May 16th

Today began the grand journey down the west coast. We hit the road from Bainbridge at around 11:00 and expected to be on the road for about 10 hours. We drove through some beautiful scenery, and I think we were all surprised at the variety of terrain that we ended up crossing. The drive around Portland took a long time because of a massive accident involving at least 6 cars and a motorcycle, and we further delayed our arrival by spending an inordinate time looking through the grocery store to stock up on supplies for the next few days. We had a blast though, and reached the northern border of California at around 10:00. It was very dark by this point, but that did not hinder our redwood spotting abilities too much, and the whole car let out quite a gasp at the first sighting. Redwood trees are some of the most majestic and powerful organisms on the planet. Coastal Redwoods (in northern California) are the tallest tree, while their cousins, Sequoias, are the largest around and generally accepted as the “biggest.” We wound through the meandering road of the state and national parks and finally arrived at Mill Creek State Park to end the night. We arrived there at 12:00, cooked some quesadillas, and soon after went to sleep. The day was a success, and we were all looking forward to a great day hiking through some massive old growth forests full of Coastal Redwoods.

May 17th

This day was one of most memorable of my life (speaking for everyone). We left the campground and arrived at a new one further south around 1:00. Prairie Creek campground sits just inside a forest that borders of a beautiful pasture full of grazing wild elk. We set up a great camp near a creek and relaxed for a little to eat lunch in the sunshine. We then went on a beautiful hike through the adjacent redwood forest and were blown away by the sheer size of the trees. There are no words to describe how beautiful they are, sitting there after 2000 years of growth and no doubt countless traumatic events. Fires, tsunamis, earthquakes, and mans raping of the environment have all proved to be futile against the mighty wood of these trees. Some trees were there to look at, but perhaps the most interesting were the ones that could be explored more closely. Some were hollowed out or partially burned and could actually be entered. These trees gave you a sense of the immense strength of the trees, and one could only be humbled when looking up and observing 150 plus feet of gorgeous wood grain and a red color as rich as blood. Some trees have a soil bed that has accumulated on branches as much as 100 feet in the air. These soil beds can actually harbor the growth of smaller trees and other plant life to create a unique niche high above ground. We observed many birds including a Yellow Warbler, a Stellar’s Jay, and a Golden Crowned Kinglet. Once we exited the forest and arrived back at the visitor center it was around 6:00. This was the perfect time of day for the elk to graze in the cool evening air, so we sat and watched about twenty elk gorge themselves on the lush grass of the prairie. When we got back to Rita we decided it was dinnertime, so we made some great garlic spaghetti and later tided ourselves over with some of Chris’s famous “Cyan Quesadillas”. The evening was full of song, dance, good food, and even better company. We ended to day by falling asleep to some good music, and all night dreams of immense forest life danced through our heads.

May 18th

Today we did some scenic driving through more of the redwood forests of California’s northern coast but always kept our minds set on our ultimate destination of Santa Cruz to see Laura and hopefully venture to San Francisco for a day-trip tomorrow. The drive has been uneventful but beautiful, coming out of the coastal climate and into the beautiful 70-degree weather of the bay area. We saw many wineries, organic food shops, medical marijuana signs, trendy small towns, and psychedelic VW vans. It is 100% confirmed that we are smack in the middle of the incredible state of California.

Arriving in Santa Cruz at around 7:00 we were famished, so we decided to go get some Mexican food. It was scrumptious, and after dinner we watched a movie and went straight to bed. Laura, Chris's girlfriend is really great, and it was excellent of her cousin to let us stay at her place.