Trees of Mystery

What does Paul Bunyon eat for breakfast? 2000 flapjacks, that is what he told Taylor anyway. Taylor also asked him how big his grandma was. Unfortuantely Paul never met his grandma so he didn't know how big she was. We had a lovely chat with Paul and his ox Blue - or course Blue didn't talk back, he is a ox after all. A GAINT Paul Bunyon and ox sat outside the gates of the Trees of Mystery a park outside of Eureka Ca. A little pricey but quite extrodianry - it was worth the price. We walked along paths winding through gaint redwoods and then took the sky cab up above the trees so that we were looking down on them. The kids loved the ride and the view was spectacular. We rode up, then down and then decided to hike up. The sign said we should check with an attendent before hiking up. So we did, he said go ahead and go if you want - but not many people hike up- it is more of a down kind of thing. We quickly learned why - it is steep, really steep. But Taylor and Dallin ran on up while Anna, Ryan and Rachel dragged Rick and I up. The kids can definately be little mountain goats when they want to. About half way up Ryan said, "Hey Dad why did you ever have to think of climbing up this- it was kind of a dumb idea? Frankly I agreed. We made it up to the top, caught our breathe and got in line to ride the sky cab down. Rick suggested walking down but he was quickly shot down.

The Redwoods are huge - or course I have always heard how big those trees get but seeing them is something else. We stopped at the drive thru tree and payed our six dollars so we could drive our car through a tree. When I first saw the pamphlet for it I kind of dismissed it for a tourist trap that would be really spendy and not to great. But it was less money, and more fun than I expected. We drove through a couple of times and then let the kids sit on roof rack and ride through the tree. While there we also checked out the outhouse carved out of a single tree. They just took a huge tree and hollowed out the middle then put in a bathroom complete with running water. It was pretty cool. Ryan walked in, saw that it was a toliet, and dropped his drawers. Not wanting to be left out of the fun Anna and Rachel also went in the tree. A lot of people have peed on a tree but not to many have peed in tree. What an exciting day.