Life in the Slow Lane

You know what they say: One man's trash is a national treasure. Or something like that. Glass Beach is a treasure. A National Park. And since the National Park system celebrates 150 years this year, I am only stating the obvious when I say that it hasn't always been an official, nationally recognized treasure. But most National Parks do not start out as the city dump. In somewhat recent history, the trash was all relocated to a less picturesque location… all except for the broken glass which has been polished and wave tossed over the years. Thus its name. To add to the irony, since this beach is now part of the National Park system, the glass is protected. Don't you even dare think about taking a piece of glass home with you. David and I had a long debate over whether the newly abandoned beer bottle counted as part of the protected glass. Well, no. It wasn't a long debate. It's hard to have a long debate in surroundings such as these. Hm. T...

Trains vs. Trees. Tell me quickly: which one is longer? We were oh so tempted to catch the touristy Skunk Train in Fort Bragg and take it on its scenic route. We were even willing to sacrifice four hours of our precious drive-while-both-kids-sleep time to take the oldest one on a train. Whee! But then we saw the cost and we realized we could go a lot farther on a train for that price, thankyouverymuch. And then we saw the train. Yep. That's it. SOS took the kids down to the railroad crossing while I took pictures from our balcony overlooking Highway 1. CutieLittleBoy, so excited to get to see a train, was not impressed. He kept asking to go see a long train. And yes, we are glad we were not skunked by the Skunk Train. (We've been told this is one of the downsides of traveling out of peak tourist season. They use a cooler looking train at other times.) And then we drove the Avenue of the Giants. The Coastal Redwoods are the tallest trees in the world. ...