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Once again, I spent Thanksgiving weekend in Ft. Bragg with the dive club camping.  This year Mom and her new puppy, Little Bit joined me and Roxie.  We arrived to early to Green Acres Campground on Tuesday afternoon for some extra relaxation.  The most everyone else arrived on Wednesday.  The weather was nice (and COLD) for most of the trip and we took full advantage of the ocean bluffs and took nice long walks. 

Thanksgiving morning, the divers headed north for some ab diving at some new spots that were scoped out the previous day. They arrived back in time to prepare their part for our Thanksgiving feast.  Master Chef Steve hung back to prepare the turkey for it’s refreshing bath of peanut oil which turned out amazingly good.  We had all the other fixin’s of mashed potatoes & gravy, yams, green beans, stuffing, rolls, cranberry sauce… it goes without saying we all were STUFFED!!  We waited for a little while and stuffed ourselves AGAIN with pumpkin, pecan and cherry pies! 

Friday morning several of us did something NEW… we went quail hunting!  Thanks to our new friend Bryan, a friend if Sierra Nguyen and a Ft. Bragg local, he took us up the Ten Mile River for some quail hunting.  After walking up some serious hills in search of quail, we ended up at the top of a small mountain looking down over a beautiful valley.  Before I go on, I must pause to say just how proud I am of my Roxie Girl.  As usual, I was last one up the big ass hills.  My calves were burning and the hills were killing me.  Roxie never left me.  She would run up to the rest of the group, and run back to check on me.  If I stopped to rest, she stopped to wait for me.  It’s so comforting to know that if I had been out there alone and something happened to me, she would not leave me.  I love her. 

On the way back down, Steve came upon one covey the flushed before anyone (inlcuding dogs) could get near it.  Once we got to the area, the dogs went nuts with the scent.  When we realized they were all gone, we continuted to walk but when I looked back, Roxie wasn’t with me.  She was stopped… no, she was on point!  We went back to investigate and after poking and kicking around in the bush, we couldn’t find anything.  I tried to release her, but she wouln’t move!!  So we kept looking.  Soon, one little quail flushed up and flew away.  NO ONE was ready to shoot so that lucky guy lived another day.  Yet, another lesson ” TRUST YOUR DOG”!!!

This trip was certainly “hunting” and not “gathering” as we didn’t get any.  But it was fun, none the less! 

 Friday afternoon, the divers headed out once again for some diving.  The clouds had come in and it was definitely cold so only a few got in the water.  Mom and I hung out at camp and just relaxed.  Mother Nature was good to us that night because she allowed us to enjoy the evening fire and didn’t start dumping rain on us until we all went to bed.  I mean literally, we packed up the chairs, and got inside and within 5 minutes it really started coming down.

Saturday morning’s breakfast was cancelled due to rain but the divers braved the weather and headed out to do some more diving, unfortunately, Mother Nature wasn’t so kind this time.  When they came back, we rallied together for some appetizers for a late lunch to tide us over until our potluck, clean out your fridge, left over dinner.  The weather cleared up beautifully for our last evening in camp. The stars were out and made for a nice walk out to the bluffs for some star gazing.    

Finally, it was Sunday and time to go home, but not before Master Chef Steve cooked us up a fantastic breakfast of made-to-order eggs, bacon, and pancakes.  THANK YOU STEVE!  After breakfast, we all packed up and headed for home. 

 Be sure to check out the photos from this year’s trip in my photo gallery: http://www.flickr.com/photos/reneeviehmann/sets/72157625368384037/