Big Trees and Big Foot

As I said yesterday, we were a bit disappointed in Crescent City.  It reminded me of the movies "Mystic Pizza" or "The Last Picture Show".  A dead end town where there is one young person who longs to get out and all his or her friends are apparently content with their go nowhere jobs and their narrow perspectives.  But when we drove south on our way to San Francisco, we came upon a spectacularly beautiful beach with windsurfers and actual surfers and birds and vast stretches of pristine sand to play in.  It was hard to tear ourselves away once we found such an amazing spot.  We did, only to find a "vista" pull out a 1/2 mile away and then another and another.  It was so hard to get going when we wanted to stop every 5 minutes.  The scenery as you travel down the west coast of Oregon and California is really magnificent and we didn't regret any of our stops.

We did pull in to the "Trees of Mystery" spot, but didn't bother to pay our admission once the huge statue of Paul Bunyan started speaking.  We decided that we would rather see the redwoods without the narration of the "great lumberjack" and his ox.  We drove further south and found the National Park Visitor Centre, where a nice lady  advised us to drive along the Avenue of the Giants and she was very wise.  It was quiet and peaceful and the trees were magnificent.  They are enormous and huge and old and the most amazing thing -- they're alive!  There they are just growing away and living and not rushing around like all of us.  Anthony and William ran from tree to tree stretching out their arms to measure their circumference and looking up trying to see the tops (virtually impossible).  They ran along a fallen giant and disappeared into the forest.  As we watched them, Mike said, "I probably ran along this same tree when I was here".  And then both boys emerged from the "green, dark forest" with big smiles and stories to tell.  Again, we had to tear ourselves away and we decided not to drive through the "drive through" tree (California is the "drive through" capital of the United States).  We were seeing the day passing quickly and we needed to get to San Francisco sometime today.

William HAD to stop at the Bigfoot Emporium further down the road since he is convinced that Bigfoot is out there.  It was a glorious chance for him to revel in the mystery of the saskquatch and choose something memorable as a souvenir of the Big Trees.  Anthony bought a pocket knife and it came in handy later in the day to open Mike's beer and my bottle of wine.  Thanks, Anthony!

There are elk throughout the Redwood National Parks system and we saw two herds!  Yes, herds!  We stopped and photographed them grazing in a marsh right next to the pounding surf of the Pacific Ocean.  This is also the hawk capital of the West Coast.  They're soaring over every hill and every creek and every road. 

We rolled over the Golden Gate Bridge at about 7 into the fog and dragged our weary tourist selves up to our room at the Holiday Inn, right in the heart of downtown San Francisco.  It is COLD and windy here and we are pooped, but we must get up and at 'em well before 9 because our Alcatraz tour is on bright and early .  After Alcatraz, we're going to go to Fishermen's Wharf for lunch, and Mike has promised we'll work in City Lights Books (the home of the Beat generation and still owned and operated by Lawrence Ferlinghetti) since we missed it the last time we were here.  I think we'll spend the afternoon in Golden Gate Park.