A WOW WOW WOW Day!

Woke this morning in Cresent City, CA to the sounds of waves & seagulls.
Peter looked out the balcony and was amazed to see a whale spouting water.
WOW  WOW  WOW!!!  We both then watched the whales (at one time there were five of them) spouting and rolling and flipping their tales.  It was such an unexpected surprise.  The coastal view here was already gift enough, and then God went and topped it with a whale watch - How Awesome.

After breakfast we drove into the Jedediah Smith National Redwood Forest which is only a few miles from our hotel.  Once we got into the Forest we were utterly speechless upon viewing our first Redwoods.  Really . . . we were speechless after both saying WOW!!!  We stopped the vehicle, got out and just looked in silent reverence.
Later on, we agreed that it was a moment of awe rarely experienced in life.  Television and books have shown us beautiful scenes of the Redwoods, but in this case, those scenes cannot begin to show the true majesty of these trees.  And the smell of the woods was unique too.  And the silence. . . . We drove on and on into the forest and took a good 2 or 3 miles hike, slowly, very, very slowly.  The absence of travelers like ourselves added to the appreciation of the forest.  I think the entire time we traveled through the forest we only came upon three or four vehicles.  But it was very evident that in summer time the roads must be jam packed, because there were signs informing of "conjested" areas and many, many pull overs for slower vehicles. 

It took a while to recover from those sights, but after a little refreshment we headed back onto remote roads and trails for more viewing.  We found a neat little road that drove along the coast where we saw a large ranch that had land literally touching the ocean.  Boy was Peter envious.   There were also some lovely homes along the Smith River and when we followed an off road trail with our SUV we came to a rock area right at rivers edge.  All that was missing then was the wine and cheese. 

Yep - this was no ordinary day - this was a day we'll never forget.

Just a couple of facts on Redwoods:  They can live to be 2000 years old
                                                         They can grow up to 380 feet tall
                                                         Each seed is just a little bigger than a pin head
                                                       
Well, we are tucked in early for the night.  We heard that the rain in moving down the coast, so we'll be out of here in the morning heading further south.
Thanks to Samantha for being my faithful commenter.  We really enjoy your messages Samxoxo.
Oh yea, we were in a grocery store today and saw some Christmas decorations that made me homesick thinking of Thanksgiving.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  So we are always thinking of all of you.
Love and hugs,
Mom/Bellexoxoxoxoxoxoxo