Jacksonville Victorian Judd's Birthday and Big FOOT

Bagpipers !

Judd's Birthday Parade in Jacksonville!!  They called it "a Victorian Christmas Parade" but it was heavy on antique cars spewing diesel fumes and low on Carolers in Victorian garb.  We had gone to breakfast at the Jacksonville Inn (hearing that it was classy, but pricey for dinner.)  It was pricey for breakfast.  And we were still too early for the parade so we walked downtown and had tea at Pony Espresso.  While we were perusing the local paper, we overheard a woman squeal a greeting to the barista, "It's MY birthday too!"  So, Judd went over and squealed, "It's MY birthday TOO!"  The three of them congratulating each other was adorable. The predicted rain held off and we cruised the main street (3 blocks) to find an acceptable curb. We didn't know until the start whether the parade was going up or down California St. (It went down.) 

It was a cute, small town parade and cuter still to see the families and tourists lined up to watch. Because it was wet/cold everyone had hats or mittens or were  wrapped in blankees. Best ugly sweater was blue and yellow and said Oh Vey!  with dreidels all over it. We did our Saturday laundry and shopping chores and met a work friend for dinner at the BackPorch Bar and Grill. Serious BBQ.  Judd and I had just discussed at breakfast that we really should share a meal when we go out because the portions everywhere are so American. But then he ordered his own beef brisket and I ordered my own seared ahi tacos. We invoked the birthday exception-to-any rule.

 On Sunday we had a great breakfast at the Honeysuckle Cafe in Ruch on our way to Applegate Lake.  Two breakfasts but justified this time because we were taking leftovers for lunch after a hike. We had been told the World's only Big Foot trap was in those woods up the Applegate.  We found the trail head sign and it has a foot logo on the trail marker.  That made it official.  The website said the trap was baited for several years but all they caught were bears.  (They didn't say who went up to free the bears.)  So now the trap is locked open "for your safety."  We had forgotten the directions I printed out and lost cell signal so we were hiking by memory.  It was purported to be 3/4 mile into the trail.  After we hiked about 45 min, I said we must be beyond 3/4 mile.  (I'm not THAT out of shape.) There had been a slight turn off and we figured that must have been it. So we hiked back and there it was a few feet off the main trail.  It looks like an oversized outhouse where some big foot has painted "Big Foot was Here."  We hiked through a dreary green forest--so many colors of green, drippy from the frozen fog, which cleared by the time we emerged from the forest. Ferns grew out of tree trunks. Lichen drizzled along branches.  Holly-like, pokey plants lined the trail and we started to worry it was the poison oak which was reported along the path. (We googled it later and decided it wasn't poison oak.) We cam across some deep holes but chose not to find out if they were bat caves or big foot hide outs. Judd declared it a spectacular start to his birthweek.