The Largest Ball of Twine Tree

MFT and I are on the hunt here on the West Coast - and not for shoes or jewelry or fun/drinks/beautiful scenery/fab B&Bs/deckster drinks and oysters. Even though we did find all of those things and more, such as hipster pinwheel headbands in honor of Memorial Day.


No, we are searching for that one tourist stop, the perfect roadside stand or statue or icon that will really define our quest for the perfect MFT and Lulu trip experience. Like the biggest ball of twine. Or the largest frying pan. Maybe Paul Bunyan, Babe the Blue Ox, this troll or Alligator Man. You know - those attractions that were like magnets to us as kids on our endless summer vacation roadtrips, wistfully watching them whiz by the car window as we sat in 'the wayback' seat of the station wagon- because of course, Dad would never stop for the really cool stuff....(not sure how all that alliteration willfully got whacked in there....but you get my point). Something that we could pose beside, giddily clicking snapshots to capture the moment!!!

So imagine our excitement when we saw that the world's largest ALBINO REDWOOD TREE is located in Big Sur!!! And yes, we know that technically it would be a whitewood tree but so what? A bona fide roadside attraction, just where we were staying for the weekend - huzzah!!

We stopped in the little store attached to the resort for directions to get to the world's largest albino redwood tree, although, we scoffed a bit at our own question - surely this attraction should be easily recognizable! After all, the logo for the resort has a large white redwood-shaped tree carved into the sign swinging outside the store. One would have to assume....

So we walked down the stairs behind the store that lead downhill to the resort campground. Hearts beating in anticipation, we looked at the campers all around, in their tents and their campers and their campfires and campchairs (we were in Campville, as opposed to Whoville) and wondered why they weren't hand in hand, dancing around the mighty Albino, doing a campville polka? Where in fact, WAS the ART???

Oh, there's a sign! The ART, the ART!!!

Silence.

More silence.

Silent staring.

At......a stump. A redwood stump. Granted, a large stump, but a stump, nonetheless. MFT and I turned to look at each other - she said, "I don't get it" and I said, "Does that lady in the store realize that the campers here in campville have a big Albino redwood campFIRE going???"

Ok - the stump isn't really the albino part - it's the host of this party. Apparently, albino redwoods live off the roots of other redwoods, and it really just looks like a big shrub. A big white and brown shrubby bushy tree.

We were completely disappointed and letdown. It's as if the largest frying pan turned out to be a small, used cottage cheese container that was a bit melty from the dishwasher.

Maybe Dad knew something after all.....