Update

Happy Thanksgiving! I drove down from Crescent City to McKinleyville and met up with Mark, it was a beautiful misty morning. The surf was really high, last night the forecast was for 17-23 foot swells. I saw some BIG waves this morning, and throughout the day, although the peak was at midnight on Wednesday.

Mark showed me around the area between Arcata and the coast, some very beautiful sights. In a field above the Mad river we saw a field with 20+ egrets, I could only get a few in the picture.

We checked out the Friends of the Dunes nature center, click on the link to see the place. We met an older gentleman whose parents had built this underground house and lived in it for many years. They had wanted to give it the public when they passed on to try and help preserve public access to the coastline. Money turned out to be a motivator for the other family members, so instead of it being donated, it was sold to the The Nature Conservancy. Mark had a turkey in his charcoal grill so we didn't get a chance to hike out to the beach on the trails, but I am going to try and swing back by there.

Mark graciously bought me a crab, in keeping with my dietary guidelines. I had a plateful of crab, mashed potatoes and some wonderful peas and pearl onions in a white sauce, it was delicious. I also make a good friend of "Stinko" at Marks house, he is a Jack Russell Terrier who designated my lap as the best place to be. He was very sweet and very insistent, whenever I stopped petting him he would nuzzle my hands until I started again. I almost took him with me when I left...