Eureka or Bust!

Monday morning we planned to leave Eric and Jeannie's early and drive from Union City 242 miles north to Eureka on the 101 & then spend the next 2 days slowly exploring the Redwoods via the PCH. But before we crossed the San Rafael Bridge, Carlys took out one of her many maps and the plans began to change. Instead we turned off the 101 onto a very beautiful but windy highway through the wine country and some Redwood trees. Grandpa pulled over for a quick stop to see our first Redwoods.

Once we drove as far West as we could, Grumpaw let the boys off at the first beach we could find. It was pretty cold, but the boys were off to look for creatures and get wet anyway.

Next we tried to find a lighthouse. We made it to the parking lot and visitor's center, but we didn't want to make the mile hike to see the closed lighthouse. Instead the boys hung from the trees while we took a potty break.

This entire diversion was stemmed from our desire to find a beach at Fort Brag. Aunt Jeannie has the most beautiful collection of Sea Glass and this is where she was able to find most of it. We followed her directions carefully and all made our way down a mildly treacherous path until we found a beach covered in sea glass. We each collected a pocketful and then headed back to the car, in order to make it to the next town before nightfall.

After the very cool glass beach, we continued on a winding road that was very narrow and very lush. It was so green and beautiful and cool. My pictures out the window of the back seat don't really do it any justice.

Just before we were out of daylight, Grumpaw found a drive through tree. We were all very excited, until we realized our car would not fit.

Grumpaw tried several times, but just couldn't take the risk of the car getting stuck or scratched. So we gave up and walked though the tree instead.

We goofed around and took some fun pictures and went to the gift shop, but Derek was really unhappy about not driving through the tree.

A nice young couple in the store noticed Derek's despair and offered to drive us through the tree. The boys were very excited to finally drive through the tree. I was fine just taking the picture.

As we left, we saw a family of deer next to our car eating their dinner. The kids were all so excited to see the animals so close. Darkness was upon us and we still need to find a hotel, so we were really off for our last stop of the day. Although we traveled for 10 hours and went hundreds of miles, we made it no where near Eureka, but we had many fun adventures!