On Sunday ‘the cousins’ had a potluck at my cousin Beanie’s house. Not all of the cousins were there, but we had a nice time anyway. Kenn got to meet them all in person. We enjoyed deviled eggs, seafood gumbo, roasted vegetables and for dessert a Blum’s Coffee Crunch cake. If you have never had that kind of cake before, you really should try it! It is the best cake ever made! I took a couple photos but my camera seems to be having some focusing issues (not the user either!), but I did get one of Kenn enjoying the sunset out by the eucalyptus trees:
And then Monday I checked out of my hotel, and drove over to pick up Jack and Marsha for our trip up to Truckee. We got the car packed up and gassed up, and got on our way.
I had done some research on ‘Roadside America’ and Jack and Marsha indulged me in a few stops on our way to Auburn, where we were meeting Gary for lunch at Awful Annie’s on the way to Truckee.
First stop: downtown Martinez, CA to visit the location where the first martini was made:
The martini recipe is a bit different than what I’ve heard before, including orange bitters, but hey, the bartender made up the ‘martinez’ on the fly (and, as the patron drank more, the ‘z’ tended to fall off the end of the name, hence ‘martini’) – that’s allowed!
Next stop was the Jelly Belly Factory. I’m not a big candy fan, but I thought it would be fun to stop in. The factory, not surprisingly, was in an industrial park. Also in that park was a Budweister ‘factory’ where you could also do tours and tastings, and a couple of winery and olive oil places too. But, we didn’t have time for all of those, so Jelly Belly’s it was.
Harry Potter artwork
Close-up of Harry Potter’s mouth
We didn’t take the tour because we didn’t have time, but we sampled some Jelly Belly’s – I sampled Booger, Stinky Socks, and Buttered Popcorn:
Booger should be obvious color-wise, and tasted kind of like lime. Stinky Socks was kind of a tutti-frutti. Buttered Popcorn initially tasted like that, but the finish was kind of sweet.
After that was a stop at the Big Orange:
And the Coolie Statue:
Eventually we got to Truckee where we spent a couple of days. Just basically hanging out with friends at Gary’s cabin. It was a really nice place, as you can see below.
Pool area
Our abode
One day we hiked from the Donner Summit to Summit Lake. It was really beautiful.
Summit Lake
Near the PCT!
Yesterday Jack, Marsha and I drove back to the bay area. We took photos along the way but for some reason they are not uploading to my laptop, so I will post about that when I can include the pictures.
Today I drop off my rental car, after 2 weeks and 2 days of driving it. It did a good job getting me from Boise to Boomtown to Calistoga to San Mateo to Truckee and back to San Mateo. When I get home after this trip I’ll post a summary blog of all the places I went to and try to include all the highways I drove on and places I stopped at.
Here’s my ride
I had a nice night last night. Spent the night at the Hilton near the airport. I guess I have stayed enough nights at the Hilton that I have ‘Executive’ status. So, I had a room with a view on an Executive Floor, and had access to the executive lounge. Not too shabby! Unfortunately, these photos did not upload either so I’ll have to fill you in next time.
This morning I have a flight to PHX where I will be attending the Hash House Harrier Inter-Am. About 2000 crazy people all running and partying together.
So, I’ll sign off for now and fill you in afterwards. Thanks for reading!