There’s no place like home.
Much like mine and Jen’s last trip to California in June, our last trip a couple weeks ago (my third to CA this year) was inspired by the marathon, but was, as always, tons of fun beyond the race itself, thanks, of course, to our awesome family, great friends, and good times.
 I arrived in Sacramento the day after Thanksgiving and, although it was a working vacation for me, had tons of fun hanging out in Sactown with Pete, meeting Sierra (and her delicious cooking), enjoying a late Thanksgiving meal with our mom, and meeting our dad for the most delicious burritos (short of Juan’s) in the most unexpected location: A strip mall in Fairfield (Pelayo’s).
After six long days apart from Jen, she arrived the following Thursday, just in time for the second annual Anderson Family Reunion, hosted at my cousin Val and husband Rik’s house in Davis. It’s always so wonderful seeing all my cousins, aunts, and uncles. I’m fortunate to have such a loving, just plain cool family.
We enjoyed spending time with James and Melissa — including shooting guns at the shooting range — an interesting first for me and Jen. And probably not something we’ll make a habit of doing. I’m generally very anti-gun, so I had mixed emotions about the experience, but figured it was one of those things that I should try at least once in my life to better understand it (kind of how Michael Moore is a lifelong member of the NRA). It was loud. Really loud. James’ shotgun has a hell of a kick, too. And he’s a damn good shot, shooting a smiley face into one of the targets toward the end of our outing.
 
The night of the marathon, Christmas came a little early as we helped Mike and Shannon decorate their Christmas tree. And Jen made friends with Quincy the reindeer cat.
Our last morning in California, Jen, Pete, and I enjoyed a delicious breakfast at Tower Cafe, where Pete and I conquered a full serving each of the house special French toast, where the waitress doubted our skills but acknowledged that “it’s always the skinny guys with the high metabolism who can eat the full order.” And polish it off we did. Good thing we’d run nearly 30 miles the day before.
 Speaking of running nearly 30 miles, here’s a funny video Jen got of the marathon brothers and what our walk looked like after breakfast the day after the marathon:
 
View the entire California 2008: Trip III collection:
