It goes so fast

In the last several years, I have been so blessed to have wonderful adventures.  I have kayaked near Crater Lake, explored Europe, hiked in old growth, snowshoed.  I have seen some amazing things and taken a lot of photos.  But I don't know that I have ever seen anything as beautiful as Fern Canyon in the Redwoods.

I have read about Fern Canyon for years and always wanted to visit.  I am still giggling over my visit earlier today. After a long and VERY bumpy road, you get to this beautiful canyon of green. Hikers walk around as if in a daze, taking in the canyons on all sides.  There's a reason movies have been filmed there. 

Fern Canyon was the start to my day.  Then I went to Ladybird Johnson Grove, a beautiful old growth grove with a tribute to First Lady Johnson, who fought for the Redwoods. (backpack again for scale in photo below. Those darned trees are hard to capture.).

Then it was off to the fabulous town of Eureka, which has a crazy beautiful oldtown, this wonderful old mansion, a delightful waterfront and yes, another lighthouse! I think Eureka and Seaside, Oregon have been my favorite towns so far. And... since I realize I have not blogged the last couple of days, I started my "California portion" of the trip with a visit to the Jedediah Smith Redwoods Saturday, a kayaking trip on the Smith River Sunday, and more Redwoods yesterday. The kayaking trip was probably the toughest once I have done and at one point I went over MINI rapids (the MINI is to let people know I was safe.  -)).  It was sort of thrilling, as I usually  just tool around our little harbor at home.

Tomorrow I hit some really showy stuff and the "Avenue of the Giants". I am spending the next two nights in the lovely Scofield Lodge, very close to the Humboldt Redwoods, where I will be focused the next two days.

One final note: when I was hiking yesterday, I came upon a family. They had three kids, crazily the same age spread roughly as our three kids, and they were also girl, girl, boy.  The youngest was even named Will (and was riding in a backpack).  The middle one had a speech delay (Sorry, Lilly!) and the oldest one was quietly reading and then told me life had been easier until the siblings came long (Sorry, Emma).  After I said my goodbye, I felt pretty emotional. I remember my Dad visiting us once on the island. He went to swim lessons with us and at one point, he told me how fast it all went. He said, "Whenever I see a stressed Mom, I like to tell her it really does go fast and to appreciate it." I remember I joked, "Wow, Dad, I am sure they all love that."  But it is really bouncing around in my brain.  My Dad is gone, and he was so very right. You don't get a do-over. I hope we did enough magical things with the kids.  I hope we had adventures and enjoyed just being alive. I know we never went to the Redwoods with them.  But I hope we found our own kind of magic. Because my Dad was right. It went fast.

Ok.  Enough of this melancholy!  Off to my next adventure tomorrow! (but first, a photo of my Dad with us at the ocean when were kids... having an adventure).

 

Lighthouses and turning garbage into art

 I have always had a thing for lighthouses. And Oregon is all about their lighthouses.  

Driving down the Coast of this beautiful state gives a person plenty of chances to visit these lovely old places. They all feel like they could tell stories.  I love how they are carefully maintained by their local communities and how each lighthouse lists all of the keepers who lived there.  In the last several days I saw the lighthouse at Heceta Head (near Florence.  The photo from far away feels very dreamlike, which mist shrowding the lighthouse.

Today, I saw the lighthouse at the Coquille River (near Bandon) and the beautiful one at Cape Blanco.

 

 

Other trip highlights so far:

I reunited with a couple of old friends of mine on the beach in Newport.  It felt really good to see each other after all these years (and yeah, it was windy out there!)

I stayed on a riverboat in Newport, which was utterly beautiful. The fog rolled in while I was there. The shot out my stateroom is the bridge nearby.

Then yesterday I had a delightful kayak on the Siltcoos River (near Florence). It was peaceful and very different than my kayaking back home!

Bandon was fabulous.  My room had a fantastic view of the rocks on the beach. Check out the photo below of the infamous "Face Rock". Before I headed south, I visited the Bandon Historical Museum, which was a huge collection of antiques and memories, many of them from a fire destroyed the entire town in 1936.  Then I went to Washed Ashore, a great place that collects garbage on the beach and turns it into art! See some of the photos below.  Here is their site: https://www.washedashore.org/

Heading out of Bandon, I saw the famous "Natural Bridge" below, outside of Gold Beach, before arriving in Brookings.  I am here for the next two days as I start my Redwoods exploration across the border!

So excited!  Will share a Redwoods update next!