South Jetty,OR 6/30-7/1/09

Above one of my favorite views along hwy 101 and below a collage of some of the unusual bridges we saw along the way.

Traveling highway 101 is always an experience. So many beautiful views. The drive today was slow but oh so pretty. The collage contains some of the spectacular views on the drive here.

It was very windy today and only got up to about 65 degrees.

I'm such an ocean lover that I just never tire of the many panoramic views.

After we got to the campground and got set up we drove to Honeyman State park to see the sand dunes and to look at one of the many lakes around here and then we drove out to South Jetty.
The girl below is sand surfing.

The picture below is a view of the beach from South Jetty.

This is one of the lakes we saw.

Tomorrow it is off to South Beach, OR where we will be spending July fourth.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:

No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of it for anyone else

Charles Dickens

Smith River, CA 6/27-6/29/09

This is the view that greeted us from the office of the campground in Smith River. The campground is Salmon Harbor RV resort and it is passport America participating. What's not to like?

Lee and Nicky checking out the view.

This is the walkway down to the beach.

The sea lions are very active in the water right in front of us. Nicky was fascinated with listening to them and it was a totally new scent to him so his nose never stopped twiching.

When Lee was a child of 6 his parents took him here and when we approached it on hwy 101 he wanted to stop. Below is a picture of Lee revisiting his childhood memory.

The pictures below were taken on the drive to Smith River from highway 101.

This was a restful stop. We enjoyed the scenery, watched the sea lions, took walks and played ball with Nick.

On Sunday we attended Calvary Chapel in the Redwoods. It was a lovely church, a warm congregation, and a very good message. After church , Lee worked on some things for the camper.

Today is Monday and I'm catching up wash and Lee is washing down the camper. We drove into Cresant City this morning to have some welding done on the tow dolly. This has been a nice respite.

TOMORROW IT'S OREGON!!!!!

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:

I don't want to get to the end of my life and find that I lived just the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well.

Diane Ackerman

Trinidad,CA 6/25/6/27/09

My friend, Jann DallaMura, suggested we stop in Trinidad on our way north. Boy, am I glad we did. We've only been here a day and 1/2 and we've seen so much I feel like we've been here a week. The above picture is the name of the campground we stayed in ( it is Good Sam participating). It is a 12 acre campground with 650 redwoods on those 12 acres. As you can imagine we are sandwiched between the redwoods. We have free WiFi and cable. There is,however, no AT&T cell phone connection here.

While driving out to Redwood National Park I was able to get these pictures of the Elk.

On our drive here we decided to leave hwy 101 and take a road that runs parallel to it called "The Avenue of the Giants". There were some spots that were a little tight for the RV but the drive was well worth the effort. We drove right through the Redwood forests and it was beautiful.

Below is one of the views along the way. It was a beautiful drive.

The following pictures were selected from about 55 pictures at least. The truth is no matter how many pictures you take you cannot capture the immensity and grandeur of these trees.

If I had not been standing in this tree, there is no way you would guess it's size.

After awhile your neck gets tired looking up to capture the height of these majestic trees.

This was taken on our drive through the "Avenue of the Giants". There were times it seemed like the RV would end up scrapping the side of one of these giants.

Here again, if Lee and Nicky were not in the picture you would not realize how big these trees are.

What's interesting about this picture is that I was standing inside the trunk of one of the Redwoods when I took it. It was a room inside the trunk about 5 foot by 5 foot. Of course, before I walked in there I took a peep to make sure it wasn't someone's home I was invading.

Jann, this is the little red school house you were talking about and yes, there is a campground behind it. It used to be an RPI park but no longer. We stopped in the store and gift shop there and had a piece of blackberry pie. It was just down from here that we saw another herd of Elk.

Those of you who know Nicky know that he loves the beach. He's had two great days there and tonight it collapsed on the sofa.

Breath-taking view isn't it? Everywhere you look it is gorgeous. Of course, you must remember that northern California is like Oregon. It's nice to look at but not something you swim in.

This is the lighthouse in the town of Tinidad, which has a population of about 300 people.
There is a walkway down to the beach in front of the lighthouse. A beautiful walk and workout.

My children all know my love of the ocean so they know I'm in 7th Heaven right now.

There is just so much to see and the time just goes by so fast.

Love to all the grandchildren !!

Willits, CA 6/23-6/25/09

In Willits we stayed at "Sleepy Hollow Park". It is a Passport America participating park. It was very small no amenities but nice because there was a nice grass area where Nicky could play ball.
We arrived about 10:30 AM on the 23rd. After setting up,we decided to go over to Mendocino and Fort Bragg. When we let Willits is was 93 degrees. Upon arrival at Mendocino it was about 65 degrees and windy. It was, however, very sunny and we were told it is usually overcast. A quaint beach town, with shoppes and eateries lining main street. Every establishment was adorned with beautiful flowers.

The views of the Pacific ocean were breath-taking. Wildflowers framed the seascapes. Not the kind of ocean you play in but so picturesque.

The drive from Willits over, route 20, had enough turns in it and switchbacks to make a person car sick even if they were not usually so.

The Mendocino main drag of town.

A Charming inn the heart of town.

The following day we stayed in the campground and caught up on wash and bathed Nicky. I also needed to do some grooming on Nicky. All in all it was a very nice 2 days.

View from the visitors center in the town of Mendocino.

Russian River,CA 6/21-6/23/09

Didn't arrive at the campground until about 6:30 PM. Set up in a pull through since we would only be spending 2 nights. Quiet campground with no amenities to speak of. No TV reception here but our Verizon air card for the computer worked up near the lodge.

After dinner I worked on editing pictures for the Mill Valley blog posting.

The following day we spent touring Lake Sonoma and the wine country. Lake Sonoma and dam were built by the Army corps of Engineers. It is a very beautiful lake with many fingers.

Cloverdale is the closest town to the campground. It's really quite charming. There are some lovely buildings there and check out the chimney on the house below!

A charming church along the main street of town.

Karen and Mac's Mill Valley, CA 6/5-6/22/09

We've seen some beautiful places, had a lot of great experiences but all that pales when I think of the joy it's been to spend time with our California family.Above is a picture of their new home in Mill Valley, CA.

Let me introduce you to the family: Below is Karen, our daughter. Doesn't she look like a California girl?

Mac, our son-in-law-- a wonderful husband, father, and Doctor. The dirty face came from a day of working in the back yard with Lee. He also turned out to be very good with the stump- grinder,

Next we have Mike -- the great pancake flipper!

Then there's Luke the ever ready battery- that just keeps going and going.

Below is Sporty, the beloved family dog a golden lab, who's obsessed with playing ball and getting lots of love.

This picture was taken from the inn where Mac and Karen were married.

Our first week-end there the boys and Mac were away so we spent a lot of time just catching up with Karen. We had a lovely breakfast out at a place called Mama's. We took the dogs on long walks and Karen showed us around the neighborhood.

After the crew returned we began to plan our projects. Lee would tear out and cut down all the over grown vegetation in the backyard. He would then put in 2 redwood tie landscape garden boxes and build a pathway over the culvert that runs the length of their backyard. We wanted to open up visibility to the lovely hill beyond. Everything is now prepared for replanting. Karen and Mac want to put in a vegetable garden, sod one section, and put in some fruit trees.

Below is a picture of the summit meeting that started the entire project.

The first week of the project Karen and I were Lee's laborers. We spent our days hauling things from the backyard down the hill in the front yard to the dumpster. We filled 2 20 yard dumpsters.

One Saturday all the boys worked in the backyard and Karen and I made sticky buns. It was great to spend time cooking with Karen. I was able to share with her some of my favorite dishes and I discovered that Karen is a great cook!

The picture above shows the 2 redwood tie garden boxes and the picture below shows what Mac refers to as the sole survivor of all the uprooting.

We did save the rose garden below. Once it is properly pruned and watered it will be beautiful.

The following week Karen and I got serious about our projects. Mac and Karen moved in last August and all the walls in the house were still white so Karen and I wanted to add color and personalize it. We started with the dining-room and picked a color called Thyme a real pretty sage color. It picks up the green in the oriental carpet in the room. The next day was spent taping the hallway, kitchen, family room. We painted those rooms Indian Corn a real nice gold shade. The final phase of our project was to paint the statement wall in the game room. We selected a paint that matched the pool table top. The colors are warm,colorful, and entirely washable--very important with 2 boys.

The pictures above are the rooms we painted.

Sunday we hiked up a near by mountain to the Mountain Play theater. The play we saw was "Man of La Mancha". The play was excellent and the music great. It's about a 2 1/2 hour hike up to the theater. The views along the way are phenomenal.

After a week at Karen's we were in good shape for the hike because they have a built in stair-master at their house. It is 28 steps up to the front door, 30 steps from the garage to the family room, and 26 to the second floor. So you see we were getting lots of exercise.

The trail to the theater was beautiful. You can see the trail in this picture as well as the views we experienced. Most of the time we were walking under a canopy of trees. The weather was perfect warm but not too warm. We had a nice picnic when we got to the top. After the play the walk back down was just as beautiful as the climb up.

Mac took Friday off and took us to the Delta to go out on the boat. The boys did some serious knee boarding and Mike, Karen and Mac did some surfing. Lee was able to get up and get about 3 minutes in before his elbow gave out. Those 3 minutes will be relived a thousand times over the next 30 years. It's a moment he won't forget.

Just before we left we attended a performance by the band that Mike and Luke are in. They played at 19 Broadway and I believe the name of the band is "Fire on the Mountain". Luke plays keyboard, Mike plays bass, Mike 's friend Tye plays lead guitar, Wes plays the drums and Cora sang for the group. Luke also had a vocal and did a great job. He has a really nice voice and I'm not just saying that because I'm his Nana. It was a great time and we thoroughly enjoyed every minute. After- ward we went out for a nice lunch. A good time was had by all.

The night before we left we went out for a lovely dinner with Mac and Karen in San Francisco. The drive in was beautiful.

My 2 beautiful boys at play

Sporty and Nicky became good friends. The boys and I referred to them as the two bad boys on the prowl.

Sporty had such a good time he jumped in the car to go with us.

I will treasure this time I've had with my California family and I'm sure I will visit my photos often.

I want you boys to remember that "NANA IS YOUR BIGGEST FAN'' !! I love you both very much. Karen I'll miss you terribly and Mac we love you dearly and are so glad you are part of our family.

Always be kind to one another and support one another in all you do. That's what being a family is all about. The world will always beat you down but home should be where you are built up. Love one another always.

I love you all

Good bye for now baby girl

Love, Mom

Thought for the day: the chief danger in life is that you may take too many precautions

Alfred Alder