Adventure Van: Part 4

 After a couple of weeks at home Jane, Bryler, Aaron and Spencer flew to San Francisco to meet up with Ally and her kids for a Northern California Adventure.  

We landed in Oakland and then made our way to the BART where we boarded the train and travelled through a tunnel under the channel and got off at Powell street.  

Originally we thought we had the morning to leisurely stroll around.   I then got a call from Ally saying she was heading our way.  

We couldn't leave San Fransisco without riding the trolley.    The line was forever long, so we took this quick picture and started up the hill to another stop.  

We walked a block to find another huge line and then kept walking.   Up another block and it was the same.  Just when I thought we would have to walk all the way to fisherman's Warf,  a kind tour guide asked us where we were going and I asked where is the best place to get on the trolley and he told us to stand in this medium and they will pick us up.   He was right it stopped and we were all able to jump on and continue to the Warf.  

Knowing we were short on time the kids chose Ghirdelli Square's famous Sundae's over Clam Chowder on the Bay. 

Ally met us and we drove back to Santa Rosa to pick up her kids and headed up to the Redwood Forest.   We had booked a couple of small airstream's in someone's backyard on Airbnb near the Sand dunes in Arcata California.   Allyson feeling nervous that we had too many people for the small space at the last minute looked for camping sites and found one available at Gold's Bluff Beach State Park.  

IT WAS AMAZING!!!!!

The drive into the campground was through a dense section of the Redwoods with thick verns and moss.   It had a mystical vibe and everyone was looking for fairy houses and it reminded me of the Giant and Fairy bed time stories I made up and my little girls loved to hear.  read this post for the stories.  https://bartandcolletterichards.blogspot.com/search?q=giant

The weather was perfect.  I loved that you felt so isolated from the hussle and bussle yet you were still on the ocean beach.  

I woke up in the early morning and heard the Ocean but my brain registered it as wind.  It took me to a minute to realize why the "wind" wasn't moving the tent.  

Spencer and I being the early birds snuck out of tent and hung out on the sandy part of the beach.   We looked for shells and fun rocks.  The rocks were few and far between but we found a lot of clam shells.   We discovered why there was no rocks to be found and decided the fairies were hard at work creating this beautiful rock art during the night.  

After we ate breakfast and got ready, we hiked nearby Fern Canyon.   If you didn't mind getting your shoes wet it was easy.  If you wanted to stay dry it was a balancing and climbing act.  Perfect for those who wanted a challenge or just wanted to.  

We then made our way to  the Lady Bird Johnson hike.  This was a fun 2 or so mile loop that let the kids be up close and personal to the redwood trees.   

After the hike we realized that everything else we want to do in the redwoods was on our way back to Santa Rosa.    We decided to load up and make our way back instead of staying another night.  

 We stopped by the Humbolt County Zoo.   Home of about 5 animals and a really amazing bridge system set up high in the redwoods.   

After watching for fairy houses while driving we finally found one at the zoo. 

We planned on taking a detour  to drive the avenue of the Giants but as we got closer we realized it was going to add a few hours to our already long trip.    We've already driven through roads with these redwoods and the most intriguing part about it would be to drive your vehicle through a tree.   The last thing Matt told Allyson before we drove to the redwoods was whatever you do don't try and drive this Sprinter through a tree. ;)  Tempting as it was it just didn't seem like a good idea.