Saturday we woke up pretty early and had our free continental breakfast downstairs before we headed out to drive farther north to go kayak Trinity River (prearranged by Seth). The drive was beautiful as we winded our way through lush green mountains. We drove through a freakishly thick cloud for about ten minutes, which then vanished almost as suddenly as it appeared. Kayaking Trinity River was so much fun. Seth and I were the only ones kayaking with the company that day, so we kinda got a private lesson from our guide, who just happened to teach kayaking for one of the local universities! Seth and I thought we had done crazy rapids in Sun Valley when we went with my family, but the rapid on Trinity River were so much scarier! The craziest rapid was a class 3+ that only had one path we could take if we wanted to do it correctly (and even then the guide said we had a 90% chance of getting tossed out by the rooster tail created by huge amounts of water at the end of the rapid). Our guide even had us get out of the kayaks first and walk over to the rapid in order to plan our route and decide if we had the guts to try it. I kinda had been planning not to do the death-wish of a rapid, but my "go-getter, impress my husband with my crazy bravery" side came out so I decided to go for it. I was really pumping myself up to do it and had found my inner courage, but that was almost totally shattered when our guide told me that he always gets nervous before this rapid! Even the professional kayaker got nervous! I knew I was doomed. I decided to let Seth go before me, so he followed the guide in. I was pretty close behind, but knew things were not looking to good for me when I could no longer see Seth's kayak in front of me because he had gone off the mini-waterfall of a rapid (the drop was honestly at least five feet). Well, I managed to enter the rapid at the right spot and was on the correct route. I was feeling good. All that was left was that final instruction I'd received to throw my weight to the left to counteract the rooster tail of water that would try to flip my kayak to the right. I threw my body with all my might, only to end up submerged under my kayak. I was really thankful for the wetsuit I'd chosen to wear despite the grief Seth had given me for it! It turns out that Seth had flipped out of his kayak too, so I didn't feel that bad. It kinda boosted my ego too when a lady on the shore told me I was awesome cuz she'd never dare to try going down that rapid! Hooray for trying-to-be-a-tough-girl-pressure! Seth decided to try the rapid again, but once again got dumped out of his boat! That rapid got the best of us, but we both felt really tough for trying it.
The kayaking trip had taken most of the day, so we headed straight back to Eureka. We did, however, remember to stop at the Bigfoot Museum on the way. I don't know about you, but I'm convinced he's real (totally joking!). I loved that each of "Bigfoot's footprint" casts looked completely different from the others! Maybe the people trying to convince us all of some giant monkey man should get together to come to an agreement on what they'll make him look like before trying to sell it to us.
After seeing the roomful of Bigfoot evidence, we headed to Eureka to clean up for dinner. Seth had made a reservation at the restaurant downstairs at The Carter House (4 stars... nice!). It was known for it's world-famous wine list and organic, home-grown menu. You can just imagine the waiters face when we told him we wouldn't be having any wine that evening! He tried to be professional and polite but he was pretty easy to read. The dinner was fabulous though, and it was really fun getting all dressed up for a night out with Seth. After dessert, we enjoyed the complimentary herbal teas that the hotel had in the lobby by the fireplace.
We had planned on going home Sunday, but there were still so many things we wanted to do while in northern California, so we took advantage of it being Labor Day weekend and decided to extend our stay another day. Of course, we could afford to stay in The Carter House again (it was nice, but with nice comes high price), so we quickly found a cheap room at the Travelodge down the road. We took some pictures of really cool Victorian houses in town. Then, we headed up further north to go to the "Trees of Mystery." When we pulled up, a ginourmous Paul Bunyan and his blue ox, Babe were there to greet us. Paul had a man hidden somewhere inside him that was talking and making Paul wink and wave. Crazy stuff! We walked on the trail through the redwoods and saw cool ways the trees had grown like the "Cathedral Tree", the "Brotherhood Tree", and the "Candlabra Tree". Then we road the Sky Trail up through some huge redwoods! I kinda got weak in the knees when I looked down, so I mostly enjoyed the tree tops while Seth talked about how crazy it'd be if we fell! Nice convo to be having when you're hanging by a cable, huh?!? The view from the top was so beautiful! After the Sky Trail we walked through the Trail of Tales, where we learned all we could ever want to about Paul Bunyan! Seth and I actually really like the tall tales of Paul when we were both little, so this was kinda fun! We waved goodbye to Paul and headed for our next adventure.
We drove through Elk Grove to the Fern Canyon trail, where we got out and walked through some of the prettiest areas I've seen. Every surface was covered with moss or ferns, and many places had trickling water running down the walls. It was so beautiful. We got a lot of good nature pictures. Seth and I thought some of the people on the trail were pretty hilarious, though. They treated the walk like a true hike, prepared with their camelbacks, fanny packs, and hiking boots. We heard a group talking about how they needed to make sure to drink some water as they stopped for a rest! I begin feeling like I must be missing something as I walked around in my flip-flops. We never did find that "hike" they were so prepared for..haha. Maybe they were the ones who were confused?!? On the drive away from Fern Canyon we saw a huge elk on the side of the road in the trees. He was the biggest buck Seth had ever seen (seven pointer on each antler) and the first elk I'd ever seen, so we got out and took some video and pictures. About ten minutes after we'd gotten back in the car we saw a huge group of elk in a meadow by the road! Some of them got soo close it was crazy!
We then headed to a small town (I forgot the name) where Seth really wanted to see a lighthouse. It was really pretty, but it was freezing outside and really windy! We quickly took pictures of the lighthouse and an adorable church we found and then found a cute place for an early dinner. It looked like a hole in the wall, but we were pleasantly surprised to find that it was really really good! I even was able to get a delicious salad! We then returned to Eureka and headed for the Travelodge. Seth did his Fantasy Football draft while I flipped through the channels on the TV, and then we decided to get dessert. By this time, however, it was about a quarter to ten so we had to hurry to find a place that would be open. We found a Marie Calenders and rushed inside five minutes before ten. We really felt lucky when we saw them lock the doors behind us and refuse service to a group that tried to come one minute after ten! Right under the buzzer! Seth and I splurged and enjoyed delicious Lemon Meringue Pie and an Apple Pie Sundae. Mmmm! It was delicious, and I was really glad I'd only gotten a salad earlier so I could help Seth polish off the apple pie! Delicious! I went to bed with a very happy stummy that night!
Monday, we woke up and started heading down the 101 back towards San Francisco. We made sure to stop in Ferndale first however. Ferndale is a really cute Victorian town where all the houses look Alamo Square's painted ladies. Seth found an eerie cemetery, complete with a dirty black cat who decided I was his new best friend (I really don't like cats!). After taking some fun pictures we walked around the town and found a little Mexican restaurant to have lunch in. We went into a couple of the shops and then got back on the road. We stopped at an old logging town, but were really sad to find that the logging company was no longer in business and the cool buildings we thought we'd be able to tour were now abandoned. We then headed home to our beautiful city of San Francisco! I love coming home to such an awesome city! We had so much fun on our trip the Redwoods and had a fantastic anniversary. Thanks, Seth, for planning such a fun-filled vacation and for being such an amazing husband! I love you more than words can say!
