Thanksgiving Travels

Thanksgiving was a great time. It's my favorite holiday of all--I love getting together with family, upholding the cooking traditions (especially since I hardly cook much anymore,) and spending time, not money, on each other.

This year, Steve and I were at my Aunt and Uncle's home in Millbrae, CA where we got to catch up with my cousins and their families.

Mo and Pat brought Seth, now 6 yrs. old and very energetic.

John and Hillary came with Matt and Jack, their 8 yr. old twins.
Hillary made a fantastic Women's Day Magazine turkey cake--the the boys couldn't wait to dive into it and had it all mapped out way before dinner even started!

We also visited with my Aunt's longtime friend and neighbor Meata and her daughter Shannon--all great company and wonderful to see again.



That weekend, Stacy came down from her new digs in San Francisco, and together with her friend Sara, we ate lunch at Delaveaga Lodge in Santa Cruz and then took a hike in the Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park. These redwoods are not as large as the monster trees in Northern California, but they are still BIG. Big enough to fit Steve, Stacy and Sara in a crack in the trunk with lots of room to spare.

There are some trees in this forest that have very strange growth behavior, such as one that's got an albino part which is rather parasite-like in that it can't make it's own chlorophyll--and other ones that look like the trees the Ewoks inhabited in Star Wars, with huge lateral branches coming out from the main trunks with a 90 degree bend going straight up. Very un-Redwood-like behavior.

This is a Santa Cruz forest so of course, we even met up with a real Santa Cruz banana slug--so bright, he should really be a tropical creature! We always keep our eyes 'peeled' for these strange "bugs."