No joke.
The camp ground was at Mount Madonna County Park, a campground in the Santa Cruz mountains not far from Monterey, nestled in a pristine redwood forest. We stopped at Costco on the way to buy food for 20 people for several days, then drove south of San Jose to wine country. The road up to the top of Mt. Madonna was spectacular, with the tall redwoods forming natural arches overhead and the occasional glimpse of wine and horse country far below when we broke out of the forest.
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It's been a while since I've gone camping ... 12 years, to be exact. And I have to say that, for me, camping, unlike wine, does not improve with age. But it was great hanging out with everyone and the young folk did what young folk do (beer pong - without the beer - game above as an example). And more than anything it was great because Alison was touched to have so many people join us and loved seeing how well everyone is doing. Plus she LOVED camping so more is in our future, I fear, particularly since she bought a new tent the minute we got home.
We also did a few activities during the three days we were at the campground. The first was a trip to Point Lobos in Carmel-By-The-Sea, which I'd never been to. What a glorious park, a reminder of how truly awesome the California coast can be. From ancient and pristine pine wood forests to turquoise coves (sea otters included!) nestled between craggy rocks, it was a fun hike along the Cabin Trail, the North Shore Trail, and the South Shore Trail, roughly a three mile hike with a bit of elevation change.
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We did a hike at Mt. Madonna as well, another three or four miles to the ruins of the old Miller Estate. One of the country’s wealthiest men at the time, rancher Henry Miller got rich during California’s Gold Rush selling beef. Known as the Cattle King, Henry once owned over 1.25 million acres of land and 1 million head of cattle. In 1875 he purchased land atop Mount Madonna for a summer retreat. From the top of the mountain, Miller could look down on the landscape that he controlled in almost its entirety. The family history is recorded (with less detail than you would think) in placards around the ruins of the property, which burned down in 1901. A rather sad history, in truth.
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Afterwards, we returned to Berkeley, where we stayed with Maddy, Brenna and their cats. From there, we did a few trips to visit folks, to see Maddy's lab, and to hang out with some of their friends.
 Maddie's Lab... |
 Where the fluorescence lights are encoded with the DNA sequence of the Nobel Laureate that runs it |
 Tiki bar decorated for Halloween... |
 And the traditional shared birthday scorpion bowl |
And finally dinner at Mensho, a Ramen place that is so good it's worth going to San Fran just to have dinner there
We had a chance to visit Ashley, Varick and Grace (who's natural mohawk never ceases to amaze and delight). And we drove into San Francisco to visit with Noah and cousin Tommy, who are sharing an apartment within spitting distance of Golden Gate Park. We took a few hours to visit the park while they worked, and it was amazing. One, because you can't see the Golden Gate Bridge from it (that's a different park), and two, because it had dozens of museums, exhibits, and cultural institutions that were all fascinating. We did a fair amount of hiking around but only had time to visit the Conservatory of Flowers ... it was very cool and left us intent on visiting again when we could spend a day or more exploring the rest of the park. Then we had dinner with Noah and Tommy in San Francisco's Chinatown, an easy walk from their apartment.
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We drove across the Golden Gate Bridge on the way back to Maddy and Brenna's place, with fog rolling in from the sea.
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And we spent a little time with Maddy, Brenna, their two cats Franklin and Winston, with a visit to their friends Bianca and Noah thrown in. Their cat went all starry eyed when she saw me, jumped in my lap and got, quite literally, in my face for licking purposes.
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