Hoofprints: The Great California Vacation: Part 3

I want to be a better blogger.

There. I said it.

Now if someone could add about five hours to every day so that I can accomplish more, that would be lovely. Let me know if that ever happens.

The California vacation (you know...the one that we took four months ago) is finally getting part three tonight, with part four (lastly) hopefully shortly after.. I should be using this time to write more in my book. But alas, I am not. I was naughty and watched an entire TV series for the last two weeks and managed to lose my train of thought for the story. Oops. So now I'm procrastinating.

After Aaron and Michelle's wedding, we got to go see the sites. The next morning, even with his hangover...er...I mean random unexplained headache...Aaron managed to drag himself out of bed with his new wifey to join us on a grand adventure to the Drive Through Tree park in the heart of the Redwoods Forest. Let me tell you something. I've driven in Colorado. I remember thinking that those roads were crazy and treacherous with all the curves and mountain passes. Then I was co-pilot to my mom in the Redwood Forest. I stand corrected. Some of those twists and turns on that roadway made my head hurt. I think we traveled 10 miles in two hours. And that's being generous. That being said, the forest was just awesome. I hope we get to go back one day soon. I could make that drive again just for the fun of it. (With a much older Evie.) It was spectacular! Our first destination was the Drive Through Tree Park. There is a giant sequoia that's over 2400 years old that you can drive through. Of course, we witnessed an SUV scrape its mirrors on the inside of the tree as it tried to pass through, then opted out of driving our rental car through it. I'm guessing that the tree was carved out back in the days of station wagons.

Now, my goal was to get all of us in this tree and pretend that we were terrified. I was then going to later go in and photoshop a dinosaur into the picture and make this our family picture. Josh wouldn't go along with it. Grrr.

Cousins being boys.

See? Evie just wants to be one of the gang. She holds her own. That's for sure.

Mom was very camera happy. :)

There was a part of my writer's mind here, that was afraid a creature would come out of that tree and eat us.

We explored the paths of the woods nearby. Josh could have walked and explored much more, but having tiny kids makes that a bit complicated. It was awesome, none-the-less. After raiding the gift shop in true tourist fashion, we headed out to a place called Confusion Hill. It's a most peculiar place where the water runs uphill and your equilibrium is thrown out of whack. I think it's just an illusion, but it was pretty darn snazzy, if I do say so myself. We all got quite a kick out of it.

Weird, huh?

This is my favorite picture of Dianne. :)

Jeremy hanging out. It was really strange in that house.

Illusion or not, it was still really impressive.

Now here's where the fun started. Going on a trek into the forested lands of California, we assumed that somewhere along the way that there would be options for food. So, in true Clark Griswold fashion, we epically failed. There was no food. Anywhere. Ever. No McDonald's. No pit stops. Not even the gift shops had food we could use. Having a kid with food allergies makes this infinitely more impossible. I would have even paid good money for a gas station. At one point, I was hopeful that the Confusion Hill gift shop would have snacks. They did. But none of it was safe for Alex - with one exception - two lonely bags of Frito's corn chips. Fifty cents later, I had food for Alex and Abby. Those, combined with the bag of mini Oreos I luckily brought, was the most food I had to offer my starving kids. Talk about the middle of nowhere! We all had a good laugh through our frustration. I was just happy to know that even my brother Jeremy and his wife Dianne failed on this front just as bad as we did. :-) Birds of a feather, ya know?

Finally, after forty hours of driving (really it was only like three. just felt like forty.) we emerged out of the depths of the forest to see the most amazing view - the ocean. It was so vast. I almost couldn't wrap my mind around it. But the fun didn't end with our foodless adventure here. Our first goal was to find the nearest McDonald's and feed the masses. Luckily, at the end of Fort Bragg, we found our feast. Now, this is where it got funny. We fed the kiddos. They hungrily swallowed their food as Josh and Jeremy checked for a local restraunt that served fresh fish and chips. They swore up and down that we couldn't be on the coast and not eat fresh fish and chips. Now, my mom smartly ate a fish sandwich meal from McDonald's. And the two people who actually live in California (Aaron and Michelle) ate at McDonald's. You'd think that would be our sign, right? Wrong. I'm not an adventurous eater. In fact, I'm the opposite. But I agreed to give the local cuisine a try. When in Rome, right? We GPSed a little dive on the docks and a short drive later, we were at Cap'N Flint's Restaurant. I believe they also offered boat tours and whale watching (if that tells you anything). Josh and Jeremy went in to order four orders of fish and chips...fresh caught that day. We then found out that they only accepted cash. Luckily, Josh and I had some we'd saved for the trip. It took them like 20 minutes (at least) to cook up our meal and Dianne and I joked that hopefully it wouldn't cost us more than $50 for four orders of fish and chips. (Because, between all of us, it was all the cash we had.) After waiting forever, I went into the place to find out what was taking Jeremy and Josh so long. That's when they told me it was over $40 for the food. My jaw agape, I went out and shared this moment with Dianne. We about died. It was so stinking funny.

They even had plastic chair inside to sit on. I laughed and laughed. I wonder if Cap'N Flint has all his legs?

I'd like to say that it was the best meal I'd ever eaten. But alas, I didn't get to eat it until it was cold (naturally). Mine was filled with bones and not really that fantastic. Everyone else enjoyed their bone-free fish. This is why I don't experiment with food. Never turns out well for me. It was, however, a great memory. So I'll take it.