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January 10, 2004 - Saturday, 11:17 p.m.

After a late night last night, we were slow to get up this morning. I have a nice mattress on the floor in her main living space. It works very well, it�s comfortable and I stay nice and warm. We didn�t get out of the house until noon and then headed out to see the Redwoods.

We went to �The Armstrong Redwoods� west of here. We parked the car and got out and walked. Talk about an exquisite spot. It was dark in a primeval forest sort of way. It was so wet and green and black. Water trickling off of everything, and it was so quiet. Just the sound of water, there really wasn�t any wind. It was so still. It was simply amazing to walk through a grove of trees that has been standing there for 1400 years. It�s mind boggling. It made me think of the movie �The Time Machine�. There were some amazing special effects when you saw �the machine� traveling through time and you could see the world changing around it - the impressive sweep of time. Somehow that is how I imagine that grove, standing there while the Indians hunted the plains of America, while the Pueblo Indian built the cliff dwellings, while the Mayflower landed on the east coast of America, while building climbed to the sky in New York and Chicago. 1400 years!!? My God, that is nearly 60 generations of man. 60!! Amazing� I could feel it while I walked through there. I imagine that this is the sort of place that inspired Tolkien to envision the Ents, to create their entire existence. These trees (at least this type of tree) have to have some of the longest life spans of any living thing. As I sat quietly on a bench in that damp wood the thought that if only these tree could tell us what they�ve seen, what an amazing story that would make. It�s very hard not want to preserve spots like that forever. It�s very inspiring to sit amongst trees like that. You just want to absorb it.

We went out to the coast after that. We didn�t go down and walk in the sand, but just looked. Then we went to dinner at Lucas Wharf, which was really nice. It was really such a nice day.

M.