It’s going to be hard to describe the day. In fact, the next several days may be difficult as Amber and I are going to many sights of faith in the life of St. Francis. Today began with Amber taking a sunrise picture as we were still flying to Italy. Sadly, I slept only about two restless hours on the flight and Amber got 30 minutes of sleep if she was lucky. We arrived in Rome at 7:30 am. Thus, the day was just beginning even as our previous day still had not ended. God, please give us a little extra to help us persevere and hopefully enjoy this first day in Italy.

It feels strange to be leaving the Redwoods because it is time to go home. One month is long enough to get use to the routine. I again, as we drive, feel as if I am not ready. This has been full 100% family time, and I love my family.

This morning we head to the beach at low tide so that we can find and observe ocean creatures in the tide pools. As we get to the beach it is very foggy. In fact, most mornings have been foggy here. It adds to the mystic allure, but does not provide great views. We begin to climb out on the rocks. I am surprised about the number of sea creatures.

Overall, I like Northern California better than the rest of the state. Besides the amazing national parks in the south, it is prettier, greener here. As for hiking, there is not as much variety. There are no mountain peaks, but you can hike the coast. Most of the trails are through these wonderful Redwoods.

In the morning, before my family is awake. I head outside and am greeted with two elk right in front of our house. These are big, majestic animals. I watch them as they barely take a notice of me. Yesterday, when we arrived, we were greeted with an Elk so Amber, Eli and Josh have already seen these wonderful creatures.

Today, we see more up close volcano shaped landscapes. First, we travel to an underground tunnel created by lava flow. As I have said, our boys love to climb in caves, but this cave is different. Nothing to climb, just a straight tube hollowed out by lava. It’s a short trail, but long enough to need flashlights and very interesting. This was a nice excursion on the way to today’s hike, Cinder Cone Trail.

Yesterday, was one of the longer drives between parks, but Lassen Volcanic Park was definitely my surprise park of the trip. I may even place this as my #1 park in California. This national park contains 4 different types of volcanos with Lassen Peak/Volcano towering over everything at over 10,000 feet. Just before, we arrived, to our surprise, Amber informed us that the road through the park is still closed because of snow.

We are back in a drier and warmer climate (but not as warm as Death Valley and Joshua Tree). Pinnacles National Park did not become a National Park until 2013. It’s named for this unique mountain formation called (you guessed it) pinnacles. Here, we hike a total of 6 plus miles over two different trails.