Boy Scout Tree Trail

As part of our Christmas/New Year's outdoor fest, we hiked the Boy Scout Tree Trail last weekend. It is a gorgeous trail leading to a smallish waterfall. We started it later than we should have due to an untimely nap, but we forged ahead and managed to get to the waterfall and back before Michael's headlamp was necessary. Near the beginning of the trail, Darcy was in the backpack, but soon after they posed near this leaning redwood, she got out and hiked on her own for (we estimated) about .75 miles!

Darcy and I disappear among the trees (you may have to enlarge the picture to see us).

The fern mass on the trunk near the left of the picture is huge, but the picture I took that gave some sense of just how huge didn't come out very well.

Part of the trail ran right alongside and old redwood log. It was gorgeous.

The final destination: Fern Falls.

Hail!

A few days after Christmas, we had a night of crazy rain. As Darcy was waking up, the noise level of the wind and rain increased dramatically. It was only when we opened the blinds that we figured out that part of the increased volume was HAIL. Serious hail. And thunder! And lightning!

Darcy and I were on our way to check out a daycare option three hours after it hailed. The roofs had been completely covered earlier in the morning. Some of the hail on the grass was still there at five in the afternoon even though part of the day was very sunny.

Hail on the windshield.

Accumulated hail at an intersection.

... Happy New Year!!!

Yes, this is Happy New Year wishes in two parts because it means that I'll have written exactly 100 posts on this blog in 2009. It doesn't make up for not seeing friends and family as much as we'd like, but at least you all get to see and read about Darcy's ever-changing world.

She is just now going to bed after watching the ball drop in Times Square. We set our one analog clock ahead three hours so she could see the hands reach midnight and blew noise makers.

May we all have a more peaceful new year in 2010.

Wishing You All...

A very...

Beach And Lighthouse

Christmas Day dawned sun-shiney! We walked on a pedestrian/bike path downtown and ended up on this stretch of beach at low tide. Darcy had to be carried part way on the trail, but once we got to the beach, she miraculously found more energy and ran around like a maniac.

We wrote and drew pictures in the sand with sticks and Darcy enjoyed playing with them.

While our stretch of beach was still sunny, there was a fog bank working its way toward us. It caught up with us before we got back to the car and it was chilly-brrrrrr.

Since we got here, we've been meaning to go out to the lighthouse. It is still operational and lives on an island that is accessible by causeway at low tide. The problem has been getting the perfect combination of a day with decent weather with a low tide that is not at five in the morning or during Darcy's nap, etc. But there it was! Low tide. We were within sight of the lighthouse. The weather was deteriorating, but manageable. So off we went.

It's a very nice island and a very nice lighthouse. During the summer, they give tours, but we just enjoyed the outside and all the decorations that the keepers had put up. All in all, a very nice way to spend Christmas morning.

In Search Of The Wonder Stump

When we drive north to Oregon, we cross over a road called Wonder Stump Road and ever since the first time we noticed it, we of course wondered just what the Wonder Stump(s) is (are).

Our local paper has a column once a week that consists of short reprinted articles from past papers. Shortly after we got here, it included a story about the origin of the Wonder Stumps. I told Michael about it, because we'd discussed this question already, but he had heard something different at work. We kept meaning to go in search of the Wonder Stump/s, but hadn't.

Christmas Eve day was sunny and pretty nice, so we decided to begin our search. Michael found an article from the Daily Triplicate's sister paper, the Curry Pilot, about a reporter, new to the area, who went searching for the Wonder Stump without success. It contained more information and seemed to clear up the question of whether there is more than one. It also included an old photo and vague location, so we thought we'd be able to find it.

As it turns out, we couldn't. It didn't matter, though, because we had a beautiful drive through second growth forest on Wonder Stump Road and saw gorgeous old-growth stumps left from logging a hundred or more years ago. In particular, we found this cluster of burned (very tall) stumps. I spied them from the road and they are unbelievably massive and beautiful.

Michael in front of the fire cave at the base of one stump, in the "front".

Michael and Darcy in another fire cave in the "back".

Michael and Darcy, again for scale, because it's hard to appreciate how massive these things are even when you're standing in front of them.

Looking up from the base of one of the stumps. It's hard to tell if these were logged or burned as living trees (as described in the first article), but redwoods don't burn easily. They just seem like very tall "stumps" for logging.

We're hoping to find the Wonder Stump one day. In the meantime, there are some historic and modern photographs of it here (you'll have to scroll down to the part about the "Del Norte Wonder Stump) and here.

Darcy's Version Of Christmas

This morning, we let Darcy open one present. In part, this is because we don't want sensory overload to set in any earlier than it needs to. We gave her the package that included her new stocking. Her previous stocking, made by her Auntie Best, was injured beyond my capability to repair. The new one is sort of elf-shoe shaped, with the curved-up toe and is mostly red and white. She pulled it out, assessed it, and announced, "A Tiny hat! I have a Tiny hat!"

Tiny is a pteranodon child from the PBS show Dinosaur Train. Tiny is also what Darcy has been calling Santa Claus for the past few days. Why? I don't know, but she's very insistent. She keeps talking about how we'll leave a fish treat for Tiny when we hang up our stockings. Her face fell when we said it was a stocking, so I quickly said, "It's probably both...try it on as a hat." So she did, and it fit. She very proudly wore it when she walked over to take care of our neighbor's cat. Or rather, their triceratops. Cats and dogs have been triceratops(es) for a few weeks now.

Before she left, however, she explained that the real Tiny is very busy this morning: "Tiny has to go to all the nests and ask the all the dinosaurs what they want for Christmas."



(And hey! Darcy just helped with her first crossword puzzle! Michael is half-heartedly doing today's Triplicate puzzle and one of the clues was "Elmo's street", so he asked Darcy and she said, "Sesame!")