Our final trek!

One night in Santa Cruz taking a peek at one of the more famous surf spots having a wonderful dinner in Capitola it was time to head home a straight shot to Manhattan Beach!

The still running amusement park in Santa Cruz on the beach!

Shopping!

Downtown Mill Valley,  just 15 minutes outside of Sausalito is an adorable shopping area. The prices in the boutiques are right up there with the best of them! Catherine and I  wandered around for hours and had a great lunch.

The boys had spent the last two days mountain bike riding in the local area! They had a blast!

Sausalito!

The View! VRBO, and your sitting in a living room that hangs over the San Francisco bay. 

Sunset from the balcony.

Alcatraz

Yes!!! Boy humor!

Balmy Alley Murals. Downtown San Francisco. In the Mission District. 

This alley has painted all of their garage doors with Murals!

Calistoga

With the las two nights being spent in your Eureka Ca and  in  the Fort Brag area, two unremarkable places to stay, they are however on the California coastline and that is always beautiful.

Our stay in Calistoga was a sweet surprise. The gal Betty who ran the bed-and-breakfast have been doing so in her own home for 35 years. Their home shows the many years of their own  travels...all over the walls and along the floors, of memories they collected during their travels. Sadly Betty's husband had only passed away a month prior to our arrival. But Bette felt that the continuation of the B&B was going to save her from loneliness. She and her husband enjoyed a lifetime of raising their children traveling and being involved in the wine scene. She has a sign out in front of her home naming their house "Zinfandel House"

Coming down the coast.

Like the grapes I needed a little shade too! Hot!

On our way we stumbled onto...

...this beautiful place to swim! Mertyl Beach. Located just inside the California border, on the Smith River. 

My water boy slipped right in. I however had to ease my way in...cold... plus a pair of water socks would have been perfect.

Avenue of the Giants

This tree was gutted by fire but still lives. You can walk inside, look up to the sky. But the trunk and branches are still surviving.

So magnificent!

Grants Pass Oregon

We loved a speedy jet boat ride on the Rogue River! So did hundreds and hundreds of others. Tourist trap! Although  it was a super fun way to see the river and the infamous Hellgate Canyon. These jet boat captains with their 53 passengers on board, would get the boat speeding along and then pull the boat into a 360 spin. Some passengers like myself got drenched. No problem dry in 10 minutes cause it was 90 out.

Hellgate Canyon

Bend Oregon

Unfortunately I spent most of the time in a really beautiful resort Pronghorn Lodge for golf, trying to return to health. But things did get better and time to go caving. 

The Oregon caves, another national monument to acquire a cancellation stamp for my passport.

Astoria, Oregon

Great historical town. Known for its fish canneries. We had a lovely room in a hotel built on a pier. The Cannery Pier Hotel. So all the rooms face the water. You could fish from your balcony. 

Hoh Rainforest

So full of ancient life, death, which creates nutrients for new life. Beautiful!  Not sure but days of Forrest hikes may have triggered unknown allergies for me. Ugh!

A bone yard for trees!

  We made our way out of Seattle boarded a ferry bound for Kingston departing from the town of Edmonds. Once off the ferry, ( 35 min crossing) we took off for Forks.  On our way we stopped and stamped my newley aquired National Park Pasport! Yes it's a passport for all the National Parks. It raises money for them!

When you buy a passport, and when you collect the stickers for each park

You visit. 

So I have to date: the Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska official cancelation stamp as well as the printed sticker. On the journey to Forks WA, we stopped in to get the cancellation stamp for the Olympic National Park in Washington and its printed sticker. While there, the guides recommended a hike to Sol Duc falls. Just beautiful!

We loved this hike, not at all difficult, and all in all, a 1.5 hour hike. So many photos here. All make each photographer a happy camper. 

Our accommodations in Forks were a "blast from the past" type of vibe. The "Hotel, Motel, Holiday Inn" kinda deal. Ha!

Super tidy and clean!!!! But plastic "shower stall in closure" and curtain...perfectly installed! Perfect lenolioum on the bath floor.. The carpet new...and not abnoxious. The bed spread (not comforter) not bad!!! White sheets and decent pillows...super clean tight paint job on the walls. All in all... Taking a Motel vibe to its absolute perfection! 

Below is a pic of the Pacific Inn Motel and the the lovely Ford Edge we have for our trip. 

We have a new term for our journey now, we like to Kyhike! (Ki-hike) If we don't Kayak we Hike or both! Ha! So we got up from our 1st night in Forks and met Anna a "local" who's parents and grandparents had lived and created business in the area for the last 3 generations. A Pharmacy, Cattle, Kyaking tours. She was so sweet and calm and knowledgeable. She got us into our own individual kyaks, made sure we understood how to maneuver right, left, reverse. Warned us that fallen trees floating are something to stay away from and that when you see one Elk.. stop... they travel in groups of 15 or more and will cross all at once in a panic...so stop your boat and just wait! Well sorry to say that didn't occur. :( .  

We talked about every thing on our 8 mile trek down the Quillayute (La Push Washington)  river towards the Pacific Ocean. Her very healthy 90 yr old grand parents, her parents, our lives...so sweet. This kyak trip was a..."so far best". The river meandered at a quiet speed. The depth of water went from 2.5 inches and bumpy to 4-8 feet and mellow. I got stuck on a rock sideways (something she warned us about) Anna said if that happens...lean into the rock and paddle! Well I stuck with that plan and couldn't wiggle free...

(no real cause for concern, the water was only 3 feet deep) but pride!  She! (I noted imidiatly) never said a word just positioned her boat to watch and let me figure it out. So cute! 

Again evidence of a drought was  here too!  Anna said the impact on salmon could be devastating. 

This is a pic of the place we loaded the kayaks after our trip.

Below is the reason for the caption.

All the way down the coast the beaches are so beautifully littered with pure organic art!

Paranormal...?

Okay, we went for it! The paranormal tour at 9:00 pm in the underground... Really the tour guides so far!!.... Had been so fun!  We thought that it would be a Hooot! Kailee and Jordan were on board! Mike well that would be a "BiG NO" I think he jinxed it! The big hook on this tour... was the paraphernalia!. We had a vest, a electromagnetic device that would pick up an electric field of energy. Sure enough this young kid (cute) on the tour, had a high reading (105). We had (1.75). It came in on his devise when we were in the area of the underground known for prostitution. Hummm!   Now another device we all had was a pair of headphones (you know the padded ones with a thick band across the top of your head) they were connected to a Recording device (sensitive)(EVP). I was ahead of the group...asking the spirits questions...out loud...when suddenly... my headphones across the top of my head took a  sudden slap!...and fell

abruptly to the back of my neck. My first thought was I went under a low lying pipe and it knocked them backwards. Kailee saw me reaching up to feel for a pipe that may have knocked my headphones.  No pipe!..or anything else!   Kailee said she thought she bumped into a wall in the darkness in the underground.. When she shined her underground light (a red low light) to see the wall she bumped into,  there was no wall! The guides were not  so... Guideon (one of the guides) (a Santa Claus looking guy). Was a true believer!  You could hardly find him he was in the underbelly of those streets. So where were the animated tour guides we had come to know? Not this time. Still fun though.

Geat tour! Underground!

The guide through the underground was super talented! Funny! with non stop stories! We rushed through the bookstore/museum, or else I would have looked for a book with as many pics of the period as possible. The way they chose to rebuild Seattle after a devastating fire leaves me befuddled! Briefly..upon the rebuild, post fire, they demanded all buildings be made from brick. I get that, but they wanted to raise the city streets up 15 feet cause they built the city in a tide zone. I get that. But they began building before they sleuthed the soil from the steep hillside behind the city. So all buildings had to have 2 front doors, one on the first old street

level, and one on the 2nd level for later when the sleuthing (10yr process) raised the streets. I guess the process had to be done that way or there would be no business, downtown, economy etc.

Pics below show those erie passageways

that were still used after the sleuthing was complete. 

Photo below:

shows the Skylight built into new streets to shine light below into the underground, with the original glass still in place.

Seattle Chihuly Garden and glass, & Space Needle!

Beautiful, great exhibit. Video reveals how he assembles these pieces of art.

Mt Reinier in the backround on a day like today!

Leaving Alaska..interesting fact, Laura's favorite moment, Mikes favorite moment

Interesting:

Finding the locals saying that this ancient rainforest is in a bit of a drought. One of their worries is that some of the waterways the salmon use to swim up stream on, may actually be dry! So no spawning can occur. This is a parting shot of a slightly drought stricken rainforest from our plane.

Laura's favorite moment:

Although not a great photo, the majestic backround..and look closely.. a majestic Bald Eagle floating on a iceberg.

Mikes favorite moment:

Stepping past the shores of Plesant Island..working just a bit.. to poke into the lush old Forrest.

If your following our blog, don't know..

I don't know how to advise you to leave a comment..I think you may have to have a gmail? I can't figure it out. My friend did open a gmail account and wasn't sure her comment posted.. but I did see it. But email us any thoughts, suggestions and such! :)

Notable sad feeling present!

A 15 minute bike ride from our Inn...a 10 min hike into the Forrest led to a distinct sense of sadness. The cockpit crew found themselves in bad weather and circling for a landing spot. Story told to us... the local radio stations asking residents to turn their lights on..the cockpit crew was afraid to land and take out a house(s). I suspect there were less houses then ...and today it doesn't seem like there are that many. But there's so many trees here! Below is a link to a story about the crash.

http://m.utsandiego.com/news/2014/jun/27/national-guard-plane-crash-alaska-military-pavel/

He's wearing the sweater I made him for his Birthday!

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Instagram!! Ok we posted. 15sec video!

Follow us on Instagram "road4usahead" fun for both pics and video.

Posting finally!

The service here is not consistent. But here we are our last day and we are out on a whale watching boat with great reception! Ha! So trying to launch some beautiful memories.

The whales are Humback whales with one sighting of a Menke whale.

Kayaking is so close to nature!

Mike and I have had what feels like a spiritual journey. To kayak in silky water towards a wilderness shoreline. Then to beach the kayak, look through the intercostal zones and hike into the trees where Walt Disney must have found inspiration!