Yes, it is true, I am back.  I will post some detailed post vacation thoughts, but suffice to say I am happy to be home.

Thanks to all my fellow bloggers who kept my site active with all the trackbacks.

So much has been going on in the world, I have so many blogs to write and pictures to post…and so little time.

And it all starts tomorrow.  Stay tuned.

Day three started coincidentally where day two ended, at the motel in Crescent City.  No Starbucks in site, but no need:  Dutch Brothers had a stand. 

Dutch Brothers by the way rocks.  Try the Milky Way.

We headed south, in no particular hurry.  We honestly had no particular plans other then to drive through the giant redwoods.

California proved that it had just as pretty coastlines as Oregon.

Imagine my surprise when we stumbled onto the Trees of Mystery just outside of Klamath.

This particular roadside stop had particular significance for me.  As a child we used to go camping and such, and this place was one of our favorite landmarks.

I mean look at what greets you at the front.  What kid would not be thrilled.

In the woods behind Paul and Babe (the anatomically correct ox) is a mile long walking trail and tram ride, with some fun carvings as well as some interesting information about the giant trees.

I learned a good lesson on the real meaning of tenacity, as we saw trees that by all rights should be dead, but were not only alive but were thriving.  Trees growing together, trees growing out of other trees and even trees growing sideways: it was truly amazing how these trees refuse to stop growing, how they refuse to stop living.

We made a quick stop in Fortuna to phone John Lucas, LSU reader and fellow DADL-OT-er.  He sadly was sleeping, being a night shifter, but we are hoping to hook up on the way home.

As we progressed further southward, we entered the Avenue of Giants.  This is a self guided auto tour of the giant redwoods that follows the highway southward.

Here, I learned the true meaning of a second word:  Insignificance.

Those trees were big…massive…huge…immense.  It doesn’t matter what word you use, the point is that I felt small.

Nancy, above center, is in the root structure of a fallen giant.  This is not an optical illusion, it really is that big.

Day 1 was nothing to write about, so I didn’t.  It consisted of packing and driving.  Period.

We left Issaquah in the late afternoon and arrived in Newport OR later that evening.  Our only stop of note was at the world famed restaurant R BBBB in Olympia…otherwise known as Arby’s.

Exciting….

Day 2 however started off with a bang.  We drove to the Bay Front area and toured the Wax Works wax Museum, Ripley’s Believe It or Not and the Underwater Garden, a small aquarium.  Yes, LSU hit the tourist trap circuit.

Below are some pictures from the Wax Works.

After completing our homage to American tourism, we drove south along Highway 101.  The sky was still fairly foggy, but occasionally the sun would poke out.

Next stop was some pretty coastline photo ops:

Next we stopped at the Sea Lion caves.  Nothing says Americana better then paying to see smelly sea mammals.

We also picked up some more good photo ops of more of Oregon’s lovely coastline.

Next, the Oregon dunes:

After dumping all the sand out of our shoes, we headed south to Coos Bay and ate dinner at Kum Yons Oriental food, which had a kind of non specific oriental food menu, but was priced very affordable, and surprisingly good.

Sadly my Cousin Kristy was out of town, so my intended mini reunion did not happen.

Because we were so relaxed and not moving very fast, we rolled into our hotel in Crescent City CA a little late.

Now, time for your humble author to take a warm bath and soak some tired muscles.

Tomorrow, we drive to Fort Bragg, via the giant redwoods, and hopefully meeting a DADL-OT cohort.

See ya.

LSU