We finally made it to that illustrious break that teachers wait for so much more than students, Spring Break. We were sure going to take advantage of it since we had not seen much of Oregon yet. Forget that the weather looked rather miserable and the temperatures were not going to get much above 60 degrees. We were heading out and exploring the country. We had to wait initially for the NCAA Tournament, though as I was not going to miss the opening round weekend. After seeing Gonzaga beat North Dakota State and Iowa, I was ready to head out. We left on Monday morning and our only goal for the day was to get down to Roseburg, only a couple hours away. It was just pouring down rain. This was going to be fine as we were going to spend our time at the Wildlife Safari Park. We had been there once before to the free part and were amazed just how much that you could see in the free part. This time we were going to pay the big bucks and do the drive. It was worth it once as there were many types of animals to see and given that we got to spend the day inside of a car rather than outside in the pouring rain, it worked out. We had a dinner in town and a comfortable night stay at a hotel before heading further south.
We drove down I-5 until we got to Grants Pass, then cut off from there on Highway 199. The goal was to make it down to Northern California and spend the day in the Redwoods. It was actually a fairly pretty drive as much of it was along the Smith River until we were at our goal which was Jedidiah Smith State Park. We drove to where the visitor center was located, but found it not to be open. We hoped to gain some information there. Instead, we wandered down to the Smith River where we ate some lunch and threw some rocks. It was an excellent place to hang out and the kids had a great time.
We needed a trail, though, because we were not going to go all the way to the Redwoods without getting out and doing a hike. So, we found one that was nearby with parking that was actually a loop trail. It did not sound very exciting as the name was the Wellman Trail. It turned out to be exactly what we were looking for. With a 4 and a 2 year old, there was not a lot of distance that we were going to be able to throw down. We built up the hike quite a bit for the kids, so that they were excited to see the big trees. We also could keep them going by playing games with them such as go up ahead and hide to scare people. This trail did have a bit of elevation to it, but also many large amazing trees. The kids really enjoyed the slugs along the trail and I was enjoying the fact that at least it wasn't pouring down rain on us. Jacqueline was enjoying taking lots of pictures while also making the kids hold hands at any possible drop off. Given that this trail was not very steep, that was not very often, so we were able to run free most of the time. The kids did great, but the trail was not very long, so by 2:30 we still had time on our hands.
We drove down to Crescent City which was our goal for the night. We found this amazing playground that was virtually vacant. I guess it helps that the kids in California were still in school. Our kids were able to run around and play for quite a while. The next goal was to find a place to place to stay. Given that it was actually my birthday, Jacqueline convinced me to stay at the place in town that had the best view, The Oceanfront Lodge. It was a bit older but still we had a view of the ocean from our room. We even had a private beach that we were able to go down to in the evening to enjoy. I spent the rest of my birthday hanging out with the family and we had a good dinner. This trip was getting expensive as eating out and hotels were adding up. We needed to spend some time outside camping which would be our next adventure.
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