Timprov and I stood in the hallway on Friday morning listing all the reasons why he shouldn't come with Ceej and me down to Half Moon and Big Basin. It was a long list. But it was a really good thing to do, so he came with anyway, and everyone was glad, I think.

We had coffee in Half Moon Bay while waiting for the fish taco place to open, and oh my, I wish it was closer, because that was some awfully good coffee. Yep. And the fish tacos -- much to C.J.'s amazement -- were really good. We got back on Highway 1 and headed south to San Gregorio Beach.

The beach was windy, rainy, and covered in driftwood and washed-up jellyfish.

We all wandered a bit, somewhat separately. You can see both Ceej and Timprov here.

There were several huts built from driftwood, and a family with two very enthusiastic small boys was working on one when we were there.

This is the Highway 1 bridge visible from San Gregorio Beach.

The whole day was a bit on the rainy and foggy side, actually, so we were damp but happy. And the roads were, well, just damp.

They had the obligatory slice o' redwood. The funny thing was that you could see where they had come in and attempted to be multicultural, because the Chinese, Indian, and Native American labels were much shinier than the European ones. But also much weirder: they marked the height of Incan Civilization. With a year. Really? We can determine what year Incan Civilization peaked? Is it just them, or can we determine this with other groups, too, and nobody's told me?

C.J. was happy with his first redwood experience, I think.

This was the Father of the Forest, the widest tree at its base.

In some ways, Big Basin was quite similar to our usual redwood spot, Muir Woods. In others, it was very different. Less...religious, I guess I'd say. Less thoroughly green, wet, and quiet. But good in its own way.

See those white sneakers? Those belong to Timprov. He was pretty exhausted at the time and didn't want his face photographed. So.

Hi. 's me. In the tree. It was a nice tree, very cozy. We talked about how you could sleep a family of six in some of them, and with the housing situation in Palo Alto, we wouldn't be surprised if some grad students wanted to take that option.

We all took turns in it, actually.

Scale is very difficult to get here. Every time I've gone to see redwoods, I've tried to capture the immensity, and I don't think I've managed. But some of the pictures of people help me the most.

Also, I just like pictures of C.J.

This was a "chimney tree," one that a fire had damaged in its core so that it burned all the way up. And stayed standing and is healing.

I love redwoods.

This one was attempting to show some kind of scale of redwoods again, across the rainy field.

After that, it was the weekend.