Total Time in Car: 7 hours 39 minutes
Total Miles Driven: 277 miles
Shortest Distance Covered in Longest Time: 4 miles in 2 hours
After snagging some pop tarts from the breakfast room at the hotel, we once again journeyed to the Redwoods. It’s very picturesque and I got tree picture happy again (sorry).
We followed the Avenue of the Giants today, along the Eel River (note: must check to see if there are/have been eels in the river – Ben would really like to know).
This one even has a face!
Artistic tree?
It was a nice, easy drive, shaded enough to keep us cool. In fact, our walk thru the Founders Grove required hoodies - so nice after the heat at home last week. There are some spectacular trees in the grove, including the tree that played a big role in the creation of the Save-the-Redwoods League.
Look! I was there, too!
We also saw trees that had survived forest fires – still growing even tho you could walk thru the base.
There are a number of trees that have fallen in this section of the park. The root structure that’s been revealed is awe-inspiring. The biggest fallen tree we saw was the Dyerville Giant, which is thought to have lived for 1,600 years and was taller than Niagara Falls.
After our stroll (which didn’t get rid of as much boy energy as we’d hoped), we continued down the Avenue of Giants. When we weren’t looking for Bigfoot, we were looking for Giants. Ry would like to bring a giant home because he thinks it would be a good pet. We would just get a nice one, of course. A great backseat discussion ensued as to whether we were on the avenue or at the avenue (Ry really thought the avenue was a destination). We finally agreed to disagree.
Anyway, because I’m silly like that, I was really hoping to visit the drive thru tree. It’s been on my list for a while. Just so you know, this is not the one.
It’s just a little house that charges you $6 to look at a tree in their backyard that has a hole cut in it. I think one of those little clown cars might fit thru, but our car, not so much. Also, Travis was quite certain that we would bottom out if we actually attempted to drive thru.
So, feeling a little more silly than I did just for wanting to drive thru a tree, we returned to the Avenue. Lo and behold – we happened upon the tree. The one in the pictures that had started my whole silly obsession. And, even better, this place only charged $5! Such a deal. Because we couldn’t open the doors while driving thru the tree, there are no pictures of us in the tree. But you can see the tree from the inside, which is pretty cool. Even better for Travis was the truck behind us that tried to fit thru but couldn’t. Seriously. What were they thinking? The noise was not good, but I think it was a little like a NASCAR crash for Trav. Lots of good chuckles.
Then it happened. Our road trip came to a screeching halt (literally because I wasn’t paying as much attention as I should have). We puttered along at the amazing speed of two miles and hour. For two hours. Even Nuvi couldn’t save us from the meltdown. Apparently, two of the three traffic lights in the town of Willits (which I might have thought kind of cute any other time) stopped working. Now I do not think it's cute and Ry really doesn't like it at all. The four way stop concept was a little difficult to grasp (as is the whole left lane is the fast lane concept, but I digress), so we trickled along. Luckily the boys did really well with the lack of movement.
We were rewarded with a stop at the Ukiah Brewing Company, which was quite good. Good beer and excellent food.
On our way to Larkspur, we also stopped in a Bear Republic Brewing in trendy Healdsburg. Definitely a grown up kind of town.
Once we finally made it to Larkspur (a lot later than I’d hoped), we were able to walk to the final brewpub of the day – Marin County Brewing. Lots of good beer choices (the porter was not among them) and okay food, slow service. Topped off the day with a soak in the hot tub and then got the giggly boys (Travis was the worst) to bed. Three more pics:
Until tomorrow …
4 comments:
I googled the Eel river and yes, the river is still home to sturgeon and eels!!! :) "Up to 50 years ago...
...the Eel was considered one of the few pristine rivers left on Earth. It was a world-famous sport fishing river, major contributor to commercial ocean fishing, and home to the now almost-extinct sturgeon and eels (lamprey). "
When I was a kid there were lamprey eels in the applegate. Believe me they were not much different then snakes, and you know how I feel about snakes. yeck!
When I was a kid there were lamprey eels in the applegate. Believe me they were not much different then snakes, and you know how I feel about snakes. yeck!
Thanks for the update D!
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