Last Sunday we drove from Newport Beach to San Francisco. What a beautiful city! After we checked into our hotel, we drove to the Golden Gate Bridge. It was stunning! As the sun went down, we drove into the city to find "The Painted Ladies" which the kids wanted to see since it is shown so often as the Tanner residence in Full House. While there, we got to talk to Megan who completed our "count off" and made us feel whole for the only time on the trip. We miss that gal!

On Monday we drove across the Golden Gate Bridge and headed north to the Redwoods! We drove all through The Avenue of the Giants in the afternoon. We got to see the drive-thru tree and lots of other fun gimmicky stuff. We also stopped in one of several groves and just looked up, dwarfed by the majesty of these incredible trees. By the end of the day, everyone (except Ben) owned a new Redwoods sweatshirt (because they forgot to pack a sweatshirt!) and we arrived at our campground in time to put up the tent and walk by the ocean before being lulled to sleep by the pounding of the waves.

Ben spent a solid ten minutes laughing in front of this mirror!

Gold Bluffs Beach Campground

On Tuesday, we awoke to a foggy world but we still enjoyed the beach for a while in the morning and then headed out for some hikes. We hiked Fern Valley and Lady Bird Johnson Grove and the Big Tree and every time we entered the paths into these forests we felt like we had entered lands of myth and magic. There just isn't an ugly spot in all of Redwood National Park! Such beauty everywhere we looked. We ended the day back at the campground with s'mores.

On Wednesday, after some time at the beach, we went further up the coast following the 101 through forests into Crescent City and then into Oregon (so we could all say we'd been there!). The lighthouse tour was closed because you can only get there at low tide which is only an hour a day. Hello? But we saw it and took pictures anyway. We roasted hot dogs over the fire for dinner on this night and after the last of the s'mores, spent our most time on the beach. We were told it was too dangerous to swim (although the kids certainly wanted to, cold or not!), but we found lots of beautiful rocks and the sand made for great city building and we even met a seal who came up on shore each night to sleep. (Wub wub wub). We loved our beach.

The lighthouse was on the island behind us.

Playground in Crescent City

Making "Os" for Oregon.

Coastal Highway

Our Seal, "Wub-wub"

On Thursday, we packed up and headed inland. Halfway home was Lake Tahoe and we had a reservation at a campground nearby. We took some beautiful roads but it was mostly just a long day of driving. It's a good thing we had Harry Potter to get us through! We listened to and finished Goblet of Fire during all these long days of driving. Ben may have liked it best of all.

Tahoe Donner Campground

On Friday, we drove to Donner Lake and went to the Donner Memorial Museum. What a sad, sad story. On the upside, I decided no matter how many things I forget to pack or don't plan for adequately, I will never do as poorly as the Donner party! Poor people. Afterward, we dove over to Lake Tahoe so we could put our feet in and let the kids swim for a bit. The crowds were CRAZY. There were so many people there. But we did get a parking spot in Lake Tahoe City and we walked around the shops, enjoyed the view, and had some pizza. Fun times!

Kevin made us pancakes every morning we camped!

The snow was as deep as this plinth!

This is a BIG lake!

On Saturday, we had to get up extra early to pack up camp and then head to Sacramento. My niece, Emily got married in the Sacramento temple that morning! We were so happy to be there and to see my sister, Maggie, and her family and Grandma and Grandpa and feel the sweet spirit of the day. They provided a yummy lunch under the trees at the park across the parking lot. We hugged everyone one last time and decided to drive all ten hours in one last push to get home to our own beds. It was a great trip!