Oregon Trip - Oregon / Cape Blanco Lighthouse

June 9, 2014

We left Crescent City, and within 15 min we reached Oregon.  Our long anticipated  trip to Oregon and we finally made it, well to Oregon, but we had 6 hours up the coast to the "Beach House".

 At the California/Oregon Border I taught Alex how to jump states.  He thought it was so cool to to be in 2 different states at one time.

Cape Blanco Lighthouse

We stopped at another lighthouse.  This one is working and it was the only one that you could actually go up inside the tower.  Zach had been driving and I was in the back seat. We had just drove on some winding roads.  When we got there I opened the sliding door and bailed out before I lost it.  I hate that I get car sick so easy.  I know Zach hates it even more.  Sorry love.  Thanks for putting up with me.

I couldn't believe the wind here.  Zach could literally let go of Jayden's stroller and the wind was pushing it up the cement hill.  It took my breath away.  I think I was really white in color, because Janet asked me if I was okay as soon as we stepped into the gift shop.  The gentleman at the gift shop described the wind as, "Just a lite Gale".  We had no idea what that meant until we read the wind book up in the lighthouse.  It was 40 mile/hr winds.  

Inside the Lighthouse, I had to talk Alex into going up to the top.  He is deathly afraid of heights, and since he could see down, even though he was on a staircase with a rail, he was so, so nervous.  He and Jayden stayed at the bottom with Janet and Debbie, while Zach and I took the girls up.

 This is the huge light up in top.  I always though it was a large bulb that flashed on and off.  Actually it is this big glass light that rotates in circles, and when your eyes meet up exactly with one of the 6 sides you see the light.  It never actually flashes.

 Madi was a little nervous to be up so high.  She didn't want to stay up very long.

 I made her stay as long as possible because the view was amazing.  This was the tallest light house on the oregon coast and because of that the light can be seen 22 miles out to see.  This is the horizon (Curvature of the earth).  Something cool we never knew.

After we got down I  talked Alex into going up with Aunt Debbie.  I knew he would do better without Zach and I with him to cry to.  Grandma Janet said he was just shaking when he was up top, but he said he thought it was pretty cool. I knew he would like it, and I didn't want him to miss out.

Panoramic View from up top the lighthouse.

These are the large barrels that they kept the fuel in when the lighthouse was first built.  

 A cool view from the bottom of the staircase.

We learned so much about lighthouses, and how they worked and operated today, and back when they were first built.  We really did enjoy it.  Oh, it took 200,000 bricks (Which they made by hand) to build this lighthouse.  (Just a little extra info.)

At the gift shop we bought our Cape Blanco Lighthouse magnet, and Aunt Debbie bought us a figurine of the lighthouse for our anniversary.  She's too nice, and I love it.

Before we left, of course Alex and Madi needed to go the bathroom.  I took Alex over to the weeds, which was easy and he left his butt clothed.  Madi, on the other hand . . . I pulled her pants down and was getting ready to lift her feet up, but because of the cold wind, she couldn't hold it and peed all over herself.  I was so upset, and I had to practically unpack the back of the van to get to her suitcase.  I was upset, but looking back on it, I shouldn't have been.  We cleaned her up, and I asked Zach if I could drive since I had gotten woozy.  Off we went.  What's next . . . Lunch. Yes.

Oregon Trip - Crescent City, CA

June 8, 2014

After being in the beautiful Redwoods all day, we were starved.  We said good bye to Paul Bunyan and headed North again to Crescent City, CA.  Now we had heard that this city really was a "hole" and that there was nothing in Crescent City, but we actually really liked it.
We decided to try out Trip Advisor, as Grandma had heard great things about it.  I pulled up recommended restaurants in Crescent City, and this little place little place came up #4, with great reviews.  We passed by its location twice trying to find it.

Now this little Mexican Restaurant was not very big at all.  It's by no means fancy, and that's okay.  They had great customer service and all 10 of us had our food in 15 min tops!! Not only that, the entrees were HUGE!!! Price was amazing for how much food was on each of our plates.  Granted we were really hungry, and maybe that is why it was so yummy, but I would eat here in again in a heartbeat.  

I ordered a cream soda.  It came in a bottle with a bottle cap.  When they brought it to me, one of my kids (Can't remember which one) asked, "Who ordered Beer?"  We all got a good laugh.

After dinner we headed to the hotel to do what . . . Swim of course!!  My kids love to go swimming, and so do my kids.  We stayed at the Ocean Front Lodge.  It sat right on the beach, and our room window opened to the ocean.  It was so nice.  There is something about the ocean and the waves that is calming.  Loved it.  This place was by far the fanciest place we stayed. Grandpa, Grandma, Scott and Debbie all came down to the pool. (They didn't swim), but it was nice to have some fun with the kids.  Jayden even had some fun.  That boy loves water, unless it's a shower.

After swimming as the kids were tuckering out, Zach went for a little walk down to the beach.  I sent him to pick up some H2O from the van too.  Well he enjoyed the beach, ocean and moon so much he forgot the water. DARN, guess I get to go outside too.  YAY!!  Lyndee and I walked around the hotel and picked up the water.  By this time it was super late, dark, and I didn't want to be too far from comfortable by ourselves.  Back to the room we went.

The next morning Zach was up early and went and enjoyed breakfast with his dad in peace and quiet. JEALOUS!!!  He was good to help feed the kids, so I could get me some breakfast.  It really was a good breakfast. 

When we were all ready, we checked out and went to see the lighthouse right by our hotel, ok just down the street.  You can only get to this lighthouse when the tide is down, because when it's high tide, the lighthouse is sitting on its own little island.  We couldn't get to it without going through about 1 1/2 feet of water.  Since we had the kids with us we just rummaged through the rocky beach for finds, enjoyed the wind, and played a little on the Jetty.

 Since the sign says the jetty is unsafe, what do we do? 

We play on the Jetty.  Really we weren't to worried.  The tide was still low, plus I didn't let them wander out past the second Danger sign.

Miss Madi trying to avoid the wind up top Grandpa's Shoulders.  It was pretty chilly with the cool air, and the wind.  Still enjoyable.

When we were loading up in our cars to head to "The Beach House" we noticed that the 2 suburbans parked next to us were both from Utah.  They braved the water and went to the lighthouse.  Janet called their suburbans Big Morman Movers.

Off we headed to Lincoln City Oregon.

Oregon Trip - The Redwoods

A lighthouse on the Coast

After leaving Eureka, driving North up the coast toward the Redwoods, Curt decided he really needed gas. We pulled into the station behind him and waited.  He had to pay $4.50/gallon.  So much for finding it cheaper somewhere else.  HA HA!
While in this little town, we stopped to see a light house.  Curt and Janet love light houses, and really wanted to see everyone up the coast all the way up Oregon.  The view was Amazing. I loved it.  We got a few pictures.

Uncle Scott, Lyndee, and Alex

 About the Lighthouse

Panoramic Picture

 Madi was a little tired.

Then the kids and I decided to venture down the stairs toward the beach.  Aunt Debbie went before we did and came back after the first 20 steps, because it was really steep.  There were quite a few trees, so we had no idea how far down the beach really was.
Zach didn't want to come, so he stayed up top with Madi and Jayden. Grandma started the venture with us, but turned back as well.  These pictures were taken about 20 feet up above the beach.  I didn't want sand in our shoes while walking through the Redwoods.

On our way back up to the lighthouse, I had the kids count all the steps.  I had to stop 2 times on the way up.  It really was steep, and some of the steps were 2 feet up, and some were a bunch of little steps.  It really was more like hiking then stairs.  When we reached the top there were 189 steps. WHAT? No wonder I was tired.  Good thing the beach house only has 90 steps to the beach.

Lady Bird Johnson Grove - Redwoods

We next headed to the Redwoods.  We stopped in Lady Bird Johnson Grove.  This grove was preserved, because she hated to see the redwoods cut down by logging companies. Beautiful Area.

There were 13 trees of interest on our trail walk.  Aunt Debbie had the trail map and informed us about each of them.  Some really cool things.

 Jayden was enjoying  this Grove as much as we were.

So tall, the pictures don't do it justice.

 Look at the moss all over the trees.  It's hanging from all the branches.

 Madi was determined to find each of the numbers before anyone else. These marked the spots for really interesting trees to look at.

 Zach hates having his picture taken, so I get it anytime I can.  Love you Z!

 Lyndee is almost standing on Zach shoulders to peer through this tree.  It's Big.

 Grandma soaking up the sun, in a Grove full of shade. Really not much bright sun gets through.

 This big tree in comparison to Uncle Scott, Zach and Alex

 This tree has a whole another tree growing right from one of it's branches.  Look Close.

 Madi being her silly self.

 We got all the kids up on top of a fallen tree.  If you look close you'll even see Zach holding Jayden up.

 Grandma and Grandpa trying to figure out their technology.

 Little Man was so happy to have sticks to play with.  He was banging them together, whacking us with them if we were close enough.  He was having a blast.

 Miss Madi by one of the biggest trees in the grove.

We spent a few hours in the grove taking in and loving the beauties of Gods Creations.  It made it even more spiritual that we were there on a Sunday.

We really did get some really cool pictures, they just weren't on my phone.  I even climbed up to trees  and had one leg on one, and one on the other.  My family crawled beneath me for a picture. Again not on my phone.  I hope I get a copy of it sometime.

Trees of Mystery - Redwoods

After driving through a bunch of the Redwood Forest we headed to the Trees of Mystery.  This was really fun for the kids.

The kids thought Paul Bunyan was cool.  Before we got started they were talking to him asking him all kinds of questions.  (He talks back) We found out his wife's name is Betty Lou Bunyan, and he told us how tall she is, but I can't remember what he said.  

 Babe his Blue Ox.

 Even Jayden was enjoying him.

We headed up the trail, and the first couple of trees were really cool.  Both of the next 2 pictures are of trees that have branches that grow tower the sunlight.  In doing this they have some really cool shaped branches.

 If you look close you'll see Aunt Debbie and Uncle Scott.

 The next 3 pictures are of the Brotherhood Tree.  This tree was 19ft. in diameter. Sheesh!!

One thing we were most excited for was the gondola Ride to the top of the mountain.  Our family got in one, and Curt, Janet, Debbie and Scott were in another.  We climbed up the mountain quite a ways, the views up top were awesome. (I know I say that a lot, but they were.)

This is a view from inside the Gondola.

 This one too.

 We were up top the viewing platform at the top of the Gondola Ride.  They provided Binoculars for everyone share.  

 You can see the ocean from clear up here.

On the ride back down the mountain we let Jayden out of his stroller.  Alex was petrified that he was going to fall through the glass to his death.  Zach started teasing Alex that he was going to start jumping up and down.  All the kids FREAKED OUT!  It really is funny that Zach would scare his kids like that when he himself is terrified of heights.  The kids were happy to be back on the ground after that.  Way to go Z.

 This is the candle abrah tree.  See all the trees growing out of a single branch of another tree. COOL.

 The second half the the Tree of Mystery Trail had the life story of Paul Bunyan and friends carved out of Redwood Trees.  We only got a few pictures.

A few of the larger carvings really scared little Jayden.  When he gets nervous, but he knows what your doing is funny, he has this funny scared laugh.

At the end of the trail we were by ourselves so I couldn't jump int he picture but we loved this carving.

This cut tree trunk that they are standing by had the dates listed above Zach head of how big the tree was at different points of history.  I can't remember all of them but one close to Zach was when Columbus came to the Americas.  What an old tree.  What I love about the Redwoods probably more than anything is knowing that some of the really big ones that have been around for a really long time, were here when Christ walked the Earth.  Now that truly is AMAZING!!!

When we finished the trail, it led us to the Gift shop.  Of course we needed to pick out a magnet or two from our trip.  We ended up getting 3. Two of the California Redwoods, and a Big Foot one for our stop the other day.  I really wanted a cute pair of earrings made from shells, but couldn't bring myself to pay $21 for them. Oh Well.

We had a great day in the Redwoods.  We missed a few things that I really wanted to see, but we'll have to save it for another trip.  

Off to our next and final stop of the night. Crescent City, CA.