Playing Tourist

July 28, 2013, Sunday Day 58

Today was our day to play tourist.  Jacque and Lynn had the day of from wine tasting at the Pilot Peak Winery as their partners Nancy and Len told them to enjoy themselves.

Lynn served another great breakfast and we lounged around till about noon and then, what do tourists do in wine country, go wine tasting.  So off we went to Pilot Peak to be treated as tourists.  That's what we thought and for the most part that's what we did, except for Jacque, she forgot she had scheduled a 1 PM meeting with a local group looking to do a fund raising at the winery, so we lost Jacque for a while.  They do it up right with a wine tasting in the winery, then down to the terrace for additional wines and some snacks prepared at the winery.  All free in hopes that you will purchase a few bottles of wine to take home with you, which most people do.

Tourists also visit the Empire Gold Mine located in Grass Valley.  It operated from 1850 until 1956 and produced more than eight billion dollars in golf by today's standards.  They say that there is more than 80 percent of the gold still in the ground.  A mine car can haul out a ton of rock and they say that there is one ounce of gold per ton of rock.  The State of California has done a great job of keeping up the grounds and making them very attractive.

Then it was off to downtown Grass Valley to visit the tasting room, which Pilot Peak shares with two other wineries.  It was set up very nice with Lynn participating significantly in the making of the decor.  What better than a Bloody Mary at a local downtown hotel and bar that was once visited by one of our great presidents that I can't remember.  Then Lynn knew of this local brewery that has good beer and nice ear rings, so we went there for a beer.

Then it was the great Lefty's experience.  We should have known something was wrong when the sign pointing to Lefty's was a right hand.  The bottom line is we waited for food for over two hours and got steamed in the process.

Please note this is a right hand

We went over to Maria's which was about five minutes away, we got there about 9:30 and were seated right away.  My drink was served within 19 seconds and our meal was served within minutes.  Life is good.

Party at the Peak

July 27, 2013, Saturday Day 57

We didn't have any real obligations until late in the evening and Jacque and Lynn had to get to the winery around noon to begin preparations for the Party at the Peak.

We used our time to make a Costco run down past Auborn down highway 80.  It was Saturday and Costco was packed, so packed that we didn't even think twice about not getting a hot dog.  What we found were great liquor prices, which we did not expect, one example is that we pay $50 for Grey Goose in the Austin area at discount and at the Costco store it was $42.  Also bought some Coors Light, Kirkland Vodka, a product of France that some say is made by Grey Goose, I have my doubts, and other stuff.  We then went in search of the Origin's store that was in a mall across the highway to get Sharon some body lotion.  Lunch was at the Cheese Cake Factory in the mall, great salad.

It was back to the house to get ready for the Party at the Peak.  We did not have to get there until around 7 as they stop serving dinner at 8 and we wanted to eat.  It was a great party with about 200 people in attendance, a live blues band and catered food, Lynn got the night off from cooking.  This is the main fund raising activity and they do it every Saturday night beginning in May and running into the fall, until it get too cold.  Everyone is involved including a host of volunteers that just keep coming back for the thrill of it all.

Sun Setting on Pilot Peak

Relaxing in Paradise Found

July 26, 2013, Friday Day 56

One of the reasons we decided to travel to California on Thursday was that Jacque had suggested that we could play golf on Friday afternoon and I just couldn't pass up a golf date.

Oh by the way I checked the highway 80 web site and it said that the mud slide had been cleaned up at 10:06 last night, so we did the right thing.

In the morning, after we slept in a bit, Lynn had fixed a breakfast of coffee, fresh fruit and bagels, quite a refreshing breakfast after our long trip.  Jacque was off to the hair doctor for a 7:30 appointment and Sharon and I lounged around waiting for time to go get a pedicure down in Grass Valley.  After that we took the truck to Suds Bros to get the 16 layers of mud removed, it took them twice and they did not charge extra, what a deal.







In the early afternoon we went to Lake Wildwood for some lunch prior to our golf time, a nice club but not a lot of golfers on the course or in the dinning room.  Golf was great as it usually is, even though I did not score very well.  There was quite a bit of wild life on the course and it was nice course, not too demanding.  Sharon even completed 18 holes on her own ball.

Fred's deer

Ronnie's deer

After we got back from the golf course Lynn fixed a very enjoyable dinner of grilled chicken, potatoes, corn on the cob and plenty of wine.  Lynn is an excellent chef and we were very pleased that he liked cooking so well.