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Road Trip, Day 3- On the way home
By Tara Zandra | November 3, 2011
Today was time to drive home. First we visited another mission which was across the street from our hotel. Mission Santa Clara stands on the Santa Clara University campus so we had to walk through the college to get there since we wouldn’t be able to park. This one is basically their church with no museum so we didn’t feel right going inside. We walked around and read the signs and called it good.
Next on our trip home was the Henry Cowell Redwood State Park. I really wanted my girls to experience the majesty of our state tree and this place did not disappoint. We chose a very simple loop trail near the nature center. We were fairly alone and it was simply amazing. I just wanted to sit and touch the trees and really feel close to them. We were able to walk through a few that were fire damaged as well as sit in hollows. Definitely an experience I want to repeat. It goes without saying that I took me a picture or two.
We spent about 2 hours on the trail and then visited the nature center to sit by the fire as it was very cold out there. Gloves would have been nice. We explore the nature center then headed into the shop. I really wanted to get something to bring home but nothing really spoke to me. I didn’t even get a magnet which is my souvenir or choice. We then ate lunch in the car and then started the long journey back to the main road. We only got lost once.
Eventually we pulled into our last stop, Mission San Juan Bautista. What I didn’t realize was it was a state park with many historical buildings. But we had only 1 hour before everything closed. We cruised through the mission, gazed at the graveyard, then paid our admission to the museum and powered through all the buildings as best we could. It was still really interesting even at our fast pace.
We bought souvenirs and then started the looong journey home. Chris’s flight was getting into LAX around 6:30 so he arranged for his brother to pick him up and they went to the King’s game together. The goal was for us to pick him up at the Staples Center, but our drive was a bit too long for that. I think we ended up getting home around 11pm.
Overall, great trip. I do love road trips and my kids are awesome in the car. I don’t even take a DVD player, though they do have plenty of entertainment. We would definitely like to get back to Monterey to see the butterflies again and spend time in the town. I’ve only been there once before and that time was also just a stop on the way somewhere. I’d also love to take them to another Redwood forest. Awe inspiring. And now we can cross 5 of the 21 missions off our list.
Topics: Life, Homeschooling, On the road again |
April 11th, 2012 at 7:51 pm
Nice! Looks like Muir Woods, just north of San Francisco past the Golden Gate Bridge. We went there once and loved it. It’s like entering a whole other world in those big trees.