Headed North

Good morning everyone,

Please note that I just posted another post about our Tuesday's adventures. I thought I'd mention it in case you just see this one and don't realized that I also posted before this one.

Yesterday Robert and I headed North. It's amazing how one wrong turn can get you totally offtrack. In other words, we took a turn and found ourselves heading back towards San Francisco. What this means is that we were late for our tour at Muir Woods and were bummed. However, as it turned out, we were happy later on as we were able to be by ourselves in that magnificent place with nobody telling us how long we could stay at a certain spot. WE ABSOLUTELY LOVED MUIR WOODS!!!!!!!

Anyway, because of the wrong turn, we went over the Golden Gate Bridge twice yesterday which means that we paid the toll twice. However, we saved $80 by not taking the tour so that was a savings. Everything IS expensive out here by the way. I'll post a separate post about the bridge at another time but here are the pictures from yesterday. Going over the Golden Gate.

We asked a couple from South Africa to take our picture at the base of 2 trees in Muir Woods. We learned that there was a wealthy couple a hundred years ago who was distraught by the redwoods disappearance due to man's greed. They bought about 600 acres of forest and donated it to the city to protect the Red Woods forever as even this area was doomed to destruction. Being they were to humble to have it named after themselves, they named the woods after their friend, Mr. Muir, who was also a conservationist.

Something comes over you in Muir woods. First of all, it's that the Kent's spent a LOT of money to preserve these trees from a close encounter with destruction. Secondly, the awesome power of God to make these magnificent trees. There's one place, called THE CATHEDRAL, where one is to be quiet. I found myself on my knees here worshiping the creator in a whole new dimension. Robert expressed it like this.

I wonder what mysteries lie ahead around that bend?
We tried to grasp the awesome size of these trees but the camera just couldn't do it. Probably no camera built, but the human eye, could ever grasp this place.

People can stand in that hole.

Me being silly.

Robert couldn't resist walking over this log bridge.

We tore ourselves away from Muir Woods after about 4 hours as we were headed for the ocean. Robert has had a dream of seeing the ocean for as long as I've known him and he did yesterday. I was just as amazed by it as he was but seeing his awe of it made the day extra special for me. I loved seeing the dogs at the beach. You know what an animal nut I am and dogs were every where. Many of them came up to greet us AND to take a peek into our lunch bag. :)

My first sensation of ocean water on my feet--IT'S COLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Because I grew up on Lake Eureka, I LOVE the water. After I got a bit chilled, I went and sat by Robert on our perch. Soon I found myself digging my feet in the sand like I did hundreds of times at home. Robert built a dam too and we teased that we were holding back the ocean.

Robert's first encounter with the Pacific Ocean. HE LOVED IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We're starting to feel a little bit more comfortable with driving out here. We just cannot grasp, though, that people live in these little places with no grass out front; not one inch of space between their house and their neighbors; and another place just like this touching their home on the backside. This means that children living here do not have one single blade of grass to play on. My mind is trying to grasp this but all that I can say is that we most certainly are blessed to live in North Dakota.

I took this on our way home last night but it caught my eye in the morning. This is the public bussing service but we're not sure if it's only for school children. When we went through in the morning, hundreds of school children had climbed this high perch and were waiting for the bus. Further along, the spot was empty and we saw the buses were full of children. Last night the buses had others in them so maybe school children have priority status--I'm just not sure how it works.

Last night, we came home and ordered a pizza from Ray's Pizza Shop as they told us at the desk that Ray's was the best. We're not sure that it was but it was good as we began watching PRIDE AND PREJUDICE. It's a wonderful movie that we've seen before (thank you Cora) but I was just too tired and fell asleep several times. Finally Robert said, "Why don't you go and get ready for bed, Dawn." So I did and slept like a rock.

This morning is another full day so I'd best get cleaned up for the day. More later and hugs to my family at home.

Dawn

PS. We went to Slide Ranch after we left the beach but it was such a great disappointment to us that it's not worth taking about right now. You can be sure, though, that after I return home I will tell the truth about them on this site. If we had driven out of our way to see it, instead of just 2 miles further from the beach, I'd be greatly upset.