Day Eight

One week after we left beautiful Washington, Todd was making me breakfast (pancakes and coffee), while I was sweating over an interview with Ferndale School District. I am really mean and grumpy when stressed.  Just ask Todd.  Nevertheless, I got through the video interview despite the three second delay and pixilated picture.  At 2:30 (when we had no reception because we were traveling through the mountains) the Custer principle called me offering me the job.  I didn't find any of this out till 8:30pm after I read an email from the principle.  There was only one  tiny spot in the campground that had phone reception: I accepted!!!   Now I will have my own little music room in a country school that is over 100 years old!  I will be teaching kindergarten through fifth grade music.  I couldn't sleep much last night, too jazzed up.

Here is a picture of the original portion of the school.

After the interview we enjoyed our last bit of the Redwoods and ocean before traveling inland.  

1500 year old tree called Big Tree

 Todd catching Sunbeams

 Goodbye for now, ocean!

On the road again!

"Thanks for the Pepsi Dad!"

As we drove along the 299 the landscape began to change. Everything was becoming dryer and hotter. Lots of new plants and animals!

After more driving we landed in Redding, CA. It's a pretty big city, the biggest we've seen since Portland. But we drove way to the outskirts to find our spot to sleep for the night: Bear Mtn Road RV Park. This place is so fun! It has goats, chickens, all kinds of cool birds, and lots of great people. 

 This goat was friendly, I think... he kept headbutting me.

 Chickens!

 Cockatoos!

 Doves!

 Giant Succulents!

We made rice and Trader Joe's Indian food for dinner. It was hot, but really nice as the sun went down.

Our spot for the night.

Today we are planning to head out for Lassen Volcanic National Park. We are super excited! It should be very amazing and unique!

Day Six and Seven

Day 6 was incredible; we hiked in the Redwoods! Specifically the northern section in Jedidiah Smith State Park on a trail called "Hiouchi Trail" which goes along the Smith river. It was very rainy, but the trees protected us from most of it. It actually reminded us a lot of Northwest Washington, but the size of the trees was a shock. We were blown away at the size of some of them, and we found many old growth redwood trees along the way. This trail led us (after 3.7 miles) to the spectacular "Stout Grove", a grove of amazing old growth trees. By the end of the hike, we were sore and tired. We made dinner and watched Star Trek in bed. Grace told me I snored a bit... ;)

 Grace inside a hollowed out Redwood!

 Yuck...

Happy!

 Even the clovers were giant compared to those in Washington!

  Grace climbed as high as she could...

 Crazy curves on this tree

 Bark

 This tree fell down at some point, but the branches continued to grow and now look like trees themselves!

 Crazy roots

 Entering Stout Grove!

 I'm a tiny man...

 This was probably the biggest tree we found. The ranger said there was a 1500 year old Redwood and we think it was this one.

 We think a woodpecker lives in here. It would be the mansion of woodpecker homes.

It was an extraordinary day! The redwoods are so beautiful, I heartily recommend everyone visit them at some point in your life. Day 7 (today) will consist of Grace preparing for a video interview for an elementary music job (wish her luck), preparing for the next leg of our trip, and staying out of the rain.