Amelia Meets a Slug, Wade Meets his Match.
Monday through Friday, you can find me in a variety of places. At my driver’s seat desk in the morning. Once Amelia and Wade are up, anywhere else that is slightly quieter.
On the weekends, we adventure. This weekend we hit a variety of Redwood trails and beaches.
The first trail was supposed to be a nice 2-3 mile loop but we didn’t notice a turn. That little happenstance resulted in crossing paths with a Banana Slug. As with any small and relatively defenseless animal, it had to be picked up by Amelia. After a bit of debate about it being poisonous, Amelia quickly picked it up or it more or less latched onto her. Wade gave it a pet, cautiously. The end result was like being covered in paper glue. It left a really sticky snot on their hands. With a bit of sanitizer, it cleaned up. With a quick internet search that determined Banana Slugs were not poisonous (resulting in a relieved Desiree) as well as being the second largest (~10 inches) slug in the world, we continued on our way.
Along the way, Wade then met something that was not defenseless. That something was a hornet. It got caught up his sleeve and stung him. He screamed, grabbed his arm and it then stung his hand. He screamed louder this time — every animal in the forest was aware of Wade’s predicament. It was a very long walk back to the car with Wade’s arm and hand swelling, and him crying while trying to be strong. He was strong, and after a bandaid, he felt better. Desiree then proceeded to determine what type of bug attacked her boy. We are not sure, but we now know it wasn’t deadly.
On Sunday, after Wade (and Desiree) was feeling better, we decided to go for a hike down along a fern canyon followed by the nearby Gold Bluff Beach. The drive there was an hour over the mountain down a dirt road. Amelia and Wade always like driving down dirt roads because they know I really enjoy the driving. Once there, we walked the trail and then headed for the very empty beach. We spent the rest of the day just enjoying the sand and surf.
