Pantoll Quad Hike #4

Last Pantoll Quad hike: Muir Woods.

It was a really beautiful hike, with lots of redwoods and creeks.

I was laughing at everyone taking a picture of the same little waterfall.

So cute.

We found a ton of mushrooms, too.

And a banana slug (or two.)

This might be my favorite of the 4 hikes.

Anytime we can find weird fungi, I'm a happy hiker.

And we found so many different mushrooms that day.

5.5 miles of mushrooms.

This hike goes from the Pantoll Station down into Muir Woods to the farthest bridge.

The creek was roaring.

And there were lady bugs wintering.

More mushrooms.

And so many pretty forest trails.

We had some good rain early in the month and especially on the coast, it's been wet.

Love that all these kids will join us on these hikes.

They make it fun.

Our family stopped by Muir Beach afterwards.

We didn't stay long, but had time to relax on the beach for a little bit.

Such a great day!

Cashing in Our Christmas Gift

One of our family Christmas gifts this year was tickets to the Winchester Mystery House.

We went down to San Jose to have lunch at The Cheesecake Factory, and then drove over to the house for our tour time.

The tour takes you into quite a few different rooms,

110 of the 160,

and they tell you the story of Sarah Winchester and why the house is considered haunted by some.

The architecture is fascinating.

Some of the rooms are really cool--I want some sort of greenhouse someday.

And others are just so incredibly weird.

It was really fun seeing it decorated for Christmas.

There were some very beautiful ornaments.

And beautiful features built into the house.

It really is a work of art.

I loved all the stained glass.

Quite the roofline!

Having a house built over 36 years, constantly being expanded, leads to a lot of interesting things.

We really loved seeing everything.

And trying to imagine living in a house like this.

And as weird as parts of it are, there are also so many lovely aspects.

It must have been quite the house.

This is one of my favorite rooms.

All the wood paneling is beautiful.

So cozy.

We had some time to explore the grounds after our house tour.

Great gardens, too.

This house is so incredibly unique.

Our experience gifts are always the best.

This one was so fun for all of us. We went home and watched Winchester (with our one kid who is willing to watch semi-scary movies. And it did have some scary parts!) I'm sure there's still so much to explore in this story.