Thanksgiving in the Forest

Redwoods are breathtaking and frustrating all at the same time. You want to be able to capture the sheer magnitude of their size, and yet, it is almost impossible. They are just so massive. Our ideas of big trees are just little stems growing out the side of them. We went to this one tree called ‘The Big Tree’ and it’s diameter was 21 ft. Try and picture that. Some of the redwoods are big enough to drive through. We brought Annika and Kai to California back when I was pregnant with Soren, and they loved the redwood forest, and this time was no different. It is one of those things that everyone should see before they die because it reminds us of how big our God is.

The kids with the "Big Tree". Diameter = 21 ft.

Redwood National Park

View from INSIDE the redwood...still alive but burned out in the center.

We stopped off at a giant Paul Bunyan and Babe statue, which was so big that once Annika and Kai climbed up on Paul’s boot, they couldn’t get down. Babe’s  ‘manhood’ had lipstick marks on it.

The gateway to Redwood National Park is a city called Crescent City. We were very on guard in Crescent City because it has a disproportionate amount of sketchy people. In our research online we found out that a lot of sexual predators live in this area and you are supposed to watch your kids extremely carefully on playgrounds. So, when we headed into town to visit the playground and the beach, there was no sitting down on the bench and relaxing for Andy and I.

Andy is a big dude...so Paul really truly was a giant.

Babe's berries

However, we had a blast in Crescent City. We played in the tide pools on the beach (catching hermit crabs, finding starfish, avoiding the dead sea lion and birds that had washed up, etc.). Then we headed over to the harbor to see the alive sea lions. You were able to walk right out on the dock that they lay on, so we got close enough to touch them (but we didn’t).  The kids didn’t want to leave the beach/ocean because they were having so much fun playing on the rocks and watching the surfers.

Sea lions...close enough to be National Geographic.

Kai looks a little nervous.

California coast

The next day we headed East, across Northern California. We stopped in Redding to visit Turtle Bay Exploration Park. At turtle bay we enjoyed the reptiles, the aquarium, the museum and art gallery, the children’s garden, the gigantic bridge, and the turtle pond. There was lots to see so we spent hours there.  After Redding we headed into Lassen Volcanic Park and went spelunking. There is an old lava tunnel that we could hike through called the Subway Cave.  So we put our kids headlamps on, and headed underground. It was very cool (literally). They weren’t scared, we didn’t have any walls crumble in on us, and we learned lots about lava tubes and volcanoes. A good time was had by all.

Soren in his head lamp...hilarious.
Our little spelunkers.

Sawyer at Turtle Bay.

The beginning of the lava tube.

When we came out of the cave we had Thanksgiving dinner in the forest, and were reminded of how truly thankful we should be.  We ate turkey sandwiches (that counts, right?) on turkey plates. It was a wonderful time, but a little bittersweet not being with our big families.

After that we headed to Reno, NV for the night. We’ll let you know how gambling with 4 minors works out.

Happy Thanksgiving from the Wilson's!