NorCal Day 2 (GIANT REDWOODS!)

If you missed Day 1, check it out here!

Day One of vacation tired me out so much, but all I needed was a good night's sleep and I felt like a new woman! The first thing on our agenda was a disc golf/running date at Arcata Community Forest. This location was recommended to me by Rachel, who happens to live in the Northern Cali area. In fact, while Paul played disc golf in the forest, Rachel and I went for a run!

The forest had redwoods and ferns, which was absolutely gorgeous. Since it was extremely hilly and both Rachel and I had races that weekend, we only ran four miles. It was a difficult four miles, though!

Paul ended up playing 8 holes of disc golf. He said the course was tough but it didn't matter because it was so beautiful. Rachel and I ended up running into him during our run. He said he could hear my piercing voice from a mile away.

Tee 1

Tee 2 was on top of this 8 foot high tree stump!

You had to climb up smaller stumps to go to the top.

 The tee on top of the trunk!

After our adventure in the park, we went back to our hotel for the one and only free continental breakfast we got on our trip. I had a Belgium waffle. IT WAS SO GOOD! We also grabbed some fruit and yogurts for lunch later. I know, you're not supposed to do that, but we did it.

On my way to check out, I was walking through the parking lot to the hotel lobby, when I saw what looked like a wall of fog out over the ocean. I asked a woman if it was fog and she said yes. Apparently there's always lots of fog in Northern California and it's not odd for it to roll in from the ocean like that. Wow, this is something you just don't see in Pennsylvania!

After breakfast, we hit the road and drove south. Destination: Avenue of the Giants and hiking in Humboldt Redwood State Park! This is where we would see the GIANT redwoods. Rachel assured us that in Arcata, we only saw the baby redwoods, but the giants awaited us!

The road just wound throughout huge ass redwood trees!

Then we went for a 5 mile hike. We basically ended up doing the Rockefeller Loop twice and an out and back on the Bull Creek Flats trail. As always, I will let the pictures speak for themselves!

Don't worry, I carried a mountain lion stick the whole time!

 This is the tree we turned around at. We thought it was cool because it looked like it had an arm growing out of it.

 

I know this is a lot of pics but I swear I have 50 more I could've shown you. I have to draw the line somewhere!

After our hike, we hit up the visitor's center, which was rather small. We got some postcards, a magnet, and a patch for Paul. We really didn't do a whole lot of shopping on this trip! There were some annoying kids in the visitor center... I get very indignant when I am forced to be around a bunch of kids on vacation!

Outside the visitor center... They labeled the poison for me! (My Facebook friends get this joke. I am always posting pictures of weeds in my yard, wondering if it's poison or not!)

On our way out of the park, we stopped off and paid $8 to drive through one of those giant redwoods you can pay drive through... except I was too afraid we wouldn't fit! The little convertible sports car in front of us barely fit! I was not about to ruin our rental car, so we turned around. What a waste of eight bucks. That attendant who took our money was full of shit. I asked him if we'd fit and he was like, "Aw yeah!" I call bull crap on him!

After our redwood adventure, it was only a short drive to our motel in Garberville. Garberville is the tiniest town ever. There wasn't much going on there. Luckily, all we needed was a drink, dinner, a room with a TV (Big Brother was on that night!) and a bed!

Very retro looking, right!?

It took me awhile to understand what this sign meant:

No pets in the office, pets allowed in rooms, but no cats!

What the hell!? No cats!?

There was a phone booth in the parking lot!

 ... and The Pineapple Express parked out front.

As we walked around the little town searching for somewhere to eat dinner, we came across a funny store...

Unfortunately it wasn't open. Who doesn't need more respect!?

We came across a little cafe that thankfully had a bar. We talked to the bartender and she said was a bartender in NYC! "Why did you move here from NYC!?" I asked. I'm sure you can guess the answer. "A boy," she sighed.

Yes, I ate all that. I'm a big girl!

 The cafe had cool artwork. I really dug this one.

 After dinner, we headed back to the motel to lay in bed and watch Big Brother. There was nothing to do in Garberville, it was just a spot to rest our bodies.

There was a long black hair and a dead fly in the bathroom, but the motel gave us extra pillows, so for a mere $83 a night, it was a fine. We needed to get our sleep for the big adventures planned for the next day!

Have you ever seen the giant redwoods?
Are you good at identifying different types of poison?
Have you ever driven through a tree?