This weekend, Barry and I met my parents for a little adventure — the Northern California coastline, the Southern Oregon coastline, and the Redwood forests.
Yes, that one little pocket of the world contains sandy beaches, rocky shorelines, and awe-inspiring trees, all within a few miles of each other.
Here’s Barry with my parents by the California beach…
And Dad’s taking my picture as I take theirs!
You’d never know it was North instead of South… this is the type of beautiful beach that you could find and enjoy in nearly any warm climate area in the world.
If you blindfolded someone and brought them here, they’d probably never guess where they were!
Then we moved further North up the coastline, where it turns rockier (and windier! Wow!) but just as beautiful.
This is me above the point where the sand and rocks meet… like teeny rocks that have been formed from what the big rocks once were.
Millions of years of history can be seen in a place like this — and it’s amazing that we get to experience it.
I like to imagine it 100 years ago. Did it look the same?
What about 1,000 years ago?
How many people have stood, just like me, above the beach with the wind whipping all around them?
Things like that make me stop and contemplate the world we live in, and the way it has unfolded over time.
It also makes me enjoy the moment, even as I think fleetingly about other moments that have also been enjoyed in that very same spot.
After that we headed back south and went through the Redwood forests, on a small trail off the beaten path (literally — it’s just a dirt road), stopping every now and then to take a short hike into the huge trees.
This picture gives you some idea of the size of the giant Redwoods, as Barry walked behind the rest of us… but for some reason, none of the pictures we took really did them justice.
The awe-factor somehow seemed to go missing as soon as the 3-D world was captured on a 2-D photo.
This really makes me think about our significance (or rather, insignificance) in the vastness of the Universe.
It makes me appreciate everything we’ve created, everything we co-exist with, and everything that defines what we call home.
And of course, it makes me appreciate those I love that were there to experience it with me.
Keep Unwrapping the Mysteries of Life!
