California 2013 - Round 2 - Day 7

September 17, 2013 (Tuesday)

Jelly Belly Factory

The last day spent in CA was a day that nothing was pre-planned.  We made a stop in Fairfield to tour the Jelly Belly Factory. Tours are offered from 9am – 4pm and are free. The walking tour lasts about 40-minutes and offers a sample after each station. At the store, you can also sample 3 flavor choices of your choosing. I would have to say my favorite sample was either lime or marshmallow.  The jelly belly art was pretty cool, unfortunately photos are not allowed during the tour.

Benicia -Old Capital Building

Near the Jelly Belly Factory was an olive oil sampling room (SePay Groves) and we checked that out. It was interesting, but I am sure the guy was trying to sell the oil so some of what he was saying might not have been the entire truth. The olive oil sampling people suggested that we visit Benicia, and since we had time we did. Street parking was free so we walked around the downtown area and had lunch at Nine O Seven. I had chicken quesadilla, which was a bit greasy from the cheese. Mike had something called angel wings (pork) -it was good – the waitress brought a sample to the table before taking our order.  Also while in Benicia, we visited California’s third capital building (1853-1854). The capitol location was moved because of complains of poor weather conditions and uncomfortable accommodations. The building is open during the weekends had exhibits restored and reconstructed period furnishings.

Lastly, our trip involved meeting up with our friends from the San Jose area! We were able to coordinate dinner with them at a place called Patxi’s Chicago Pizza which was in Palo Alto about half way between the San Francisco Airport and San Jose. We of course had the Chicago style deep dish pizza – one side was Salsiccia (garlic-fennel sausage, ricotta, basil, mozzarella) and the other Tre Porcellini (salami, pepperoni, garlic-fennel sausage, mozzarella). It was delicious as expected.

We made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare for our red-eye flight back to Detroit. At one point during the flight, I looked outside to see the awesomeness of being overtop of a huge lightning storm! The rest of the journey home was uneventful.

Until next time – happy traveling!

California 2013 - Round 2 - Day 6

September 16, 2013 (Monday)

Lassen Volcanic NP

We headed out of Tahoe early to get a head start on traffic and to get to the next destination early. It was about a 3.5 hour drive to Lassen Volcanic National Park. Lassen Volcanic was the 17th National Park created. The site exhibits all four types of volcanos: cinder cones, composite volcanoes, shield volcanoes and lava domes. The last eruption in the park was in 1915.

Our first stop, once we arrived was the Kohm Yah-mah-nee Visitor Center (southwest entrance), which is open 9-5 year round. There is a café and restrooms at the visitor center. There is a $10 fee per vehicle which is valid for 7 days.  We watched the 20 minute film about the park – it was informative. Also, we looked around at the exhibits at the visitor center, allowing 20 minutes would be adequate. Prior to visiting, the park it was recommended to allow about 3 hours for drive through the 30 mile long park highway. There is a road guide available at the visitor centers.

Lassen Volcanic NP - Bumpass Hell trail

We stopped to check out a bunch of places including Sulphur Works (steam vents and boiling mudpots), Bumpass Hell trail (3 mile hike to the park’s largest hydrothermal area), as well as many of the scenic pull-offs.

Prior to leaving, the park we also visited the Loomis Museum at the northwest entrance of the park. The museum includes photos taken by Loomis, who documented Lassen’s Peak most recent eruption cycle and promoted the park’s establishment. The video is the same at both visitor centers. 

Whiskeytown Lake NRA

Heading west from Lassen, we reached Whiskeytown Lake’s National Recreation Area after about an hour and a half drive. Our first stop was again the visitor center. There is a $5 day use pass required to be placed on your dashboard, there are $10 weekly passes available also.  The visitor center was not very good. There were some exhibits to look at, but other than the pretty view there was not much to see. Whiskeytown has four major waterfalls available to hike. We forgot to ask about the flow conditions of the waterfalls so we did not hike to any of them, but we did hike the trail at the visitor center, it was okay. The trail was rather steep and took to the water’s edge.

Whiskeytown Lake NRA

Sundial Bridge - Redding, CA

We checked out the Sundial Bridge which spans the Sacramento River in Redding before our venture south towards San Francisco.

Consulting tripadvisor, we found a place called Farwood Bar & Grill for dinner in Orland. It was very good – Mike and a steak and I had chicken. I wish we had gotten a salad – a few people arrived after us and all of them ordered the same salad – that has to been that it is good – right?

Venturing a little further south we stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in Willow.

California 2013 - Round 2 - Day 5

September 15, 2013 (Sunday)

Genoa, NV - "Nevada's Oldest Thirst Parlor"

The day started with a drive to check out Genoa. Genoa is an old town, the first settlement in which became the Nevada Territory. There is a bar in town that claims to be “Nevada’s oldest thirst parlor”. It is said that Mark Twain, Teddy Roosevelt and Johnny Cash visited the parlor.  A couple of films used Genoa as the set. The area is historically known as Mormon Station, since the first settlers were Mormon pioneers.  There is not a lot to do or see in the little town.

Carson City, NV - Capitol

Next stop Carson City to visit the capitol building. There was free parking along the side of the building. We snapped some photos and checked out the grounds before heading across the street for lunch at Mom & Pop’s Diner. The food was pretty simple and they serve breakfast all day (they are only open until 2PM).

Virginia City, NV

Continuing north, we took a step back into time to check out a really neat place called Virginia City. During its heyday, Virginia City was a highly profitable mining town – millions of dollars, which equals billions in today’s standards. The town is full of Victorian-era buildings including Old West saloons, shops, museums and restaurants. People are dressed in the era and there is even an old shoot-out corral. There is an opportunity to ride on a stagecoach, trolley and steam engine train. We opted to check out the Virginia & Truckee Railroad.  We took the Historic Route to Gold Hill which was a 35 minute roundtrip train ride. The fare was $9 for adults, ages 5-23 $5, free under age 5. There is an opportunity to hop on the train in Carson City and take it to Virginia City (1.5 hours each way – weekends only). Check out www.virginiatruckee.com for more information!

Sand Harbor - Lake Tahoe, NV

Heading back to Tahoe, we stopped a beautiful spot along the Lake – Sand Harbor!  We parked in one of the pull outs along the roadway and did a little bit of hiking to view the beautiful sparkling blue water. There is a state park there also, but it was $12 and we did not have the proper cash or check to put in the envelope, we did not enter the park.

California 2013 - Round 2 - Day 3 & 4

September 13, 2013 (Friday)

The day did not go exactly has I had originally planned – first the tour I wanted to go on was full and secondly we had to go back to the suit place to pick up the corrected jacket.

A view from Sausalito

Since basically all we had to do for the day was wedding stuff we took advantage of what little free time that we had and checked out Sausalito. There was plenty of free street parking along the bay. We checked out some of little shops and took a nice stroll along the bay to soak in the views.

After picking up the suit jacket, we headed back to the hotel before heading to the wedding. We stopped by the ice cream place before leaving for the wedding. Yum! The ceremony was nice and short. The reception also took place at the Botanical Garden and was only a short walk away. There were fruits and cheeses to munch on before dinner was served. The dinner was very unique – individual pot pies! The shells and lids were baked and the filling was scooped into the shell. The rest of the evening was danced away.

September 14, 2013 (Saturday)

After the great breakfast at the Holiday Inn Express we ventured to a new destination – Sacramento.

All aboard - train ride in Old Sacramento

There was a lot of positive information about Old Sacramento thus we checked it out. Old Sacramento is the original historic business district back in the Gold Rush Period (1850’s). The area is a CA Historical Landmark. There are over 50 buildings of significance in the little “Old Town”. The location is also home to the California State Railroad Museum. We did not visit the museum but, did go on the Sacramento Southern Railroad train excursion. The vintage diesel locomotive leaves on the hour and has about a 45 minute ride. We took the regular coach ($10 adults, $5 youths (6-17), free 5 and under), there is also first class for $15/person, free 5 and under. We were extremely cramped in the coach cars and the views from the train were not very good; therefore, I would not recommend riding the train.

Sacramento - CA Capitol

We continued our tradition of visiting capitol buildings. California’s capitol is similar to most that we have seen – neoclassical architecture. There is a lovely park adjacent to the capitol. There was a small amount of free parking around the fountain across the street. 

Heading out town we stopped for gas and lunch. We had a gift card for Chili’s and we went there for lunch. They forgot to put our order in as a result we got a free dessert.

Our adventure continued as we headed towards South Lake Tahoe. The drive views improved as we drove to the west of Sacramento. We stopped at a few turn-outs for photos.

Driving to Lake Tahoe

While in South Lake Tahoe, we stayed at the Lake Tahoe Vacation Resort. The resort was super nice, the only downfall was that were was some construction going on to the building and the surrounding roadways.

After settling in, we took a walk to check out the town. There was a nice little shopping near the CA/NV state line called Heavenly Village. We bought an awesome caramel apple at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. Also, we headed to the Hard Rock Café (located just inside the Harvey’s Resort and Casino) to collect yet another zippo lighter for Mike’s collection.

Driving to Lake Tahoe

California 2013 - Round 2 - Day 1 & 2

September 11, 2013 (Wednesday)

Yahoo - time for another trip! This adventure heads us back out to California. We hopped on the plane at DTW only to have to sit and wait for more than an hour due to computer problems on the plane – not fun since the plane was probably over 90 degrees inside. In return, we got to watch any movies we wanted for free. Regardless, we made it without any other issues, just later than we had hoped for.

September 12, 2013 (Thursday)

The stay at the Days Inn in San Bruno was not as good as the previous stay. The room was fine but the breakfast was pretty bad – there was hardly anything to pick from. The hotel was completely booked for the night, that may have been the problem but, they really needed someone to keep a better eye on keeping the breakfast station replenished.

San Francisco Maritime NHP

Leaving the hotel, we headed to the San Francisco Maritime NHP site, which is in the Fisherman’s Wharf neighborhood. There is a lot of parking in the area and it is pretty cheap (under $10 for the day) if you arrive by 9AM. We visited this site quickly on our last trip, but this time we went onto the ships/boats. The biggest ship, the Balclutha, has short videos inside which tell the story of what the boat was used for over the years. There is a $5/person (free under age 16) charge to enter the boats, but it is free to walk down the pier and view the exterior.

Since, we were in the Bay area for a wedding, we had to go pick up Mike’s suit in Mill Valley (Jos. A. Bank). There were other locations around but, we decided that that location would probably be the easiest. The coat sleeves were too short and the store made us come back the next day to pick it up – this of course made the plans for the next day change.

While in Mill Valley, we had lunch at a place called Pizza Antica, which is in the Strawberry Village Shopping Center. We split a Caesar Salad and pizza. The pizza had sweet corn, bacon, arugula and basil on it – a weird but yummy combination!

After lunch, we headed to Berkeley to check into the hotel – Holiday Inn Express. The hotel was relatively new and in excellent condition. We were in a king size bed room and the room was very spacious. The workout room was decent, but there was not a pool. The surrounding neighborhood was a little hit-or-miss. A few buildings had graffiti but all in all it was okay. There was a very tasty ice cream place right down the block called Foster’s Freeze.

The Thomas - one of the many starters!

The wedding was held at the University of California Berkeley Botanical Garden. We headed there for a short rehearsal before heading to the rehearsal dinner in Napa. The rehearsal dinner was at the restaurant that the groom works at – The Thomas. The dinner was on the patio, which was quite lovely. There were portable heaters to keep us warm in the evening chill. The food was served to us family style. There were many choices and all by the looks of what was left over from our table everyone loved pretty much everything.