August 1995 - The Redwoods

1995 was a strange year. In February, we took a day trip to Big Bear to go skiing. That day turned into one of Life's Most Embarrassing Moments for me. I fell and suffered a spiral fracture of my femur. NOT. FUN. NOT.FUN!!!! I couldn't stop my fall or my slide and ended up directly underneath the ski lift, unable to move my leg at all. This resulted in the ski patrol cutting my ski pants open and then my leggings that were underneath. I absolutely put my foot down (or I would have if I could have) and told them that under no circumstances were they cutting my underwear open. I was a passenger in the little orange basket, being carried off the mountain at lightening speed. Then I got to ride in an ambulance down to Fontana, which is where the nearest Kaiser was. I had major surgery to insert rods and pins into my leg in three places. I was laid up for 13 weeks. Needless to say, our vacation that year was very much needed by all.

We camped in the Redwoods, rode the Skunk train in Willits, visited Santa Cruz and Cayucos. Cayucos is a little town on the coast, near Morro Bay. I have a cousin who used to live there and we stopped on our way home for a visit.

The Redwoods are amazing. The sheer height of the trees and the colors of the foliage are beautiful.

The coastline is breathtaking.



The Skunk train took us through some incredible mountain gorges.

We enjoyed being together as a family and as always two weeks went way too fast.

While we were there, I purchased a refrigerator magnet that still hangs on my fridge to this day. The words definitely described our experience of the Redwoods. I thought I'd share it with you:

The Redwoods

Here, sown by the Creator's hand,
In serried ranks, the Redwoods stand;
No other clime is honored so,
No other lands their glory know.

The greatest of Earth's living forms,
Tall conquerors that laugh at storms;
Their challenge still unanswered rings,
Through fifty centuries of kings.

The nations that with them were young,
Rich empires, with their forts far-flung,
Lie buried now - their splendor gone;
But these proud monarchs still live on.

So shall they live, when ends our day.
When our crude citadels decay;
For brief the years allotted man,
But infinite perennials' span.

This is their temple, vaulted high,
And here we pause with reverent eye,
With silent tongue and awe-struck soul;
For here we sense life's proper goal.

To be like these, straight, true and fine,
To make our world, like theirs, a shrine.
Sink down, Oh, traveller, on your knees.
God stands before you in these trees.

Author: Joseph B. Strauss
Builder of the Golden Gate Bridge

Two weeks enjoying some of God's most beautiful creations....$ 1306.00


Next year, the kids take friends with us to Lake Tahoe.