And We're Off to California!

After spending a fantastic week in Washington and then another fantastic week in Utah, I was now off to California with John and Alison, Parker, Tyson, and Preston.  The trip takes about eleven hours, but we all had a great time together.  One really weird event happened while we were driving just past Reno.

Suddenly, I looked over to the left and saw some very low-lying clouds.  I mentioned to everyone that I had never seen clouds so low to the earth, so I started taking pictures.

Soon the clouds started coming closer to us and it became very eerie!  Almost instantly when the clouds were almost upon us, all of our cell phones plus the car phones started going crazy with these weird sounds.  We looked at our phones which stated, "Danger dust storm in the area.  Pull over or travel with extreme care."  Poor Parker was driving at the time!  He told us he was a little tired just a few minutes before, but his adrenaline really kicked in when the clouds totally surrounded us making it so difficult to see--plus the rain started up after the dust started swirling.  It was all so scary, but 17-year-old Parker handled it all like a professional driver!  Thanks, Parker!  After about 40 minutes of this, we finally were through it and it cleared up like nothing had ever happened!  Amazing!

We always have so many fun times with John and Alison's family.  One thing I really wanted to do was go to Muir Woods because I had heard so much about it from my sister Joyce's family who went there.  So, a couple of days later, we headed through death-defying hilly roads to get to Muir Woods.  I am not exaggerating that at all--those roads were so winding and there were absolutely no barriers on the edge of roads overlooking huge ravines and valleys! 

But, Alison got us there safely. 

We seriously went for miles to find a parking place, but it seemed everybody in the San Francisco area wanted to go to Muir Woods that day, so Alison was such a great sport and just double-parked and sat in the car until we got back over an hour later.  What a great daughter to do that so her mom and kids could see something none of us have been to before!

By now, you know I love to take pictures of two things primarily:  nature and grand kids!  Well, today I fortunately had both rolled into one!  I had a heyday and just kept snapping away.  It was the best!

The huge redwoods are just awe-inspiring!

A beaver dam.

I loved spending time in this beautiful forest with my two buddies:  Tyson and Preston

It was amazing to see the huge caves inside of these living trees!

With Muir Woods so close to the Pacific Ocean, we learned that there is often fog in this area.  This encourages the plentiful plant growth and helps through dry seasons.

This was such a special place.  As the sign indicated, we came upon Cathedral Grove which was a place you were asked to walk quietly and listen for all the natural sounds of a living, ancient forest.  John Muir stated:  "In every walk with nature, one receives far more than one seeks."  So true!

The trees' ages range from 400 to 800 years, their height up to 250 feet.

Another interesting place was a grove in the redwoods where the United Nations Conference on International Organization met on May 19, 1945.  This plaque was in honor and a memory of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Thirty-first President of the United States.  I didn't realize that he was the Chief Architect of the United Nations. He was called an "Apostle of Lasting Peace for all Mankind."

The kids wanted to see if they could find a four-leaf clover here, but I highly doubted if they could because this really wasn't clover, but it was fun to see how beautifully-shaped the leaves were.

Just amazing how mammoth these trees are!

These look like strange tentacles surrounding Tyson and Preston--but they are only exposed roots!

Tyson agrees with Preston's shirt--Preston is "Nothing but Awesome!"  He really loves his little brother.

 This was a cross-section of a red-wood that began growing before 1000 A.D.  It was marked with great events that happened in its lifetime--if trees could only talk!

 After our fantastic stroll through Muir Woods, we headed for Sausalito, which is just across the Bay from San Francisco.

We strolled the streets, ate lunch at a little restaurant, and found little crabs in the rocks on the edge of the water.

This large rock in the middle was covered with them!

So Tyson wanted to take a picture of these little guys.  Just as he would get closer, they would scamper away.

What he went through to get just the right picture was actually comical!

Looking across at the Oakland Bay Bridge

On our way home, we actually crossed the Golden Gate Bridge--I haven't been across it for years and years!

It truly is amazing that these cables hold up the entire bridge with nothing underneath!

There was so much traffic downtown that it took what seemed like hours to make it through.

Then we went over the Oakland Bay Bridge going home.

It really is quite spectacular to see!

We next rushed the kids to basketball and soccer practice.  We thought we had plenty of time to get them there, but the city traffic had been much longer than expected.  What a fun, fun day!