THIRTY-ONE

 

In a field of wild mint blossoms and elk catching bumblebees. 

2021 week thirty-one

After we left my mom's house on Sunday we drove three hours North West to Arcata to visit one of my oldest friends. She promptly took us into the forest. 

It was where we all needed to be. 

After all the awful smoke and heat it was so deeply refreshing to drink in the cool forest air. 

And this forest was pretty magical. Despite being devoid of bugs. 

After our walk there was a little pick up band jamming in the park. The lady is playing a musical saw. 

Adrienne! Best friends for 23 years. We met on the first day of fourth grade. 

The kids really enjoyed playing with all the magical toys I enjoyed playing with at Adrienne's house when I was younger. 

They also loved her backyard where they could forage for huckleberries and snails. 

The snails really redeemed this insect wasteland for Theo. :) 

On Monday we went back to the redwoods to climb more trees. 

We bumped into a forest ranger from Fort Worth (!!) who gave the kids a booklet to complete to earn junior forest ranger badges. 

So exciting. 

Adrienne taught us all about all the edible berries and Theo was a master forager for the rest of the trip. 

We went to the beach later to look for sand dollars. 

We only found crabshells (and lackluster attitudes...) 

Then Adrienne took us to the most magical fairyland of a canyon. Fern Canyon.

Sheer sides with ferns just tumbling over each other all the way up. 

It is hard to describe how unearthly beautiful this was. I did everything I could to just soak it in.

I love a good silly tree. 

Tuesday morning we went to Patrick's Point. 

We saw a sea otter! He's right in the middle of this photo but he blends in so well. He kept peaking his cute face over the rocks to look at us. 

Then we went to Agate beach. 

More crab shells. 

I love a good moody beach. 

More berry hunting. 

On our last morning in Arcata we walked around the cute little town. 

I loved the friendly carved bushes in this yard. 

Thankfully Theo thought to bring a container because he found so many snails. 

We also met Carlos the cat. 

After Arcata, we had a long drive North up the coast to visit my Grandpa Gordon in Oregon. We made a pit stop to see Paul Bunyan. 

There was someone talking on a microphone inside Paul Bunyan to the people passing below, the kids were very interested in this. 

After our 5 hour drive (which was more like 7) we finally made it to Grandpa Gordon's house! It, unfortunately, could only be a short visit because of how long it would take to get back down to California to catch our flight, but we had a good evening chat and morning chat. 

Beautiful view. 

We stopped at the jetty on our way to let them get a few more wiggles out. 

Theo caught so many crabs! 

And we found a few pretty hermit crabs. 

We had lunch in downtown Florence. 

Fresh fish on the water. 

And a few more wild blackberries for good measure. 

We stopped once more in Ashland, Oregon. It's such a cute little hippie dippie Shakespeare festival town. We went to a tea house and they LOVED sitting at the low tables on poofs for seats. V said, "I feel like I'm in Professor Trelawney's classroom!" And we had possible the best Boba of my life. 

Then we stopped at the Shakespeare guild gift shop for a little trinket. Then we buried the hermit crabs from earlier. They did not survive even an hour of the car ride. Then back down to Redding for the evening, and on again to Sacramento the next morning. I think I'll be ok to not drive a car again for a few months. It was a lot of driving. The kids and I listened to the Graveyard Book, which really helped because that book is magical. 

My mom and baby me. 

After being fuss buses for the three hours on the flight, both kids fell asleep on touchdown...

We came home to a happy cat, and beautiful flowers from Papa. We missed Matt so much. It was so good to be home with him again. 

Matt took them for a hot hot hot Saturday morning bike ride, and Theo found this terribly interesting and simultaneously horrifying snake skin...

Saturday evening was Harry Potter's birthday, so I made Cornish pasties, Butterbeer, and molten cauldron cakes. 

Sunday morning trip to Costco after everyone got back-to-school haircuts. I think V really wanted to look a little bit more like Adrienne. 

Quotes:

Theodore

V- "UGH! I dont WANT to!"

T- "Life is more than what you want, Veronica."

We used a public bathroom and when the automatic flush went off it spooked Theo so much that he jumped up and the entire toilet seat came with him. We had a pretty good laugh about that.

Looking at my old Lord of The Rings replica sword, "Well, you'll need that if there's ever a war." 

"This was so miserable! There weren't even any bugs! You took me to this place to make me cold and miserable on purpose."

T- "THERE AREN'T EVEN ANY BUGS HERE! WHY ARE WE HERE?" (noticing a theme?)

Me- "There are types of fun that involve not catching bugs."

Passerby breaks into laughter at Theo's incredulous face and the ridiculous things I'm having to say.

"YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE EVEN MENTIONED SAND DOLLARS!" Theo, being very upset that I took him to a beautiful beach that didn't have treasures he could bring home.

T- "Phew! I'm glad we glad we got here in the middle of snail season."

Adrienne- "In Arcata, it's always snail season." 

"What is this? Is it rotten? Nope. It's just normal. Sometimes nature is gross." 

Veronica

V- "What does my bun smell like?"

T- "It smells like an egg toot. You must have had eggs and ham."

V- "You're right!"

T- "What does my bun smell like?"

V- "Mmmmmm. Chocolate chips!"

They were playing dogs, but I don't really think that makes it any better.

"I could totally live outside. If only trees had air conditioning. "