And I’m not big into journaling. It takes special skill to record events and activities in a compelling way and I lack that skill. Nevertheless, if this blog is meant to record memories for my children I think I owe it to them to try to write about this vacation as thoroughly as I can stand to.

I think vacation details are one of the more tiresome conversation topics in existence. Even my four most-devoted readers may wish to skip this entry.

Friday

We landed in Seattle at 9 AM and had to wait in a massively long line for the shuttle bus to the car rental place. Found out later that this Friday was the biggest air travel day in the history of the United States.

My entire living nuclear family met at my sister’s house. We hit two playgrounds, a seafood restaurant, and an ice cream shop that makes their ice cream right in front of you with liquid nitrogen. My nuclear family was still on central time and we all passed out in our hotel early.

Saturday

We drove to Crescent City: two cars, four adults, two kids. We switched around people at every stop, and that helped a lot to make the drive feel faster. Lunch was at In N Out in Roseburg, Oregon.

We drove through the redwoods on the way to our AirBnB and both children were amazed at the giant trees. Those forests really feel like stepping backward in time! We passed a redwood that was growing so close to the highway they had cut a big notch in it for cars!

Our AirBnB was separated from the ocean by a quiet two-lane highway, so as soon as we had dropped our bags we had to go down to the beach with the kids. They were stunned by the enormity, the salt, and the waves. My oldest was especially so excited. He found a rock with a cup-like hole formed in it. He dubbed it “the shot rock” and brought it home.

Sunday

My sister started the day by taking a shot of rum out of the shot rock. It was a special moment.

Some of us went to explore the beach that morning before we headed into to Stout Grove in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. I had worried we would not be able to find a banana slug during our time in the redwoods, but this turned out to be a very stupid thing to worry about. There were banana slugs everywhere!

The kids climbed and ran all over the fallen trees. They loved it. I remember doing the same as a child. I think the kids could have stayed in Stout Grove all day.

Some of us returned to the beach that afternoon to explore tide pools and look for good rocks. My oldest and I stayed later than everyone else to build a small sandcastle and dig a small hole with the crappy plastic shovels we borrowed from the AirBnB.

This was Father’s Day, and my sister has a tradition of going to the casino on Father’s Day in memory of our deceased dad. So my sister and husband and I drove out to the casino for a few hours that evening. Everyone walked out with thinner wallets.

Then we drove north to Oregon to have dinner at Zola’s, which was fantastic but maybe not worth the extra hour in the car.

Monday

We had family photos planned for this morning, and I was dreading them. I hate family photos, and was annoyed to spend precious vacation time on such a terrible project. But the photographer ended up being great, and she even spent extra time taking us to a hollowed-out cave of a redwood tree which we would never have noticed without her direction.

We had promised my oldest that he could have this entire afternoon as a beach day, and we kept that promise. He was out on the beach for eight hours in total that day, digging and building and digging and building and waiting for the tide to come in to destroy his efforts. The adults engaged in some healthy alcohol consumption between shifts of assisting his work. It is possible that this was the best afternoon of his life.

Tuesday

This was my mom’s birthday, and we had acquired a permit to hike the Fern Canyon in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park.

Fern Canyon was a gorgeous traipse through a crystal-clear creek surrounded by sheer cliffs bursting with ferns. It was one of those hikes that you can’t do anywhere else and was well worth the 2+ hours of driving.

My mom’s birthday dinner that night was at SeaQuake Brewing. Her two college friends, who are local to Crescent City, joined us and it was a good time. Afterward they brought us to the Northcoast Marine Mammal Center to see the recuperating seals and sea lions relaxing in their outdoor pens.

Wednesday

My youngest son and my sister both had bubblegum ice cream on this day.

My mom’s college friends live in Crescent City because their daughter lives just outside Crescent City. We went to visit her family on Wednesday.

The first thing you should know is that my oldest loves bunnies. He’s always wanted a pet rabbit and although I am a sucker for bunnies too I have so far refused his requests. This family had a lovely pet bunny (Baby) which my oldest got to hold multiple times during our visit. I got to hold a chicken, which is something I have somehow never done!

This place was a child’s paradise. They had an archery setup, a small treehouse, a swingset, a swing made from a buoy, a ninja slackline, a dog, a bunny, eleven chickens, and a kitten.

And they had a gorgeous river right behind their house. We spent the afternoon swimming in the cold, crystal-clear waters. My sister found serpentine on the riverbank. My kids tried a stand-up paddleboard for the first time.

It was the kind of place that makes you wonder why anyone would want to live anywhere else in the world.

Thursday

We did Trees of Mystery on Thursday morning. It’s a massive tourist trap right on the 101: great fun. They have a canopy trail, which is just a non-nerdy word for an Ewok village trail. They have a gondola that takes you to the top of a hill. They have a massive gift shop and fudge and I am of the age now where I am interested in fudge.

My youngest so desperately wanted to do the canopy trail but he was also so frightened of it that he never did manage it despite three separate tries. I am proud of him for trying. Twice he got out about 15-20 feet on the first bridge and had to turn around weeping. We told him it was okay and we could come back someday for him to try again when he’s older.

We drove my mom’s Subaru through the Tour-Through Tree in Klamath. I can’t bring my kids all the way to the redwoods and not drive through a tree, right?!

We had sushi for lunch, and then a long afternoon on the beach again, this time with a nice campfire to celebrate the summer solstice. We drank beer and wine and gin & tonic, and ate Little Caesar’s pizza and my sister and the kids dug another giant hole and the ocean filled it back in.

Friday

This was our last full day in Crescent City. We had borrowed boogie boards from my mother’s friends and had been waiting all week for the weather to warm up but it never did.

My sister, husband, and the kids rented wetsuits and went boogie boarding at the local swimming beach. The waves were not really fit for boogie boarding that day, but everyone had a blast and they all stayed in the freezing cold water for several hours.

That evening I sorted through the small collection of rocks I had picked up on the shoreline that week. Ten were coming home with me, but about thirty would stay here for future rockhounds. I walked them back to the ocean, tossing them one by one into the wet sand and then waited for a wave to wash over them and reclaim them.

We all packed up.

Saturday

We left early, driving back the way we came. We stopped at In N Out again (apparently In N Out is famous even among the elementary school set?). Our cars and families parted ways at the French Prairie Rest Area, and my little nuclear family continued on to Portland, Oregon.

Our first stop was to visit old law school friends whom we have not seen in nearly a decade. These are some of my favorite people from our New York City years, and I have many fond memories of drinking too much at their apartment in Astoria and babysitting their cat at our apartment in Woodside. They are still both interesting and lovely and it was somehow reassuring to see them and remember that they still exist in this world! The older kids even got along great and did weird kid stuff in the basement while the adults visited on the main floor (the dream!).

After checking into our hotel, we hit Powell’s Books in Portland. We found a conveyor belt sushi place, and then we went to Voodoo Donuts to get a pink box of delights for dessert.

Sunday

This was a flying day. I enjoyed some Alaska Airlines themed beer on my flight. The kids complained about the Internet on the plane. We got home to some much-missed kitties who actually seemed a little disappointed that we weren’t the cat-sitter. We unpacked. I started laundry. I mourned the end of the 65 degree weather we had been experiencing, and packed away my jeans in preparation for the hot, humid Midwest summer.

“I have to keep reminding myself this isn’t a once in a lifetime thing,” my oldest had told me on our first day in Crescent City as he stared in awe at the ocean having just returned from climbing around a forest full of 2,000-year-old trees.

It was truly an epic vacation and worth the two days of travel on both ends. If you ever get a chance to plan a trip to Crescent City, California, you should take it! And take my oldest kid with you!