Tall Bunyan

I’ve been meaning to make a list of our favorite memories from our recent road trip.  Back in mid-October we piled into Lufthansa and visited the southern most point of the Pacific Northwest.  Note: James’ car is known as Lufthansa.  My car is known as The Crop Duster.

Overall it couldn’t have been better.  I hadn’t realized just how much easier it is to travel via car versus shlepping onto an airplane.  Perhaps that’s why families have been taking road trips for millennia…  Some of the highlights:

* Lithia Park in Ashland, Oregon
The unbelievable fall colors and our twice daily trips to the playground are what I’ll remember most.  Jakey found a squirt gun the first day and we had a great time burying it under the wood chips and then coming back to find it.  Though, I’m still trying to forget the incident where Nate let go of the giant rubber band-like climbing net that snapped back and almost took out my front teeth.  It would have been slightly less traumatic if James had noticed and come to rescue me, versus smiling and laughing at something on his iPhone.  Maybe I should have texted him for help?

* Danya from Simply Sitters in Ashland
She engaged the boys with books, crafts and more all afternoon so James and I could poke around shops, eat gourmet food, and drink wine.  I had one of the best desserts of my life at Liquid Assets: Mango and Mascarpone Panna Cotta with Habanero Lime Marmalade.  I’d drive 6 and a half hours again just to eat it.

* The Aquarium in Crescent City
Which apparently hasn’t changed much since James’ last visit when he was 7, except they’ve added a 5000 square foot waiting room/junk shop, I mean gift shop.  Just as we were about to pet 2 live sharks, James set Nate down which somehow startled the shark into splashing a wave of freezing cold water out of the petting tank and down Natesy’s back.  Let’s just say Nate was not amused.  But we did find out Nate and trained sea lions have quite a bit in common.  For example, they both can moo like a cow and growl like a tiger.  They also both wave, give kisses, and slap their bellies on command.

* Paul Bunyan & Babe the Blue Ox
Our much anticipated visit to the Trees of Mystery and the gondola ride up the mountain was an added bonus.  Jakey was really looking forward to seeing “Tall Bunyan.”  He’s still talking about him.

* Benbow Inn in Garberville
This historic inn is such a wonderful surprise in the middle of nowhere.  Delicious food, a spacious room, and thousands of rocks to throw into a beautiful crystal clear creek.  We enjoyed several good hours throwing rocks.

* The Botanical Gardens outside Fort Bragg
Some day I’m going to have a dahlia garden to rival this place.  The boys ate apples from the orchard, after narrowly escaping the playhouse-guarding scarecrow.  Afterward, Nate was so tired we caught him sleeping in his car seat and finishing his heirloom Gravenstein.  I’ve maybe never seen anything funnier.

* The Perfect House James found in Mendocino
Where he made my favorite birthday dinner, the boys wrestled and played for hours, JJ insisted on making me cupcakes, and we washed as many loads of laundry as possible.  One morning, Jacob woke-up and told me he “was having the best dream.  I was running with mouses and a cat was chasing us.  And we were throwing Play-Doh!”  (This was because just before we went to bed we had read a book about a kitten named Mickey that grows-up with a family of mice.)

And on our way out of town, we surprised a young homeless man and his beautiful dog with our breakfast gift of half a dozen chocolate frosted cupcakes.