Muir Woods!

Meg wanted to see some big trees, so today we decided we'd head over to the Muir Woods. We walked Navi then we headed off. My dad took my family to the Muir Woods when I was younger, so I was excited to see if it was the same as I remembered. I think I was 12 years old the last time I visited this place, but I'm really not sure. When we were driving down a mountain on the way to the Muir Woods, there was a running race happening. They had to cross the road at certain locations, so there were older men with stop signs hurridly letting cars by when no runners were near, and then stopping traffic so that people could run across the road without having to stop or slow down. The stop-sign people seemed so much more frantic than necessary, but then again, if the runners lives were my responsibility, I might be frantic, too. It was interesting because it looked as if the race was just running up and down the side of this mountain. I like running, and I like races...but I wouldn't be interested in running up and down the same mountain side several times on a very hot day. It was so hot out that there was a woman standing at one checkpoint hosing everyone down. Dean and Meg had an annual pass to national parks, so we got into the park for free! The Muir Woods ended up being exactly as I remembered...with the one exception that I remembered the trees being much, much bigger.

Everything looks so much bigger when you are smaller. It was still amazing how huge the trees are, though. It's hard for a photograph to do it justice because the trees are so tall. We wandered around, and took a million photos. The one below is one of my favorites. I wish I had a person in this photograph, though. If a tiny Tim was standing in the corner, the size of the trees would be so much more impressive!

The wildlife seemed a little tame here; there were lots of deer who would stand within five feet of a fence and not care that you were there. There was even a little fawn that was all alone so I wondered where it's mother was. At one point, Tim found a log that you can climb into, and I made him climb into it.

Then he decided he could do me one better and climb all the way into the log. When I looked in to say hi, he snapped a photo!


That's Dean in the background with the flash! Here's a photo of Meg and Dean!

After wandering around the Muir Woods, we visited the gift shop. They have all sorts of beautiful redwood bowls. Dean collects pins, so he picked one up, and we wandered back to our car. On the way home, we decided they should experience another West Coast ...thing and take them to In N Out. It's a fast food restaurant but it's pretty darn good (for fast food). It was really crowded, so we ended up getting our food and eating outside on the curb. Yum! In N Out has good hamburgers, but the french fries make me really sad. The reason they make me sad is that they should be amazing since they are made from fresh potatoes on the spot, but the truth is that McDonald's and all those other over-processed fries are more delicious. At In N Out, they peel the potatoes, and then put them into this smasher. They smash the potates through a little grid and put them directly into frying in the oil. It would be nice if something so simple would taste better than the over-processed kind. Then we wandered back home, where the dog was very happy to see us! We looked at photographs of their road trip and laid around the apartment. Then we went Sake tasting! Neither of them had ever had sake before, so it was a new experience to them. I think Dean liked a few sakes; he ended up buying a lychee flavored sake, and a plum flavored sake as well. Meg didn't really appreciate the sake. I don't love the sake either, but they have these three plum flavored ones that are really good. One is a plum flavored sake, and the other two are plum flavored white wines. Yum. We bought a plum flavored sake and a plum flavored white wine. Tim got to try an expensive sake with gold flakes in it. It made him feel really special. Then, we went and got ice cream, since Meg and I are ice cream fiends. Meg and Dean hung around until 8 pm or so, and then they packed up their car and drove through the night to Yellowstone. Crazy!