Back in October, my wife Stephanie, my mom, Nellie and I took a trip up to Humboldt County to visit my sister and celebrate her 21st birthday. If you are unfamiliar with exactly where Humboldt County is, or the distance between where I live (Long Beach, CA) and Humboldt County here is this trusty map:
Yep. 12. Long. Driving. Hours.
I drive a 2006 Scion xB, a comfy little car, but that comfy car becomes quite cramped traveling with two other people, their crap, my crap, plus the dog, and her crap (not literally), plus food and drinks. To top it all off, my dad bought my sister a giant, decorated cookie that he wanted us to take up to her. Not a problem. It wasn’t until I picked up the cookie that I realized this could be a problem. It was in a flimsy box, plus it was semi heavy for a cookie. How can a cookie last 12 hours on a car ride without A. it being eaten and B. it not crumbling to pieces?
I prepared for option B. Thinking of awesome puns and cliches I could tell my sister. “That’s the way the cookie crumbles.” “You can’t have your cookie and eat it too.” “Why are you upset? Do you have a chip on your shoulder?” “Oh no! The cookie broke! I feel crummy.” *insert laugh track here* *and snare drum* *wait for applause*. Anyway, I took a picture of it, just in case, so at least she could see the before picture. We ventured off and made the long ride up to Humboldt County. I made Stephanie in charge of the cookie detail and it sat on her lap the whole 12 hours up to Humboldt. But, every time there was a bump, or every time Steph wanted something to eat, or if she wanted to stretch, or sleep, it was a struggle and I’m sure this was going on in her head:
Man, I love that movie. Anyway on the way up we went down the Avenue of the Giants. HUGE redwood trees everywhere! We couldn’t believe our eyes. So we pulled over to the side of the road and snapped some pics.
Oh and Steph is 5’2″ for comparison. She actually looks pretty tall compared to that tree for whatever reason lol.
I will get to the story of this lonely hat in the near future. Anyway, we met up with Meghan and her boyfriend Craig once we hit Eureka, and our weekend consisted of going to an authentic pumpkin patch! The type where you get to pick your own pumpkins!
It was pretty awesome. And of course traveling while traveling we run into this:
Again, I will get to the story of this hat in the near future. We traveled up the hill to Meghan’s school, Humboldt State University to show Stephanie around since she’s never been up there. Meghan ended up taking us to the back of the school where there was a lake and some trails.
We then ventured into Arcata and went to the square where they were having their farmer’s market. I swear everyone from town was at this farmer’s market selling their organic fresh crops, flowers, oil, and pickles! We were in heaven and ended up buying a few things. Next stop on our adventure weekend was Sequoia Park, where I ended up taking most of my photographs. It was simply amazing, and I’m sure the photos speak for themselves.
We were still amazed at the size of these massive trees, and to get some perspective here is a snapshot that even our dog Nellie decided to get in on:
Last day in Humboldt County, Meghan and Craig wanted to take us to the Jetty and barbecue. The Jetty is awesome. The current from the water crashes against these rocks and makes huge waves. Unfortunately I didn’t get any pictures of that because I didn’t want to get wet (I know, I’m a pansy), but I did manage to get this:
Oh and did I mention the Jetty had a swing? Yup a swing someone made with a branch and some rope.
After awhile, we cared about nothing more than enjoying this swing, which in all honesty is the reason I didn’t get a picture of the water crashing on the rocks (oops hehe). That and the amazing food Craig fired up on the grill.
All in all though, I was sad to leave my sister, but I was able to get some awesome pictures, and most importantly the cookie was safe!
And to top it all off, we never even got a bite of that damn cookie!
