The week after Easter, we fortunate enough to be able to take a little family vacation. If you don't count the times where our travels involved visiting someone else, this was really our first family vacation. It wasn't exactly action-packed or exotic, because it's hard to have action-packed days when you have an eleven-month-old who requires at least two naps a day, but it was fun because we went somewhere that I had always wanted to go: the Redwoods in Northern California.
We stayed in Crescent City at the Curly Redwood Lodge (unique because all the wood in the building came from just ONE curly redwood tree). I've posted some pictures to offer a sample of our travels.
Here we are at the Stout Grove at Jedediah Smith State Park. The dirt trails were covered in gravel, so it wasn't too bad navigating the stroller even in the drizzle.
Ian and Alexandra in front of some of the large trees we came to see.
The picture came out blurry, but we were just so impressed with the size of the base of this fallen tree. Impressive, isn't it?
The other amazing thing about the trip was the scenery. Below is the Smith River, which wound along next to the highway and was consistently this gorgeous turquoise color.
We also drove north up the coast to Oregon and stopped at one of the beaches. It was a pretty beach, but my favorite thing was seeing Ian keeping his little girl warm in his jacket.
See? The beach is nice, but not as heartwarming.
The sunset in Crescent City was beautiful.
On day three of our trip, we went to the Great Cats World Park near Cave Junction, Oregon. It was a zoo devoted entirely to wild cats, and our tour guide was their main trainer. He is apparently something like the Steve Erwin of cats.
I love white tigers! Alexandra does, too.
The trainer did not go in the cage with the lion. I guess lions are finicky, and unless you have another experienced trainer in there as backup, one wrong move could cost you your life...
...however, tigers are much more stable, and he not only got in the cage with this one, but also rode it.
Later on we went to Big Tree Wayside, home of the Big Tree. While its name is not creative, it certainly was the biggest tree we saw.
We also went to the parking lot of a place called Trees of Mystery, because I couldn't resist posing by Paul Bunyan and Babe. Now when Alexandra is old enough to learn about American legends, I can show her this picture.
We had a great time!
