When the Family Goes on a Hike

Last year REI for the first time didn't open their shops for Black Friday, but encouraged their employees and customers to "opt outside" instead and experience the great outdoors. We loved the idea and spent a wonderful afternoon hiking Sugarloaf Ridge State Park. This year we opted outside again on Black Friday, and we chose to hike in Jack London State Historic Park, the only park close to us that by some kind of miracle has been completely untouched by the October fires.

The vineyards in the park - with the original terraced planting by Jack London - were brilliant at this time of year.

We hiked up to the "lake" - it's not really a lake anymore since it is full of algae. This was our first view of it - that green thing in the back is the lake. I don't think anybody in their right mind would want to dive in there.

But when you walk further up there are some gorgeous redwoods.

I stepped right in the middle of the trees and just took a photo looking up.

When my family saw that, they wanted to do the same thing - and we ended up with this:

This was the first time that I broke in my new hiking boots - my old ones did break in Yellowstone during a hike and the Geek, resourceful as always, had hold them together using duct tape. It was a fine for that particular hike, but certainly not a permanent solution.

But then, of course, everybody wanted to take boot pictures!

And it just went on with taking silly family photos.

Kaefer was sitting on the wall at the edge of the "lake", but she didn't stay on her own for long, not in this family.

The Geek saw this tree and asked us whether we can see the seal in it - can you?

Even the hike back wasn't done in a "civilized" way - there is always room for silliness in this family. I think we thrive on it. Life is so much more adventurous upside down between the poison oak and the mountain lion warnings.

And the vineyards kept on being stunning.

We spent several hours in this beautiful park. Since it is the only park unharmed by the fire, the entrance into it is free until the end of the year. What a gift to anyone who loves to be in nature.

All the photos in this post were taken with my cell phone.

Opt Outside

Are you busy this time of year? I know that I am. There is so much to do that I haven't had any time for visits in Blogland, and forget about writing a blogpost. My shop has been pretty busy over the past six weeks which makes me very happy. I participated in two holiday fairs and did well. On top of that I started a new part-time job in a high school library at the end of October - when I get a few pictures I will tell you more about that. Ten days ago Kaefer came home for the holidays and I enjoy every single minute with her. It is wonderful to hear her singing all the time, she's practicing the piano a lot and we binge watch old seasons of "Call the Midwife".

She was home a couple days over Thanksgiving as well. We celebrated Thanksgiving with friends of us and their extended family - a wonderful loud and crazy family, just the way I like it. On Black Friday we decided not to join the other famous craziness but opt outside instead. I think this started last year when REI announced that their stores are closed for Black Friday to give their employees - and customers - the opportunity to enjoy the great outdoors. It was such a successful idea that it was repeated this year, and this time the California State Parks participated by giving away free passes. We were lucky to get a pass to our Sugarloaf Ridge State Park which is just 10 miles away from where we live.

It was a rather gray day, perfect for hiking. We did a four mile hike up the mountain and then across some meadows back down to the parking lot.

Every now and then we stopped for the views. Even here in the wilderness we could see vineyards - they seem to be everywhere in our county.

We walked through forests and open land, up and down, sometimes very steep. I'm not very good at steep climbing anymore...

But we were rewarded with great views from the top over the land to the bay - I think that you can see San Francisco from here on clear days.

There was still some fog lingering over the valleys.

On our way we saw so much beauty. Nature always fascinates me and I feel refreshed after spending time in the outdoors.

But the very best of this day was that I could spend it with my two favorite people.