Damn, those are some big trees

My friend Amy (who flew in from Minneapolis) and I took advantage of the 70-plus degree weather in mid-February to go backpacking in the redwoods of the Santa Cruz Mountains.

These redwoods aren't the ones you've heard of (that you could drive your SUV through or whatever) in far north CA, but are the more "modest" trees found about an hour and a half south of San Francisco. We're talking trees that are 1,000 years old and nearly 350 feet around. These trees were saplings when it was the Dark Ages, for god's sake.

Needless to say, we were humbled. Everything was green, mossy and decidedly un-February (or at least to my "still in MN" sensibilities). It was a great ramble, and we topped it off with "juice box" wine (a handy invention from Target), cheese and olives. What can I say? When we rough it, we rough it.

We took Hwy. 1 on the way back up to SF - the air smelled like eucalyptus, the sun was warm on the dusty cliffs, and we were laughing like complete idiots in the car.

All in all, it was a lovely day.