The Ben Vacation 2015 – More Trees, a Lighthouse & Tacos

This morning we decided we’d had enough of cereal for breakfast and went to check out a local store for those great nutritional foods … like donuts and danishes and muffins. J  We also started considering dinner for this evening.  Jennifer had thought about a pasta meal, but the fact that I was only able to pack one medium sized pot in the truck started to cause us to rethink that idea.  As we wracked our brains trying to figure out what to eat tonight, I had an epiphany (cues angelic light and choir)!  I started roaming around the store while the rest of my family wandered behind me like ducklings as they tried to figure out what I was doing.  After confirming that the idea had merit, I announced, “What about soft tacos?”  The idea was met with much rejoicing (wink to Monty Pylon and the Holy Grail) and we set about confirming that other main ingredients were available in the store for this bold culinary experiment.  More on the results later—like the tease line there? ☺

Chillin'

What power!

In the intervening years since our last visit to the redwoods, memory has faded enough (even though we have pictures of our time spent in the groves) that try as I might, I could not remember the location of some of the areas we visited.  We ate breakfast in a park not far from the redwoods visitor’s center in Crescent City.  My thought had been to get a map of the parks and try to go back to places we had visited before, but when we entered the building after finishing breakfast, there were a lot of people there and suddenly, I figured we could go where the wind blew us (so to speak).  With this thought in mind, we got into the car and drove to the Jedediah Smith Redwood State Park.  I pulled into the turnoff and drove left and found myself at the entrance to the campground.  A helpful state ranger (who had probably been dealing with clueless people like me all morning) gave me a map and highlighted how to get to the Stout Grove.  She said there were some good trails there and a river walk.  I thanked her and we followed the map to the grove.

Isaac 7 years ago

Thankfully, I found a place to park and walked to the head of the trail, which descended about 400 feet or so down into the grove.  Ben felt he make the ascent back when we had finished so we made the descent and began our exploration.  At first, I couldn’t remember if we had visited this grove or not seven years earlier, but the deeper into the grove we walked the more I felt something familiar about it until I realized this was our second time visiting these trees.  The reason it hadn't recognized the grove right away, however, was that changes had taken place over the intervening years.  For instance, during our walk through this grove 7 years ago, I was able to take this picture of Isaac pretending to lift the tree trunk over his head.  I thought it would be fun to do an update picture, but the trunk was nowhere to be found ... at least, not in that form.  My guess is that it crashed to the ground at some point.  Realizing changes like this did not take away from my enjoyment of the area.  If anything, my wonder was enhanced because I felt as though I were seeing the Stout Grove for the first time a second time. J  In fact, we came across a huge burl in a tree that looked to us like a fist so I took a picture of Ben and Isaac giving the burl a fist bump.  Turns out that I took a picture of Ben, Isaac and Jen in front of this same tree burl 7 years ago.  One of the trails lead to the Smith River, but that trail had a steeper downhill descent than the trail bringing us into the grove, so we nixed that idea.  We spent the rest of the morning wandering the trails inside the grove and taking pictures when such caught our fancy.  At one area Isaac climbed onto a fallen tree trunk and gave an impression of being on the bow of the Titanic (complete with sound effects).  Ben then stood and gave an impromptu soliloquy of preparing the Ents for battle.  When we pretty much had walked all the trails, we returned to the slope at the trail head and Ben used me as "human cane" to help him walk up the hill.

"I'm the king of the world!"

"Ents, rise up and fight!"

Back in the car, we looked over the map the ranger had given us and decided to also go to the Simpson Reed Discovery Grove.  The grove was marked as "wheelchair accessible" which lead us to believe Ben would have an easy go of navigating the trail.  I didn't recall walking this trail seven years ago either and it appealed to me to visit an area we hadn't seen.  As much as it may have been fun to visit trails that we had walked 7 years ago, I think our visit was made better with the mix of old and new trails.  Some of the things we saw in the Discovery Grove was a redwood truck that looked like a corkscrew; a shattered trunk that was large enough for Jennifer, Ben and Isaac to fit inside; a group of five or six redwoods that probably shared the same "parent" tree and and grown up in to surround it like children around a maypole; and a natural tree bridge from a tree that I don't think was a redwood, but had sent a root arching over the ground from one side to the other.  Again, as the day before, I was awestruck by the beauty and majesty of the "old growth" redwood trees.

Family togetherness

Corkscrew

Happy with the things we had seen over the two days, we decided to drive back into Crescent City to the area where the Battery Point Lighthouse was located.  We had visited the islet where the lighthouse is built on our first trip and had noticed that tours appeared to be offered, but on the day we had come 7 years ago the lighthouse had been closed.  We wanted to go back to see if there was a chance that the we could take a tour and we remembered the great tide pools in that area: we had seen lots of star fish and other tide pool sea animals during our previous visit.  Since it was low tide, the walkway from the Battery Point “vista area” (as the sign called it) and the lighthouse was open and free of sea water.  After climbing the knoll upon which the light house is built, we found that tours were being conducted so we waited for the next one to begin.  While we waited, Jennifer wanted an updated picture of the boys standing next to a wooden whale sculpture located on the edge of the grounds.  About five minutes later, the front door of the light house opened and the lady inside asked if there were five more people who wanted to take the final tour of the day—we stepped forward to claim those spots.

The Whale before

The Whale now

We payed our "voluntary" fee for the tour and our guide told us that we were not allowed to take pictures inside the house.  We would be able to take pictures when we went up into the light tower, but not inside the house.  She cited "national security" as the reason for this ban.  Her statement seemed a bit odd to me (we can take a tour and look at everything inside the lighthouse, but we can't take pictures until we get up into the turret?), but not wanting to spend the rest of my days in some CIA gulag, I complied with the request.  We were told that the Battery Point Lighthouse is one of the oldest functioning lighthouses along the Pacific coastline.  When the Coast Guard began decommissioning other lighthouses, the people of Crescent City told them they wanted to continue operating their lighthouse and would do so using volunteers.  Eventually, the Coast Guard told the city they could take full control of the place with the understanding that if it needed fixing, the city would be on the hook for the maintenance and repairs.  The lighthouse is now operated by volunteers who stay in the house for a month at a time, conducting tours and doing what is necessary to keep things functioning properly.

After viewing the various rooms and hearing the stories of its construction (it is quite a sturdy place) and some of the people who have lived in the house and operated the turret light since the 1850s (we saw the chair owned by the first man to live in the house and operate the turret, we were told that his ghost still likes to sit there and smoke), we were given the opportunity to actually climb up into the light tower.  Unfortunately, this was where Ben had to bow out of the tour.  The ladder to climb into the turret was nothing more than iron steps buried into the side of the wall.  He took one look at it and said he would meet us back at the bottom.  With the way I had to twist myself to squeeze through the narrow opening at the top of the ladder in order to pull myself onto the floor of the light tower, I’m not sure Ben could have pulled himself into the tower even if he had been able to climb the ladder.  I told him that later, but it didn’t do much to help him feel better about the fact that he couldn’t participate in the full tour.  Finally allowed to take pictures, I tried to get a panoramic view of the sea.  I also focused on the St. George Reef Lighthouse located north of the Battery Point house.  The view was interesting and the tour fascinating, but I couldn’t see myself giving up a month to live in the lighthouse.

We found Ben sitting outside when the tour was finished.  He was disappointed that he couldn't climb up the ladder and enter the turret.  Isaac helped him feel better by suggesting that they do another scene from their movie in and around the lighthouse and the nearby shed.  After about 15 minutes or so, we started back toward the car, but decided to stop and look amongst the rocks to see if we could find any tide pool creatures.  Once again, we cam away disappointed.  Seven years ago, the rocks were teeming with star fish and urchins and anemones and other little sea creatures.  Now the area was depleted, seemingly because people were taking the animals as souvenirs (someone hauled a star fish out of the water while were were standing on the rocks and waved it in the air like she'd found a wall hanging).  We watched her in shock.  I wanted to yell at her, "You do realize that's a living thing, right?" but I don't think it would have made any difference.  We felt helpless as we watched her and her family return to her car.  Ben and Isaac found a colony of hermit crabs, but other than those and a bunch of anemones, the rocks where desolate compared to our previous visit.

Preparing dinner.

Jen explaining the soft tacos.

Hungry (the breakfast muffins we had were quite filling), we returned to the store to purchase taco fixings.  The sliced black olives were gone (bummer L), but we were able to buy everything else needed to make our fanciest campfire dinner.  After we returned to our campsite (in the redwoods!), I used the pot and a spreading knife (funny how one can improvise when needed) to cook the hamburger meat.  I couldn’t find taco seasoning at the store, so I substituted chili seasoning (which worked quite well).  When the concoction was thoroughly cooked, we sat down at the picnic table and feasted on soft tacos.  I was quite happy with my culinary efforts.  We then played some more foosball and called it night. J