cali road trip: part 1

everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in,
where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.
~ john muir 

for years i've been wanting to visit muir woods and see
the giant redwoods i had read about and seen photos of.
with two growing boys who are past napping, love the outdoors
can hike a few miles, and with a new niece in berkeley, c and i
decided it was time to head north.  

originally c wanted to rent an rv and drive it up the coast,
but after seeing the sticker price for that {and being reminded
we have a fixer home that still needs lots of 'fixing}, he decided
to forgo it and rent a practical mini van instead. 
i was grateful as i didn't want to drive the 'beast' {rv},
especially on narrow and windy roads. it would be challenging.

because c has more vacation time than me, 
the trip up california's coast was just 'the boys'.
i joined them 4 days later when we met in Berkeley.

i learned they had been having all kinds of adventures....stopping in new cities along the way to visit museums,
discovering new beaches and doing some hiking. 

their dad even introduced them to ihop one evening and they
had breakfast for dinner....something we love doing.
the boys were in heaven. they even left me a long voice message
telling me all about what they ate and i refuse to delete it.  

finn and scout discover ihop

a few days into their trip, i flew into oakland to spend
 2 days with my sister leslie and meet my new niece!
{aria gets her own post}

leslie and i went into the city the afternoon i arrived,
walked around beautiful golden gate park and then had
dinner at a yummy café in a cute pocket somewhere in the city.
the food was so yummy.  i ate a salad big enough for 3 and she
ate a hamburger as big as her head. seriously...I don't know where
my petite sisters stored it. {if she gives permission i'll post}. 

that evening we stayed at a hotel and did some shopping the
following morning.  later the boys showed up and we headed
to marin county to visit the muir woods. 

words.can't.describe.it.
it was SPECTACULAR! 
even the best of pictures could never do it justice.
one has to be there to fully appreciate the grandeur and beauty.
i'd never seen anything like it my entire life.

i remember feeling in awe at the first site of the grand canyon.
these giant coastal redwoods were even more impressive to me. 
as we all walked along, stopping to read the plaques commemorating
those who took the first steps to have those acres of forests protected all
those years ago, i was humbled and so grateful. 

we hiked for a few hours and then went back to the hotel.
i had learned weeks earlier, all the campgrounds close by
were completely booked {no complaints by the adults},
as a hotel is sometimes nice break between the dirt.
when the boys started to grumble, i reminded them we had
reservations at another campground, near santa cruz for
later in the week when their cousins would join us.

muir woods - if you haven't ever been, go.
you'll be glad you went.