Day 3: Road Adventure Begins! Muir Woods

We woke up Thursday morning and headed a block from the hotel to pick up our reserved compact car. I was pleased to see the car was a Pontiac Vibe, which is essentially a Toyota Matrix with a Pontiac symbol slapped on it. It was a comfortable car, however I did find the acceleration to be uneven and tough to get used to. Additionally the automatic shifter was on the dash and I accidentally knocked the car into neutral once when I was looking over my shoulder at traffic.

After getting situated in the car we headed down Lombard St. and over the Golden Gate bridge which is a surprisingly narrow 4 lanes. We got off at the wrong exit at first, however we quickly got back on track and headed towards the Muir woods.

Most of these images are self explanatory. Kate with the Vibe, she obviously wasn't expecting this photo.

Kate emphasizing the height of the trees.

Kate demonstrating a tree cutting as a timeline.Those pretty trees are really tall.That is one wide tree that I'm standing in front of.Holy Redwood Batman! I'm walking on a tree! (It was chilly in the forest!)Kate is seen here brown-plastic-bagging it. Her eco-friendly stainless steel water bottle leaked all over her bag on the first day of the trip. The plastic bag became an aggravating yet effective means of preventing a recurrence of this leak. Banana Slug! Ahhh wildlife.This was our lunch! The Muir woods cafe. It was a bit on the pricey side but the sandwiches made with organic ingredients were actually quite tasty.Here I am inside the base of a tree! One more look at the trees.

We went for a long hike in the forest up a seemingly large hill. It took us through many groves of the Sequoia out of the valley. As we neared the top of the peak the trees diminished in size, however not quite enough to provide a view of the ocean. Along the trail were many bridges made of fallen trees, as well as a large tree that had a gap in the base that you could walk into (as seen above). Returning to the visitor's center a woman warned us that a fawn (newborn deer) had fallen into the path. She was headed off to get a ranger and we stood guard to warn other people. It was still breathing and moving slightly, however it appeared that it may had fallen off a ledge and may have been injured. Kate snapped a photo (which we debated whether it would be OK to do) and perhaps I'll post it later when she provides me some copies. When the ranger came we let her handle things and headed off to lunch. The park had become very busy by this time and we were glad we managed to get there early in the morning when it was still peaceful.

Next we'll take a ride up the rocky Pacific coast!