Jedediah Smith National Park

D and I left Boston a day later than we had planned. We bought our tickets through Orbitz and apparently Orbitz doesn't let you know when your flight gets canceled. Fun fact. We got a ride to the airport from our friend Lou, lugged our junk up to United's self check-in kiosks, and only then did we find out we'd be staying in Boston another night. Because our plane had mechanical problems, they put us up at the Harborside Hyatt. We didn't want to call Lou and have her come back to the airport to get us, so we decided to stay in the hotel and not go home. We got $15 meal vouchers (and could only order off of the Hyatt's bar menu) and were booked on a flight leaving at 8am the next day. We arrived in Medford, OR 13 hours later than we thought we would, and Daniela's mom picked us up at the airport. We hung around Ashland until Tuesday and then drove south to Jedediah Smith National Park with Daniela's parents, aunt, two brothers, brother's girlfriend, and brother's wife.

The redwoods were awesome. There were nine of us, so we had to rent two campsites. We set up our tents next to each other however, and never used our second site.

Our campsite was sandwiched between the Smith River and the highway. A walking bridge up the river from where we were allowed us to cross over to the Stout grove and Hiouchi trail. The redwoods grow among other trees but they always dominate. The tallest trees grow over 100 meters, but I don't know how tall the trees were that we saw. The park service keeps the identities of the tallest trees a secret so that tourists leave them alone. To put the redwoods in perspective, the tallest building in New England is the John Hancock Tower in Boston, which is 241 meters tall. That's twice the tallest living redwood.

Daniela and I saw a banana slug on the first day. Thankfully, we didn't run into any black bears. On the trail, I kept looking for weapons to use in the event of a bear attack. Like I'm going to kill a bear or stop it from eating my face with a stick or a rock. If you ever see a full black bear with a scratch on its face, know that I was prepared and sort of put up a fight.

Alhamdulillah (Praise to G-d) that I get along so well with Daniela's family. The highlight of the trip was cooking around the fire and talking to everyone. I think I've mentioned it before, but Daniela's brothers are hilarious.

We only stayed overnight and drove up the Oregon coast on Wednesday. We've been in Yachats since then, but we're heading back to Ashland today. I'll update again.