Coffee from Getti Up, a drive-thru booth in Garberville, got us suitably alert to appreciate the Avenue of the Giants, an awe-inspiring drive through the 110-metre-high tree canopy of Humboldt Redwoods State Park. At the visitors’ centre, we traced the rings of a 1,000-year-old stump – an ambassador from another time, as John Steinbeck put it.

Somehow we missed the turnoffs for the Rockefeller Loop Trail and Founders’ Grove, a popular photo-op. It was too late to double back, and I felt the first pangs of traveller’s remorse. We pulled over at the next opportunity, in Redcrest, where the girls climbed through one giant hollowed-out tree and hugged another.

We needed comfort food, and while oysters and IPAs at Humboldt Bay Provisions were tempting, we stayed on theme at Samoa Cookhouse. It opened in 1890 to feed lumberjacks and still serves all-you-can-eat meals with one main and ample sides.