Weed!

For our last night we stayed in Weed CA. This city is appropriately named as we ran into all kinds of hippies and even stumbled upon a blessing of sage charm bracelets via opera style singing and hand holding in the park... neat. There is a spring that juts out of the mountain that was pretty cool. People were coming to fill their water jugs.
We drove as far as we could go on Mount Shasta and looked for wildlife but the drum circles prevented us from seeing any :)
This is a tall mountain! Mainly we just started to recuperate by relaxing and watching tv.
Though we did stop at a park and go out to dinner.
It was bittersweet for our trip to be over. We were anxious to see both Xiana and Ekco, but sad to see our trip end. Also, we needed time to catch up on EVERYTHING once we returned home so it was immediately back to the grind stone. I am grateful for this wonderful trip we were able to take. It was truly amazing!

Some romance...

It was our honeymoon! Need I say more?

Gold Beach

The last leg of our journey was in the southern Oregon coast. Like Crescent city it was beautiful. The beaches were stunning. My dad commented on how one of the things he appreciated about Oregon was that they leave the coast open to the public. It didn't really occur to me until he said that, but it's true. There are turn outs, look out points, hikes, and parks everywhere and there is minimal housing very close to the beaches. It was overcast in the mornings and evenings, but day time was often quite sunny like this:
The rocks jutting out and cliffs to look over were picturesque.
I love the random rocks jutting out all over. At low tide we were able to walk around them and found thousands and thousands of mussels attached all over.
In this particular location, we weren't able to make it down to the beach, but the vantage point from up here was amazing.
And it's always fun to hike around on big rocks!
We watched as the tide came in and it was truly remarkable how much higher the water sits. It quickly crept up and up the steep slopes.
I'm also a sucker for these natural caves in the water. Were it not for the extreme danger present, I would have loved to have swam through one. There were many at this beach.
Eventually the swells reached just below where Brian is standing.
The sheer magnitude of water is humbling. Until you are standing directly over, the volume of the waves is incomprehensible. Actually, let's get real... the volume of the ocean is incomprehensible whether you're in it, above it, or under it.... it's big!
The next day we stopped at this beach that was covered in drift wood. There were all kinds of tiny little crabs in the water. I can't believe they can survive.
At first, the water was quite cold (even to our Tahoe seasoned limbs) but you got used to it fast. If the temperature outside had been warmer we might have actually swam instead of just wading. Of course, the undertow might have killed us so maybe the weather was just right.
Beautiful!
Absolutely beautiful!
Crash!!!!!
Our second day in Gold Beach we went on a river boat tour. Gold beach is unique as it is one of the locations where fresh water meets salt water via the Rogue River. The tour was fabulous. Our tour guide was hilarious and I'm pretty sure he never spoke without sarcasm. He told jokes, made up clever stories, and intentionally mixed words up displaying his intelligence. Also, at the beginning he asked where each occupant was from and then incorporated those locations into his jokes. This first picture is a little sea lion. I've seen lots in my life due to numerous trips to San Francisco, but I never knew there was a law in place that prevents fisherman from harassing these animals in any way. As a result, fisherman (one of the major occupations of the region) were losing 4 out of 5 fish to the lions. Now, they have a system where when fisherman are reeling in fish, they have a group of guys that distract the sea lions. The fisherman now retain 4 out of 5 fish from the sea lions (though it sounds like they have to pay more workers ).
This bridge was built in 1928 and is 1928 feet long. It's also very pretty.

There were a lot of bald eagles on the boat ride. We had high hopes of spotting bears, but we never saw any.
We did, however, see lots of different types of birds, sea otter, turtles, fish, and sea lions.
These jet boats are propelled by air enabling them to operate in as little as one foot of water. Our tour guide did 360's all day long. Plus they go really really fast! This was another highlight of our trip!
It's not uncommon for tours to see bears on the sides of the river due to the large amount of blackberries. There is a lot of wild life and the Rogue river is a protected river which means only a certain amount of boats and people are allowed on it each day.
When we went through the white water we had to jacket up... boy did they stink!
This bridge was even more beautiful at sunset.
Brian and I took a little drive that evening to look for some wild life. Right on the river that we boated earlier that morning, Brian spotted these.... At first I thought they were sea lions. In fact, they were a whole herd of elk, bathing, drinking, hanging. It was really incredible. There were close to 30 of them right there in the river.
As I've mentioned before, Ekco loves mermaids so Brian made sure to take a picture of this sunken boat to tel her stories about the mermaids who lived there...

History and Caves!

Oops... I somehow got these out of order. On our way to Crescent city from Klamath Falls, we stopped at some volcano beds. The beds themselves were pretty dull and boring, but the rest was FUN! First, we turned out to some petroglyphs. The surrounding mountains were beautiful.
There was a lot of farm land in the area also, but it was interesting that we both felt we could just as easily have been in Nevada as California. I think that's often the case when you travel through states.
Do not be fooled by the sign that reads Petroglyph trail. We were. We hiked this trail and discovered there were, in fact, no petroglyphs. Instead they were all at the base of the mountain where we originally parked.
Again, doesn't it look just like Nevada?
Here are some of the petroglyps. The signs said they were thousands of years old. Unfortunately, people over the years had seriously vandalized this part of the mountain so it was difficult to determine which markings had been there for some time and which were new. It was, however, interesting to see so many inscriptions from the early 1900's. People had carved their names and then put the dates. There were also portions that had barbed wire around it to salvage the integrity of the petroglyphs. It truly is awe inspiring to think of a people so long ago having this version of writing. I can't imagine a world where anything you want to pass down has to be carved in stone. Brian was really interested in this portion and spent a lot of time reading and deciphering the inscriptions.
Then we drove around and, like I mentioned, it was nothing spectacular. I was ready to call it a wash and head to the coast, but Brian persisted and convinced me to drive a little bit farther. Only moments later we came across a sign that said "cave" so we decided to check it out. I'm so glad that he wasn't as impatient as I was because it turned out to be a day of exciting cave exploration. Because of all the volcanic activity, there were all kinds of lava chutes left over that were open to the public. Though they were available, they were not very accessible. They were cold (formerly ice caves) and dark dark dark. Brian had one flashlight which we shared. It was a little tricky going down numerous stairs with one light. At times I attempted to use my cell phone to see, but it was so dark I couldn't even see the light on my phone. This picture was taken in the third cave we went through. It was by far the biggest. There were all kinds of tunnels and you could easily get lost down there (actually I did). Thank goodness Brian was paying attention because you have a lot of choices of turns and tunnels and I got disoriented. It was really neat in all of them, but scary... I'm not gonna lie.
This is the entrance to the first cave we discovered. It's amazing as you walk because every step you take the temperature drops significantly. In the caves with stairs, the hand rails were literally frozen.
Again, this is the third cave; the most spacious.
This is the entrance to the third cave. It was hard to capture in pictures, but the chutes go on both sides resulting in a big circular entrance.
This is the first, and shortest cave.
Here we are about to enter it. It was quite spooky being the only people so far beneath the surface. There was a sign that said if you saw bats to quietly exit. I'm glad we didn't encounter any, though I think Brian kind of wanted to.
This is the second and deepest cave. Every stair case we went down we thought was the last only to discover they kept going and going and going. The first was called Morril Cave. The second, skull cave. The reason for the name is because when they first discovered it, they found thousands of skulls and skeletal remains, both human and animal, but the majority animal. Experts have yet to determine whether the animals went down seeking water and then were never able to get out or if the native peoples kept animals at the bottom as a sort of fridge or if their spiritual worship incorporated the use of live or dead animals. Perhaps it was a mixture of theories. This cave also is the last of 13 to still have ice at the bottom. For some reason in the year 2000 the ice started melting and they have only been able to salvage an ice floor in this cave. In the early 1900s people would come and ice skate in the bottoms of these caves.
Portions were very wide and open, others were small, scary spaces. We attempted to go through one chute on our hands and knees, but I abandoned the endeavor and we went back where we could stand or stoop.
This was an interesting and exciting discovery that we certainly had not planned.
And we both dug it!

Crescent City

We pulled into Crescent city after a long and windy road. Brian didn't appreciate this road all that much, but, alas, this is what we first encountered in this run down, beautiful city.....
I know that it's overcast, and I know that I absolutely positively could not live somewhere coastal where it rains and is gloomy all the time. But... because I don't live there.... there is something so magical about the ocean. I love to breathe in the air. To feel the mist on my face. To hear the sounds of the waves crashing on the shore. To hear the birds, the wind, the foghorns is breathtaking. Every time I am at the ocean I feel closer to God. It may sound stupid, but I just feel like He created something so majestic, for us, and it makes me love Him even more. As a result, when we pulled up to the ocean, I looked over at my handsome husband and it made me love him more too. Magic right? Brian is a mountain man and he loooves the mountains and I do too, but.... he can still appreciate a beautiful scene when he sees one. This city was run down, but it didn't matter. In fact, that added to its charm. We really enjoyed our couple of days here.... though Brian was pretty sick from the ride and the big trees closing in on us.
Isn't it tragic? I feel simultaneously inspired and defeated. I know I know, that's just strange. But I do. It's so gloomy, but so perfect. This pier looks completely forgotten about, but still so very important.
I slipped these pics in but I'm pretty sure they are on our way back from Crater Lake.
oops.
Maybe not. The chronological order leads us next to the Trees of Mystery where Paul Bunyan and Babe greeted us at the entrance.
This was a neat little park where you get to ride a sky tram and look at the red woods from above, the side, and below. It was impressive, but I must say, after visiting the avenue of the giants, these redwoods had nothing on the real deal. This was Brian's first visit to the redwoods so now I feel a moral obligation to take him to the truly enormous trees in the avenue of the giants. Still, there were some big trees.

I love pictures going up but I couldn't fit the tree tops. One of the trees here was 19 feet in diameter!
This is called a cathedral when the trees grow together like this. Brian and I decided to renew our vows. It's never too early. They said they perform some 200 weddings a year here.
This is the view from the sky lift. Most people rode it down as well since it came with warnings and disclaimers about the advanced hike down.
But not us.
We used their sticks for walking down the steep sides... er... um... I mean we rode the sticks down the side of the mountain like broom sticks.
Oh wait, that's not how it went. We shot at the sky lift and made it come pick us up.
Oops, I mean we played a quick game of baseball.
Isn't it interesting that Brian took such time and care to teach me how to properly use a walking stick? Surprisingly enough, I needed no such lesson. Apparently I am the only one of us who knows how to use said sticks.
Although the stick didn't do much to ward off this serpent.
So here's the deal. When the owners of this forest bought this property, they went in to replant what the loggers (those terrible peeps) had destroyed. All of a sudden *gasp* they found a whole bunch of carvings, and I mean a whole bunch. I am giving you a very minor selection, but there were a lot. So they set them up and are now part of their display. I know man, I think he stinks too!
Then, in the spirit of carving, before we left Brian carved this for me with his pocket knife. Isn't he sweet?
And that brings me back closer to God.
Truly
We walked in the water and played on the beach despite the frigid temps. Our feet got numb relatively quickly and it was salty, sandy, super.
Watch out, the waves are coming to get you!
And me!
This is Brian's rendition of Chariots of Fire... can't you just hear it?
We asked Xiana whose foot was whose and she quickly explained that daddy doesn't wear paint.
We could have and should have swam this day but...
Instead we just let our clothes get drenched from the waves.
And wrote in the sand.
Just in case we forgot.
My dad would have been utterly disappointed in us had we not picked wild berries and eaten a few. Because I can't stand seeds, Brian fulfilled this task quite diligently. We had to take a picture for proof.
He also found wild blue berries but wasn't brave enough to eat them.
Of course, being Brian, he was always on the lookout for wildlife and just as we were leaving he spotted this.... I don't know how he saw them through the break on the freeway, but he did and we took the next exit and found them. Now that's not something you see every day.