California's Avenue of the Giants

Due to delays we weren't sure we'd be able to fully embrace the Redwood Forest experience but luckily, the whole experience is a bunch of big trees. We took the Avenue of the Giants to ogle a lot of them.


Andrew kept turning to me and saying, "I can't believe this is a 55 mph highway!" I reminded him that the speed limit is the maximum legal speed, not a dare. Especially on the curves where all that separated us from a 150 ft drop into a fast-moving flooded river was a few inches of un-guardrailed shoulder. Literally a few inches.

We also found out on those curves that Arlie gets carsick. As two people who magically are not affected (tummy-wise) by any kind of travel no matter how nasty, it never occured to Andrew and me that our child would suffer from motion sickness.

Arlie enjoying some moments out of the vehicle. We got to the forest a little later than we wanted and the light was dimmer than I would have like for photos.

That tree is more than 6'4" in diameter. Impressive.

And this one had a nook big enough for my family to fit into.

We rented a Nissan Pathfinder for the space (and to put the wear and tear on someone else's vehicle- we put over 3,000 miles on it) and it was fine - but a majorly tight squeeze for the drive-through tree. We had to fold in the mirrors to make it. The Chevrolet Suburban behind us wouldn't even try. Wusses.