The Redwood Forest Was Made For Me...

 and you, if you know my song reference! It was so exciting to go to California, although I'm not sure why. It's such an amazingly diverse state, and we didn't even go near the southern coast.

Here's me enjoying the Pacific near Crescent City. I feel like I became an expert in taking my own picture by the end of this trip!

The redwood forest was absolutely amazing. The trees are just so huge and majestic and old. When you walk among them in these peaceful, hushed groves, it is truly a holy moment.

And they are tall, too!

This is one of the tallest we saw. I can't wait to go see the General Sherman sequoia one day (maybe next summer?).

The absolutely coolest roadside kitschy thing we did....driving Ruby through that tree was totally worth the $5 admission fee. And since it was early in the morning and we were the only ones there, I did it twice!!!

I was so struck by these trees that I didn't take very many pictures, but I do know that I can't wait to go back and spend more than a day hiking and camping in Northern California. Thank heavens someone made an effort to preserve these gentle giants for our enjoyment.

Next up, our totally un-planned jaunt down the California coast from San Francisco to San Luis Obispo, including details of our mountain lion encounter!!

Back to the Road (Trip)

I've been posting tons of things about other travel I've been doing, but tonight I'm going to head back to my road trip. We left off as Tasha and I were leaving Seattle. So let's return to the I-5 and our totally unplanned jaunt down the west coast.

The International Rose Test Garden in Portland is really cool. They have TONS of roses (duh) with really interesting names. Unfortunately, I didn't write any of them down, but I did spend about hour taking pictures. The shots below were my favs:



This is Powell's City of Books in Portland. THE absolute coolest bookstore ever. It is basically a 4-story, city-block-sized warehouse chock full of books, on every topic imaginable, including bargains and new books. I could have spent days in there, but I restricted myself to only an hour, because that's how long our free parking was good. But the mere existence of this bookstore really made me consider moving Portland into the number one spot on my "Cities I Want To Move To List."

 

 This is Salt Creek Falls, a random waterfall (which happens to be the second highest in Oregon) that we came across in the Willamette National Forest on the way to Crater Lake. It was pretty cool to be at a point overlooking the top of the falls.

Now we come to Crater Lake, which was my absolutely-must-visit national park. And it did NOT disappoint. The water was so blue and clear and it was so uncrowded and peaceful, even on a gorgeous summer day. We only spent a few hours hear, but one day I plan to come back and spend a few days. So amazing!

 They call this little rock formation the Phantom Ship, because it looks like a ship, I guess, although I didn't really get that. But the towering trees at this edge of the lake lent such a majestic note to the view.

 The one thing I was most excited about at Crater Lake was a wildflower meadow trail. Well, we obviously missed the peak wildflower bloom, because this is all we saw. But we didn't miss the mosquitoes! Still charming though.

 Up next, we become crazy California girls!

Summer Trip Plans

So, even though it's not yet Christmas, I've decided to start planning next summer's vacation. That way, I know how much to save and also I have something to look forward to. My mom & I are planning a shorter trip in mid-June to Florida, but then I will be embarking on another cross-country extravaganza. My mission is to visit all 50 states, and by following this route, I will be one state away from my goal.

Here's the plan:


View Larger Map

Comments, suggestions, requests to come with?

Vermont

My grammie and I had an awesome time in Vermont! I have never seen so many beautiful trees all at once. I don't have that many great tree shots, but here are some of the fun things we saw:

A countryside scene, taken in West Cornwall, CT.

Classic covered bridge.

Grandma at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, MA

Norman Rockwell's studio.

View from the top of Mt. Greylock, near Williamstown, MA

More views from the top of Mt. Greylock.

The watchtower on Mt. Greylock. You can climb to the top, but I was too scared.

 Colorful hillside near Adams, MA

 The Vermont Country Store in Weston, VT-so much cool stuff!!!

 The old-fashioned candy counter in the Vermont Country Store-too bad it's not penny candy any more.

Gorgeous hillside in the Green Mountain National Forest.

 Moss Glen Falls along Route 100 on the edge of Green Mountain National Forest. We didn't know this place was here, but it was so gorgeous and peaceful-well, minus the hordes of camera-toting tourists.

 Another beautiful, colorful hillside, this one in Waitsfield, VT. Some of the views along Route 100 were amazing, but unfortunately, there was no safe place to stop and take pics.

 Sweet little country church in Waitsfield, VT.

The flavor graveyard at the Ben & Jerry's Factory, which you can see in the background. We didn't tour the factory because there was a long wait and they weren't in production that day anyway, but it was still a cool place to stop and see.

 These next few shots are all of Lake Champlain, taken from Burlington, VT. We got there just around sunset, and it was so pretty.

 We also took a tour of the Vermont Teddy Bear Company factory in Shelburne, VT, which was pretty neat.

My favorite part was the teddy bear hospital, where they repair any "injured" bears that were made by the VTBC. You can see this little guy is on a honey drip!

We had such beautiful weather all weekend, and it was so awesome to just look at the pretty New England scenery. The fall foliage is as nice as they say! I'll end with a few of my favorite "tree" shots.

There's just something about trees I love. My two favorite tree quotes about trees are:

 "I think that I shall never see a poem as lovely as a tree."

~Joyce Kilmer

"I couldn't live where there were no trees-something vital in me would starve."

~L.M. Montgomery, from Anne of Green Gables

Up next, I'll be returning to my summer road trip-I think we left off along the Oregon coast.

Flower-Filled Collage

So I just learned how to use the incredibly cool collage feature on Picasa, as well as how to upload the collages to my blog. So here are the best flower shots from trip, arranged in a mosaic. It took forever, but I think it looks totally awesome! (Tip: If you click on the image, you will be taken to a window with a zoomed in view, and then you can have a better look. I'm thinking of getting a poster printed of this!).

I will have a few full-length posts about Vermont (can you say "amazing fall foliage shots!!??") coming up, as well as continuing with my road trip from last summer as I review my trip down the west coast.

The Best of Vermont

Beautiful foliage, covered bridges, cascading waterfalls, country stores, Lake Champlain, and THE. Best. Ice. Cream. Ever. One perfect Vermont day.

In The Green Mountains