Burl Girls, Wagon Sisters

Last weekend my sister, best friend and I went on a 4 day road trip up the California coast, to Portland, Oregon and back down. My husband went on a fishing trip a few months back that inspired me to plan my own "girls trip" and this is where it lead us...

We hit the road after work on Thursday and drove all evening towards our layover, Fort Bragg. We immediately headed to North Coast Brewery and enjoyed a couple beers, the first of multiple breweries along the way. To our dismay, the kitchen was closed but luckily the local Safeway and the vending machine at our beautiful motel subsided our hunger for the night. Our Motel 6 room was the worst of our amenities but the bar in the parking lot took our minds off of it. We experienced some of the worst karaoke I've ever heard, which made up for how anticlimactic our first road trip stop was (Plus, we were karaoke queens for one night!). 

Good 'ole Angelinas

Vending machine dinner

 I wish I could say we were up bright and early to get on the road, but we were definitely hung over. Regardless though, we were excited to get into red wood territory and a few coffees and breakfast sandwiches later, we were back on schedule!

First stop, a Redwoods tradition, Confusion Hill! I hadn't been here since childhood and I really don't remember it being so fascinating, but it truly was. The gravity house, the water flowing uphill and the tale of the chipalope, all ridiculous and all very fun! The $5 entry for this roadside attraction is truly worth it, plus the french fries at there snack bar are pretty dang good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another Redwood classic, The One Log House, another dollar bill well spent!

 

And the majestic Grandfather Tree... 

 

 

...the good 'ole drive through tree (we barely made it!) 

Of course we took the "scenic route", the Avenue of the Giants. Around ever corner we literally ooed and awed at the awesome, old trees.

 

We had seen so many signs for "burls" and I never really knew what they were but Kyla informed Annah and I about the much sought after burls and the people who "hunt" them... and thus began our very own burl hunt... it wasn't 5 minutes before we dubbed ourselves The Burl Girls, Wagon Sisters on our very own Oregon Trail!

 

Near the end of the Avenue, we came around a corner and saw a whole bunch of people pulled over looking at something. As we got closer, we saw that it was a helicopter scooping water from the Eel River for a small fire that had started up ahead! We watched as multiple helicopters circled around over and over refilling their (what seemed like) tiny bags of water. It was a very cool thing to get to see so up close and it must have done the job because we didn't see any signs of the fire for the rest of the drive!

 

 

  

  

 

As we left the Redwoods, we happened upon a huge building in Fortuna that triggered my gem loving side, Chapman's Gem & Minerals! What a cool place, filled with aisles and aisles of beautiful crystals, petrified wood and creatures fossilized in stone. I was able to add to my little rock collection with a big hunk of pretty, blue Angelite!

 

  

Petrified Wood, so awesome!

Pure Obsidian sphere (covered in fingerprints, obviously... almost impossible to not touch)

 

 

Our last stop until our end destination for Friday was Lost Coast Brewery, the only shot I have of there is the beer, of course!

We ended the day in Arcata and although I wish we had more time there, the time we did have was good. We stayed in the very cute, historical Hotel Arcata... our room had an awesome antique claw foot tub equipped with equally old pipes and fixtures. I would recommend this place to anyone, it was nice, very affordable and right in front of the main downtown plaza, complete with families, drifters and considerable B.O! We had a fantastic Italian dinner at Mazzotti's and afterward, I learned how to do the "Nae Nae" in our hotel room.

The next morning, we actually did hit the road at a decent hour since we had a very long drive to Portland. We did cut up the drive with some more fun stops though...

The world's tallest totem pole

 

I swear, there are Roosevelt Elk in this picture!

Paul Bunyan and his ox, Babe at the Trees of Mystery

A pretty beach we found

 

"It's a Burl", a very cool spot with hundreds of carvings and sculptures

 After a very long day of driving, we finally mad it to Portland!

To be honest, Portland was kind of too big for us, we were pretty overwhelmed when we got there. It was another stop that I wish we had had much more time with but we were able to make it to the famous Powell's books and then have dinner at Deschutes Brewery. The beer there was excellent, as was the food and we had a great time just hanging out and eating dinner on the street.

 

We took it easy that night since we were getting tattoos the next day in Salem but I can't wait to be able to visit the big city again one day. In the morning, though, we were able to squeeze in one last tourist attraction and we visited the Grotto Garden, which we didn't know was basically some sort of church grounds. Since it was a Sunday, we arrived just in time for mass to start! Despite it being a little awkward to walk through the service and the fact that there were religious statues everywhere, the gardens themselves were very pretty. 

 

 

 After the garden's, it was off to Salem, to my cousin, Delan's, tattoo shop  sister and I both got some new ink!

My tattoo, magnolia cube

Annah's Fibonacci spiral

After tattoos, we had lunch with my cousin and then our grand finale for our trip was going to every bar that was open on a Sunday in Salem! We met some new friends, drank and had a great time!

"we still made Salem our bitch. Love Wagon Sisters, Burl Girls"

So there it is, the Burl Girl's road trip 2015... and although I wish we had had another week to see more of the places that we had stopped at, we had more laughs packed into 4 days than I've ever had!

Mt. Shasta behind a wall of wild fire smoke

My California!

And to end this post, a list of all (or at least most) of the rivers that we drive over that I wish I would have taken pictures of: the Rogue, The Eel, The Russian, The North Fork Big River, The Mad river, The Little river. The Klamath, The Smith, The Illinois, The Umpqua, The Row, The Willamette, The McKenzie, The Columbia and finally, The Sacramento River!