The Redwoods

Well, once again, this was a beautiful drive. Mom hasn't been here in years, and she loved the beauty of it. We drove through the northern redwood forest, and then along the coast again, and then into the southern redwood forest. The northern forest is wetter and more mossy; the southern forest is drier, but the trees are just as huge.

We stopped and took a picture of Lulu and Mom next to Babe, Paul Bunyan's ox; that's Paul you see off to the side. But Lulu wasn't interested in him--she just likes animals. We stopped again along the Avenue of the Giants and took some pictures next to big trees. And we went through the drive-through tree, of course. There's a place near the drive-through tree where someone has carved two whole small houses out of a single tree. Lulu played in those for a while, and had a good time.

We stopped for lunch in a small town in the redwoods called Miranda. There's a cafe there, some gift shops, a campground, a motel, and the high school and junior high that serve the area. The high school's sports trophies are proudly displayed by the cash register in the cafe, and everyone seems to know everyone else. There's a beautiful mural on the side of one of the stores, and the woman who painted it was there. It seemed like a very cool little town. As always, I wondered what it would be like to live there. Lulu said she'd like it--you'd probably see lots of wild animals in the forest. I asked the waitress in the cafe there if it snows in the winter, and she said it snows a lot; in fact, last winter they had snow at the end of April. Brrrr! Too cold for me!

Then we headed south through the wine country (no, we didn't stop for any tastings. Next time) and stopped for the night in Cloverdale, a charming little town about 80 miles north of San Francisco.

It doesn't sound like a long day, but it was--and all of it was gorgeous to look at.