Thanksgiving

Friday Janelle and I returned to California after spending eight days with family and friends in Minnesota. We had a great time eating, talking and eating some more. Janelle even found time to digitally scan nearly 250 Jensen family pictures.

Above: Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge from our seats on a 757

Here are some highlights from our trip...

Thanksgiving dinner: My favorite 10 minutes of the year!

Matt's graduation: Congrats! Even though he didn't take my suggestion for naming his practice (Back in Business), I'm sure he will have much success.

Cards: I won both games of push rummy we played, extending my winning streak to 8 games.

Extreme Croquet: We took advantage of the 50º weather by playing my favorite yard game.



Thanks to everyone who fed, sheltered and engaged us in conversation. See you all in a few weeks for Christmas!

Day 500.

Today is Josh and my 500th day in California. Here's looking back to some other memorable days:

Day 33: Our first visitors Matt & Brie.
Day 67: Steve, Deb and Christine make their way out.
Day 113: We went to Bodega Bay.
Day 123: Our first trip back to the homeland.
Day 166: Back again for Christmas.
Day 183: I finally went back to work at Wolfe.
Day 223: Watched Lance's comeback.
Day 261: Wayne, Sue and Logan roadtrip to see us.
Day 283: Matt and I surprise Josh.
Day 321: Our third trip to Minnesota.
Day 341: We met Christine and company in LA.
Day 365: Our 2nd Anny.
Day 366: 1 year in California.
Day 411: A Soda Springs Weekend.
Day 438: Steve and Deb visit again.
Day 459: Matt arrives for some more golf.

We've spent...
40 days with visitors
37 days in Minnesota
21 days in San Francisco
9 days in Tahoe/Sierra
7 days in Monterey
3 days in LA.

Apple Hill

Today we went up to Apple Hill with Kyan and Lisa. We stopped at High Hill Ranch again (same place as last year) for some apples, fudge and cider. We also did some wine tasting at Madroña and Boeger (above) Wineries, and stopped at Jack Russell Farm Brewery for beer (Josh finally found a beer he enjoys) and pistachios.

Mount Tamalpais

Yesterday Josh and I drove over to Mount Tamalpais (Tam-ul-pie-us) to hike. Mt. Tam (for short) is just north of the Golden Gate Bridge in Marin County and is 2500 feet tall. We started at about 1000 feet by the Throckmorton Fire Station. Hogback Road Trail was about half a mile but it took us up about 450 feet. Then we were at Old Railroad Grade Trail which was a much easier incline. We only took that for a little ways before we took a shortcut on Fern Creek Trail. It pretty much went straight up from 1600 feet to 2250 feet. From there we were only .2 miles from the parking lot near the top.

At the parking lot there were bathrooms and a visitors center. They had an old gravity car on display which would haul passengers down the Old Railroad Grade to Mill Valley and a Train would bring them back up. The last one went down the hill exactly 80 years ago, October 31, 1929.

From here it was another 200 feet to the very top. You can see the fire tower up there.

We liked the views from the top of Mt. Tam even better than Mt. Diablo (that we drove up last fall). We could see San Francisco, all of the San Pablo Bay, Bay Bridge, Richmond Bridge, Mt. Diablo, San Quentin Prison, west to the sparkling ocean and north to Vallejo and Novato.

Coming down we took the easier Old Railroad Grade. It was definitely worth the 1500 feet up.