July 12th - July 18th ~ Little Vacation

Well, our family at the last minute decided we would take us a little vacation. I didn't have much time to plan our route so we flew by the seat of our pants headed to the Redwoods and Oregon Coast.

Sunday, July 12th - We left Sunday evening after Hank got off work and headed to Boise. We spent the night at Marlea's so we could get an early start the next morning.

Monday, July 13th - We were up early and headed for Oregon. What a long and windy road, not too much different than Idaho on the east side of the state. Windy roads and sage brush. It was nice to have another driver on our trip, Cameron drove quite a bit which I really appreciated. :) We went thru Ontario onto Burns up to Bend. We took the road up to Crater Lake which is absolutely GORGEOUS!! The lake was so incredibly blue. We had a picnic at one of the sites up by the lake where Kambrie made friends with a deer she named Julie. She kept trying to get close enough to pet her, but never quite accomplished the task. After lunch we reloaded the truck and headed to Grants Pass then down to Cave Junction. We spent our first night camping at the Greyback Campground, just below the Oregon Caves. Our camp site was very nice it had a creek running right behind it and the kids loved playing in it.

Tuesday, July 14th - We were up bright and early to pack up our gear and head up to the Oregon Caves. The caves were a lot of fun we had a guided tour which took us about an hour and a half. Our guide had a good sense of humor and was well informed. At one point in the cave he asked if we had any singers in our group. Of course Hank volunteered Cameron. Cameron was not so thrilled about the experience. LOL!! We went into one section of the cave where there was a large room that echoed. Cameron cleared out his throat and sung the Star Spangled Banner there inside the cave. I must say I was impressed, he did a good job. He was cool to hear his voice echo throughout the cave. He had several compliments from other members in our tour group. After tour we were off to California. The drive down to Crescent City was beautiful. Once we hit Crescent City we had to find a beach access so Kambrie would stop driving me nuts about getting to the ocean. We found an access and played around on the rocks for a while. The kids found many starfish and sea anemones. After we were done playing on the beach for a little while we loaded back up to head down to Klamath to ride the sky tram through the Redwoods. I loved going through all of the trees but did get a little claustrophobic every now and then. I like to see out in front of my a little ways. After checking out the Redwoods in Klamath we drove down to Trinidad, California where we would stay for a few nights. When we reached Trinidad we found our quaint little room we had rented and went down to the pier to see where we would need to meet our fishing boat the next morning. I liked Trinidad's small town feel. The population there is only about 600 and a lot like Declo, one road you can't get lost. LOL!

Wednesday, July 15th - Once again we were up bright and early so we could meet our boat for our scheduled fishing trip. Our boat was not very big and not quite what I had expected but the guide was very personable and did everything he could to make sure everyone had a good time. Including me when I got sea sick, he turned around and brought me back in. I tried and tried to stick it out but the swells of the ocean were not working with me. I went back to my room where I everything kept moving on me all afternoon, I finally fell asleep. Hank, Cameron, and Kambrie had fun fishing they caught 15 rockfish and brought in 20 crab. Hank caught the biggest rockfish which was 6 lbs, they said that is as big as they get. Kambrie out fished them all by catching 9 of the 15. Cameron and Hank had tried catching some lingcod but were not successful. Kambrie liked watching the sea lions out while they were fishing. For the short bit I was out there we had a few approach our boat, apparently they are over populated and are always looking for food. That evening when they returned from fishing we cooked our rockfish and crab for dinner. Dinner was good and we were full and tired. After a while I finally started to feel better and drove down to McKinleyville to do a little laundry. Thursday, July 16th - Today we are going to check out more Redwoods. We drove south clear down to the Avenue of the Giants, then through the Shrine tree which had Hank REALLY stressed. Then we turned around and went back north because I didn't get to see all of the sights I had wanted to see on the way down. We checked out the Lady Bird Johnson Grove which I thought was beautiful. We checked out Fern Canyon that was way cool, I would have liked more time to spend walking through there, we played on a few beaches in between and ended up back just outside of Crescent City. We stayed at the Florence Keller State Campground, it was a nice campground nestled inside a bunch of giant redwoods. After we set up camp we went into Crescent City where we ate at a place that looked out over the harbor and the ocean. It was nice but the weather being the way it was there was a lot of cloud cover and hard to see way out into the ocean.

Friday, July 17th - Today we went to the beach and played on the rocks, I went up and checked out the Battery Point Lighthouse. Hank and the kids stayed to play in the rocks looking for starfish, sea anemones, crabs and whatever else they could find. After the lighthouse we went down to an aquarium where you could pet a shark. It was kind of expensive considering what you got out of it. Oh, well the kids can say I was able to pet a tiger shark. LOL! After the aquarium we drove north up the Oregon Coast Highway. I liked the drive, other than it was a pretty cloudy most of the time. We stopped at a couple beaches to check them out and stopped to see where the Rogue River meets the Pacific Ocean. Cameron was bummed he didn't have a fishing pole. There were a ton of boats just trolling around. We drove north until we came to Cape Blanco State Park. I loved this campground! It had beach access, flushable potties, and a shower. YAY!! We were lucky we grabbed a spot when we did because they were filling up fast. We had fun playing down on the beach for a little while even though it was cold. We grilled hamburgers for dinner then sat around the campfire. We played 20 questions while we were sitting around the fire. Cameron and I kept hearing something in the bushes, but did not know what it was. It wasn't too long before we found out. I looked over between Cameron and Hank by the tree and say something black with a nice white stripe down it. Yes, we had a skunk in our campground. YIKES! We had decided to walk down to the bathroom before bed and Hank was in the back, I was in front of him, Kambrie was in front of me and Cameron was in the lead. Well, Hank thought he would be funny. He grabbed me and started pushing me telling me it was behind him, so I start pushing on Kambrie, she runs into Cameron, and Cameron just about runs over the skunk because it is in front of him. We cleaned up everything it might try to get into and went to bed hoping it would go away, which it did.

Saturday, July 18th - This morning we broke camp and headed back to Idaho. What a long drive home. The west side of Oregon has a lot of beautiful scenery, the east side of the state is BLAH! I was happy to arrive safely back home in Declo. I really enjoyed our trip and getting away from home and seeing some new sights. However, next time I don't want to spend quite so much time driving. ;) But I do want to go back to the Oregon Coast one of these days, hopefully it will be warmer the next time I am there.