Today I got to ride the bike through Redwoods and to Pebble Beach, then we all hiked at Jed Smith Redwoods Park and got to see some amazing huge trees.
Bella jumped out of bed today, I think the daylight savings time change got her feeling she was an hour behind and she was up before 6am, even before I woke Bia up. And, that was ok, they were both up and running by 6am, and school was full on in session. At that time, I thought this was going to be a fast school day. Bella didn’t have that much to do and got going. Bia is usually done around lunch anyway, but…. Things changed a bit from there. Bella was kind of playing around in the computer most of the time, and wasted a ton of time. Then, she was in that kind of mood where she just wants you to do things for her. I cut her off early in the morning, but when I went for my bike ride, she got Carol. And when she does this, it usually means she’s not going to do her work on her own, and she just doesn’t get work done and frustrates us. After I got back from my bike ride, Carol and I tag teamed helping Bella (I should say managing Bella) to get her to finish her work, and she did around 2.
Bia took longer too, but it was because the school kept losing power, and her classes kept changing and work was posted later than usual, etc. But she finished around 2 as well.
Carol did some laundry in the trailer, mainly rugs and small towels. The small traveling washing machine works pretty well, but it does not fit a lot of stuff. The machine has a wash side and a spin side, and you can fit like 2-3 complete changes of clothing in it. We usually put it in the tub in the bathroom, then fill it with the shower hose, and it drains right in the tub drain. We have an extension cord so it can be connected to the bathroom power, and Carol has a metal drying rack that she uses inside or outside. Much better when it’s outside so the trailer is not all crowded inside. She said she’ll do most of our laundry tomorrow at the campground laundry room and use her new cart.
I didn’t have any work calls, but did some work, got some posts updated, and went for a bike ride.
I left the campground and turned right towards downtown, and took the way that goes through Jed Smith Redwoods park, which was amazing. There is no bike lane, but bikes are welcome on most roads here in California, and you just need to be careful and stay as far to the right as you can.
It was a super nice ride, passing the giant trees and feeling like you’re in the middle of a forest.
I had Carol’s bike, so it made the ride easier too, especially because there was plenty of uphill on the way. After I was past the park, I turned in towards downtown and rode to pebble beach.
It was getting more and more foggy as I got closer to the beach, and by time I hit the shore, I really could barely see the water.
I took some pics just to show how crazy the fog was, a few spots I could see some water from the waves crashing, and I spotted a surfer, but not much more.
So I continued my way back. It was about a 2 hour ride and about 40kms (24miles). I missed riding the bike like this and will likely do it again before we leave as there’s a good amount of places to bike around here.
After I got back, we helped the girls finish school, we had lunch, cleaned up and went to Jedediah Smith Redwoods Park, which is right in front of our campground. The plan was to just check it out, walk around and see some trees, etc. Nothing too extensive.
As we were driving there, the road continues to amaze me as there are some massive trees that are right at the white line on the road. Then we turned into the park, and found a place to park by the “beach”.
The beach is an area that has easy access to the Smith River, which cuts through the park. We went by the water first, checked it out, the girls and Carol always like to get rocks, so they were checking those out.
Then I said I wanted to see if we could find the biggest tree near us, so we started walking towards one of the paths, and took the walking path through a small area of the park.
It is amazing. Lots of big Sequoias, the largest one we found I rough measured at over 20 yards around at the base, they are huge trees.
We walked the path for about an hour, and had a lot of fun. We all loved being so close to the forest, and walking through the paths, down to the river.
When we were by the river, Bella said she was thirsty so I told her to just drink the water. She didn’t want to as she was “afraid” the water was dirty, and wanted me to try first, so I did. I scooped some water and drank it. It was nice and cold, and refreshing.
Bella tried next, and loved it. Bia came by us later and tried it too, but she said she didn’t like it. I asked Bia why, and she said the water tasted dirty hahahaha…. But as I kept asking why she eventually said the water was fine, and it was because she scooped near the rocks and it made her feel like it was dirty.
Carol was enjoying the walk and just checking out all the details, touching the trees, hugging the trees, getting moss etc. She really loved the forest and the redwoods.
We had a great time on our walk. On the way back, I gave my cell to Bella and had the GPS on showing where the truck was parked and asked her to guide us back. She loved that task, and really guided up through the paths. Eventually she saw the road and chose to have us find our way back through the road saying that “the road has to lead us to the parking area”. And of course it did, even though it was a little longer walk, we got back. It was getting dark quick, as it was around 5 by then, so we decided to be done and go to Walmart to get stuff for dinner.
So we went to Walmart and Carol went without us, as I thought that’d make it be faster. Maybe it worked. hahahah… After Walmart Carol wanted to go to an Asian store, so we did that. She was quicker there and said she loved it, and will definitely be going back there before we leave.
We got back to the camper, all got cleaned up, Carol made dinner. After dinner we watched some TV and went to bed.
Nice day, can’t wait to see more of the Redwoods Forest.