Friday, December 1, 2017

North Coast Journey - Stage 3 - Thanksgiving!

On day 4, Wednesday, I awoke refreshed from my long sleep, ready to face any curvy roads the trip would throw at me.  This day was another fine one, without the rain that had been forecast, so we had a marvelous wend from the ocean to the wine country, where we would stay with Matt and Wendie and Madrone before going to Kyria's for the Thanksgiving Feast.

View out our hotel deck on Wednesday

Sunrise's opposite sky colors

I put this here because it's all weirdly out of perspective

Liked this trestle, and the sand actually squeaked when you walked

Great surf day

Pudding Creek flowing to the sea

Pudding Creek meets the sea

The surf comes in to fight the creek.  Note the water patterns

The surf is persistent.  Note the different patterns.

Trestle

Walking across the trestle

The coastal surf is mesmerizing.

There were stalwart plants on this and other rocks, and not even ferocious waves could daunt them

View up the coast

Tide pool near Glass Beach

The ocean is fabulous

Glass heart from the beach

Jeffery looks strong on the rock, but the surf looks stronger on the other rock

Seals on the rock.  We watched some swim, some climb out of the water onto the rock, and a couple slid off the rocks into the water again.

Tower at a historic B&B

A sign that made me smile

A plethora of pampas grass 

The mouth of Noyo Harbor

Looking towards Noyo Harbor

The writing is all the names of the people in the photos.

A fun roof on a garden temple

Jeffery and the carved stones

The North Harbor Trading Company building

Guardian against the darkness

Looking at the Noyo Harbor from our table at The Wharf restaurant where we finally found crab cakes.

I got over a mile on my fitbit looking for this very lunch!

On towards the central valley, we pass through the heart of Mendocino County

Down into the east side of the Coast Range

Through Sonoma County's north section

Into the autumn tones of wine country

New plantings, I assume

Ahh, the Healdsburg area north of Santa Rosa

While waiting for "the kids" to get home from work, we stopped at the Charles Schulz Museum

Jeffery and Snoopy

Woodstock

Christo actually wrapped a Snoopy's dog house as a project

Label from his prep sketch for the project

Remember this?  I do.


Cowabunga!

After a nice dinner at a Thai restaurant with Wendie's family, we attended a hockey game at the Charles Schulz Ice Arena, where Wendie's nephew was playing on the white team.

Kelly is #74 in the slight left of center.

(from left lower - Matt, Kevin, Georgia, Wendie, Jeffery / upper - Sunday, Mo, and Dennis

Georgia and Kevin being funny!

Wendie and grandpup Madrone on Thanksgiving Day.

Strange sun beam in the sky over Matt and Wendie's house

Toured the burned zone at Coffey Park, where so many lost their homes, and some their lives this past summer

I am only showing this one more, because we felt like we were violating privacy as we drove around, so we didn't stay long out of respect.  It was horribly affecting.

Over the bay and across the San Rafael bridge to Kyria's house we go.

Prepping for the feast

Our table, dressed in the runner-quilt Kyria received from Grandma Sue just in time for the holiday.

The Thanksgiving pork

The turkey carves the roast pork

Salud and Happy Thankfulness

A different form of pumpkin desserts to keep tradition alive

Another sun beam to finish the day.
This was the end of the vacation; all but the return trip.  We did stop off to see Grandma, Kathy, Sam, and Andrea in Vacaville on the way by, so we touched more family, which was nice.  Otherwise, we made it home, resumed normal life, and stayed so busy, I'm only just now putting up this post!

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