NO tipped over trailers this year.
NO setting up tents in the late night hours.
NO driving 17+ hours while pulling a trailer.
YES (and THANKS) to Broughtons left early with their trailer (filled with our stuff).
YES (and THANKS) to Broughtons who arrived safely and early so we could set up tents in the light
YES (and THANKS) to my colleagues, Karen and Talyn, who drove me to the Redwoods and back.
YES (and THANKS) to Dalton, another colleague, who drove six students to the Redwoods and back (which is probably harder than driving me to the Redwoods and back).
YES (and THANKS) to Rebecca, OPA’s stellar secretary, who's behind the scenes work was eased my burden LOTS..
YES (and THANKS) to all the parents and grandparents who drove the rest of the students to the Redwoods and back.
Most of all, YES (and THANKS) to the students without whom the trip would never happen.
Redwoods 2019 goes on the books as a resounding success.
While there we:
- Hiked Trillium Falls Trail (2.8 miles)
- Saw a herd of elk plunge into and over a river; the water was over their backs
- Explored tidepools in Patrick's Point State Park and in Trinidad. Sydney saw a nudibranch!
- Did dissections, microscope investigations, and had a touch tank experience at Humboldt University’s Marine Science Center
- Sea kayaked in Humboldt Bay
- Took a “two hour” boat tour (actually 1.5 hour) on the Madaket
- Toured the NOAA Weather Service Station
- Watched the sun set on Agate beach twice
- Hiked 11+ miles on the James Irving Trail to Fern Canyon to Miner’s Ridge in Prairie Creek State Park.
- Pulled European Beach Grass (invasive species) as a service project for the Humboldt Coastal Nature Center.
- Toured (and hiked in and shopped in) the Avenue of the Giants
- Ate dinner at the Samoan Cookhouse (..canned peas?? Are you kidding me??...)
- Created loads and loads of memories.
Life is the stories you can tell. We generated many stories. I will share one.
The skunks were everywhere and into everything. They pawed anything and everything that was left out. A library book left on the picnic table now sports muddy paw prints. A white towel left on the table to dry also had muddy paw prints. They helped themselves to the hot cocoa mix and decimated a bag of pretzels.
On our last night I told the kids to pack up EVERYTHING but their sleeping bags before they hung out by the fire because I’d be singing at 4 a.m. and hoped to be out of camp by 4:30 a.m. We’d also told them previously to always close their tent doors and to never have food in the tent.
About 9:30 p.m. some boys approached me and told me there was a skunk in their tent.
“We don’t have any food in our tent,” the boys declared adamantly as we approached their skunk-inhabited tent. I questioned the veracity of their statement. “Honest, we don’t,” they reaffirmed emphatically. “There is food in the garbage bag but not in our tent.”
Me: “Where is the garbage bag?
Boys: “In the tent.”
Oh dear.
Sure enough. There was a skunk in the tent. Sure enough there was a skunk in their tent. The skunk had entered the open tent door and was very happily munching on the plethora of food it found inside the tent amongst the shoes, socks, clothes, and various other things the boys had left scattered on their tent floor. There was also food in the garbage bag that was inside their tent.
“What do we do?” they asked me. Wait, I said. “What if it stays in our tent all night?” they asked. Then you wait outside all night, I said. Fortuitously it left about an hour later.
And we all left camp about six hours later and arrived home about 18 hours after that.
YES (and THANKS) to God for His glorious creations and the opportunity we had to enjoy them together.
[NOTE: The 2019 Redwoods Trip happened September 9-14, 2019.]
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