Camping with Giants

First camping trip of the year, and the weather couldn't have been better for it! We had a bit of a heat spell this weekend, and decided to head to the redwoods for some cool air. It took FOREVER to get there with traffic, and the fact that Little Basin is just not convenient to drive too. Mal even said commented on how secluded this place was, and that's coming from a Mainer! Luckily we made it while there was still light out. We did have an interesting thing happen when we put Madie to bed. One of our neighbors was really friendly and gave us a couple of glow sticks for the girls. We put Madie to bed with it, thinking it would be something fun for her. About 20 minutes later, I hear Madie start to say "Dadda, my tongue hurts." I went in to check on her and, just as I had suspected, she had bit the tip of the glow stick. The stick was leaking out and he said her tongue hurt. I couldn't remember what was in the glow stick, so at 10:30 pm I ran to the rangers office to call poison control (no cell phone service), and get the assurance that it's not a big deal and just dilute with water. PHEW! That was a worry! It was odd, because Madie has never been a kid to taste or bite things, she just isn't into that. I guess the glow stick just looked that good.

Mal cooking some fajitas.

We were glad Blair, Shelley, and Kara came with.

Madie and Kara had fun running around.

Kara must have had a dirty hand at some point...

Madie had a really hard time keeping her eyes open for the camera's flash.

We found some newts near a little brook.

We went for a little hike in Big Basin.

And headed to Natural Bridges for some beach time. It was such a nice day in Santa Cruz!

I almost couldn't keep track of Madie. She was having so much fun running around the water, playing with her bucket. She was galloping around everywhere. I wish she had liked the beach more when we were in Saipan where the water was actually warm!