Discovering Big Trees

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Geo: 37.1852, -122.23

Even though the temperature the previous day had hit 100F, the nights still dropped to a chill 40F. We co-slept with the baby to make sure she stayed warm. She only occasionally thwarted this by somehow maneuvering into the most ridiculous upside down and diagonal positions, as well as taking over my pillow. Sleeping while camping is always a little rough for me, depending on how much energy I expended that day. So, I woke up alot and stared out at the stars and treetops through our open top tent. We left off the rain guard so the tent wouldn't bake during the day. I'd always fall back asleep soon enough. I was worried Arya wouldn't sleep while camping since we had so much trouble with it the previous year but she ended up sleeping like a rock.

The morning was still chilly and we bundled up when we finally crawled out of our tent around 8am. I boiled water for coffee while Chris got going on making breakfast burritos. I had pre-baked the red potatoes at home before we left so all we had to do was cook bacon, heat up the potato, add egg and assemble our meal with avocado and salsa. It was gloriously amazing.

After that, it was time for my first go at being "crumb clean". I guess the marmot is an endangered bird in the redwood treetops. The jays and crows are attracted to the area because of all the campers and hikers leaving food debris everywhere. Then they happen to notice the marmots and eat their eggs while they're at it. So, the park's campaign is to reduce "crumbs" leftover by people so the crows and jays are less interested in the area, and less likely to eat marmot eggs. Shrug. My usual dishwashing routine was to find the nearest spigot, and wash my dishes there with soap in either a basin or one of the pots/pans I'd used to cook with. And then just rinse under the spigot. Apparently that's a no-no at Big Basin now. Lemme tell you, being "crumb clean" made dishwashing take ALOT longer. I had to fill up a pot with water and soap. Wash my dishes in that pot. Then use another bowl of water to rinse the soapy dishes in. Then spread the gray water. Since my pots and bowl aren't that big, this required multiple trips to the water spigot, and multiple spreading of the gray water. They want you to distribute the water throughout the campsite instead of just one area. It became a soothing routine after awhile... like the routines of being an ICU nurse when your ventilator patient isn't all that near death. So, I'm not complaining about the new routine. I got used to it fast. That's how we're supposed to do it the backcountry anyway and we're learning to backpack later this year.

We wandered around the campground a little bit, and then drove to the camp store to pick up ice and a couple supplies. Mosquitoes were heavy during most of the day so we needed another citronella candle to ward them off. We also checked out the museum and wandered around the souvenir shop while we were there. After that, Arya was looking sleepy. We headed back to camp and put her down for a nap. This was another routine I was worried about. Like any toddler, she's stuck in her routines. And when you disrupt them, you get massively cranky baby throwing tantrums left and right. There's really no quiet place, other than maybe your car (which was too hot to hang out in anyway), to stick a screaming child. She had difficulty settling down, so instead of just Arya's nap time, it became family nap time. Chris and I both had to "pretend" to sleep. I think he actually fell asleep. I was set on not sleeping that way it wouldn't screw up my night time sleep. After around 45min, the wiggly toddler finally relaxed and dozed off. So I read for awhile, then threw something at Chris across the tent to wake him up. When he screws up his sleep he gets migraines. Definitely didn't want those. We both left the tent, took turns reading our books and then made a late lunch. We grilled the salmon we had meant to eat the night before but were too full to eat. Omg it was delicious. We ate it with watermelon.

After an hour, Arya woke back up and ate a small lunch. I finished dishes using another round of "crumb cleaning", and then we decided to head out for a walk. Arya's barely getting around to doing most of her own walking so actual hikes weren't really on the "to-do list" this trip. (If you are into longer hikes, I highly recommend the Berry Creek Falls loop trail!). She also refuses the baby carrier but wants to still be held in our arms when walking long distance. We didn't bother bringing the carrier or the stroller and just dealt with the imminent power struggles over forcing her to walk. Which she took rather personally. And I'm sure half the park heard her ten minute screaming/sobbing fit. We've long gotten over being embarrassed by our kid. If she throws a tantrum then we just let her get it out of her system. Takes ten minutes of apologies and sheepish looks but oh well. If she does something she knows she shouldn't, she gets a time-out, and I have no qualms sitting her butt down in the middle of the grocery store.. or a forest trail in this case. Time-outs can happen anywhere. =) So, Chris almost gave in to her fit over having to walk, but mommy enforced it. And it worked out for the better in the long run because after that she did 90% of her own walking. Kid's growing up. Soon she'll be hiking!

We took the very short and level Redwood Trail with Arya. It was an easy stroll through the largest of the redwoods in the park, conveniently next to the Park HQ. To make it easier on Arya, we drove the half mile to the trailhead. We walked on logs and let her discover ginormous trees. Afterwards, we got ice cream at the Camp Store. We still had a lot of time left in the afternoon so we decided to drive over to Sempervirens Falls. I hadn't seen it in years. You can also hike there but we weren't sure how much more walking Arya would be up for before she got cranky. And we didn't want to push it. So we took the super easy route by driving and parking a short distance from the falls (there's a tiny lot 1/8mile past the falls). Despite what the falls look like in the picture, they're actually quite small, and no, you can't swim in them. Berry Creek Falls is much bigger, and actually a set of falls.

After staring at the water, we headed back to camp. Chris and I did some more reading; I was very into my book called The Mountain Story. Chris grilled hamburgers and asparagus for dinner, which we ate with a salad, too. Arya was absolutely horrified by the bees. She was never stung but the loud buzzing and then touching her food really freaked her out. There was no convincing her that if she just held still and ate her food she'd be fine, lol.

We started the campfire early that night. Eventually we just got frustrated with the bees and mosquitoes, though. Normally, I don't care. But having to deal with Arya's frustration over it is what did it for us, I think. We tried going on short walks with her away from the campsite as well. No luck. We made our s'mores and then retreated to the tent in defeat. Chris and I were starting to get just as cranky as Arya, in a way that only other parents understand. I brought my cup of wine to the tent with me, and we took turns reading our books and playing with Arya. I was doing a very good job of moving my wine cup away from the hyper toddler until Chris, who wasn't paying any attention, knocked it over. He tried to blame me. Instantly pissed off mommy, lol. I growled at Chris, cleaned up the mess and read my book in fuming silence while he took over baby duty. I cooled down after a little bit and it was back to playing with Chris and Arya in the tent with such improvised entertainments as "toss the baby's bathing suit back and forth while she tries to intercept." We also read her short books over and over and over. Next time I need to pack more of a variety.

We headed to bed a little before 10pm again, mommy and daddy early sleep schedule.

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