Sunday

So, I figure as long as this post goes out before Sunday, I will be ok... at least within a week of posting about our weekend adventure.

If you're lost, last weekend, Mr. Incredible and I took off on an a weekend get-a-way up to Northern California.  We stayed at a lovely resort in Napa, explored gardens in Sonoma, ventured to the Charles Schulz Museum, ate good food, and even sample jelly beans and the Jelly Belly Factory.  On Sunday, our last day, we did this:

We left our resort and drove to Muir Woods State Park... the drive was beautiful!  We traveled through coastal marshes, up winding wooded roads, and then down to a grove of very protected coastal redwood trees.  All I can say is , 'wow....'

Ok, not really.  I can say a lot more than that... here's the photos and obligatory comments:

It could quite possibly be impossible to photographically capture the enormity of these trees.  Coastal redwoods can grow to be nearly 400 feet tall.  Here's my best attempts!

I realized during our hike that I am a little obsessed with moss.  I think its because I live in a climate that does't grow moss very easily.  Moss is... green... I know, insightful like usual!

Looking up one of the giants... way up!

These trees grow very close together, blocking out a lot of sunshine and dropping the temperature in the woods quite a bit!

I took a ton of photos of the tree... but also resorted to the standard people shots (we were here!)... and I don't know what I'm doing with my mouth- is that a grimace?  I think so... sorry about that...

Mr. Incredible pushing two giant redwoods out of his way- yeah!

Me between the trees... probably making that same face but you can't really tell from that far away... thankfully...

Other interesting things in the woods.. like clovers!  We looked for four-leaf clovers but couldn't find any...

And mushrooms!  Really cool, odd-shaped mushrooms! (I am administering a lot of self-restraint by not posting all the photos I took of mushrooms... let's just say Mr. Incredible finally put his hand over my lens and dragged me away....)

Big tree, little man...

After our hike through Muir Woods, we drove down the hill (well, actually up the hill then back down the other side) to San Francisco!  We had a few hours to kill before our plane left.  We drove over the Golden Gate Bridge, down Lombard Street, ate SF Sourdough bread for lunch, and walked down Pier 39.   Here's the photographic evidence:

And that's a wrap!  We headed back to Oakland over the Bay Bridge (which is highly underrated- its a very cool bridge and just because it didn't get a snazy paint job like the GG, doesn't mean it shouldn't be so excluded...even though I inadvertently did just that by not bothering to photograph it... arghhh).

-CtF