Central Cal Thanksgiving

We drove south on Highway 101 the day before Thanksgiving, and the November light was spectacular.



We stayed on top of a hillside at my sister Hilary's place in the Central California Coastal town of Arroyo Grande...



...where there was a beautiful front deck to read the latest teen literary sensation, The Hunger Games, which was oddly appropriate for Thanksgiving with all of its foraging for food scenes.



The threatened Thanksgiving rainstorm never happened so we spent Thanksgiving morning on Avila Beach walking dogs such as Lopie, the Pyranees goat herding dog below. Hilary's husband Steve rescued him at a nearby lake when he was a lost and abandoned puppy in a mud puddle.



Steve recently retired from The Ocean, where he was a professional abalone and sea urchin diver for decades. "The odds for survival were starting to get smaller," he explained.



Thanksgiving was at my hardworking sister Susan's house...



...where kitty dogs hung out on the furniture all afternoon before the waves of relatives hit the sliding glass doors.