A look back in time... Redwood Forest!

Continuing my slow update of our vacation, I'm going to give a quick version of Thursday, March 13th, which was Redwoods Day. Hang in there, this is going to be photo heavy.

As we last left the saga, we had delicious crepes for breakfast. Then we drove about an hour to the Portola Redwoods Forest, which was about 20 minutes as the crow flies from where we were and most quickly accessible by a very complicated, very curvy road through wealthy (?), rural/woodsy NoCal. Somehow neither of us puked (!) and we arrived at a very secluded, quiet, and closed visitor center at the Portola Redwoods Forest. A polite sign asked that we purchase parking, which we did. A pair of girls were there, with a car almost out of gas (sadly we had no materials to try to siphon our gas to give to them), and an older couple. Both groups left by the time Andrew and I parked in a camp spot.

We embarked on about three hours of hiking, but discovered really quickly why the other two groups had left. The trail map Kristine gave us lead us down to a creek, about 10 feet across, and instructed us to cross it on the metal bridge... which had been removed.

But Andrew and I are not ones to be thwarted. After some thought, we took off our shoes and socks and forded the stream (Andrew's edit: braved a whitewater RIVER). After which, the following transpired:

 

Tiptoe Falls:

Showing off my banana slug:

Another banana slug:

Why do you get a million more photos on this day than any other? 1. Because nature is amazing. 2. Because I brought my good camera with me.

This is Captain Obvious-ly called "The Old Tree":

Three hours later we were satisfied, tired, and hungry, so we drove to Alice's Restaurant. It isn't the original, but you can bet we listened to the entire song (half there, half home, nearly didn't finish by the time we got back to Palo Alto). Yes, we ordered whatever we wanted.

The day finished up with a visit to the Stanford Cantor Art Museum. The SF MOMA is closed until 2016 due to expansion, and they have a bunch of satellite exhibits all around the city, including one at the Cantor. Better than their satellite exhibit, however, was their IMMENSE and amazing Rodin exhibit. Apparent it's the largest collection of Rodins outside of Paris, and Andrew and I were able to enjoy them for a couple of hours before the museum closed...we just happened to get to it on their one late night during the week!

 We finished off the evening with chowder and a crowdfunded card game with Kristine and Hunter, and we had so good a time that I totally forgot to take pictures! I need to ask Kristine what the card game was, because it was hilarious and I want a copy.

And that's what Thursday brought.