Full of Wonder: #AVMTour Recap Part Three

I’m celebrating the Fourth of July by reflecting on our trip out West last month. I loved getting to see parts of America I had never seen before. Here’s part three of my recap of the Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Tour.

The plan for the third day of our trip was to see a few sights around San Francisco in the morning, then spend the afternoon with the redwoods of Muir Woods just north of the city. I had a long list of fun things to do in San Francisco, thanks to the many suggestions I had received from my Facebook friends. However, before we could start working on that list, we had to have breakfast, pick up some aloe for my sunburned face, and check out of the hotel.

All of those things take a lot longer to do when there’s a grumpy five-year-old involved.

As we had breakfast at the IHOP next door, walked several blocks to the Walgreens to pick up aloe, and packed our bags back in our hotel room, my mental list of things we had time to do in San Francisco that morning kept getting shorter and shorter. By the time we got checked out and on the road in our rental car, it was pushing 11am and my list was down to one thing: See the Golden Gate Bridge. Since we had to drive over the Golden Gate Bridge to get to Muir Woods, I was pretty sure I could make this happen.

Here’s a general life lesson that’s particularly important for family vacations: Set achievable goals.

Throwing out my plans to see several other San Francisco sights turned out to be a smart move. As the GPS app on my phone (whose voice we named “Kate,” after much deliberation) was leading us through the city toward the Golden Gate Bridge, we passed by Crissy Field, where a number of familiar-looking sculptures were on display. Vanderbilt University recently installed a piece by artist Mark di Suvero called “Tumbleweed” made of several bright orange steel girders wrapped around each other. I spent half an hour trying to photograph it last winter, so I instantly recognized his work at Crissy Field. I thought it would be fun to have a few shots of di Suvero’s giant metal sculptures in two different states, so, in spite of GPS Kate’s protests, I pulled over.

It turned out that Crissy Field is just about the most pleasant place to spend a few hours on a sunny summer afternoon in San Francisco.

We wandered among di Suvero’s impressive work for maybe half an hour. I had fun taking photos with the wide-angle lens I had rented for the trip, while the girls enjoyed watching all the dogs and their walkers go by. Crissy Field includes a small section of beach open to the public, so we spent a little time there, putting our feet in the Pacific Ocean for the first time. The five-year-old was scared of the waves, so she got wet and then ran up the beach to look for polished rocks to collect. The eight-year-old, however, ran back and forth as the little waves came in, laughing and smiling.

After that, we went back to the car and got some snacks, which we enjoyed on a nearby picnic table. With the sun shining and the breeze blowing, it was relaxing to just sit, eat, chat, and let our feet dry off.

Then it was photo time. As I tweeted at the time, Everything looks cooler with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background. We took lots of pictures of each other, using all three of our cameras at one point or another. (Sorry, no photos of the kids here on the blog. You’ll have to trust me when I say the pictures turned out great!)

We wandered a bit more along the paths and beaches, ending up at the Warming Hut, a cafe and gift shop. We were in such a good mood at this point that we bought several souvenirs, and when I noticed all the healthy food on the cafe menu, I decided we would stay for lunch. The girls had already had plenty of chicken nuggets and mac-and-cheese on the trip. It was time for organic PB&J and carrots!

After lunch, we sadly said good-bye to Crissy Field and asked GPS Kate to get us to Muir Woods. This involved a trip over the Golden Gate Bridge, which is just as impressive up close as it is from a distance. I couldn’t get any photos (since I was driving), but the nine-year-old captured the entire drive over the Bridge on video, with lots of crazy narration by her and the five-year-old. The drive to Muir Woods wasn’t that long, but it was beautiful, with amazing views of the San Francisco Bay and surrounding countryside.

The redwoods of Muir Woods features prominently in the movie Rise of the Planet of the Apes, which I saw on DVD not too long ago. The movie does a good job of capturing the wonder of the forest, but it misses one important aspect of a trip to Muir Woods: How hard it can be to find a parking spot. We ended up parking almost a mile away from the park entrance, and had to trudge along the side of a two-lane road for some time before arriving at the park. I was a bit worried that most of the park visitors we passed going the other way didn’t seem to happy. Were we going to be disappointed by the redwood forest?

Nope.

Our afternoon at Muir Woods was one of the best times I’ve spent with my kids since I became a dad. The impossibly tall redwoods were captivating, and the beauty and stillness of the forest inspired awe and reverence. I’m so thankful that my daughters and I got to experience this magical place together.

The Junior Ranger “quest” that the nine-year-old completed was the perfect activity for her, leading her along the main trail while teaching her about the trees and the park and featuring just the right amount of puzzles to keep her interested. She was thrilled when she figured out the final clue and thus the location of the “treasure” at the end of the quest!

The five-year-old and I spent much of the time walking a few paces behind her, holding hands and taking in the majesty of the woods around us. At one point, we spotted a chipmunk a few yards off the trail and followed it for a few minutes. We lost it and moved on, but a few minutes later I noticed the five-year-old had stopped and was staring at something. My eagle-eyed daughter had spotted the chipmunk again, this time just a foot or two from the trail. We stopped and watched, fascinated by the little creature’s gymnastics as it moved among the foliage.

As we left the park to begin the long walk back to our car, the clouds overhead cleared and the late afternoon sun provided the forest around us with a golden glow. I almost turned us around to go back in the park to take more photos in this new light, but instead we found, along the path back to our car, a group of old trees that had grown together that were perfect for climbing. The girls climbed up and down and up and down and up again, while I told them about the trees I played in when I was their age at the park near my grandmother’s house. It made for a wonderful end to a wonderful afternoon at Muir Woods.

Of course, the day wasn’t over yet. We drove to our hotel for the evening, the Acqua Hotel in Mill Valley, CA, which featured a very welcoming front desk staff and smartly furnished rooms. For dinner, we opted for that California landmark, In-N-Out Burger. Great food and by far the least expensive meal of the whole trip!

After dinner we returned to our comfy hotel room and watched cartoons, Batman cartoons to be specific. Both Batman episodes we saw (one from the 1990s animated series, one from Batman Beyond) featured Batman getting drugged by a man in a bath robe, someone he thought was a friend. “Never trust a man in a bath robe” was a recurring joke for us the rest of the week!

In my next post, I’ll recap the next leg of our journey. We had seen some of the tallest trees in the world at Muir Woods. Next stop: The most massive trees in the world at Sequoia National Park.