Outrunning the SNOW! (Image heavy)

We set off for California last week in what became a big snowfall in Seattle that cancelled school and delayed traffic for hours. Luckily we outran most of the snow as we left early in the dark before things got too interesting. Even so, we had snow almost to the WA/OR border and were glad we had already decided to cut over to the coast at Eugene. Besides being a last minute way to avoid the snowy mountain passes in the Siskyous, that road is a great place to see elk. We weren't disappointed.


The coastal route is slow but beautiful. As you can see, it wasn't clear and sunny there either!

The highway goes quickly from 4 lanes down to 2 in spots where it wends its way through the giant redwoods. We had never seen this place before. Can you imagine living there?

Our destination was San Luis Obispo and the memorial service for our friends' dad. He was a professor at Cal Poly and a very nice man. Following the service, we joined the family for their traditional Thanksgiving celebration; we made the total attendees, 30! It was great fun to reacquaint ourselves with all the family members, including grandhildren we'd never met.


All too soon it was time to head north. We again decided to travel on 101 and were glad we did. With all the rain on the coast, the mountains more than likely were difficult driving. Even though it was Black Friday, we had no problem getting through San Francisco and across the Golden Gate Bridge.



We "hurried" home but managed to see a few interesting things on the way. At one place we stopped for lunch, we saw lots of white cranes in an adjacent field.

Since this is the beginning of the holiday season, we took a mistletoe picture. This holiday symbol is actually a parasite that is spread by the birds and seems, at least in California, to prefer the liveoak trees.

At the Ca/OR border we saw a huge herd of elk.

I'm not sure what this guy is saying, but it must have been important!

Do you have any idea how much knitting can be completed in 2400 miles? I can't share that yet though because most of it's holiday related; you'll just have to take my word for it. The snow was gone when we got home, but we returned with many pleasant memories of a Thanksgiving that was both joyous and just a little bit sad. It was definitely a memorable trip.