Every-Day Posting Comes Early This Year

Yes, that's right! Instead of taking part in National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo) this year, I'm going to attempt to blog every day in October. It's my way of saying good-bye to this wonderful place we've lived for the past three years and documenting our transition to Pennsylvania. While we're still in Crescent City, I'll focus on the parts of our life here that we'll miss. A lot. And so, for the first October post, some pictures of the short visit of John and Stef (Auntie Best). We tried to show them EVERYTHING we loved in 36 hours. Not really possible, but we did a lot.

Darcy led them through the sun-dappled beauty of the redwoods in Stout Grove. It was a beautiful day. The redwoods did their best to be spectacular and they're good at that on even a bad day.

We didn't get to properly swim in the Smith River, but we did take the side path from the Stout Grove trail to the river and put our feet in. There was some rock-skipping and tadpole catching, and we picked and ate blackberries on the way there.

Then we hit Big Dune. It requires a walk through some of the worst mosquitoes ever to get there, but once you make it, it's wonderful. This is an inland dune, surrounded on all sides by forest. Most of the grass you see in the picture is an invasive foreigner. All this adds up to behavior that we would not condone on many other, more fragile dunes. John and Michael had long jump contests. We all sledded/rolled/fell down the sand.

Michael was the winner of the long jump contest (he has had more practice, in fairness to John) and was feeling very triumphant. Note that the redwoods, the river, and the dunes were all visited in one single day. Del Norte has a lot to offer.

The next morning, in response to Darcy's desperate pleas, her very kind aunt and uncle consented to try to see the tide pools despite the poor timing of the low tide. We didn't see much, but at least we got to show off yet another of our region's beauties:

Right before we left for the dunes, Darcy took off most of the skin on her big toe. She reluctantly allowed us to bandage it, all the while insisting that it was nothing -- no injury, no pain, no blood. But walking over the rocky beach this next morning was clearly bothering her and so, taking an uncle's right to spoil as his own, John carried her up the hill from the beach. We headed home, they packed their bags, and Michael arrived home to drive them to the airport in Medford.

As I type, John and Best are en route to Bhutan, a nation hidden high in the Himalayas. Bhutan is one of very few countries that measures national happiness instead of national gross domestic product. Knowing John and Stef, the gross national happiness of Bhutan will be increased slightly for the next 10 days. 

It has been a privilege to share this corner of the world with friends and family. Even though we wander the national parks, it is hard to imagine that we will live in another place that can surpass the natural beauty of this place, whether you call it the far North Coast of California, the Wild Rivers Coast, or the State of Jefferson.