For most people, certain places hold special significance because we spent time there as children. I wonder what those places will be for my kids, who have moved around quite a bit. Tommy doesn’t remember Paris and Normandy, but we talk about those places so often that he imagines them as if they are real memories.

For me, that place is Steep Ravine, a cluster of cabins perched along the coast just north of San Francisco. My family rented a cabin there from the state for 14 years, until local politicians decided that it was unfair, given that it sits on public land. Now, the cabins are bare and must be reserved seven months in advance.

A group of extended family hiked down there the day after Thanksgiving. It was a spectacularly warm and clear day. For my mom, dad, sisters and I, the sights and smells brought back all the memories of the late 60s and 70s when we spent days there exploring the meadows and beaches, communing with friends and waking to the crashing of the surf against the rocks.