Today is September 11th.  We started the day with heavy hearts and talked about our memories of that day.  I know the saying “time heals all wounds,” but not in this case!

After resting all day yesterday I felt much better today.  Good thing because we are moving on.  Today we are driving to Lone Pine, CA, to position ourselves to spend tomorrow in Death Valley National Park.  The drive was gorgeous!  We stopped for lunch in Bridgeport, CA, and mailed some postcards.

One of the most beautiful views we saw was Mono Lake.

We arrived at our hotel and it was an old fashioned (but modernized) Best Western — the kind where you park your car outside your room door.  The rooms all have western names.  Ours was Gene Autry.  Look at the view from the back of our room.  And my really cute husband.

Since we had enjoyed a big lunch, we decided to snack on our Blue Diamond goodies for dinner.  We had different flavors of savory almonds and, of course, dark chocolate covered almonds and some raisins.  It was just enough.

We are going to bed early because we want to get up very early to explore Death Valley National Park.  Can’t Wait!

Not such a great day.  I thought I was coming down with a cold and today I feel miserable. I even had to text my sister for sympathy! I got out of bed long enough to go out for lunch but spent most of the day in bed.  We had planned to go for a long walk and then see a movie but I just couldn’t rally.

David went out to enjoy the beautiful weather and the lake.  He even worked out.  When he returned to the room he offered to walk to the grocery store and just buy a few things for dinner which sounded perfect to me!  We had a nice bottle of California wine along with Wheat Thins and cheese.  He even brought us each a chocolate chip cookie!  What a fine man he is!

Monday night football was on so that entertained David while I watched two episodes of my new favorite TV show, Madam Secretary.  I fell asleep very early!

Sorry I don’t have any pictures from today.  

We couldn’t leave Sacramento without a little time to cuddle with the puppies and breakfast out.  We went to the Tower Cafe in Old Sacramento and it was fabulous!  The portions are so big that we all ordered 1/2 portions and none of us could finish our breakfast. I had French toast and it was dipped in kind of a custard.  Amazing!  It is a huge restaurant with indoor and outdoor seating and it was packed, but the service was incredible!  I should have taken pictures of the food but we couldn’t wait to start eating.

After saying goodbye we left for South Lake Tahoe.  It was a fairly short, beautiful drive.  We didn’t have hotel reservations ahead of time so I started looking at Trip Advisor during the ride.  I saw this large complex called Marriott’s Timber Lodge in a perfect location and not too pricey.  We checked in and it is a beautiful complex and could not be better located.  Of course there has to be a catch, right?  Well, it is a Marriott “vacation club” resort and they want you to sit through a sales talk.  They even offered us $200 to do so but I refused.  I have absolutely no interest in buying into a vacation club and would not be coerced and strong armed for any amount of money.  Our room turned out to be beautiful and we had a very nice stay at the Lodge.  The picture below shows our building behind us.

South Lake Tahoe is beautiful and we walked all over the town.  The lake is gigantic and so blue!  The boats were beautiful on it. We walked into all of the shops but we did not buy anything.  For dinner we decided on Mexican and ate at Azul Latin Kitchen and we both enjoyed our dinners.

It was an early to bed night for us.

Saturday in Sacramento.  We had another delicious breakfast cooked by the beautiful Maria!  Her  frittata was out of this world.  She also made bacon and prepared a fruit salad.  David and I wanted to meet Hal and Maria’s daughter, Kim, so Maria invited her over and we had such a fun visit!  What a smart and beautiful woman she is.  We wished she could have stayed longer but she was helping her best friend with a project and had to leave.

Hal said he would take us out to the areas surrounding Sacramento and we jumped at the chance.  We really love the city.  The first place he took us to was to the Auto Museum he took David to last time we were here — new murals were painted on the side of the building.  They are very cool!

Next up, the yellow bridge!  Actually, it’s gold.  Apparently the city held a contest to pick the color of paint and this is what the majority voted for.  It was not Maria and Hal’s choice . . . and it wouldn’t have been ours either.

Hal told David the Blue Diamond almond company was in Sacramento and we were very interested in visiting the gift shop.  It was so nice and had every flavor almond you could imagine available to purchase.  About $40.00 later we left.  We have a nice selection of road treats including coconut almonds, rosemary and garlic almonds, and maybe a few chocolate covered almonds thrown in for good measure!  You never know when you will be stranded and have to survive on almonds.

He also took us to the Old Sugar Mill which is a group of old mill buildings that have been divided into small tasting rooms for wine tasting.  What a great idea!  You can taste probably 10 or 12 different brands of wine there.  There were also a couple of food trucks and live music.  Maria said they hold weddings there too.  It was the perfect day for this outing.

I love this picture of Hal and Maria.  What a handsome couple.

Our final stop on the tour was a little town called Locke.  It is an unincorporated community built by Chinese Immigrants in the early 20th Century.  It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971.  Now all but 10 of the residents are White Americans.  A few buildings remain on the main drag but most are vacant and dilapidated which is too bad.  The restaurant (picture below) remains open and very popular.  Maria said they have the best steak sandwiches.  We were surprised that the pc police haven’t made them change the name of the restaurant.

I love these posters where you stick your head in and have your picture taken!  No one would do it but me.  I especially think I look like Mona Lisa.

We made a short stop at their home to rest and clean up and then we went to dinner at the Rios Cafe which is right on the river in Sacramento.  We sat outside and enjoyed the gorgeous weather and the great food.

Spending time with Hal and Maria and their adorable puppies Missy and Eddie was SO much fun but tomorrow we have to move on.  I wonder if Eddie would fit in my suitcase???

Friday in Sacramento.  What a beautiful day here.  We did sleep in a bit but not as long as I wanted to, of course.  Hal had made an appointment for us to take our car in for an oil change and tire rotation so we couldn’t laze away the entire day, but first Maria made us a delicious breakfast!  Hal and David took the car in and then we discussed our day.  Our first stop was Vick’s.  It’s a neighborhood grill with homemade ice cream.  We weren’t hungry for lunch but we all wanted ice cream.  It is the coolest place — like Heggy’s without handmade chocolates!

One thing I wanted to do while we are here is tour the Capitol Building.  It is an 1874 building and it is beautiful.

We took an hour long tour and it was very interesting.  Here are two of our favorite portraits of former California Governors.

Here is the most interesting thing we learned.  Governor Schwarzenegger bought, with his own money, this bear (picture below) which sits outside the Governor’s office.  He bought it because the bear is the official animal of the state of California and is on the state seal.  First mistake was he bought it in Colorado (instead of from a California artist) and secondly, it is NOT the kind of bear that is the official state animal.  The official state animal is a grizzly bear and this one, that sits right outside the Governor’s office is a brown bear!!!  Really?

Here is a nice statute of Ronald Reagan.

Hal and Maria then took us on a city tour so we could see the various neighborhoods.  Sacramento is a beautiful city and very walkable.  We could live here easily but we certainly couldn’t afford it!

We had a leisurely evening visiting.  David made us his famous artisanal gin and tonics and Maria prepared a delicious dinner for us.  Lemon, garlic chicken over brown rice for us and sweet potato ravioli for David.  Followed by scrumptious almond cake.  We had missed the Ruth Badger Ginsburg CNN special film and Maria had taped it so we watched it. What a GREAT documentary! Everyone should watch it.

It was a lovely day and now it’s time for bed.

We set the alarm clock pretty early this morning because we wanted to be on our way to Sacramento to visit our friends Hal and Maria.  Yesterday there had been a pop up fire right off of I-5 in Northern California and they closed the interstate.  The news footage looked very scary with people abandoning their vehicles and running for safety.  A few semi trucks burned to the ground! Very sad.  We heard on the news they were detouring traffic and we didn’t know if that would still be the case today.  Why yes, yes it is.  We drove to Yreka and stopped for a delicious breakfast at another really good local restaurant called Poor George’s.  I had a waffle but David had the best artichoke and Swiss cheese omelet!  At the restaurant we talked to a couple who had to take the detour coming North and they said it was a pretty drive but bumper to bumper traffic and lots of trucks.  They were pulling a 5th wheel travel trailer and when they were ready to stop for the night, all the trailer parking was full.  The local casino set up an area in their parking lot for the trailers who could not find anywhere else to park.  Aren’t they nice and I wonder how many people went into the casino to gamble when they had no where else to go???  Smart marketing for sure!

It wasn’t far from Yreka when we took the detour and we are still on it at 4:07 p.m.!  Yes, it’s a pretty drive, but I don’t think we are going to get to our friends’ house for the planned 5:45 p.m. dinner.  We haven’t even made it to Redding and I think it’s about a two and a half hour drive from there on I-5.  And is I-5 going to be bumper to bumper traffic too?

Update:  my sister just texted me about another fire in the area.  I just looked online and it appears that the very route we drove on I-5 — Ashland, OR to Yreka, CA this morning — is now closed.

No, we did not make it to dinner with Hal and Maria.  We stopped in Williams, CA for a quick dinner and then continued on our way. Look at this beautiful sunset from the restaurant parking lot.

Around 9:00 p.m. we finally rolled into Hal and Maria’s driveway.  Hal was standing outside probably wondering where in the hell we were!  But it was great to see them and we arrived safe and sound so that’s all that matters.  We visited for awhile, met their two cute puppies, caught up on all of our lives and climbed into bed.

The plan today was to drive to Ashland and meet our friends John and Mindy Ferris for dinner.  David had the great idea that if we left Eugene early enough, we could get in a workout before dinner.  You can imagine I was thrilled with that idea!  But he was right, we really did need to work out.  We have been eating like crazy and not getting nearly enough exercise.  He nicely pointed out that being homeless and being on vacation are two different things.

We left Jolie’s around 8:00 and drove to Roseburg and stopped for breakfast.  We have had great luck eating at local places so this morning I picked Karen’s Coffee Cup.  We had delicious omelets with freshly made hash browns and toast.  It was definitely a local favorite and we loved it.

It was a beautiful drive from Eugene to Ashland even though there is still smoke in the air.  It was a very hot day too — 93 degrees.  

The Anytime Fitness in Ashland is a little on the small side but we made it work.  There were only a few other people working out when we were there so we accomplished a good leg workout.  Afterwards we showered and cleaned up and drove into downtown Ashland.  

David had never been to Ashland before and he really likes it here.  It is the home of the world famous Oregon Shakespeare Festival.  I have seen many plays over the years but I’m sorry to say I was not able to schedule one for us to see this trip.  Ashland has many, many top notch restaurants and tons of shopping so we walked up and down the streets and enjoyed window shopping.  

We met Mindy and John Ferris for dinner at a restaurant called Sesame which is an Asian Fusion restaurant and the food was fantastic.  We thought back and decided we had not seen each other since my going away party in 1997 when David and I moved to Indianapolis.  Amazing!

We are driving to Sacramento tomorrow.  We hope.  Stay tuned.  Good night!