The girls LOVE the motor home! We were still packing up and they were all strapped in their seats ready to go!
Our campground is in the middle of the redwood forest we were surrounded by these gorgeous trees!
The relaxing spot....I think this was the only time they actually sat down the whole trip!
The campground also had a river that you could swim and play in, this was the way to get to it. It didn't look that bad...
Until you started going down it....uh at least they have a hand rail.
The water was FREEZING but of course Hayden didn't care....Olivia wasn't getting near it!
After we fully explored our campground, we made the 10 minute drive to the beach. It is amazing to think one minute you are in the middle of the forest with 200 year old trees and 10 minutes later you are at the beach. It was gorgeous!
Olivia of course was terrified of the sand, so we hung out and watched for a while. Eventually she came around!
Our first full day we went to the wharf and boardwalk. You could drive right out on the pier....Scott was so excited about driving out over the water.
Once we got out of the car we heard all kinds of barking and when we looked over the ledge of the pier this is what we saw.... Tons of sea lions everywhere! It is apparently mating season and they were everywhere!
They jump up on the scaffolding under the pier and sleep it was really cool.
There was a chain link fence so you didn't fall in the water but the sea lions were so close it was a little scary!
Then we headed to the boardwalk... This is how far we were out on the pier the boardwalk looks tiny!
The boardwalk was AWESOME!! Even though it was a weekday so not everything was open or running it was beautiful!
The girls made a friend there....I am not sure about that guy!
It was kind of nice it wasn't busy, the girls were dancing and playing and we didn't have to really worry about losing them!
We spent the rest of the afternoon on the beach playing in the water and building sand castles. Olivia finally got over her fear of sand but she ran from the waves all day!
The next day we took a train ride through the redwoods!
This was from a 1000 year old tress that was stuck by lighting, it's so crazy to think trees have been around that long.
The little town where we caught the train reminded me so much of little house on the prairie. They general store was set up with barrels with fruit and glass candy jars, I was getting weird flashbacks.
These are the train cars, they are all open so you can see the trees!
OMG who's that guy? The one and only picture of the camera man also known as daddy!
Making our way into the forest...
We have seriously so many great pictures, it was 2 hours of pure amazement!
The pictures don't even do it justice!
The train takes you to the top of the mountain and there is a little hike, we didn't take the hike and just hung out with the train! Then it heads back. Seriously one of the best things we have ever done on vacation!
So little house on the prairie... I tried to get the girls to run though them and they thought I was crazy!
Day 4 took us to the mystery spot. This is one of those places that you can't explain, you just have to go there which is probably why it is one of the biggest tourist attractions in the area!
The story goes a guy bought this land in the 1940's and he started noticing weird things on the property. He always felt nauseous and shortness of breath.
He built a cabin at the top of the mountain and it kept falling down the mountain, even though it was pretty steep it kept falling at a steady pace and stopped right here. It's hard to tell from the picture but the cabin is level, but our tour guide is leaning. Huh!
Turns out there is some weird gravitational pull at this spot that really defies everything we know about gravity. Yes that's me standing on a table and leaning forward and not falling. It was so strange when you lean forward you don't fall it feels like someone is pushing you back.
The second part of the day we went to the whale research center at the UC Santa Cruz.
They have a little aquarium inside.
And since it is part of the university they teach about the animals that live in the ocean.
They also have a whale watching spot, sadly all we saw when we were there was surfers! They also do research on seals and dolphins there and were able to tour the facilities and see the animals but because it is a research center we were not allowed to take any pictures.
I realized Olivia wasn't in many of the pictures, she is like me in that she is wary of new places. At night we would always go back to the motor home and the girls would ride bikes, I think this reminded Olivia of home!
Overall this was a great trip for making memories and luckily we went home late Thursday night and still had 3 days to do laundry and relax before we had to go back to reality!
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