Thanksgiving in Humboldt

Ever since my sister and her family moved to the Midwest, we've usually spent Thanksgiving with just ourselves. It sometimes feels a tiny bit sad just to have the four of us, but we go all out with cooking and still totally enjoy the day. This year, I thought that we should go up to my mom and dad's since we had a whole week off for Thanksgiving. On a good traveling day, we can get up to Humboldt County, where they live, in less than eleven hours. It took us longer this year, but it was worth it. We had lunch in Healdsburg on the way up and had turkey/cranberry sandwiches.
I got to knit for most of the trip, and started one of my favorite projects---yes, another bunny. I let the bunny head absorb the scenery, which my kids found slightly unselttling.We spent most of Tuesday in Eureka, eating at one of our favorite restaurants, Hurricane Kate's.We've gone there since the kids were little, and love both the food, which is touted as "World Fusion Cuisine," and the atmosphere. They have butcher paper on the tables, so Kai is particularly happy since he can draw while we wait to eat. He drew a musketeer this time because we are listening to The Three Musketeers on the trip up. Russ and I are also particularly happy while we wait for our food because we always have French press coffee in indivudal presses with brown sugar cubes and cream. I had a falafel sandwich with sweet potato fritters. I'm a little annoyed remembering this fact because last night I was anticipating having the leftovers as a little snack, and I discovered that someone...no one has totally fessed up...had eaten it. The kids had Cajun chicken soup, which was spicy and delicious; and Russ had an "Angry Samoan," which was pizza with Canadian bacon, pineapple, red bell pappers, basil, and something that made it hot, but not unbearably so.We also made a stop at Euerka Books because we decided that listening to The Three Musketeers is fun, but we need a text for reference or if one wants to cheat and read ahead as Russ was doing last night.
We spend Thanksgiving at some friends of my parents, who are dairy farmers outside of Ferndale. They have a beautiful one-hundred-year-old house. They must have had twenty people or so comfortably crammed in their dining room. Our families go way back, plus we all love travel, reading, music, and share similar political beliefs; so the conversations were great. We all agreed that it is wonderful to have someone about to enter the White House, who is one of our own kind...you know, the kind who read books, speak in complex sentences, and can think analytically.