So, we moved up the coast with our next stopping point in Crescent City, CA, less than 10 miles from Oregon. Crescent City is in a really beautiful area of Northern California with easy access to both the beach and the mountains. The area just begs for you to stay outside. We are opting to wear layers, as mornings and evening are quite cool, but depending on where we are, days are warm or chilly (mostly in the windy areas). We’re also trying to keep a bit of the vacation feel by not setting alarms in the morning to get up and rush out the door.
First official destination today was lunch at the Crescent City Harbor. I enjoyed this stop a lot because it allowed for sea lion and seal watching. Honestly, I could sit and watch them for hours. Greg has some good video that I hope he’ll have time to post. They are loud! I like them!
Next, we headed over to the Smith River for a half day kayaking adventure. The Smith River is crystal clear, with some easy level one and two rapids just to spice things up a little bit. Not impressive for those of you who kayak, easy for my kiddos (especially Ryan who I believe covered most of the distance lying down), but it was my first time in a kayak. Previously, I’ve always been in a canoe. I stress this point as I am the only one who enjoyed a brief swim in the Smith. It was quite refreshing and I know the rest of the family was jealous.
Oh, as part of the kayak experience, we also stopped and had a brief hike on part of The Mill Trail. Alex was both fun and informative. We learned about banana slugs (don’t lick them, but they are very beneficial to the forest floor), millipedes that smell like almonds (I didn’t agree), Redwood trees, and – I’m going to have to look up the real name for this—but I keep thinking of it as forest lemonade. They look like clover, but if you chew them up they have a tart, lemony taste. Audrey, our lemon addict, ate enough that Greg and I felt the need to tell her to stop. I don’t know that you should just jump right into eating a bowlful of those.
After changing clothes, we went to dinner, and then, because my husband loves me, we found a beach to watch the sunset. It was the windiest beach I have ever been on. Loved it! But it was cold and blowing the sand. Ryan gave the call, “Shoes are not necessary!” Elizabeth was playing in the wind and actually let herself be blown over (do not have that on video). Everyone ran out on the beach. Ryan, Elizabeth and I stayed out a longer. Greg set up the camera to get a time lapse of the sunset. Next time, we’ll bring a kite, if I can hold on to it!
Wednesday, May 30
Another outdoor day to take advantage of this gorgeous area. We started with a couple of highly recommended activities, a scenic drive on the Howland Hill Road (not for trailers or cars with low clearance for sure), with a stop along the route to hike the Stout Grove Trail. Lots of big trees. Really big trees. Really, really big trees. Oh, we saw our guides from yesterday. Shout out to Redwoodrides.com (I am so hip!).
It's now been 5 days since we left Nashville, and Audrey hasn’t touched a horse. Must be a trail ride day! Now for a disclaimer. The entire family likes horses. From the ground. The entire family will trail ride. Because they love each other. Only two of us have a passionate attachment to horses, Audrey and myself. Of these two, only one of us is in any physical shape to ride for an extended period of time. Yes, that would be Audrey. I’m going to go with, we had a fun ride. The area was beautiful. No one fell off. The guides wisely pointed out the trees marked by bears on the way out of the woods (not really a worry; there was a bear on the morning ride). We rode up mountains, over a bridge, down mountains, into a creek (Ryan’s horse, 9 years old and newly graduated to the trail ride group, didn’t really want to be in water on a Wednesday…), and then all the way back again. The 2 ½ hour trail ride that said “good for all levels including beginner”, was... in my humble opinion… challenging. I would not market that as a beginner trail ride. And it took over 3 hours and had a lot of narrow twists and turns, and fairly steep inclines and declines. Bonus for Audrey. The rest of us will be recovering for a few days. Riding on a horse through the Redwoods definitely gives you yet another perspective of these beautiful outdoors. Glad we did it, but pretty sure only Audrey and I would do it again (after my posterior comfortably lets me sit, that is). Still love horses!
