Brush Creek

Santa Rosa is a city of creeks, many with walking paths next to them. Sticking with our plan to go out for a walk first thing, I remembered a path that Shelby, one of our Trail House buddies (the one who always has lots of treats for Spike) told us about. What a complete surprise it was. Less than a mile down the road from Trail House, tucked between the highway and the road we take into town is a whole neighborhood with big houses of varying architecture set along Santa Rosa Creek. In one direction the paved trail changes to a dirt path, very muddy and choked with downed trees and debris after the big rainstorm that dropped 13 inches of rain in three days on Santa Rosa. We decided to turn around and retrace our steps. Heading  in the opposite direction we were amazed to come upon this confluence of Santa Rosa with Brush Creek. The houses in this area reminded me of Berkeley, but the rocks and little cataracts at this spot (photo-bombed by Spike) took me straight to our backpacking days in the Sierra. 

As we headed back to our car, we met a woman and her dog coming back from the direction we had started out in, who told us that it got pretty impassible just beyond the spot where we had turned around. We chatted for a bit about our dogs, how we got them and how much they have enhanced our lives. She also filled us in on where the paths go and which ones are paved. All in all a great discovery. We plan to return to it tomorrow.

While we were having coffee at Trail House everybody’ phone went off with the incredibly loud
Emergency Alert signal, warning us of an earthquake and to ‘stop, drop and cover’ . Nothing was shaking so we just all sat, looked at each other and went back to what we were doing. A few minutes later the emergency alert blared warning us to move away from the coast because of a tsunami. An hour later the tsunami warning was canceled. We have just learned that a level 7 earthquake hit Ferndale, a small town about 50 miles south of the border with Oregon.

Home again we wrestled the Christmas tree into the house and set it up in the living room. We have never figured out the ideal place for it, but it is in the same place it's been for the past couple of years and we spent a fair amount of time turning it this way and that until we were satisfied that it was in just the right position. Tomorrow we'll tackle getting the lights and ornaments down from the high shelf in the garage, once John figures out where he put the ladder. How can one possibly lose a six foot high stepladder?

We are still having incredibly nice 70 degree weather, 8 degrees above 'normal' we're told, which makes our early walks extremely pleasant. We'll see how we do when the weather becomes more seasonal.