Cougars and earthquakes and bears, oh my!

We haven't been ignoring our many legions of fans (our parents), but actually, we've been up a tree hiding from a bear. And the cougar we had to fight off ... well, that's not even worth telling about after you've tangled with a bear. We did, however, almost fall out of the tree because of the earthquake. But we parachuted to safety with one of Christian's bandanas. We then put out a wildfire singlehandedly. As you can see, we've been far too busy to blog.

Actually, we just drove one of the most spectacular drives imaginable. We went south on the 101 through the Redwoods National and State Parks and saw trees that left our jaws agape. Stunning. If it weren't for people like John Muir, our drive through the redwoods would have been something like this. Or this. Listening to Sigur Ros during that drive was a sublime pairing.

We will post more later, but now, we're at this wonderful hotel, the Carter House. We sincerely thank Kristin's father for putting us up here at this beautiful spot.

Here's a view of our room:

Yes, yes, it's beautiful. And we knew we were at the right place when they handed us a complimentary glass of zinfandel as soon as we walked through the front door. We are smelly and gross at the moment after having hiked and camped for two days (the real reason we've been maintaining radio silence). We're about to grab showers. Then we're headed downstairs for a 5-course meal at the hotel's fine restaurant. So far, we love this place.

Our post later will give updates on all the cool stuff we did in Portland, and details about the bear attack in beautiful Sunset Bay, Oregon, where we spent two days hiking along the sunny Oregon coast. Christian is missing an arm and has half his face eaten off. It's odd, because he looks much more rested now. Kristin's leg was gnawed off in her sleep, but she's learning to make do without.

The photo posted above is an actual live action photo taken of the bear mauling.