Memoirs of a family trip.

In contradistinction to my last post, I haven't been especially busy for the last week, other than a family trip to Mendocino County over the weekend. I've just been enjoying my vacation, and too lazy and unmotivated to write anything. I thought I'd post some pictures from the trip, though.

Banana slug near the hotel we stayed at.

We went to an old Russian fort, saw the famous Chandelier Tree that you can drive through, and toured a large botanical garden, but the coolest experience for me was at our unplanned stop to change drivers and stretch our legs at a random spot on Highway 1, deep in the coastal mountains.

A little mountain stream was making its merry way way down the valley not too far from the road, so we climbed down to investigate it. The majesty of the place was amazing -- coastal redwoods stretching hundreds of feet above our heads, the noon-day sun falling through chinks in between the branches in soft rays of cool sunlight, reminiscent of the grandeur and beauty of a cathedral. But pictures speak better than words sometimes, and I think this is one of those cases:

The stream at the bottom of the dell.

We also stopped at the Chandelier Tree, the famous tree that you can drive your car through. It was, unfortunately, too short to allow our huge van to pass through, but I got a nice shot of Abigail nosing it in before we were sure we couldn't make it.

She set her Facebook status to
 "Drove the van into a tree." when we got home.