The next morning once we left the hotel Michael stopped at a grocery store and bought me a big thing of Advil and thus began the pill popping that last the whole trip. Waiting four hours to take my next dose was pretty hard, but mainly because of riding in the van. When we were out of the van I felt tons better.
We decided instead of driving Hwy 101 we would drive through The Avenue of the Giants so we could see all the big trees. It's really interesting how HUGE these trees are. Then there are the "baby" Redwoods that are seriously bigger than any tree in most peoples backyards, but since there are so many other massive trees around then they end up looking teeny. It's all perspective!
We just randomly choose this particular trail because we were driving along and Owen piped up and said...."shouldn't we get out and walk!" I guess we were just goal oriented with our driving. So at the next trail we stopped and got out to explore.
Of course pictures don't do them any justice. You can't really understand the size unless you're there. If you haven't been to the Redwoods it's really not that far south. You could probably make a weekend out of it and it is absolutely worth it!
I wish this picture above showed you everything that we saw. This tree was so tall that when it fell it actually hit the hillside WAY in the background and we could still see the tree going up the hill as far as we could see before the other trees obstructed our view of it. Crazy tall!
At the end of this trail was a plaque dedicated to these two people...who knows why I didn't take a picture of it, but it stated that they were the ones that noticed the forest being harvested and they spoke up and got things changed. That was back in the early 1900! The tree right next to the plaque had been one of the ones harvested and it was easily as big as this tree above so think about another 100 years of growth. It would have been so huge!
Having fun on the trail! Trail is kind of a loose word in regards to this walk. It was kind of hard to tell what was the real trail sometimes since the the forest floor is all small branches and nothing but ferns really grow. It's not like trails up at Mount Rainier where you can clearly see a trail because of all the foliage being trampled on.
And what is a trip to the Redwood Forest without peeing on a tree! Seriously boys!!!
When it was time to leave this area I decided to drive. I was hoping that holding my arms up on the steering wheel would help my neck and back loosen up some more. Plus it might get my mind off the pain.
We ended up stopping at this drive through tree. I've always wanted to drive through a tree! I wasn't sure if our van would fit, but the guy we paid at the gate said that a Chevy Suburban could fit so we would be just fine.
He told us to open up the sunroof so we could get a view of the tree from the inside. We also let the kids stand up through the sunroof as well.
The van ended up fitting just fine...the only thing we had to do was bring our side mirrors in.
This ended up being the only portion of the trip I drove. Michael laughs when he says that he drove all that way just so I could drive through a tree!
That day I had planned for us to have lunch in Santa Rosa at Costco. One pepperoni pizza from the food area is only $11 and it feeds our family of 6! But the kids were tired of being in the van so we stopped in this small town...I can't even remember its name...at MCD's and let the kids play in the play area and then had lunch. It was pretty hot and they played hard so that's why their cute cheeks are all red!
This was probably one of a handful of things Zeke actually ate on the trip. He wasn't feeling the best so that might have played a part. I'm really hoping that therapy helps with his eating habits. Once we left MCD's I was going to stop at a drug store and get a cervical collar to help with my neck, but the more we drove the better I started to feel.
On our way to San Francisco we saw lots and lots of vineyards. They are so pretty!
And then we got to one of my favorite cities. I love San Francisco.....just not their football team! :)
Of course being the awesome Seahawks fans that we are we all wore our Seahawks shirts! I wanted to drive to Santa Clara to Levi's Stadium where the 49ers play and get a picture with our shirts there, but it was a bit out of the way and I thought we might get shot! :)
I love driving over the Golden Gate bridge! So much history! One thing has changed since we were there back in 2009....you no longer have to stop and pay a toll. You drive and they take a picture of your license and then send you a bill. I just got the bill in the mail for $7!
That night we stayed in Gilroy. The first night of our trip Michael picked up food to go at Applebee's. The next night he ran out to Marie Calendar's, but this night I felt eating out of the hotel. Across the street from our hotel was a Black Bear diner. We have one in Federal Way, but we've never stopped there. It was fantastic! Instead of buying kids meals we just got 3 adult meals and then asked to get them split. They were more than happy to do that for us. Owen and Zeke shared a pancake breakfast meal and it was suppose to have 3 pancakes, but the cook made 4 so they could each have 2!
Michael and I shared a burger meal that had this deal where you can get a milkshake for only $2.99...the kids each wanted chocolate milk, but I convinced them that I would share my chocolate malt milkshake with them. Each chocolate milk was going to cost $1.49 so this was a way better deal. They even split the milkshake into five separate containers for us. Great service!
Our meal with tip was less than $40! Such a great deal....we are definitely going to visit the one close to our house sometime soon!
By this point my neck was feeling much better. The hotel shower helped with that as well since it had an awesome massaging shower head. I ended up taking two showers since it felt so nice on my stiff tight muscles!
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