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 Happy 4th of July! One of my favorite days of the year now has some of the best memories to go with it! We started our day by packing a lunch to eat on the way to our destination of Muir Woods. To arrive there, we had to cross the Golden Gate Bridge! We stopped first at the park just before crossing. With jaws dropped at the beauty of this awesome feat of engineering, many photos were snapped. We found a park bench at a railing that overlooked the bridge and ate our picnic lunch. While sitting here, there were several thousand other tourists soaking in the view as well. I was amazed at the diversity of people. People were here from all over the world and speaking in many different languages all to see the same thing! There was a family from one of the Scandinavian countries, Japanese, Chinese, Jewish, Mennonites, Hispanic, Pacific Islanders and of course patriotic Americans.
 After enjoying the view of the bridge, we crossed it with sounds of ‘oohs and aahs’. We were off to Muir Woods, named for John Muir one of the countries first conservationists. A couple, Mr. and Mrs. Kent bought the acreage for $45,000.00 back in the 1800’s. Later, they donated this land to be used as a National Historic Park!  Their generosity has preserved the Redwoods for our enjoyment today! I have never seen a tree so enormous in all my life. Though this species is not as large as the Sequoia’s, it was still gigantic! We decided to go for a hike up the Ocean View trail. We did not realize how beautiful this hike would be through the dense forest of Redwoods. As we entered the park, there was a slice of a fallen Redwood on display to show the age of the tree, well over 1,000 years old! We are but a ‘blip’ in time compared to the lifespan of the Redwoods. We hiked for a couple of hours, sweated profusely and felt exhilarated when we were done! What a feat, especially for us older people on the trip! We kept up with the ‘young uns’! Not too bad if I do say so myself! Proud of ourselves and exhausted, we headed back to the dorm. This day made me appreciate trees even more than I already do!
Hug a tree today, and don’t waste paper! After two very full days and a lot of walking on difficult terrain, we all slept well!
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