The visit

Thursday, after my stint at the overlook, I drove Robyn and the grandgirls back to Medford to a Holiday Inn.  They stayed there overnight before departing back to Chicago on a flight that left at 6:00 in the morning on Friday.  It takes a good two and a half hours to get to the airport from Harris Beach, so there was no way we were going to make that challenging drive on 199 in the middle of the night.  Their visit was kind of brief, but jam-packed with things to remember.

When I picked them up at the airport last Sunday around noon, they had already had a long day what with leaving Chicago very early and traversing two time zones.  The trip back to the rig was to take us close to five hours since we made a couple of stops along the way.  First stop was for a late lunch at She-She’s Diner in Gasquet, CA.  It was just plain awful… way over priced, and the food and service was lacking.  Thankfully, that was the worst part of the day.

We also stopped at Jedediah Smith State Park to take a walk in the redwood forest.  That calmed everyone’s nerves, and we were even able to find the exact same tree that I had hugged when I visited there with Jack a couple of weeks ago.  I guess that means this tree has had a three generation hug from us.    Once we got back to the rig, the grandgirls picked their first ever wild blackberries, and of course had to share a couple with ‘Emma the Dog’.  By the time the sun set, the girls literally passed out in my bed.  How refreshing!

Monday was reserved for a leisurely day at the beach so everyone could catch up on their jet lag.  It was a first time in the Pacific Ocean for Avery and Phoebe.  Just like every other youngster I’ve watched from the overlook, the girls immediately dove into the soft warm sand.  Robyn had lathered the girls with sunscreen before we got there, but never guessed that Avery would get two crescent moon shaped sunburn areas where her swimsuit rode up on her cheeks. 

Tuesday, we packed a picnic lunch and headed down south into California to visit Prairie Creek State Park to spend another day with the giant, restful redwood trees.  At the picnic area, we let the girls pick where we would eat, and Phoebe found the best picnic bench in the whole area; right next to a magnificent redwood. (click on photo to enlarge so you can see it on the bottom left)

Then we went for a hike on one of the lesser used trails… Moorman Grove.  What a wonderful experience.  It was quiet with only the sound of a babbling brook, and we only ran into two other people.  We all saw our first banana slug.  The trail went up several switch backs and through a downed redwood.  I then chose to stop as there was a section of the trail that I thought was a bit too challenging for me with my walking problems.  I sat on a downed tree, and told them to go on.  I’d just wait as they continued on to find the pond and return. 

After a bit of waiting, I was getting thirsty, so I decided to take my time going back down to the car.  I didn’t want them to think I had just disappeared, so I made about a dozen arrows from fallen branches for them to follow.  I thought the grandgirls would get a kick out of that if they noticed them.  Well, eagle eye Avery spotted the first one, and they were then on their way down the hill looking for more arrows.  I think this was my favorite day of their visit.

On Wednesday, we headed north to take the scenic byway to Port Orford.  US 101 along the Oregon Coast is surely a picturesque drive.  After lunch, which I’ve already posted about, we took a tour of the Point Blanco Lighthouse, and even found the crashed shrimp boat.  The Coast Guard had come out the day before to rescue four men from this downed boat.  When we got home, we packed up the sleeping bag and sheets and blankets so Robyn and the girls could spend their last night here in a yurt.  Phoebe took the top bunk, and Avery the bottom, and Robyn got to sleep by herself on the futon.  After a short girls only dance-a-thon, I headed back to the rig, and we all enjoyed a peaceful night of sleep.

Of course, in between all these day trips, both Avery and Phoebe earned their Junior Ranger Badges, made friends at the playground, attended several evening programs, visited, and the Apache Tear Stone escapade transpired.  As I’ve mentioned, it was five days filled with making many memories.  What a time we had!

                                                                              THE END!!

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy