Number of Miles Driven: 238

Drive Time: 9:00 am to 7:00 pm (stops at Glass Beach and Redwoods)

States Driven through: CA (1)



We started the day with a less-than-satisfying grab-and-go breakfast from the LaQuinta hotel - but the hotel was great! The kids have been switching off who gets to sleep in the second queen bed - some hotels have a pull out couch so on those nights the two kids who would normally be relegated to the air mattresses get a little lucky. Well, not only did our LaQuinta room have a nice pull-out couch for the girls, but they had their own TV on their side of the room. They realized it wasn’t quite as nice as their digs at Indian Wells, but they were loving it.

My Dad met us at the hotel at 8:30 and we were on the road by 9 am. Carolyn begged to ride with Grandpa Jon and he was a willing participant (if he only knew…). The trek to Glass Beach had MILES of mountain switch-back and hairpin turns. In fact, we saw one sign that said “Curvy roads next 22 miles.” I’m not even one to get car sick but by the time we got to glass beach I was ready for a break from the car. I was worried about Carolyn, who easily gets carsick and hadn’t taken any Dramamine, but she was in good spirits when we arrived at Glass Beach. 


Riding with Grandpa Jon for a change of scenery

The story behind Glass Beach (in Fort Bragg, CA) is that the land was being used as a landfill (a water-dump site) approximately 50-100 years ago. Beginning in the late 60’s a cleanup effort was led and non-biodegradable trash was removed by humans (e.g., appliances, metal, etc). However, the pieces of glass were left and the water/sand gradually wore it down and smoothed the glass down to tiny, rounded-off, colorful pebbles. Michael and Carolyn had a fun time looking for different colored pebbles to collect, and all the kids enjoyed climbing the rocks along the beach. The whole scene was beautiful - the beach waves broke heavily along large boulders that were scattered down the shoreline. There were also cliffs along the beach and the kids tried to find different ways to climb the cliffs to the top. It was very windy and cold at Glass Beach, but the kids still managed to get themselves wet despite our comments that they might be uncomfortable afterwards. Getting everyone dried off and their feet cleaned from all the pebbles and thick sand was quite the feat. Not to mention the clothes that had to be changed despite all of our clothes being tightly packed in the back of the car. Also - our long pants are a commodity since we streamlined our packing and most of our clothes are made for hot weather. I was really hoping the kids could wear pants two days in a row…that was not going to be happening..



They all loved the rock climbing



He about bit it here, but he steadied himself






It was about this time that our day started going a little south. No one was particularly bad and perhaps it was just my patience had reached its limit so their everyday shenanigans were amplified, but it seemed that everyone (maybe not Michael) was tired, annoyed (or annoying), and/or whiny - even me! They were arguing about who got to ride with Grandpa Jon, upset that they couldn’t keep bulks of sand in their pockets, instigating arguments with siblings (slight but intentional bumps and then “Don’t touch me!,” not listening about climbing on everything…and just a little bit of everything. Again, I’m blaming it mostly on my own irritability that day - I think I was overly tired and I guess by Day 20 I needed my own space more than I realized - ha! Perhaps I should have ridden with Grandpa Jon…


So, we hopped back in the car and headed to the Southern Entrance of the Redwoods where Chandelier Tree was. Andrew rode with Grandpa Jon. The switchback roads continued (maybe that was the source of my irritability!) for many more miles! Driving through Chandelier Tree was really neat but it was a TIGHT fit. We couldn’t even take our van through so we had to all climb in Grandpa Jon’s Jeep - he hopped out and took a video/pictures of us driving through. We had to pull the sideview mirrors in to fit through, but we made it…barely! 


About to drive through the tree






The kids wanted to hang out longer but Grandpa Jon said the trees were bigger at the Northern Entrance so we got back in the car and jumped on the freeway (HWY 101) which made traveling a lot faster and not nearly as nauseating. I even snuck in a 30 minute nap on the way to the Northern Entrance at Humboldt State Park. When we arrived at the Northern Entrance (about an hour north of Chandelier Tree), we were all in awe. The kids excitedly jumped out of the van and immediately ran to the first large Redwood log they could hop on. We thought we were seeing big trees in Muir Woods and the Southern Entrance, but they were dwarfed by what we were seeing at the Northern Entrance. My dad put it best when he said standing in these Redwoods suddenly makes you feel insignificant. The kids had a blast running around and climbing on top of as much as they could. Us adults tried to keep up, but we weren’t nearly as agile in traversing the large fallen trees. The fallen trees had exposed root systems that were 15-20 feet tall - everything was dwarfed in comparison to these trees. 






They loved sliding down the fallen trees. One of the fallen trees caused them all a lot of pain as they slid down. They were not deterred when the sibling before them yelped in pain - they each had to experience it for themself. Talk about a major strawberry/splinter in the bottom!





We made a couple of different stops within the park to see different sights. One of our stops was to see The Giant Tree - recorded as the National Champion Coast Redwood with a circumference of 53 feet. We walked across a creek bed using a fallen redwood tree. Being in the park let them run off some energy but I also felt bad for the people who came to the park for the serenity of the forest. They were certainly not getting that with the Griffin clan around. They were excitedly running from one tree to the next saying “Look at this” or “Take a picture of me” or “I’m going to climb that.” At one point Matthew jumped off one log and directly into Dani, so she fell on the gravel path and scraped her arm (the excitable and uncontrolled behavior [i.e. frustrating for the parents!] had continued). 


Traversing a riverbed via a fallen redwood


Hiding in the roots







He was in awe of the wood - if only he could take a slice/cookie...





We explored the park until 6:45 and wished we had longer but the kids hadn’t had dinner yet and we were still a half hour from our hotel. We drove into Fortuna where our hotel was and tried to have dinner at Eel River Brewery but the wait was 45 minutes, so we went to Bella Italia instead. There was no wait and hardly any customers so it sparked a bit of concern but we were hungry and we thought you can’t really mess up spaghetti (little did we know…). The meal started off fine - we got complimentary breadsticks and salad but at that point it went downhill. We had salads but no silverware and had to ask twice for it. We also had to remind our waitress to get our drinks - she never brought them out. When the food arrived half the spaghetti had the traditional marinara sauce even though we asked for all of it to have a butter sauce for the kids. My lasagna never came and when we told the waitress to cancel the order when everyone was basically done eating, she said “Oh, the kitchen forgot to make it” (we had asked about it earlier and she said it just takes longer than most other meals to cook - hmmm..okay). Anyway, the kids had actually behaved well in the restaurant, but by the time dinner was wrapping up, it was almost 9 pm and they were DONE. Or, should I say, I was DONE. I was tired, I hadn’t eaten a full meal, and I just wanted to go to bed (see…I told you I was whining right along with the rest of them on this day! ha!). 


We stayed at the Redwood Riverwalk and it was in the same parking lot as the restaurant so we didn’t have far to go. We got all the kids showered (they were FILTHY) and into bed. I tried to work on the blog a little bit but the wifi was really bad so that didn’t go anywhere. I took it as a sign to go to bed - so I did! 


Next stop - Prospect, OR