I am glad we did that “bridge thing” yesterday before we found out about Minneapolis, Minnesota’s bridge collapse. Now it’s a little unnerving every time we go over a bridge. The odds are slim that it will happen again but “Oh, we feel terrible for those unfortunate people.” God Bless them all. They will have a lot of posttraumatic stress from that event. I sure hope my cousins who live in that area are all safe and sound.
We drove from the 57-degree foggy Pacific Ocean air to the Avenue of the Giants where we saw the lofty, massive, beautiful redwood trees today. You just never know where we will set out on this trip. This world-famous scenic drive is a 31-mile portion of old Highway 101, which parallels Freeway 101 with its 51,222 acres of redwood groves. It is by far the most outstanding display of these giant trees in the entire 500-mile redwood belt. The Avenue of the Giants is surrounded by Humboldt Redwoods State Park, which has the largest remaining stand of virgin redwoods in the world. It’s been said the oldest recorded redwood tree, more than 2,200 years old, was found in this park. Ever since I was in grade school and saw these stunning, lofty, breathtaking trees in my geography book, I fell in love with them and wanted to go to California and see them in person. Well it took a few years and a couple trips to California but I finally fulfilled one of my many dreams. Can you smell the fresh scent of these giant redwoods? The aroma is wonderful and the sound in the forest is near silent. Take a deep breath and breathe in the aroma of the giant redwoods and relax to the sound of silence in the deep dark forest of the giant redwoods. All I can say is “wow.”
We are now in Albany, Oregon and should be on our way to the state of Washington tomorrow morning. What a wonderful day we had today.
