Redding Day One

So, out of Big Sur, we continued north on the one and then headed inland to go further north to Redding. We stopped to buy some strawberries at one of the farms on our way and found an artichoke truck...you know, the food trucks that just sit on the side of the road selling a variety of yummy badness. This truck was selling fried artichoke hearts so we decided to give it a go. As with anything fried, it tasted much more like grease than the original food item so we were a bit disappointed, although I am not sure why. :-) The girls happily ate strawberries...

We had one day at Nana's before my sister and family were set to arrive so we set about helping Nana pull up the remains of her garden. (The temperatures, which had been over 100, had suddenly taken a dip and were not predicted to rise again, plus we needed to plant grass before the real rain appeared for the season.).  These were her pumpkins...huge!

One of the first things we did once the cousins arrived was to go grocery shopping and stop in on Great-Grandma.

We tried to swim, but it was just entirely too cold.  They stayed in for a little while but that was it.

Then we piled them in towels and set them in the sun.

So my sister's kids are Megan (closest to you) and Audrey.  They are seven and five.

We also found a huge vine of concord grapes growing on our property!  This place is full of treasures still undiscovered!  Now we just need to figure out how to train it to grow down where we can pick the grapes.

One of our first hikes, which is quite close to our house, was down a path towards a small dam a man made during the gold rush.  First we came across a cleaning house (where they removed all the debris from the water).  The interesting thing is that most of the equipment is still there, just left after the gold rush.

Walking with girls...it's a different world.

A sluice...something used to control the flow of water.

...or small children.

As you can see, this operation was quite extensive.

They even cut a tunnel through the rock.

I know it doesn't look like much to dam up, but this is the lowest water level of the year and when you see it this low, you understand why they felt the need to dam up the winter rain fall.

What is left of the dam.

Just because it is pretty.

So I am standing near the dam where the water would have been diverted through the trough and down.

It was a pretty neat hike and the girls were thrilled to have so much to see along the way!

Hiking Big Sur

Day three in Big Sur had us headed out on another day full of hiking and being outside. Our first hike took us from the rivers to the sea. Yes, just like the song.

At some point the girls started holding hands.  I don't know what prompted it, whether Em was scared or they just needed to hold someone's hand, but regardless, it was adorable!  They actually hiked this way for quite some time, carrying on some conversation all their own, and just being little girls on a hike to the beach.

When we got to the beach, it was all rocks.  So much so that there wasn't actually any sand there at all and the waves made the crackling sound made famous by Pebble Beach (the sound of rocks banging as they roll over each other while the wave moves back out to sea).  Then when the beach ended at a rock cliff, we decided the hike was over for the girls.  It took a while to get them into the water so I asked the girls what they thought the rock cliff felt like.  Once they were in, they were good.  :-)

The creek is the river behind them finally making it into the ocean.

M went on and hiked the cliffs and took a few pics while he was up there.  We are the teeny tiny people in the picture at the bottom left.  The river is the area that looks like a lagoon and the Pacific Ocean is the body of water at the bottom of the picture.  We hiked in from the brown to the green and across the 'beach' created by the land between them.

M even found a pink sand beach.  The girls would have loved it but he said he didn't mention it because all he could see was sure-footed Em falling off the side of a cliff to get there.  Oh well.  It really is beautiful up there, but it's a rustic, rough beauty and you have to appreciate it for what it is and the raw power it expresses.  On the one hand, the waves relentlessly pound on the cliffs, seemingly turning them into pebbles. Yet in many areas, the cliffs remain, standing firm against the onslaught day after day.  I love it.

Just looking down the coast.  I guess we missed the beach by one cove.

Since we couldn't play in the sand or the waves, I taught the girls how to build 'rock castles' as we called them.  Em is just starting one and there is a semi-completed one next to her.

Then Em tore apart her rock castle so she could make swords out of all the sticks and fight Dad.

K made her own fire with a castle entrance.

Did I mention sword fighting?

After lunch, we hiked back out and went into an area full of redwoods.  This is the beauty of Big Sur - in a couple miles (so within the same hike if you do not have small children) you can move from giant redwoods to the ocean, forest to the beach, all right at your fingertips.  We camped in the redwoods and hiked to the beaches.

We decided to throw the girls in the packs and do one more hike...a hike which I did not research and well, one Dad would not appreciate.  It turned out that it went straight up the side of a hill and straight down into the river gorge on the other side.  It was steep.  K thought it was great.

I knew they said the falls were more of a trickle this time of year ("sadly underwhelming" was how they put it) and since I am from SoCal where most falls completely dry up every year, I know what that means, but I pushed us anyway.  So, after all that work, well, this was our reward.  AND since it was an up and down, we got to look forward to doing all the same amount of work headed back.  This is why I normally do so much research before we go places.  :-)

After showers, the girls sat by the fire while we cooked dinner...wood fired steaks, potatoes and carrots, with grapes on the side.  The girls decided to share a chair and a coloring board and not fight about it.  It was as if all the stars aligned!

On this night, we got to fall asleep to a church group across the river singing praise and worship songs.  When I saw all the cars collecting, I cringed inside.  When I heard the familiar tunes, I rejoiced and fell asleep worshipping with them!

God Bless!

Big Sur Stage One

Well, we made it back. I did not post simply because my parent's internet is so slow that that last post took almost an hour and a half just to upload the pictures and I don't have the patience for that. So, we will do what I always do and catch you up over the course of the next week or two. :-)

After the Madonna Inn, we headed north on Highway 1 or the Pacific Coast Highway. This is the famous Bixby bridge, one of the tallest concrete bridges in the world and one of the most photographed in the world...probably because there is a nice turn out on the highway just for pictures. :-)

This route took us to Big Sur where we were to camp for three nights.  Our camp had a very large playground, which was welcome relief for quick bursts of time.

As you can see, our resident climber quickly made it to the top of the most dangerous, frightening apparatus in the entire area.  Yes, that is K at the top and that is M down lower...gives you an idea of the height.

Our campsite was right next to the river, well, stream this time of the year.

It's hard to tell, but Em has quite the sweet tooth, just like her Daddy.

We brought a second tent so we would have a place to put all the food and clothes and a place to eat if it rained...it turned into a nice place for the girls to play as the evenings and mornings were quite cool.  It is hard to see since I took the photo through the screen, but in there is squinkie land.

Did I mention mornings were cool?  The irony was that just after they asked for the blanket, the Canadians next door got out of their tent and were walking around in shorts and sweatshirts!  :-)

So, before we even left, I showed K pictures of the places we were headed, and she became convinced there was hidden treasure at the waterfall (thank you Disney).  I told her there wasn't one there still but if we wanted to make one, we could search for it.  She was thrilled and so we did.  Thankfully the dollar store is my best friend and I will be quite sad when its treasures no longer thrill the girls!

So this was K's first map...she was talking herself through it like a seasoned pro.  That is thanks to Curious George.  I sound like a TV junkie.  We are not, but they remember everything they see.

Finding the treasure box for the first time.  (We hid it several more times over the next few days.  We had a few presents - once it was two oreos - and we created increasingly complex maps and harder hiding places).

Ok, yeah, some of the stuff they already owned.  I raided their dress up before we left and added a few gold pieces from the dollar store.

Our first day out we went on a hike down to this 'beach'.  Sometimes there are hidden gems around a bend, we went to find out.

We got to go through this old tunnel to the cove.  It was used as a port in prohibition days.

The river flowing into the sea.  No hidden beaches around these corners.  Still a neat hike, but time to move on.

So it was off down the coast a little farther to McWey falls.

The cove from our parking spot.

You know these falls...the one that falls directly into the ocean, well, it used to, until a landslide put so much sediment into the ocean that a new beach formed and now the water falls directly onto the beach.  The falls are the tiny stream of water on the left...

Because of the shadows and mist, this was the best pic of the falls.  If you are ever headed up there, go in the afternoon for the best pictures. And since you aren't allowed to hike down to the beach, this is as close as you will get.  I was happy since I just wanted to see it but the girls were sad because they wanted to walk under the falls.

Down the coast the other way.  The lady who owned the house here had this view out her living room and the falls out her bedroom.  It's a rough life.

The girls made both those hikes on their own so not wanting to tire them of hiking on the first day, we went back to the camp and played in the freezing cold river for a while.

This campground was so high class, it had showers that were clean enough you were actually willing to shower in them...AND they had warm water.  Oh, free coffee and tea all day long too.  Never have I camped like this.  There wasn't a bit of cell phone service so they even provided old-school pay phones for those in need.

The next morning we made the works for breakfast.  While Dad made bacon on the fire, I made pancakes with chocolate chips over the camp stove (yes, a single serve size) and then when they were all done, eggs, for those not allergic. It was quite a yummy breakfast if I do say so myself.

This was taken with M's iphone panorama mode.  Now you can see our whole set up.  The sleeping tent in the bottom left is ours.  The bonus room, where the girls are playing, is our friends' tent.  I am watching carefully while the remaining bacon cooks to completion and I finish my hot cocoa before we head out for the day.

Well, that is enough for tonight.  All this is doing is making me wish we had camped for a week straight.  I already miss it!  So simple.  To bed early, up even earlier, camp fires, hiking, eating simple foods, hiking, playing at the beach, treasure hunts, squinkies, showers, and smores...always something to do but never in a rush.