NOR CAL COAST

This morning we headed up Interstate 5 to Redding, then over to the coast so we could spend a day exploring in and around Redwoods National and State Parks. Our kids love nothing better than being outside in nature, so we knew they would love this adventure, and we had plans to show them some places we'd visited back in 2006 when we spent a summer hiking around California and Oregon.

First stop: coffee and kid smoothies from the Dutch Boys (as dad calls them)

As soon as we hit the coast, which took longer than planned due to some construction on highway 299, we unanimously voted to skip the drive up and back to the park and instead hit the beach!

Biggest sand crab we'd ever seen!

Sun-dappled and gorgeous one direction, and a foggy and cloudy mess the other.

 After some play time at the beach, we checked into our hotel and got a recommendation for a seafood dinner at an awesome restaurant nearby.

The Seascape Restaurant sits at the head of a cool little pier surrounded by two small coves and an island-like peninsula - it was gorgeous, and the food and local beer selection was extremely good.

Checking out the foraging sea otters just off the pier.

 And the views from the cliff above the restaurant:

 After dinner, we took the kids swimming at the hotel, then sneaked out to one of the many local breweries (our first brewery adventure of vacation!) for an hour or so while Grambot and PawPaw watched the kiddos for us. Six Rivers Brewery is female-owned and located just outside Arcata in McKinleyville, California. They call themselves "The Brew with a View", but since we went well after sunset we didn't bother with window dining. Instead we sat at the bar, where Jay ordered the full flight + the one extra they had on tap, and I did a half flight so I could drive us the 2.3 miles back to the hotel safely. It was a fun little date and I would highly recommend their beer to anyone traveling the northern California coast (and the food smelled and looked amazing on our fellow patrons plates, we just didn't order any due to the large clam chowder, fish and chips, and blackberry cheesecake dinner we had earlier in the evening).