July 8, 2016

We left Crescent City this morning where we were camping with Ernesto’s sister, Elva, and her family and now are driving down Highway 101 on the coast heading for Berkeley, California where we will stay as a family for the next 10 days. While in the most northern part of California, we visited the Redwoods State and National Park and marveled at the enormous redwood trees, which are each an ecosystem unto themselves—they are truly majestic. We also spent an afternoon at the ocean, the first time we’ve been to our beloved Pacific Ocean since last in CA 3+ years ago, and we were all giddy with joy, running up and down the beach chasing Dreamer and combing the beach for treasures.

We’re stopped in Eureka, CA, not a huge town, but they have a nice co-op where we just got sandwiches, humus, carrots, potato chips, a cup of clam chowder soup and a loaf of sourdough bread, the thing Ernesto misses most about living in California.

Eureka is not a huge town, but homelessness is extremely apparent here. A woman across the street at the bus stop with her suitcase, smoking a cigarette and wringing her hands through her hair; a man walking in his pajamas pushing a shopping cart, and several other lone soles looking for food. I was surprised to see security guards at the co-op and that I needed a code to get into the co-op bathroom, but Ernesto’s hypothesis is that they were trying to keep the homeless from cleaning themselves in the bathroom and from taking food from the co-op. I wonder how much money the co-op spends a year on hiring security guards and if that money could be better spent creating a community program to feed the hungry.

Just by observation, I’d say there is more homelessness in California than in Minnesota, but I’m sure it is also a function of population with CA being way more populated than Minnesota. I wonder if it is also a function of the weather—some more temperate places in California allow people to be outdoors most of the year whereas in Minnesota, it is not an option to be outside in the winter. What will it take for us to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and give shelter to the homeless? What is wrong with us that we live in such a rich and abundant nation and people need so much that we are not able to provide?

It was raining steadily when we woke in our tents this morning, so we quick packed up, draped the wet tents over the load in the back of the car then Elva cooked us a hot breakfast before we got on the road. I expected it to clear up as we drove south along the coast, and the rain has subsided, but it’s cool, and mysterious as the fog rolls in over the craggy coast and coats the land with impenetrable mist. It is beautiful in its own gray and cloudy way and reminds me how powerful the ocean is to create its own weather patterns.

The coast alternates between craggy cliffs and long sandy beaches and weaves inland through the foothills and back toward the coast as the land allows the road to travel through it. We are driving through The Avenue of the Giants in Humboldt Redwoods State Park where there is grove after grove of giant redwoods for 31 miles.   Redwoods only grow along the coast because they need the coastal mist as their primary source of moisture and their shallow root systems are adapted to the rocky land. It is like driving through an enchanted forest or something you’d see in a Star Wars movie akin to Endor, but only more fantastic. (Ernesto says: “They don’t look real, they look like a figment of George Lucas’ imagination.) To make it all the more fantastical, ferns, with their prehistoric look, are one of the only plants that will grow on the redwood forest floor because they like the moist environment created by the dark canopy that doesn’t allow sunlight through. The other very prevalent plant is poison oak that winds its way up the huge trunks blanketing the bark with triads of oak-shaped leaves. It is a symbiotic ecosystem that has been evolving for thousands of years.

It is all amazing—the ocean, the cliff, the sandy beaches, the giant redwoods, the ferns, and the coastal mist—we are blessed with an abundantly creative Creator! And God saw that it was good.