August in California

We got Rhanna back after Not Back to School Camp! She had a terrific time this year. Time to head to California now!

I teared up when we crossed the border. I'm definitely a born-and-bred Californian, and so happy to be back in the redwoods.

Having such a light "schedule" for this leg of the trip has helped us find a more normal daily rhythm, which has been pretty delightful. Our little "yard" even has blackberry bushes and we picked enough to make a cobbler! I'm especially enjoying the fog/sun/fog routine, which feels like Real Summer to me!

How fun to find a second Moonstone Beach! (We got married on a Moonstone Beach in Cambria, much farther to the south.)

For the previous week, I had been telling Gwynnie all about redwoods, how their bark is so soft and warm that you can feel that they are alive when you touch them. She was so eager to touch her first redwood! The whole experience made her giddy.

The old cemetery in Ferndale, CA is one of the neatest cemeteries I've ever seen! We enjoyed walking through this quaint town, and Rhanna and I got new hats! Thane felt like he was making a pilgrimage to the blacksmith's shops (he wants to be a blacksmith!)

New Junior Ranger badges, gigantic Mother Trees, octopus trees, and a field of dragonflies. Gorgeous days.

We ended up staying in Trinidad much longer than expected due to a dental emergency with Emrys. We're actually still here now; his procedure is on Wednesday. As long as everything goes well and we can leave when we think we will, we'll have been here in one parking spot for 27 days, which seems like a really long time!! 

Made it to Oregon!

We started off our visit to State #2 with a relaxing day in Seaside with our friends the Hessel family. What a nice welcome into Oregon!

We hope to visit many of the Lincolns or Lincoln City-like towns in America, and here's our first. Of course we had to visit the Abe statue. He's reading a book - how perfect is that?? Apparently, Abe was asked to be the governor of the Oregon territory way back when, but he decided to give the Presidency a go - there's one of those string-theory-different-dimension-spin-offs for you!

Couple photos of life around the house: got the veggies fermenting, Wii games happening, Thane did some whittling and crocheting outdoors when it wasn't too windy, everyone got haircuts, and we accompished a lot of itinerary planning. Rhanna shot that photo of me and Abe - apparently that's what all the excitement looks like. LOL!

This beach wasn't far from where we were staying, and Gwynnie in particular was beyond thrilled to find some good sand in which to play. Nothing like a relaxed beach day!

We had seen a lot of surreal photographs of Thor's Well on the internet, so it was on our list of must-see places. It was pretty darn cool! We trekked down to the site (a laborious undertaking for Abe, who ends up carrying Emrys a lot of the way, and for Thane, who helps out by carrying the cumbersome walker) and were duly impressed. The little ones were also able to earn new Junior Ranger badges.

Before we left Lincoln City we spent another afternoon at Gleneden Beach.

We hung out in Bandon for a week, waiting for Rhanna to finish her week at camp.