PART 2: LEAVING ONE'S HEART IN SAN FRAN

Our last day of the weekend visit was to Huddart Park which sits in San Mateo County with over 900 acres of trails in its coastal mountains for all levels of hikers and equestrians too. 

Chickadee Nature Trail was a good sampling of the Redwoods for our two generations sprinkled amidst oaks and even poison oak.

These redwood groupings towered above us as we navigated the knobby paths with slopes exceeding 8%. 

Oh that's just a baby redwood

Peek a boo.

Survivors of Chickadee Trail... 30-76

After hiking the loop we returned to the monster SUV and headed toward the favorite and 'only' eatery nearby. Wouldn't you know once again other folks had the same idea?  The place was packed so we opted to eat closer to home. Our stomachs could hold out but the question was whether we'd arrive. A missed turn added way too much excitement in just a 3 mile white knuckle downhill as GPS directed us down the narrowest hairpin curves with both cyclists and cars coming up on the opposite side. 3 miles never seemed so long until we hit the 2 laned road.

Lunch in a new eatery with American Fare awaited us followed by a stop home to recoup and rest a bit before taking the 'newest' member of our family, Cobalt also know as Coby to the doggy park.  If I say so myself I have the 2 cutest grand puppies in the world. 

Coby had fun stretching his legs and wouldn't you know the other dogs were just leaving when we arrived. If you haven't ever visited a doggy park, it's really great for the dogs to socialize.

I had spotted a household en route who really loves Halloween so my son indulged me in stopping so I could get some photos. The homeowner was still working setting up more scenarios with a witch who tells fortunes.

I have some other friends who really get into the holiday too. Some of still spread the joy of this wonderful fall holiday.

There were interactive displays where one pushes buttons / a motion detector starts a character into motion. It must be something else at night with the lights.

It was time to head home watch a Nature show about the Andes. My future daughter in law's parents don't speak English so the program's amazing photography spoke for itself.

Wouldn't you know it before we knew it, it was time to eat again and we were all happy to help polish off leftovers and relive the weekend.   We even got to try another delicious new home grown fruit from the future in-laws's garden- one which I've only had in juice form, guava. Texture wise it 's like an apple. 

We experienced Dragon fruit, persimmons, longan berries-Dragon's eyes pictured in the foreground during our wonderful weekend in the Bay area. 

The weekend had to come to an end and we headed to the airport for a red eye flight at midnight arriving at 6 am in Chicago and an on time flight at 8:15 to La Crosse arriving by 9:30, grabbing our car and having me in place to teach with 10 minutes to spare. Whew, we made it. BUT I think I left something behind. I know it will be safe until my next visit because I left a part of my 'heart ' in San Francisco, Redwood City to be exact...