Oatmeal and 10/25 -10/30 Folsom,CA, Los Gatos, CA and Turlock, CA

Oatmeal
10/25 -10/30 Folsom,CA, Los Gatos, CA and Turlock, CA

Some people say San Francisco is in Northern California. If that is so, where would those same people say Yreka, CA is? Katherine and I met our good friend Dan Daniels in Yreka for a late breakfast at Grandma’s Diner after we left Grants Pass. Dan is a pastor friend of ours who has a passion for what he does. I don’t care what someone does, it’s refreshing to see passionate people doing their best at what they do. We had oatmeal. I would much prefer having 3 egg omelets and hash browns every morning but I only brought so many jeans that fit. Katherine thinks I get crabby when I eat too much oatmeal. I guess I do. I have a bad attitude about oatmeal. You could say that I am not passionate about my oatmeal.
We drove the back road to Folsom, leaving I-5 at Mt Shasta on Hwy 89 past the quaint town of McCloud on the southern flank of Mt Shasta. It was a logging town that went “out of business” with the spotted owl. We had a latte for the car at the McCloud Mercantile where I left my notebook full of phone messages. I discovered my mistake 100 miles south and kindly the owner FAXED all of our messages to us down in Chico at a Office Depot store. With the cost of FAXING per page, it may have been cheaper to drive back 100 miles to pick up the book!
We drove around Lassen Peak National Park. If we had time we would have scrambled up the peak. The mountain is 10,457 feet high but the road climbs to over 8,500 feet. Next time we will bring our hiking shoes. It was a fabulously beautiful day. The blues were strong in the sky with a crisp northerly wind. It was an interesting park and a beautiful one as well. THIS is Northern California.
We made it to Folsom after dark and a bit too late for a decent dinner other than an all night kind of place. Good thing I had my oatmeal for breakfast! We found a place to stay downtown Folsom that is on the lake. We were able to drop off our equipment at the concert venue which was the Folsom Community Center on our way to have a salad.
On the 26th we woke and went for a drive through the Gold Country of California along Hwy 49 to see Sutter’s Mill. It’s amazing what change comes with the discovery of gold. Money is a catalyst for change; it certainly continues to be so today.
The concert at night was a joy. It was a crowd very enthusiastic and enjoyed being at the concert. It was a bit smaller crowd than what we have had but easily made up for it by their appreciative nature. As always, the tech help was great.
On the morning of the 27th, we had breakfast in the charming historic section of Folsom; walking distance from the hotel. I DIDN’T have oatmeal! It was a great breakfast of a 3 egg omelet with spinach and mushrooms and ham. I was good and had no cheese. Katherine said I was only mildly crabby. The coffee was good.
We took a drive through the Napa Valley, leaving I-80 at Davis, traveling over Hwy 128 to St. Helena. We stopped at a great drive in called Taylor’s. The seating was outdoors on the nice lawn. We split a chicken salad. We drove to a famous historic winery called Beringer Winery. Gone are the days of free wine tasting. We couldn’t afford a bottle of wine and hardly were able to let ourselves spend the money for the wine tasting. We ended sharing the wine tasting. The gardens were gorgeous. The Beringer Winery has an Oak tree on it's grounds that has been alive since the signing of the American Constitution. They pay the groundskeepers from the wine tasting, I am sure. They must be very wealthy!
Continuing on, we wound our way through Santa Rosa and on to the Coast Highway, Highway 1. We were able to drive to the end of the road at Point Reyes Nat’l Seashore. Two items of interest to me are the lighthouse and the epicenter of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. I found the lighthouse interesting because of it's short stature. It is short because the light needs to shine below the level of the constant fog ceiling. It certainly wasn’t foggy when we were there. I found the epicenter of the earthquake intriguing. In one minute, the earth’s crust shifted over 12 feet. For an illustration, the National Park service built a replica of a fence that crossed the fault line. One fence post was in front of me and the other fence post was behind me when they were originally built to be in the same line. After the earthquake, it looked like a fence I built!
We ate in Inverness at a quaint, full of ambience, Czech restaurant. The owner was a gentleman who escaped from the Eastern Europe country after it’s occupation by the Soviet Union shortly after World War II’s ending by cross-country skiing into Western Germany. His life path lead him to California where he opened up a restaurant. I had goose and Katherine had the traditional Czech cabbage roll.
We continued on through San Francisco. It’s an unusual place, especially the night before Halloween! We stayed with good friends in Foster City, south of San Francisco.
On Saturday the 28th we did nothing except stay around our friends house. No driving; just sitting. I was able to watch a football game and Katherine was able to do a bit of bookkeeping. We took our friends, Ken and Eunice to dinner after a rousing game of Bocé Ball.
On Sunday, we attended church in the morning before setting up in Los Gatos for our matinee concert. What a beautiful high school Los Gatos has. I wouldn’t have minded high school so much if I went to a school such as that. The theater was newly remodeled. The concert was again very well received. Kevin is enthusiastic about community concerts and Diana, a teacher at school was superb with her technical help.
We have a closing prop that is always fun to use. It is a chandelier that we use for “Phantom of the Opera.” We are always happy when a facility has the means to use our prop.
We left for Turlock in the morning on the 30th to give a concert at 7:30. I looked at the map to take the shortest way from Foster City to Turlock. The map lead me onto route 130 over Mt Hamilton and the Lick Observatory. The road had so many sharp switchbacks that we almost rear ended ourselves on some of the turns! I challenge anyone to tell me where a windier road in the country is. We will make a point to drive it to check it out.
The view from the observatory would be incredible if it weren’t so smokey in the bay area. We would like to return to see the observatory.



The concert went very well. Turlock has a high school campus that looks like a college. Another school that I would be excited to attend! It was huge! I am honored to be on the same stage as so many great professional entertainers. Bob Newhart had just been on the very same stage. We were offered a nice meal before the concert by the community concert group. We had a bouquet of flowers on a table at the back of the stage with our sandwich! What class!!