Springbreak at the Redwoods

Jeff had a week off from work for spring break (did you know some dentists get a spring break?)so we decided to drive down to northern California to check out the Redwood forest. It was kind of a last minute idea but we're so glad we did!! It's only about a 6 hour drive from us; the kids did pretty good in the car. How can you go wrong with a portable dvd player? We stopped in for a short visit with Dan Fackrel, his wife, & new baby boy, a friend of Jeff's from the U of U Residency on the way down. We stayed in a hotel right on the beach! Way to splurge Jeff! (We're not equipped nor brave enough to camp with little ones.) The beach by us was mostly made up of small polished rocks and loads of drift wood. We all loved throwing and batting rocks into the ocean.

We were feeding seagulls our sandwich crusts near a beach, and out from under the broken cement came a bunch of begging squirrels. Maren was so intrigued, she wanted to get under there and check it out.

A few of the highlights were the amazing overlook of the Klamath river meeting the ocean. We could hear and see sea lions & or seals barking & playing in the waves far below. Looked for whales, but as usual didn't see any. But we did see a momma deer and with two baby deers walk right up toward us within about 12 ft and then continue on where ever they were going.

Trees of Mystery was a short hike that pointed out a handful of impressive features of the Redwood forest. The highlights there were the gondola ride/view & the free taste of fudge at the end! And Paul Bunyan w/ his blue ox, I guess.

Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park has a wonderful drive through the middle of the forest with lots of pull out places to stop and take pics or hike. FYI: This is where the forest scenes from Return of the Jedi were flimed. In the spirit of trying to be one with nature we (Rachelle) decided that we should hike a 2.8 mi trail to a waterfall. We got VERY far, probably a little more than 2 miles?? I knew we should have called it quits and turned around at least 3 times before we actually did. The first time I thought we should turn around was when Ryan had to pee, Jeff remedied this by showing Ryan how to pee off the side of the trail. Then second time was about 20 minutes later when Ryan had to go #2. We fixed him up just as before (Jeff did not demo this one). And the third time I actually did turned around with Maren on my back to head back to the car, Jeff was going to continue just 5 more minutes with Ryan. Because we really thought the waterfall had to be very close. We had been in on the trail for about 2 hours at this point. After a minute of hiking back to the car with Maren I got spooked all alone and quickly turned around and to catch back up to Jeff & Ryan. We continued together toward the waterfall for another 5 minutes before I called us crazy and Maren absolutely started loosing it!! If anything we got some pretty good exercise and wore Ryan and Maren right out! Maren finally fell asleep in the backpack about 1/2 way back. Poor girl, sorry Maren.

They slept for 3 1/2 hours in the car before we decided to wake them up for another jaunt in the woods at the Simpson-Reed Grove. I think they thought they were having a nightmare. When we pulled Ryan out of the car we discovered that he'd peed during his nice long nap and didn't have a pull-up on. Oops! (That's not the end of the bathroom incidents by the way.) There were a number of awesome trees in this grove (probably the best & quickest trail, right off the freeway), but by far the best part was me listening to my instinct this time!! The trail was a loop, I was pretty sure of this. Jeff didn't think so and wanted to turn back around after a while. Thank heavens we didn't! The end of the loop and the car was only literally 60 seconds in front of us.

(One other place not to over look if you are heading to the Redwoods is the very quaint Stout Grove. A flat stroller friendly loop, under a mile long of pure beauty & amazement! Jeff & I did this walk individually as the kids were sleeping in the car, this probably contributed to the serenity there.)

Okay, if you've stuck with me this long then here's the finale. . . the last bathroom incident, the reason you won't catch me in a hotel hot tub anytime soon. After such a long day out in the woods, we thought we'd relax at the hotel pool and hot tub with the kids. I didn't even think of putting diaper on Ryan who is mostly potty trained. I did however, make him try his hardest to go #1 & 2 on the toilet before getting a swim suit on him. We thought he was just being hyper at the pool when he couldn't hold still for one second. I asked him a few times if he needed to use the bathroom, and as usual he denied it. I didn't think much of it b/c he had just sat on the toilet and he is usually hyper around water. After a few minutes on the top stair of the hot tub I guess he couldn't hold it any more. We didn't even notice. I'm happy to say the Maren and I weren't in there when it happened, but poor Jeff found it. . . Jeff: "What is this? Is this mud or something?" Rachelle: "I don't know, I didn't see that in there before?" On closer inspection Jeff realized the nasty little deed, Ryan was unusually still & quiet. Do you run & hide or tell? Of course, I told the hotel manager. Jeff helped him fish the ickies out. But the most surprising part, the manager didn't even rope off the hot tub or put a sign up. I'm not sure what he did after that, we high tailed it out of there and tried very hard to avoid him. Think twice about sitting in a hot tub now! Ewe!

This is Ryan helping Maren put on her swim suit to go down to the pool. So sweet! I wish he'd put more effort into dressing himself!