Giants

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The redwoods, once seen, leave a mark or create a vision that stays with you always. No one has ever successfully painted or photographed a redwood tree. The feeling they produce is not transferable. From them comes silence and awe. It’s not only their unbelievable stature, nor the color which seems to shift and vary under your eyes, no, they are not like any trees we know, they are ambassadors from another time.

– John Steinbeck

I can’t say it better than Mr. Steinbeck. I have wanted to see the Redwood Forest for as long as I can remember. I was not disappointed.

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Crater Lake

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I always wanted to go to Crater Lake National Park, I’m not sure why. I think I saw a picture once and the blue water intrigued me. We were so close to it driving down the Oregon coast that I just had to squeeze it in.

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The Oregon Coast

After we left Olympic National Park, we continued three hours down Hwy 101 to Seaside, Oregon. The rest of Washington was pretty nondescript, we caught our first couple glimpses of the Pacific Ocean. We crossed the mouth of the Columbia River across the magnificent Astoria-Megler Bridge which kinda wigged me out at one end…I don’t like heights.

We arrived in Seaside, Oregon in the evening. I had booked a hotel right on the beach with an ocean side first floor room. The kids were in heaven.

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Olympic National Park

After a couple fabulous days in Seattle, we had jumped the Puget Sound and were on Hwy 101. We would essentially follow it for over 1,000 miles to San Francisco with lots of planned and unplanned stops along the way. Always make unplanned stops, it really ramps up the travel experience.

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Seattle

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We go on a family vacation every year…sometimes more than one  We had traveled sooo much in 2013, and 2014 had dawned difficult, so somehow I found summer 2014 fast approaching and nothing was planned. Well I couldn’t have that. I think the plan pretty much came about because I had never been to Oregon, and the kids lacked Washington and California as well, so boom.  A Pacific Coast trip was birthed.

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