Who knew there were so many shades of green...

(Today's blogger: Vicky) On Monday the 10th, we headed towards Hendy Woods State Park. As for most of this trip, we were blessed with the presence of such beautiful, lush scenery. Sometimes the road followed rivers and other times incredibly green fields and trees. Who knew there were so many shades of green in trees and grass???? I can't tell you how many wineries we have passed by on this trip, way too many to count. Today we stopped to visit one because it was so beautifully landscaped. That's the beauty of this trip, we can just stop anytime we see that interests us. We arrived at Hendy Woods State Park which is smack dab in the middle of redwood forests. After setting up our trailer, we all went off to explore Hendy Trail. It was unbelievable how majestic the trees were as we explored. The kids are enjoying taking turns being videographer and photographer of the day. Sometimes they get great images, sometimes just plain silly.
Once we left Hendy Woods, we continued driving toward the coast seeing the Pacific Ocean again near the town of Mendocino, a beautiful New England style town. We walked along the rocky cliffs--which of course made me nervous--and the kids made fun of me for days. The newest "momism" (as the kids call them) is "Michael, PLEASE come back," which I yelled when he and the kids went down a very tiny trail high above the rocky shore below.
Later that day, we found the beautiful Mendocino Botanical Garden, one of the only ocean front botanical gardens in the world. Elena and I were the only ones interested enough, so while Fr. Michael and the other two took a break and read for a while, Elena and I enjoyed a wonderful stroll through the gardens. We had great mother-daughter time.