Red Woods

Ben and I drove up north to soak in our three day (MLK Jr. Day) weekend. We spent it at a B&B called The Log House Lodge just a few miles from the entrance to Sequoia Nat'l Park. The couple that owns and works the B&B go to Grace Community Church (where we go) and give 2 nights free to Masters Seminiary students and their families. We had heard about it awhile back from seminary friends that have gone up so we made the 175 mile road trip and experienced it for ourselves. We had a GREAT time! The change in scenery being the mountains near snow was awesome for Alaskans! The hospitality and food Mauriene fixed was out of this world.

We spent Saturday driving up and touring around Three Rivers (a small town boardering the park). They had a cute candy, trinket, ice cream shop right on the river. Later that night as we settled in to the B&B Mauriene set us up with a movie of our choice on their big screen projector TV set up. Ben chose "The Quiet Man" as he is slowly indoctrinating me with John Wayne theology. Next to the Bible my husband quotes more John Wayne movie lines than anyone else I know. Sunday we woke up to an AMAZING breakfast that we devoured before heading out to Sequoia Nat'l Park to see the Sequoia and Red Wood trees. I saw them years ago at a family reunion in CA so I have a vague recollection of them but Ben had never been.

The humorous/frustrating part of our trip was today. We bought a 7 day pass and planned on going yesterday and then again today. This morning those plans changed as we got to the park entrance and were told we had to have chains on our tires or we could be fined. CHAINS?? The park ranger must have been misinformed, it was RAINING outside. We did a double take, "Chains, really?" The ranger joked about our AK plates and not being "prepared." I responded as graciously as possible that we lived in LA where we see rain about 6 days a year. At the same time I was thinking do people in Southern CA even know what chains are? Apparently. The ranger then kindly gave us a brochure that had several places in town (about 10 miles back) where we could rent chains for about $100 a day. The unsanctified part of my flesh ached to go into the park just to smite ridiculous CA rules. We asked a ranger on our way out how high the "fee" was for not having chains and he said it was pretty sizable so we left.

Yet another winter in So Cal story. We can't wait to get back to AK. :) We do think we'll probably go back to the park in the spring when things warm up so we can see more of the park (parts were closed off for the winter) and the Crystal Caves. It IS a beautiful area, well worth the visit! We were tremendously blessed by the generosity and hospitality of the Landry's (B&B) too. Thank you!