big trees & tasty turkey

On this year's day of thanks we traveled to Eureka in northern CA (Redwood region) to celebrate with some dear friends. Dave & Tracy currently live in Eureka where Dave is in school, and Kyle drove down from his home in Portland, OR. We had a fabulous weekend of delicious food, good company, & a couple treks through the great Redwood forest...

We packed up our sweet potatoes, green bean casserole & pumpkin pies and made the 5 hour drive on Wednesday evening.

Proudly displaying my sweet potatoes before they're packed away for the journey.
*Cute homemade apron compliments of my friend Kelly... don't you think she should sell them??

Before we stuffed our faces on Thursday, we took a mini-hike around the woods at Dave's school.

This is a giant whale skull at the school. Which kind? I don't know... but it was huge.
Apparently the sperm whales' migratory pattern leads them past the Pacific Northwest this time of year. We were hoping to spot some whales in our limited ocean- gazing time, but we weren't so lucky :(

Back to the apartment to create our Thanksgiving masterpiece!

As you can see, the men were oh-so-helpful. *Actually, Dave did make some yummy stuffing :)

Dave & Tracy are moving back to MN soon & don't have a table + chairs... so we sat around the table Japanese-style to eat our very American meal. Made it very easy to relax our stuffed post- dinner bellies :)

The next am we set off for a day of hiking in the glorious Redwoods.
First stop: an enchanted place called Fern Canyon.
Wet, mossy, undisturbed, walls literally lined with ferns-- it was unbelievable.
It looked like a scene from a movie.... Jurassic Park II, to be exact ;)

Continued on our hike through the woods and found some great big Cathedral trees.... absolutely amazing!

First we had to pass the treacherous wild Elk (in heat) that all the trail signs were warning against.
Don't worry, we safely passed 'em and snapped a couple friendly pics too...

This tree is 1500 years old. The trail marker/info calls it simply "Big Tree"... ahhh... very creative :)


It's hard to capture just how big and majestic these trees are... I would say they're a must see!

Our adventure day came to an end.
*Good thing Tracy brought some cheese balls in the car-- Dan was pretty ravenous.
The end.

Thank you to Dave & Tracy for hosting Thanksgiving. It was so nice to spend the holiday with great friends when we're missing our fams this season... you're wonderful pals & we're grateful!