A bit overwhelmed . . .

Well, this was not at all what I expected northern California to be like.  It's remote and open and very, very rocky.  It is not Malibu Beach.   Chico, the region's hippest town due to the college, is a vibrant and progressive city, filled with your hippies, hippie want-to-bes and left over hippies from the 60's.  But it also has a nice sort of business feel - clean and peaceful.   It seems to be the hub for the many smaller towns surrounding it, and rightfully so.

Paradise, on the other hand, could not be more different.  It sits up about 1300 feet above Chico on this plateau and all the houses and streets are built on rolling hills and cliffs.  It's like living in a dense - very dense - extremely dense Sherwood Forest.  I kept expecting to see Robin Hood around every tree.  Driving on Skyway Drive from Paradise back to Chico is treacherous.  The drop off to the canyon below is a mile down and scary.  The view is spectacular for those who are not height-challenged, but that does not include the driver in this family.   "Look at the road.  Look straight ahead."  I kept repeating that while we drove on this really narrow road on the top of this ridge that seemed like it was on the top of the world. Aaah!  Give me the flat land any day!   The thing I kept thinking about it how do these people drive these roads in the winter?  And then I remembered, there really IS no winter here.  At least, not like we experience it in South Dakota.  It never snows here, just rains.  Oh, I guess they might get a dusting of the white stuff in Paradise, but it's not ever cold enough to stay put.  And although it was sort of a nice place, it doesn't own up to its name.  Sorry, we'll all have to wait for heaven to really find that.  :)

The other thing that is strange are the fields of rice!  Like grassy lakes, they are everywhere.   Never seen that before.  Wild.

They don't have goat heads here (nasty hard prickly thorn-like things found in Washington) but they do have star thistle, and those are just as bad.  Plants with nice little yellow flowers that look so harmless, until you get near them and as soon as you do - you know.  Covered with long spiky thorns, they are just plain mean.  And we also found the little seeds that started the whole Velcro phenomena.  We found them after a short walk through a field and came out covered in them.  Shoe laces, socks, shorts and skirts - covered.  And when you brush them off - the prickles stick into your skin.  Can you say OUCH!?! And there are these wild daisy flowers that are covered in sap.  Deceitful little buggers.  And the pine cones!  We found some as big as a football!  Strange.  So strange. 

What struck us is how different it is here than Nevada.  As soon as you cross over the border, it's like landing on another planet.  If I were Nevada, I'd be a little ticked off.  It's like they picked the border of Utah and California just exactly so - so that those two states got the good land and what was ever left in between was left for Nevada.  Sorry to dis the state so, but it's just not my cup of tea.  Seems not to be many others cup either, due to the extreme lack of inhabitants.  But that's another story.

Have you ever been to a restaurant where after you order, and pay and began to eat, they come around and ask you if you want more and more and more - of anything?  Well, we went to this little teeny Mediterranean place and the owner  suggested the sampler platter.  So we get that and he kept bringing more pitas over, more sauce, more falafels, more dolmas, and rice - which we didn't even come with the meal, he just brought it over for us to try.  It was like the old Greek aunt wanting to keep us eating all night long, by shoving plates of food in front of us saying "Eat!  Eat!" till we burst.  I think I almost did.  Boy was that good food.  The Samosas were excellent.  Well, everything was.  I will pay for this in the morning . . .

To bed.  7 am will come early. We plan to be on our way back east tomorrow, God willing.
Can't believe it's the middle of September.  This little vacation has flown by.  They usually do I guess.  Back home and back to the grind stone.  And the cold.  And the snow.  And the nine months of cloudy days.  (aahhh!)  I guess I'll just have to dream of sunny California!  :)


jill and all

California here we come . . .

Ah!  At the last minute we decided to head over to the Golden State.  And golden it is.  It is soo dry here that all the land is completely layered with yellow grasses.  It's a different kind of beautiful.  But the drive over - um - not so much.  If you ever thought Wyoming was desolate - try Nevada.  Oh.  My.  Gosh.  Up one mountain range and down another, then repeat that about 11 times all across the state.  All the while fighting 30 mile an hour winds and nothing - absolutely nothing around - anywhere.  Not a tree, not a bush, not a living creature except big black crows the size of a great dane.  I do not relish going back through there - but through there we must go to get back.  First Nevada, then a bit of a reprieve through Utah, then through nowhere land of Wyoming.  Oh brother.   I'm ready for that hover craft my son Ezra plans on building!

There was one cool thing about Nevada.  The Bonneville salt flat was interesting, I'll admit.  A literal sea of rock hard salt, with holes dug in that were filled with water - just like an ice fishing hole.  One guy was try to sail across the salt on a sailing craft with wheels.  Crazy.

We did go to Antelope Island in Utah before we left.  Gary had to go float in the Great Salt Lake or his vacation would not be complete!  The rest of us hiked a bit and found some cool boulders to climb on and take pictures.  We didn't see any antelope, but we did see one buffalo!

We explored the city of Chico, CA - very nice town.  There is a huge park - 6 square miles - or 3500 acres - right in the middle of town!  It's long and narrow and filled with trees.  It's like a dense forest with biking and hiking trails and a swimming hole and nature.  In the middle of town!  Amazing.  We hope to explore that more before we leave.

Strange to see palm trees and almond trees and kiwi, figs and avocados growing right before your very eyes.  They grow just about everything here in the Sacramento Valley.  We hope to get to a farmer's market today to check out the local produce.  MMM.

One funny thing - as I was walking into the local health food store - I walked under this mist of cool water that just floated down upon me.  It was piped all along the entrance to the store, and just felt so great in the hot temps.  So refreshing.  What a novel idea - eh?

Well, more news later.  We're off to Paradise - beautiful Paradise, CA.  Sounds great, doesn't it??!  Now who wouldn't want to live in a place called that?!  :)

jill and all
 

Biking, swimming and football?

Okay, so you get the swimming and the biking, no doubt - but what is the deal about football you ask??  Well, for months and months the boys have wanted to do Fantasy Football, and for the two of you out there that haven't heard of that (I hadn't either) - it's where you pick the players you like out of all the NFL players to make your own special team and you rack up points based on each player's accomplishments during each game.  Sounded like fun, so India created our own league - The Skunks - (don't ask).  To make a really, really long story short, we finally got our teams all set up.  (After much sweat, frustration, and anxious moments - that mock draft is a killer!)   So, now we are all set for the season.  The only trouble is - we don't have a TV to even watch the games!!!  So why??  Who knows.  Try figuring that one out for yourselves ! . . .  :)

Yesterday Gary and Judah played Bountiful Ridge Golf Course.  Beautiful.  Breathtaking.  And heart-stopping.  Literally.  I got a real work-out just walking up and down and up and down the hills.  It's not like golfing on the plains of South Dakota - let me tell you!  But it was absolutely gorgeous up there.  And you could see out over the Great Salt Lake - and the city with the hills in the background.   And there were deer all over the course.  Just walking around with their little babies eating and looking at you without a care in the world.  They were almost tame - you could get so close.  Cool.

It's hot today and going to be in the 90's this weekend.  Great for swimming.  Not so great for cooking in a little tin crate of an RV.  The AC can't keep up with the stove.  Oh well.  I am very, very, very thankful we have AC.  Cause I am a certified wimp in the heat.  (in the cold too - for that matter)

Labor Day weekend coming up.  Farmer's Market too!  Yeah!  More seeded watermelon!   More fresh tomatoes!  More wacky home-made food!   And more music/dancing - culture!   Yeah!    I'm a bit excited, can you tell?

I don't know if I'll ever be ready to go back home!  Well, I don't want to be here when their 8 feet of snow comes.  Great for skiing, but I'd like to be done with the winters, thank you very much.  As it is - we will be headed back to the frozen tundra of the upper midwest anyway.  But - October is probably the best month there.  So - I'm actually looking forward to that.

Later.  Mounds of laundry await.  Ta-ta!!

jill and all

Strange happenings . . .

This town is so strange.  There are streets with angled parking, like normal, only here-it's not normal.  People BACK into the spots instead of just driving into them with the front of the car at the curb.  No - that would be normal.  It's so strange to see these streets with the cars parked backwards.  It's an easy out, for sure, but different.  Very different.

The bike racks here are shaped like bikes, not the simple silver slotted things we have on the corners at home.  Oh no.  They have to have everything a work of art around here.  Which is really cool, actually - just - well - different.

The other thing that is different here are the people.  I have never seen more people be so friendly and nice and accommodating as I have here.  There are no grouchy clerks (well - except for this old guy at our RV park - but hey - his wife is nice!)  or sales people.  Even if they hated their job, you wouldn't know it.  Everyone has a smile and is willing to help.  Even regular people on the street.   We're not used to that - especially at our library.  Whew.  They are grouchy.  Maybe it's the cold weather that makes everyone so sour back home.  It has to be something.  They should come down here for a visit and take lessons . . .
  We wanted to ride the trolley just for fun - called TRAX here, so we ask around for help - from a few people on the street to the lady at the library and everyone gives their advice.  All different - of course.    We finally decided just to get on, ride a ways through the city and get off.  So then we just stand there, trying to figure out when the next trolley will be by in order for us to go back the other direction, and 2 different groups of people come and ask us for directions and advice!  We knew less than nothing, yet here they were asking us!  We had to laugh.  People are not shy here. Very open and friendly.  Another reason to love it here.  

We're into the swing of school this week.  Yeah!  I like structure!  On Monday, India took her last test for college.  She now has 110 credits - 10 shy of getting her 4 year degree.  She has 3 classes left.  Incredible.

Our RV park sits right next to a really nice bike path that goes on for miles and miles.  You see some real serious bikers flying past.  I am not a biker, I'd rather run, but running is not real good for Gary's back.  He and the boys want to ride the whole trek, which is about 18 miles one way.  It's a great path.  I need to get a bike I can ride so I'm not left behind in the dust.  :)

We went to a vegan restaurant where you needed at least 20 tattoos and 13 body piercings in order to eat there.  Food was great though.  Why is it that the best food places house the strangest looking people?  Nice, but strange.  Well, strange to our mid-west, white bread ways that is.  We went to another vegan restaurant that had an all you can eat pizza and salad bar - only they brought you the food, fresh out of the oven, 1 slice at a time.  So you were getting mystery pizza and had to taste it to figure out what was on it.  It was the coolest thing.  There was mexican pizza, eggplant and tomatoe pizza, taco pizza, raw veggie salad pizza, and there was one that had corn and green beans and tofu sausage with this cashew cheese sauce on it.   MMM!  Good grief was that fun!  We sat there for 2 hours just eating one piece at a time, slowly, savoring each small slice.  What a great idea.  We all walked out of there stuffed to the gills and had to walk back to our pickup several blocks away.  It was good for us, but a little hard to waddle down the sidewalk!

Today it's going to be 80 and sunny!  Yeah!  Gary might actually be able to take some time off today and go golfing.  I might actually get in a swim, and we all hope to just walk, or ride bike, or just hang out.  That's what vacations are all about - right?  Well, that and eating.  A lot.  :)

Later -

jill and all

Such fun . . .

You know, we went to the Farmer's Market to get a couple seeded watermelon, a few tomatoes and a couple of cucumbers.  We didn't expect it to be a cultural outing that lasted the entire morning!  My goodness.  It's a veritable ethnic experience.  Yes, there were tons of really great fruits and vegetables that we went a little crazy about, but there were also home-made everything you can imagine.  And every third booth there was some artist performing.  There was a girl with a ukulele singing, a guy dressed to the nines in a kilt and plaid tam playing the bagpipes, a reggae  looking guy with dreadlocks playing a bongo while a girl danced with a hula hoop.  There was a large group of people that were singing in another language and playing these real primitive instruments and dancing like it was a war dance with karate moves and flips and stuff.  It was amazing.  Then, there was the food court.  Every kind of food imaginable.  Raw, organic, Thai,  Mexican, Peruvian, Italian, Indian,  you name it - they had it.  And soo good.  Really different stuff.   No elephant ears or fried onions.   No, this was way out there kind of stuff.  Like this - there was a guy riding a bike that was hooked up to a generator that was in turn hooked up to a power source that generated electricity that ran a juicer and a blender.  So you could get a bike-powered carrot/beet juice or a fruit smoothie all the while you're 'going green'!   Not a bad idea that.  Get your exercise in and then reward yourself with a smoothie!  HA.  Well, it would certainly cut down on your electric bill!

Anyway, it was quite fun.  The people were fantastic, the weather was great and we had a great time.

Then, we drove up to Park City and watched some Olympians training - practicing their arial jumps on skis.  They would fly down this ramp, do their twists and flips and land in a giant pool of water that bubbled right before they landed.  It was so interesting to watch.  It was a coolish day, and the wind was howling, so I bet they were a bit chilly, except they did have wet suits on.  They even had a ramp for the common folk.  You could pay to give it a try on the 'bunny ramp' and that was so funny to watch.  These people would barely make it off the end of the ramp and literally flop into the water, arms and skis flailing all over the place.  Not too pretty, but entertaining none-the-less.

Then everyone did the zip line.  Well, everyone but me.  NO THANK YOU.  The chair lift was too scary for me.  They all had fun on it though.  They we all did go do the alpine slide which was fun.  It kind of mimics a bobsled ride, only much safer.  It was fun to see where the Olympics were held and all the ski runs and jumps and stuff.  To see it all up close was wild.  I can only imagine what it would be like with all the snow.

We went and ate at this really wacky restaurant today.  The food was good, but different.  I got to satisfy my childhood treat of soy ice cream vanilla shake with french fries.  I know, sounds icky, but you can't knock it til you've tried it.  Way better than just ketchup or goop.  (goop is another childhood concoction of mayonaise, ketchup and mustard mixed just right)  But even goop, as good as it is, can not top a vanilla shake with fries.  MMM!   Hey, it's way better than vinegar that the Canadians and Brits use for their fries, let me tell you!

Then we went for a bike ride, as everyone was so excited because of their new purchases.  Noah bought his today, a really sweet British bike that is just exactly what he was looking for.  Spent a pretty penny on it, but he's happy.  I rode my old bike with the broken brake, broken gears and no water bottle holder (boo hoo)   :)  but I do hope to get a recumbent - sometime - soon - before we have to leave.

Hope you all had a great weekend.  Gary and Judah have yet to golf, so that's next on the agenda.  The trouble is deciding which course to play.  There are a ton of them and most are pretty cheap.  That's yet another positive about this place.  There are actually lots of positives - nice people, lots of great restaurants, lots of bike paths, great - no - super great library, lots of really great locally-grown produce including peaches that are fantastic, no mosquitoes, no humidity, and great views.

Um, why is it we don't live here again . . .

Well, better run.  Take care.  And if you're brave, try the fries dipped in a vanilla shake, and tell me what you think.

Later,

jill and all

 

Totally toxic but oh so good . . .

Okay, so we found a really cool bike for India and an even cooler bike for Ezra.  They are stoked.  Now we just need to get Noah a bike and try to find a nice recumbent for me.  That is proving harder than we thought.  Not too popular - those weird-looking things.  But the seat is soo comfortable and the nice back rest is so nice, and it is just so much better than a 'normal' bike.  And besides - how could I do 'normal' anyway??!

Ate at the Blue Plate cafe.  Total greasy spoon, but the dishes were all vegan and so so tasty!  Then we went to Hatch Family Chocolates.  I know, but hey, we ARE on vacation and that alone gives you license to do and eat things you wouldn't normally - right?!  So we all got frozen bananas dipped in dark chocolate.  Gary and I added nuts.  Oh.  My.   Goodness. Judah hates chocolate, so Noah ate all of it off and left Judah with the banana. I could not finish mine.  We are so so so not used to chocolate and sugar that it was about 5 times what our bodies could handle.  We'll all be up till 3 am no doubt, and then we'll crash and will want to sleep all day tomorrow.   I'm glad we don't vacation too often!

I should have just had a few fresh figs instead of the chocolate banana.  They have magnificent fresh figs from California that are in season now and they are decedent.  Pure and simple.  Forget the chocolate covered strawberries and Double Chocolate truffle cake - Fresh figs are almost to die for.  If you haven't had one, you must.  They are incredible.  Truly.  I am not kidding.  :)

Okay, this was the food post.  Now I'm off to bed to try to read myself to sleep - till the sugar/caffine high runs out that is.

Later -

jill and all

Vacation at last . . .

We are in the Bee Hive State and have yet to see an actual bee hive except on bill boards and the names of businesses.  You'd expect to see Utah honey sold everywhere, but that's not the case.  So why the name?  We do not know.  Oh, well, we're just glad to be here.  Cause our pickup is acting funny, chugging and sputtering and blowing black smoke.  I feared we wouldn't even make it.  Plus, we came upon a huge traffic jam that stopped up the entire interstate for almost 2 hours.  A truck with toxic something collided with a semi and blocked the road.  So, there we sat.  But, two days and about 18 hours of driving, 5 bags of almonds, 1 large container of raisins, 10 bunches of bananas, 1 jar of peanut butter, 1 jar of cashew butter and 1 quick stop for lunch on a side road by Safeway in Spearfish and lots of praying later - we pulled into the RV park, just before they were about to close.  Thank God.  We were glad to get out of Wyoming unscathed!  But we did get to stop at Independence Rock, on a fluke, cause Judah had to use the rest room.  :)  India screams - 'Mom!  This is THE Independence Rock.  You know, the Oregon Trail Independence Rock!'   And it was.  Cool.  Thanks Judah.  We got our history lesson in for the day.

So far we haven't done much.  Hung out at the world's best library ever, went walking/running/biking/rollerblading, searching for bikes to buy and we ate.  We hope to check out Park City and Sundance.  Park City is where the Olympics were held and Sundance is where Robert Redford's famous film festival is held.  They have a zip line and a trolley and a really cool cave that is a must see.  Or so I've been told.  We hope to get seeded watermelon at the farmers market and play a little golf too.  Well, some of us will play, some of us will be the gallery, and some of us will stay back at the trailer and surf the web.

Pictures will be forthcoming.  Hopefully.  If India is nice enough to share and put them on my blog for me.  India, are you listening?   :)

Well,  we're off to eat at City Dogs.  It's a vegan hot dog street vendor place and they have the best dogs ever.  Well, so the children say.  They put all kinds of wacky things on theirs like, jalapenos and saurcraut and chili and cheese (vegan of course), veganaise,  onions, and relish.  Me, I'm a ketchup and mustard gal.  Why mess up a good thing, I say.  Some say that's boring, I say, keep it simple.  Okay, yeah, it's boring as all get-out, but it's the way I like it.  The very best part of City Dogs is the veganaise in a squeeze bottle.  Yeah, I know.  I don't really get the appeal either, but the children swear by it.  Easily amused, or what??!

Hope you all are keeping cool.

Later everyone!

jill and all