Days 23-24: Redwoods – Have you driven through a tree?

Katie here to give you a run-down on our Redwood Forest big tree extravaganza.

After our summer snowshoeing expedition in Crater Lake, we were happy to be making our way to the warmer climate in California. We celebrated our entrance into Cali with a playlist of all our songs that had 'California' in the title, such as ‘California Girls’ by the Beach Boys, ‘California’ by Phantom Planet. We’ve probably played ‘California’ by Phantom Planet fifty times, and we especially love the shout-out in the song to Highway 101, which is our fave Cali highway.

Not only was this the first day of our trip in California, it was also the first time that I saw the beach on the trip! Parm, note that I still hold that I was the first to touch the Pacific in Vancouver since the bay in Vancouver is part of the Pacific J

We set up camp for the fourth time on our trip (we’re getting to be pros now) at a lovely campsite just south of Crescent City that felt like Jurassic Park. We even had a little staircase that led up to our campsite – great for the ambiance, not so great for lugging our things.

Jurrasic Park, right?

For dinner, we had our last Mountain House astronaut meal. This was a very bittersweet moment – the Mountain House meals are the easiest dinner ever, but sometimes have some weird textures going on. We will now be forced to go shopping for our dinners when we camp. Maybe we’ll have super-gourmet camping meals like the Franklins! Or…. PB&J sandwiches.

We also bough some essential supplies on our way into the campground – giant marshmallows for our campfire (we will post a pic of these at some point, they are huge) and fire starter blocks. You could say we’ve been fire-starting challenged so far on the trip – Emmie will get the fire started eventually, but the kindling is usually wet or just won’t catch even with the fire paste that my Dad equipped us with. So we finally decided to cave in and get the fire starter blocks, and they are magic. We can now start a fire in under 45 minutes! Woohoo!!! So many giant s’mores to be had.

The next day, we made our way down Highway 101 through the various Redwood parks, a network of state and national parks. Our first stop was the Trees of Mystery, which not only had a skytrain and a cathedral tree (that we bypassed because they were mucho expensivo), but also a ginormous talking Paul Bunyon. We think that there was a guy inside the head of the giant Paul Bunyon who talked to his captive audience. He even congratulated Emmie on her pose on his boot. And we think he winked at us.

The Trees of Mystery gift store also had a cache of Smokey the Bear paraphernalia, as demonstrated by Parm. We’ve heard a lot about Smokey the Bear on this trip from the park rangers. They have a love/hate relationship with STB. On the one hand, great for preventing silly campfires from getting out of hand. On the other, the STB way of thinking prevented many natural wildfires from taking hold, which actually weakened the tree population. That weakening is part of what's lead to the pine beetle infestations across the country. Nevertheless, we enjoyed the paraphernalia!

Only you can prevent forest fires.

Further down the coast, we stopped in Eureka! for lunch at the Banana Hut, a Hawaiian BBQ haven (I added the exclamation point in Eureka! – it should be included it’s official name for sure). The Banana Hut lunch was one of the best we’ve had, and we were sad not to be able to stay for evening Mai Tais. But alas, we hit the road again to travel down the ‘Avenue of the Giants,’ a scenic stretch of 101 that winds through the most beautiful redwoods in the world.

Be the tree...

Since we were surrounded by the most beautiful forest and we have to get in shape to prepare for our fourteener in CO (get ready, Dad!), we decided to go for a run through the trees. It was probably the most beautiful run I’ve ever taken – winding through the giant trees, greenery everywhere, a cooling breeze, and a path that was cushioned by pine needles. Then we took a few photos… probably should have taken the run after the photo shoot!

Emmie attempting to climb the tree...

A Parm/Katie-sized walking stick.

The runners in the Redwoods.

And we did get suckered into one tourist trap that was totally worth it – the drive-through tree. It was a little nerve-wrecking, but totes worth it.

Ehhhh... are we going to make it???

Woohoo! We drove through a tree!!!

Next up, a longer-than-planned sojourn in the heavenly Sonoma!

Day 22: Crater Lake - Need some help from a Ranger?

Parm here to give you the deets on the large hole in the ground known as Crater Lake.

We got to the park in late afternoon after a leisurely morning leaving Salem as we couldn't get out the door without play a few games of Bananagrams. It’s official, I’m hooked. Thankfully Katie loves to play as much as I do so as soon as we get our own set we’re planning to start practicing for the international Bananagrams championships.

We rushed to the visitor’s center upon arriving to see if we could sign up for one of the ranger-led hikes we’d read about online. The office closed at 5:00p and we hurdled over the snow at 4:59p like true champions at the finish line. The lucky prize for us? Three spots on the next day’s snowshoe hike with a ranger!

The snow we climbed over to get to the visitor's center - Snoopy is on the left dwarfed by snow

We then checked out the main attraction at Crater Lake National Park, Crater Lake. Whew, is it a lake alright! It’s a stunning sight as the largest lake in the country and one of the deepest blues you’ll ever see. Being completely surrounded by the rim of the caldera, there was absolutely no movement on the lake as if in a surreal moment frozen in time. Here are some pics frozen in time as well:

Heading out of the park we stopped at the first campground we saw (all the ones in the park were covered with 7 feet of snow, so therefore closed) and lucked out with an awesome site on the Rogue River. A successful battle with the fire pit ensued and Katie was lulled to sleep by the sound of the rushing river behind us. Emmie and I were not as lucky to be blessed by the gods of river sleeping aids as we were up most of the night thanks to a lost sleeping pad and an overly aggressive bird. Around 2:30am, Emmie and the bird went mano a pareja (Bird in Spanish??) with some fierce language and chirping being passed back and forth…el pajaro won.

Bird: chirp, chirp, chiiirrrrrrpppppp

Emmie: Agghh

Bird: chirp, chirp, chiiirrrrrrpppppp

Emmie: Oh my gosh, shut up bird!

Bird: chirp, chirp, chiiirrrrrrpppppp

Emmie: UGGHHHH, shut up you bird!

Bird: chirp, chirp, chiiirrrrrrpppppp

Emmie: *&#%@ bird!

Parm: (thoughts while attempting to sleep) Is she really yelling at the bird or did I dream that? The bird's not going to stop just because she's yelling but whatevs...man that bird is really loud. Aggh, I want to sleep too!

Katie: zzzzz (silently asleep, no recollection of bird, Emmie's agression or my internal conversation in the morning)

Bird: chirp, chirp, chiiirrrrrrpppppp

Katie rollin on the river

Emmie checking out the river behind our site - note you can see the corner of the half dome (aka our tent) to the right of her

Campground success and bomb fire by Emmie; "Parm's secret surprise #1" on the fire - pan is now ruined but I made a delectable hard candy in the process if I do say so myself using taffy, peanut butter, granola and cranberries.

Dinnertime = happy Emmie. Katie happy too. Yum.

Last of the mountain man dinners (read: we're graduating to real food) with some great Merlot from Mystic in Oregon - thanks Dave & Lois!

Reading in the morning as sleep is not an option, note the morning fire fail behind me after we ran out of propane. I was lucky in that Emmie made me coffee early though. She's a smart woman.

Katie wakes up cheerfully after a wonderful night's sleep (or any type of sleep - she's one of those odd cheerful morning breeds)

Our snowshoe hike the next day was a grand success as we teamed up with 30 other park visitors for a guided hike with Ranger Emily. The park supplied the snowshoes and we set off to learn more about Crater Lake. Ranger Emily was excellent and upheld the tradition of superb National Park rangers with her knowledge and helpfulness. And yes, it's appropriate to refer to her as "Ranger Emily" at every opportunity. More to come on her connections later… We learned a ton on the hike about how the forest changes with each season, the importance of water equivalence in snow and saw lichen in action.

Learning with Ranger Emily on the trail - a minor debate about global warming broke out amongst some of the hikers after she showed a graph of snowfall trends...

Pic #437 of the three of us - was crazy to snowshoe in JUNE in 70 degree weather!

View of the lake from the hike

Ready to get my shoe'n on

So it's just like walking if you're curious

Jumping pics are a bit harder in snowshoes, but this one is pretty rockin

The snowshoe hikes apparently end in the Spring each year but as you can see from the pictures, this was no light dusting of snow. The park had an AVERAGE of 78 inches of snow on the ground! The levels for the end of June are typically 14-15 inches so they were still trying to dig out many of the main roads and decided to keep the snowshoe hikes going.

I was most excited during the hike with what I learned about Ranger Emily herself. At one point Emmie was hiking next to her and said, “my friend Emily is interested in how you become a park ranger – can you tell me more about it?” I heard this and made a beeline over to Ranger Emily and Emmie to get closer. I may or may not have taken out a few small children and elderly folks with my snowshoes in the process. No worries though – the snowpack was soft and water equivalency low (as learned from Ranger Emily too) so they had an easy fall. J Just kidding, but I did learn quite a bit about rangers. There are apparently two types of rangers, Interpretive Rangers and Law Enforcement Rangers, the latter being close to a police officer/sheriff. Most have some type of natural science background or experience (Ranger Emily worked at a nature camp and was a geology major) but it’s not necessary. You apply directly to each park and train onsite for the seasonal or year-long position.

After the hike we unexpectedly were able to see the rangers in action, the law enforcement rangers that is. No less than 5 minutes after dropping off our snowshoes, the keys were locked in the car. Considering the trip has been underway for 22 days now, it's slightly surprising this didn't happen earlier. The irony in this instance is that I asked no less than 3 times if someone had the keys before we shut the door. Typically, yes, I'll admit it, I'm a bit neurotic about locking the doors but don't ask a bajillion times so this is now funny in hindsight. Thankfully our girl Ranger Emily hooked us up with her law enforcement ranger buddies and they were able to get the doors open. I know carry the spare set on me secretly but don't tell Katie and Emmie. :)

Thanks Ranger Emily!

Pumped we got the keys out!

Do some good neck stretches because we're headed into the Redwoods next, California here we come!

Days 19-21: Salem - How does your hair look today?

Legs Eleven (Emmie) here to give you the run-down on Salem!

After saying the long goodbye to Katie at the Portland airport on Friday morning, Parm and I headed to Salem to see her Aunt Lois and Uncle Dave. It's about an hour and a half drive south from Portland to Salem and we entertained ourselves by "funemployment dialing" several of our friends at work including Pohl (we left her a message with a soundbyte from "CarryOut" by Timbaland), the Danimal (we may or may not have left him a voicemail that included a recording of 'Friday' by Rebecca Black) and Megan “he’s tall” Canavan.

We arrived at Salem around 1PM, but Parm's aunt wasn't due to be home until around 2. So we entertained ourselves by heading into downtown Salem, stopping at Nordstrom, and grabbing some lunch at the Williamette Noodle Company. There we had the most garlicky (sp?) dip I've ever eaten, we're talking fire-breathing dragon style and we could draw on the table with crayons, which was really fun. But we were most impressed with Salem's slogan: A lot of history, a lot of fun. Gold star for whoever came up with that.

Downtown Salem. Don't get the hand coming out of a coffee cup thing, but the slogan is cool.

When we arrived at Aunt Lois and Uncle Dave's house on 21st street, we were greeted by Lois who threw her arms in the air and yelled, "Welcome to the ghetto!" Apparently she had read the blog from Seattle and was concerned that she didn't have a sailboat or an ocean view to offer. But we had an amazing time in Salem as you will see!

First Lois, Emily and I walked a few blocks to the gorgeous Williamette (pronounced Will LAM ette) campus to meet Andy, a statue of a young man on the steps that Emily and her family visit whenever they are in Salem.

Parm hearts Andy

He practically has a spot on their family tree. For example, if Lois comes to a family reunion, someone might ask, "How is Andy?" Apparently they even dress him up on holidays?...Not sure about that one, but we gave Andy some mad love, and took some awesome jumping pictures.

Lois was not only really into jumping pictures, she loved "pirate code" and asked often if we were going to pirate code her.

We also saw the star trees, which are five huge trees on campus that grow in a perfect star formation.

Gold star for the star trees. REH!

For those of you who know your state capitols (you’d be amazed how much capitol trivia questions have come up this trip), you know that Salem is the state capitol of Oregon. So we climbed 8000 steps (which I learned is called a “Stark family enhancement”) to get to the top of the capitol building. There you can lookout over Mount Hood, Mount Jefferson and Mount St. Helens.

Climbing the 8000 (really 121) steps to the roof of the capitol. Secret staircase! Just take one step at a time, Jordin Sparks style.

View from the capitol. Note the mountain in the distance (tiny white peak)

Sweet old school phone booths in the capitol. We had to kick out a businessman who left Parm a present in her booth...

We also had several discussions about one of my favorite history topics- the Oregon Trail. We did an entire unit on the Oregon Trail in fifth grade where our desks were arranged into wagon trains and it was possible to be surrounded by Indians (now called Native Americans) or die of dysentery. I am proud to report no one died of dysentery in the Subaru on our trek to Oregon. Gold star for us.

Then we visited Dave at his office at the state department where he works as the resident computer expert. We especially appreciated some of the cartoons and signs adorning his office and the fresh coffee he brews.

When we got home Dave and Lois gave us some great wine and appetizers including amazing local goat cheese, and ordered us some really delicious local pizza for dinner. But I think the best part of the night was playing Bananagrams with Lois on the back porch. She would loudly exclaim things like “Et tu is a word right? Like ‘et tu Brute’?!” We quickly adopted her playing style and would ask other players mid-game if words were really words and curse at the sight of an X or a Q. Gold star for Bananagrams.

Bananagrams AND a real banana. Bananas for Bananagrams

Day 2

We got a late start the next day, and had a leisurely brunch at home with Lois and Dave. Our favorite part was the Sin Dog (cinnamon bread) and Dave’s Killer bread. While I’m at it, there were a few other delectable items at Lois and Dave’s including the best honey we’ve ever tasted (I’m convinced it has crack in it) and amazing peanut butter with chocolate and raisins in it called Fuzzy Squirrel.

They also had an assortment of locally grown cheeses we used in several meals that, I’m going to say it, was as good or better than a lot of the Wisconsin cheese we’ve had.

In the afternoon, Lois, Emily, Dave and I took off for Mystic Wines vineyard about 15 minutes outside of Salem. There we tasted several of their local wines and got some amazing pictures of the vineyards and had some fun with their farm equipment. We also came back with several bottles of really wonderful syrah and merlot that Dave donated for the rest of trip. Thanks Dave!

Double fisting mystic wine

Frolicking in the vineyards

She thinks his tractors sexy to quote Kenny Chesney

Another fantastic jumping pic. Lois, you really got the hang of this quick.

Then we stopped at a dairy farm and picked up some cheese samples, cheese tasting if you will. Do they do this in Wisconsin and I missed it? If not, they should. Another million-dollar idea. The cheese was not only delicious but we discovered was free of animal renin (an enzyme required to make cheese.) Upon finding out Dave was a vegetarian (which is why he asked about the reinin) the dairy farm man quipped “Vegetarian is just an Indian name for bad hunter.” Good one.

I am clearly skeptical of non-Wisconsin cheese.

Our cheese host

Our favorite cheeses were the aged gouda and the blueberry Havarti. But our favorite overall part of our dairy farm visit was meeting the cows particularly this one:

Not so much this one:

Then Lois made us some delicious stirfry and we had a heated discussion about union rights and what changes are required to the U.S. educational system. But it all ended kumbayah. And by that I mean we played more Bananagrams.

Day 3

Happy Father’s Day to all, especially our Daddies! Since we couldn’t see our own Fathers, Parm and I cooked an omelette for Dave (well the first attempt was more like a “scramble”) and we had a Father’s Day brunch.

This was our second attempt, but dang, it looks good

Then we got ready to head to the beach. One of my favorite parts of the morning was when Dave and Lois almost pirate-coded Parm, actually yelling “Pirate code!” and getting in the car. But we all made it to the car in time to drive to Pacific City on the coast of Oregon. When we got out, Parm raced to the ocean and is now contending that she was the first to touch the Pacific instead of Katie. I’m going to let them duke it out.

Supastar!

We had some fun in the sand and climbed a huge sand dune.

Big Bird Road Trip! About two seconds before...

our handiwork was destroyed by a sneak wave (see lessons learned below)

At the top of the sand dune was a gorgeous view of the ocean lapping against huge rock formations

We do what we want

AND more importantly is the site of Lois and Dave’s engagement. So we took a commemorative picture…coming up on 24 years!

The site of their engagement!

Then we stopped at the Pelican brewery to get some beer samples and some fish and chips. Dave’s soup was pretty weak sauce, but we got some really good fries instead. Last stop was a beach that shall not be named so other people don't find it (kind of like Voldemort in Harry Potter) just a few miles away where we did a whole lot of this:

And on the way home we did a whole lot of this:

Lessons we learned from Dave and Lois:

• Life is too short for bad coffee and decaf is a dirty word
• Never turn your back on the ocean. That’s not a deep spiritual metaphor, it’s just so you don’t get hit with a sneak wave.
• Keep the toilet lid down!
• The most important part of ANY picture is how your hair looks. This is apparently a Stark sister obsession and Lois is still scarred from when Parm came to see her when she was 13 and asked “What’s up with your hair?”

Thank you thank you Dave and Lois for opening your home to us! We had so much fun spending time with you.

Group Pic. Lois's hair looks particularly nice! It really does Lois :)

I should also mention that some of these pictures are copyrighted to Dave. Thank you Dave for being photographer!

The next morning we packed up and headed south to Crater Lake. More blogging to come!

In the meantime… [Katie is taking over as blogger] I was having a lovely time at Rachel and Kevin Mospan’s wedding weekend in South Bend. I met up with friends Tiffany and Greg for the festivities, and, in the spirit of the road trip, we also attempted many jumping photos (shout out to Greg for finally mastering the art of capturing jumping moments on camera). The three of us stopped to light a candle at the Grotto and made the mandatory stop at the bookstore (where I is proud to say that I did NOT purchase any gear besides a book!!!!) before heading to the wedding. Rachel and Kevin’s wedding was a beautiful celebration with their family and friends. Shout out to Kevin and Rachel – wishing you a joyous and long marriage! On my way back to Portland, I was almost foiled by delayed flights, but ended up on a direct flight from Chicago in first class (woot!). My road trip hiatus ended at 2 a.m. Sunday night, when I was greeted by the tired and smiling faces of Parm and Emmie picking me up. It’s good to be back!

See you in Crater!