Big Trees

Richards cousin Cal lives in San Jose and had offered us the loan of his cabin in the low Sierras for the weekend. We headed out Friday morning, leaving Alexander to be picked up by Bob and Marty, and made it to Copperopolis for lunch. We dined at the Saloon and Richard so enjoyed his meal he asked the lady if the meat was from a local butcher (a long similar lines to the local beef we ate on the Isle of Bute a couple of years back). "No, he just gets it from CostCutter." was the reply that somewhat abruptly changed the flavor of our ribs. Still it was a fine meal in great surroundings.


Our lunch the next day in Arnold was anything but fine. Now Arnold is strange town. It's claim to fame is that it's next to another town whose claim to fame is the annual frog jumping tournament. The local paper had an 8 page pullout showing the winning frogs with their owners crouched down beside them trying scare the bejesus out the poor creatures and make the leap.
Cal had given us a hand drawn map of how to get to get to the cabin from Arnold which showed the turnoff to be exactly 5 miles from a place called the Giant Burger. I'd only met Cal once but it occurred to me that Cal was a precise kind of guy who would have measured 5 miles on his odometer from the turnoff and found the very nearest landmark and put it on his map i.e. he was not repeat not recommending Giant Burger as a place to eat in Arnold. However that logic seemed to fall on deaf ears and we decided to eat at Giant Burger.

A lot of restaurants in that part of the world have statues of bears carved out of redwood logs. Giant Burger had this one, which to my mind should have been another red (or perhaps black) flag. Italy is famous for it's food, Mussolini however was not. Lastly the religious texts lovingly composed using the stick on plastic letters normally relegated to describing the "Blue Plate Special" should have been our final clue. But we ate there anyway: a meal which I am sure the owner would be proud to say took us that much closer to our maker.

The trees in Big Trees State Park are indeed big! In fact they are really big as you can see above and claim to be the biggest trees in the world. I was rather confused by this as the trees Paul and I visited in Oregon on our road trip in the 90's also made this claim to fame. I have a photograph of me standing on what was supposed to be the worlds biggest tree, only it wasn't anymore 'cause it had fallen down. The explanation was simple the coastal redwood trees of Oregon and California are the worlds tallest Redwood trees. The trees in the Big Trees State Park although red weren't actually redwood trees and were the biggest trees by sheer volume not by height. I guess calling it "Thick Trees State Park" would reduce the number of visitors. Still quibbling aside they were big!

Hard of flash can click here.