller cars make it and larger cars think about it before bailing out. The tree really does kind of look like a chandelier!
A sweet meadow behind the gift shop…
There was a carved sign with a neat poem (author unknown by me). I took a picture of the carving, but it is to hard to read in the picture. So, here it is…
Here, sown by the Creator’s hand,
In serried ranks, the Redwoods stand;
No other clime is honored so,
No other lands their glory know.
The greatest of Earth’s living forms,
Tall conquerors that laugh at storms,
Their challenge still unanswered rings,
Through fifty centuries of kings.
This is their temple, vaulted high,
And here the pause with reverential eye,
With silent tongue and awe-struck soul,
For here we sense life’s proper goal.
To be like these, straight, true and fine,
To make our world, like there’s a shrine,
Sink down, Oh, traveler, on your knees,
God stands before you in these trees.
On our way out, we saw these two darling fawns. We know mama wasn’t too far off, but did not see her…
I tried to find lodging for us around this area, but was unsuccessful. This turned out to be a blessing because I ended up reserving two rooms at the Inn of the Lost Coast in Shelter Cove. To get here, we had to take a very winding road for what seemed like forever. Just when I thought Icould not take it any more, we entered a small town right on the ocean cliff.
This property was perfect for us. It was not fancy, and it definitely had that salt-air sea damaged look, but this was our view…not bad, huh??
We picked up some pizza, and stayed in for the rest of the evening. (Tip: if you decide you want to REALLY get away from it all, Shelter Cove is a great choice. But, look into dining options and make sure the properties are still in business, and will be open when you are there, or buy items in Garberville before coming down the hill. There are a few small markets in Shelter Cove, but we did not check them out. Our lodging had a small fridge in the room, a sink, and a microwave. I think they also had a BBQ of some sort as well.)
After dinner, we read from “Mr. Popper’s Penguins”…
I love this picture. We were playing around with squeezing each others cheeks and trying to say words. It was pretty entertaining…
We capped of our evening with a few games of ‘Sequence’, a family staple…
