Four holidays in one day

Valentines & Chinese New Year, all on the same weekend. Plus president's day plus Rabi'I. What a treat! And it brought a little bit of spring down to california.
the last couple days got into the upper 60's, which, after a dry weekend, inspired this clover like ground cover weed that is everywhere to shoot out little yellow flowers. I think I'm allergic to them.

Anway... some highlights of the weekend, per the pictures below:

After a bunch of traffic heading into SF made it, after dark, to a campground susan had found that had a dry platform for the tent and a dry sauna to relax in. we cooked asparagus and sausage over the campfire, drank some conundrum, then cooked some oysters over the fire. in the morning, a beautiful walk down to the beach of Ano Nuevo (an appropriate place for the holiday). meet our sea lion friend below. he was humongous. dew and tiny spider lines as we brewed coffee and watched the waves.

Then off to Big Basin to set up camp #2. On the way, U Pick kiwis off 101. The vines, bare of leaves now, started producing back in november so we figure the u pick is a just a good way to get the last hidden fruits off the trees. back and forth to the big trees of big basin a few times - 40 minutes through super windy roads and little 'hippie towns' (as described by someone giving us directions) - as we searched for food and entertainment in Santa Cruz. we slept in the car since the ground up there never dries out and we didn't have a tarp for under the tent. a little cramped, but safe from the raccoons. a short hike through big basin. we plotted longer hikes on 'skyline to sea' for later in the year, then back over hill and dale to Davis.

Rains are back this weekend. but time for projects, ideas, and plans for a coming year of adventures.

Here're some photos: