A New Visitor

Terri arrived today after a long flight from Singapore through San Francisco. It was wonderful to see her again. She's just in time to help with the move scheduled for Saturday, but for today she is resting a bit and coping with jetlag.

This evening we met Chris and Sherrie at the OPAL: Voices of a People’s History: Roots, Resistance, Revolution celebration and fund raiser.  OPAL Environmental Justice Oregon describes its mission as "Building power for Environmental Justice and Civil Rights in our communities." The event included readings from a variety of past heroes of community action and resistance. Some were rousing and some were touching, but all were inspiring.

Ben Duncan reading Let America be America Again Read more!

Our Last Day in the Redwoods

For our last day we chose to hike Fern Canyon and the Lady Bird Johnson Grove. The drive to the Fern Canyon trailhead was challenging. Once you leave US 101, the route is mainly along a narrow winding unpaved road through the big trees along a bluff overlooking the Pacific. Towards the end, the road is muddy and full of potholes, but our big truck can handle that terrain. We parked at the trailhead parking lot, which was nearly full, and set out.

Fern Canyon offers spectacular views of five different kinds of ferns lining the canyon walls fifty feet high. Year round waterfalls sparkle on the moss. The hike crisscrosses Home Creek, mostly on small temporary foot bridges, but some scrambling over and along fallen logs is also required.

It is easy to see why Steven Spielberg chose this canyon as one of the settings for Jurassic Park 2.

After the hike, we drove to the Gold Bluffs Beach picnic area for lunch near the crashing waves of the Pacific.

Next we drove to the Lady Bird Johnson Grove (yes, that did require retracing that challenging route). A young ranger named Seth was about to lead a guided walk, so we joined the group. He was so new that his iconic ranger hat was literally in the mail.

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This morning we headed south to the Avenue of the Giants, the scenic alternate to Highway 101, along which runs the Humboldt Redwoods State Park.  We stopped to walk a 2.5 mile nature loop trail at the Drury/Chaney Grove.

We went on to visit the Chandler Grove stop along thte scenic highway and the Dyerville stop. We stopped at the Founders Grove and saw the Founders Tree and the Dyerville Giant, an impressive fallen tree which once may have been the tallest tree in the world until it fell in 1991. In a forest of huge trees it is impressively huge.

Chris has climbed up into a massive stump high above the trail

We stopped at the visitor center, looked around the exhibits, and then headed north to we where we got on the US 101 north. Our next stop was at Ferndale pizza in Ferndale California, a quaint Victorian era town. We asked our server what to see in Ferndale, and her first suggestion was the cemetery although she said we might find that suggestion unusual. We walked around the town a bit and saw the Shaw house and the gingerbread house before walking over to the cemetery.

The cemetery is laid out along a large steep hill. It is definitely worth a visit.

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Congratulations, Graduate!

The announcer called out "Anara Gesserit" in his stentorian voice as our special graduate walked up to receive her diploma.

Back in her seat and all smiles...

After the ceremony, practically dancing in the aisle on her way out with one of her fellow graduates.

We actually managed to find her in the crowds of happy graduates and proud families and friends. What a great day!

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Arrival at Portland Fairview RV Park

After a rather stressful day of driving (steep down grades, curves, road work, and Friday rush hour traffic), we arrived at our new digs It was a relief to be off the road, and we're looking forward to visiting and especially attending Anara's graduation next Monday.

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