28. June 2009 by Matt.

Oregon and Washington

Into the Great North West

                After a couple of great days in northern California and the Redwood Forest we pack up and head off to Oregon and Washington. Heading up the 101 along the tree covered coast line then up along the 199 through “Jedediah Smith” State Park was both hair raising and breath taking at the same time. Imagine we were traveling up the side of a hillside with sheer drops of hundreds of feet at least and we run smack into a construction area. Our already skinny road is now only just barely one lane with construction trucks all over the place. That’s one lane for both north and south bound traffic. So now we’re stopped on the side of this hill waiting for our guide car to get us going with a cliff on one side and huge construction trucks crowded up next to us working on the lanes they are repairing. We finally get going and wouldn’t you know it we head off the road and onto the slippery dirt next to the road. Oh did I mention that the grade of incline there was about six to seven percent. About now I’m wishing I had a jeep not a Ford Taurus.   

                Just past that point the road turns inward away from the coast and the view is unbelievable. Of course we have to climb from about two thousand feet to about six thousand feet in a very short time but with the trees crowding up close to the road  the ascent isn’t all that bad at all. Turning a corner and crossing a bridge we can see the summit. I am so awestruck by I almost drive right off the road. The sun is coming over the horizon and a light fog is just touching the tops of the mountains. Almost as if a cloud has brushed ever so slightly across it. the rainbow it created right in front of me was the most vibrant I have ever seen. I was so close to this rainbow I was certain I could reach out and touch it. I turned to Phillip to ask him if he saw the rainbow also and I realized all the kids were sound asleep. Oh well, nothing to do but continue on. We traveled on from there winding back and forth and up and down through those beautiful hills for quite a few hours eventually ending up at Grants pass. From there we hit the five north and we didn’t stop until we got to Woodburn, Oregon. After staying in Woodburn for a night we headed off toward Tacoma Washington.

                The trip to Tacoma was rather un-eventful. It’s a  good thing too. I’m not sure we needed any more excitement at the moment. Tacoma is a very nice, if not a bit old, town. The people there where cordial and caring. Everyone we encountered had a smile for us and you know how sometimes it just feels right? Well this felt right for all of us. Of course living in the Tacoma area was out of the question as the housing costs are just out of this world. I do have to say though, if I could I would move somewhere near there in a heartbeat. The next morning I left the boys at the hotel and Elizabeth and I  headed up past Seattle to look at a potential business venture. It didn’t pan out but I didn’t have very high expectations for it in the first place. After reviewing the business venture Elizabeth and I decided to stop for lunch before we headed back to the hotel and got ready to continue our trip. It was during our lunch that I received news that changed our trip plans drastically.

                While waiting in line to order our lunch I received a call from the kids Uncle Woody (My brother-in law) to tell me that his mother (my Mother-in-Law,) Beth had passed away suddenly in the night. Well to say the least this came as a shock to me and the kids. After discussing it in length with the kids we decided it would be best if we started heading back down the coast instead of heading off to the east. But that’s another story.

Thanks for taking the time to read our blog. Remember to visit our regular site. We have many photos being updated constantly.

Matt….

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24. June 2009 by Matt.

Eureka,Redwood Forest

Our encounter with a bear.

                Our next stop on our trip was a little town north of San Francisco called Eureka.  The minute we arrived in this quaint little town we all fell in love with it. The temperature was a brisk 68 degrees with a slight overcast. Not the kind of overcast that brings on feelings of gloom but the kind that promises new growth and a sweet smell in the morning. We arrived just before the sun set and it was spectacular. Our hotel was only a few blocks from the shore and when the sun set it shown bright rays of light through clouds that shimmered off the Pacific ocean. It’s times like these I truly miss my wife. Lois would have enjoyed standing and watching the sunset with me.

                The next morning, after a hot breakfast of eggs, sausage, waffles, and bagels we took off to the mountains. About an hour up the coast we found a place to turn off the highway and head into the Redwood Forest. Oh did I mention that the forest comes right down to the coast line. It reminded of something I had seen in a science fiction flick about a guy going back in time to trap dinosaurs and bring them back to the future. Every corner I turned I expected to see a Brontosaurus  lumbering out from the trees while casually munching on a long tuft of grass or maybe some ferns. Imagine my surprise when I saw a sign that said “Elk viewing pull out here.” and low and behold right there in front of us is a whole heard of Elk lounging right in front of the pull out.

                A bit further down the road we found a wonderful spot to stop the car and go on a hike in amongst the Redwoods. By the way if you’ve been to this part of the country you’ll know there is a faction of the local populace (Mostly women I’ve noticed) that believe anyone visiting the parks except themselves is an unwelcome and un-invited guest that must be tolerated like small children but watched very closely.  One of these people always seems to show up just as we are about to start on our hike. She followed us into the parking area and parked a bit of a distance from us. After we all extricated  ourselves from the car and made the perfunctory bathroom stop we meandered over to the sign at the head of the trail. There were mosquitoes everywhere. Of course this woman attempted to keep her distance all the while not appearing to obvious. As I read the sign I noticed she was looking us over as if to see if we where worthy to enter her forest.  

                The thing about checking out a group of people is while you are looking at one person someone else can easily look you over. While she was looking at the kids I surreptitiously took a look at her. She was, after all, looking over my family rather closely. She had long dark hair that was tied back proficiently away from her wizened face. There where smile lines next to her eyes and a earthy quality about her.  She wore simple clothes.  A loose fitting shirt that had long sleeves and men’s pants. Both were of nondescript colors almost as if she didn’t want to be noticed. The thing is she was so nondescript that she stood out from everyone else. She wore hiking boots ( what we used to call “Clod Hoppers”) and long thick socks. After looking her over I quickly classified her as non-threatening, kooky, but definitely non-threatening. I now turned my efforts to actually reading the information in front of me.

                The first half of the sign at the head of the trail prattled on about the usual stuff like, how long the trail went and what we could expect to see along the way. It was the second part of the sign that caught my attention. It appears there have been many problems with Bull Elks attacking people along the trail. The sign went into great detail to explain that we should be sure to make noise as we walked. (No problem there with three kids along, I thought.) It also explained what we should do if we should come upon one and startle it. “Startle it”, I thought. “What about it startling us.” The sign said we should back away slowly not making any sudden moves, “Like running for our lives.” It also said we should not wear any strong perfumes as those might confuse the bull elk and it will attack. “You know like the antiperspirant and deodorant where all wearing. Now it tells us!”  The last thing it said was, “Please don’t leave any food lying around as the bears might eat it and get sick.”

                “Oh yea!” I say out loud. Lets recap crazy lady watching us. Dense forest trail with rickety bridges( Did I mention the rickety bridges?) and mosquitoes flying everywhere. Deaf, sex crazed Bull Elk’s that want to gore us because we smell good, and oh by the way, “Please don’t feed the bears.” What could possibly go wrong. So after a quick talk with the kids about safety and sticking together, I make a point to nod at the crazy woman and we head across our first bridge.  Half way across the bridge we notice our first local resident. There on the railing of the bridge is a four inch Banana Slug. The kids are so enthralled with the slug that they all have to stop and take multiple pictures of it.

                As we travel across the bridge it feels like we just stepped backward in time. The trees are all huge. The air is wet and the forest floor has a musky smell that permeates everything. The ferns that line both sides of the trail grow as high as Andrews head in places and the sunlight is filtered through many layers of tree branches and vines. I understand now how someone could accidently walk up on an animal. The forest seems to swallow the sound of our passing like a giant sponge. We walk for a bit then we stop to listen to the forest. There, next to us I see a tree with all its bark torn off from about six feet up.  I think to myself, “We can’t be more than a hundred feet from the parking lot and the road yet we can’t hear it at all. Better keep my wits about me here.”  Andrew interrupts my thoughts  by pointing excitedly at another slug. As Phillip begins to set up to take it’s picture I notice what it’s crawling across-Bear Scat.  

                “Well,” I think. “It doesn’t look all that fresh. Probably from at least a day or two ago.” Of course how would I know fresh bear scat from day old bear scat. It’s not like I’ve studied the stuff. We continue on.  A few minutes later we are walking along and talking about all the different plants and the wonderful smell out here when I get a feeling we should stop moving. About fifty yards down the trail the bushes start rustling on the left. An adolescent bear emerges from the bushes and, looking over its shoulder right at me, it scurries off down the trail and into the underbrush. Of course everyone is so confounded by the site of a real live wild bear no one thinks to take it’s picture. Thinking of that tree and how  I would not like to meet up with this bears mother I decide it would be best if we just back up and head back to the car. We head back down the trail. Funny the trip back was much quicker than the trip out. Just as we are about to emerge from the trail Andrew notices that “weird lady” (his words). She is just up the trail out of our sight but we get glimpses of her. Suddenly a huge black bird swoops down through a break in the canopy and rushes right over our heads. When I turn my attention back to the woman she is gone. Soon we emerge from the forest and there she is looking over another set of people as they begin reading the sign at the trail head. I have this strong urge to tell the people not to go in there but I don’t. I have no idea why I didn’t tell these people about the encounter we had. I guess I just didn’t want to seem like a tourist, all excited to see what the locals take for granted. We get in the car quietly and drive away.  After driving up the side of the mountain to the next stop we all decide that we don’t really want to see any more forest for the day. We turn around and head back to the coast line to have a great little picnic by the sea and then back to the hotel so the kids can enjoy the indoor-outdoor heated pool and I can relax doing what I like to do best - write. The next morning we head North, North-East to the five freeway and on up into Oregon and Washington, but that- as they say- is another story.

                Thank you for taking the time to read our blog. Don’t forget to check out all our photos on our regular site.

Matt….

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20. June 2009 by Matt.

San Francisco

Not our kind of place.

                Our next stop on our trip was San Francisco. I won’t be saying much about this part of the trip because we didn’t do much.  I can say this though. We should never have spent the time traveling across California to get to San Francisco. I suppose it is a great place for certain people but not us. We will not be going back that is for sure. We spent one night in the city and the children and I were happy to be leaving as soon as we could the next day.

                Thank you for taking the time to read our family blog and don’t forget to check out our regular site. We are constantly updating the photos there.

Matt….

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18. June 2009 by Matt.

Sequoia National Forrest

“Majesty beyond compare!”

We rose early in the morning in the little town of Exeter. After quickly packing our for the day we are off. The trip to the forest is a quiet one with little to comment on except to say, “Wow those turns are tight and that road seems to go straight up the side of the cliffs at times.”

                If you can handle the trip there (That is- not too bothered by heights or sheer cliffs.) the forest is not to be missed.  Walking amongst those giants and listening to the wind rushing through their branches so high above my head I get the feeling I could get lost in time there. Something calming happens to you when you are there. Even though the air is much thinner it’s easier to breath up there. All the troubles of the world seem far off and distant for a time. I swear if you listen close enough you’ll hear the forest whispering to you to shed your problems and relax a bit.

We hiked for well over four miles back into the trees without even noticing how far we had gone. The temperature was a cool fifty eight degrees but it was comfortable. At every turn there was something that one of us wanted to photograph. We took so many pictures I have spent the last two days picking which ones to upload to the site.  After our hike we went further into the park and found a little café where we had a light lunch, (light on the stomach not on the wallet.) then we played around the stream that runs right past the café.

Something that amazed me quite a bit is how much our walking in among the trees impacts their lives. Think about this, these trees have been here for thousands and thousands of years. They have weathered fires, droughts, beetle infestation, and blizzards. We come along and in less than one hundred years we almost wipe them completely out. The root systems of these giants are very shallow. We paved roads all over the forest and put up dinners and gas stations along with all kinds of lodges and inns. From about nineteen fifty to two thousand we about killed the trees. Starting in two thousand the Forest Service has been changing the park back and limiting the areas we walk. You see when the ground gets packed down even a bit the roots of these sentinels can’t get enough nutrients to survive. Simply by walking around them we were killing them.  I’m glad we figured out what was wrong and started to fix the problem. It’s so important to preserve this great gift from God for our children and grand children.

After our sojourn into another time amongst the giants we traveled quietly back to our hotel. Each of us, I’m sure contemplating how fortunate we are to have such a jewel right here in our own back yard. Well maybe not Andrew. He was probably contemplating going to the pool again, when he wasn’t napping.

Thank you for taking the time to read our blog and don’t forget to check out all our photos on the regular pages.

Matt..

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14. June 2009 by Matt.

The Queen Mary

The Demise of a Wonderful old Gal

This is the tale of a wonderful old ship named “The Queen Mary”. In her hay day she was the flag ship in an era of the rich and famous cruising all around the world. Now she sits in dock out at Long Beach to die the slow and painful death that so many other great California attractions have suffered. (Note Belmont Park in San Diego, CA.)

Where once was, as recently as ten years ago, a bustling, thriving, tourist attraction, now  a ghost town exists. The shopping and dining that at one time had all its shops running, selling everything from miniature Queen Mary models, to clothing with the Queen Mary logo attached is now a current day ghost town.  All the shops are boarded up and as a matter of fact the gate to the shopping area appears to be permanently stuck half open.

Mean while the poor lady sits quietly as her bilge pumps work franticly to try and keep the water from rotting her hull away completely. As I walk along her decks I can almost hear all the famous people like Laurel and Hardy or Bob Hope dancing and partying. Now all I here is her creaks as she lists ever so slightly to port.  I remember a time not so long ago when there where people on every deck open to the public. There where, as I recall, at least three different cafés on the different decks and they were all bustling with people. Now there is one snack shop and it sells food that looks suspiciously as if it where heated in a microwave rather than cooked in the Queen Mary’s gigantic galley. 

One would think that with such wide scale degradation of her infrastructure and almost no customer service that the management company tasked with setting a fair entrance fee would understand that the people of this generation aren’t willing to throw away their hard earned money as quickly as they have in the past.  All this to say their prices are as high as they were in the old Lady’s hay day.

After first parking almost a block and a half from our destination, then walking forever across empty (reserved) parking spaces I am confronted with the fact that it will cost over ninety dollars to get myself and my three children in to see the old lady. I should have become suspicious when I saw the hand written sign that said, “All sales final. No Refunds.” Or when I inquired what kind of discount they offered for triple A and the lady behind the bulletproof glass only laughed and said, “None”. Undaunted I pay the required booty and head over to the elevator to start our self guided tour. The elevator doors we wait at never open. Eventually another elevator door opens up and we climb aboard. It takes us to the second floor.  We need to go up a flight of stairs from there, along a walkway, down a flight of stairs and into the room that is supposed to be the start of our tour. As we cross the walkway from dry land to the “Queen Mary” I get the feeling that the gangplank is way beyond its allowed life.  Entering the Queen we are supposed to be greeted by a purser who can give us our equipment so that we can listen at different spots around the ship. We see him off to the side inside what looks like a janitor’s closet. He smiles and waves us over. We step up to the half door and he says, “Welcome to the Queen Mary.” I think to myself, well this is a good sign. At least he knows where he is. Quickly the gentleman goes on to dash my hopes by saying, “I can give you these recorded tour radios, but they won’t be of much help.” Reluctantly Andrew takes one pair. They didn’t help at all. After touring this room and reading all the interesting information on the walls I am cautiously optimistic about our experience here.   When I realize that we now have to leave this room and backtrack up the flight of stairs that we just descended to enter this room I’m less optimistic.

Imagine my chagrin when I realize the self guided tour then goes on an escalator that climbs up three flights. Oh did I mention the escalators where all turned off. Yes we had to climb up the escalator all three flights. As we climb the outside of what would be a ten story building I keep thinking why exactly are we doing this?

With the wind blowing our hair back and the escalator actually swaying a bit we finally reach the top. I’m so winded from the climb and determined not to let this thing get the best of me I don’t even notice the walkway from the escalator landing to the ship until I’ve walked about half way out on to it. Hearing a creaking and cracking sound I look down and freeze in my tracks. There in front of me is a whole about four inches in diameter. I’m standing there gripping the rail and looking straight down the side of the ship to the water sloshing against its rusty bulkhead. I realize the cracking sound is the plywood I’m walking on cracking under my weight. Quickly I scurry of the walkway as I encourage my kids to do the same as calmly as I can.  I’m so winded and my heart is racing so fast all I can do then is plop down on the nearest seat and try to catch my breath.

We tour the upper decks for a bit but instead of it giving us a sense of the past all we feel is a sort of sadness for all of the old lady’s once grandeur now gone forever. Everywhere we look we can see signs that there was at one time resplended beauty but now all that is left is a broken hull and rusty decks. The few shops left within the Queen are stuffy and way overpriced. One would think with so few clientele to draw from, the few remaining purveyors would be going out of their way to get us to enter their shops and per chance part with some of our hard earned coin. On the contrary most of the shop owners we encounter have a sour look to their faces and an attitude of superiority that speaks volumes as to why this poor old lady is so crippled. The feeling I get when I enter one shop is almost as if I don’t have a right to be there. As if I don’t belong to some unspoken, secret club and when I leave the counters will immediately need to be cleaned. The one shop owner that does greet us and welcome us aboard has prices that are so outlandish I can’t imagine anyone purchasing anything from them. For example Phillip inquired as to the price of a new memory chip for his camera. He was informed it would cost at least sixty dollars for a two gig memory chip. Do these people think we are actually at sea? I purchased a four gig memory chip later that night for $19.99 from a Best Buy close to our hotel.

All told we spend about an hour and a half aboard the Queen Mary. During that time nothing there changes my mind concerning the cost/fun ratio. Even if you factor in the history lesson (for children) that can be learned by touring such a place as this, I find it very hard to justify spending so much money on what is in effect a falling down decrepit old hotel that, if it were on dry land, would probably be condemned. The final blow came when we were attempting to leave and we were informed that we must pay twelve dollars for the privilege of parking in their unsupervised, non-secured, pothole infested parking area that was completely devoid of any signage directing their guests as to the shortest way to the attraction.

In short -I would have to say, as sad as it is to say, don’t spend your time hunting this “used to be” attraction. I think this old lady deserves to die in peace.

The La Brea Tar Pits

A Good Way to End the Day!

The rest of our day was spent at the Page Museum (Le Brea Tar pits). Suffice to say it was a vast improvement on the first part of the day. The cost was reasonable, (including parking about twenty dollars for the whole family.) The people where pleasant. Even the parking attendant. The actual exhibit was enjoyable. I would recommend visiting this place to anyone who posses even a minor interest in paleontology. For those of you who don’t know what this museum is, it is a real tar pit chocked full of bones from animals from the ice age on to the mid eighteen hundreds. Animals are attracted to the water that pools on top of the tar pits then get stuck. Predatory animals then attack the bleating animals and many times they too get stuck in the pits. In the museum you can watch real paleontologists at work delicately extracting and cataloging the many diverse bones that have been excavated.

If I had it to do again I would skip the Queen Mary and head straight for the tar pits especially considering that it took over an hour and a half to travel thirty six miles back to the hotel that evening through Los Angeles.

Thank you for taking the time to read our blog. Be sure to visit our main site to see all the photos we have uploaded.

Matt…

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11. June 2009 by Matt.

And So It begins!!

 Wow these last three days have gone by so fast. We started out in Goodyear early Sunday. The car was packed with everything except the kitchen sink. We stopped to get a quick fill up of fuel for both ourselves and the car, and away we went. Of course not one hour into the trip I hear the infamous “Dad I need to go to the bathroom.” After a frantic few minutes we spot the sign that says “Rest stop six miles.” A quick stop for everyone to freshen up and we’re off again.  About three hundred fifty miles, two more rest stops, and six hours later we pull into Downtown Disney. Every time I traverse that part of the world I am amazed at the endless miles of desolate land. I’m just as amazed by the ingenuity of Americans driven to improve things (and make a buck as well).

Once arriving at Downtown Disney, of course the first thing I hear from the back seat is “Dad I need to go to the bathroom again.”  After navigating through traffic I pull up to the curb so Phil and Andrew can jump out and hurry off to the restroom.  We spend the afternoon texting friends and casually poking around all the different shops. Can you believe a two story “Build a Bear” store?  After settling in at our hotel “Disney’s Grand Californian” we spend the afternoon playing at the pool and kinda resting up for the coming two days.

The next two days are a bit of a blur. We rise early in the morning and head off to enjoy ourselves at the park. Grandpa met us at the entrance on the first day and he spent the time with us running around with Alexis and Phillip hitting every roller coaster at least once. Andrew, Elizabeth and I, being a bit saner, casually strolled from ride to ride occasionally meeting up with the “three amigos” for a meal or to ride a ride together. Andrew especially liked riding on Indiana Jones, and he had a blast on Pirates of the Caribbean.  Each day spent at the park was longer than twelve hours, so it was a relief to just spend today (Wednesday) strolling around South Coast Plaza (A huge Mall here in Orange County) and meeting Grandma and Grandpa for lunch. Tomorrow we plan on visiting The Queen Marry and maybe visiting the Le Brea Tar Pits. From there it’s on to the Sequoia National Forest but that’s another tale completely. 

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