Sacramento Underground!

Really haven't shown you any pictures of our campground. We are located in Isleton on Brannon Island in the Sacramento Delta. We are surrounded by corn fields. The corn is used for feed for animals not for people. The swimming pool is in the white picket fenced area. You can see the RV's in the back.

Delta Shores

This is the sign on the road that is on the levee.

Delta Shores Resort & Marina

On the other side of the road that you can see in the above picture are docks for boats for guests of Delta Shores.

Delta Shores Boat Docks

Today we drove the 45 miles to Sacramento. We went to Old Town Sacramento to do the Underground tour. Back in the mid 1800's Sacramento would get flooded out by the Sacramento and American rivers. It was decided that the entire town would be built up by an average of 9.5 feet. That area is now called Old Town Sacramento. Entire buildings were jacked up and the first floors were where the second floors once were. Sidewalks also had to be moved up. It was the responsibility of business owners to pay to do the work. The sidewalks are all wood and hollow underneath.

Pictures are not allowed in the tour so I had to download the pictures for the blog from the internet, however they do accurately show what we saw in the tour.

Underground excavation site.

We were last here with the Blankenbillers in 2007. I was in talks with the Old Sacramento Historical Society about the tours. They were planning on setting them up, but were not yet set. Unfortunately they started them well after we were there. I actually saved the E-mail with Janessa Gonsalves from March 2007. She still works there, but has since changed her last name.

We of course decided to go on the tour. They take a maximum of 20 at a time. Thursday - Sunday they leave every 30 minutes from 10:30 - 3:00. Other days they do just 3 tours a day.

We arrived in time for the 12:30 tour. The cost is $15.00 each, so it was $30.00 for both of us. If we wanted to take a private tour, the cost is $300.00. 

The 1:00 tour had only 7 people, as the day went on more people were signed up, but guess what? Patty and I got a private tour!!! Just us. Our two tour guides Ellen and Rich joked that we got 90% off! :)

Underground buttresses

The tour was much more then an underground tour. We learned a lot about old Sacramento. They give you headsets so when you are on the streets you can easily hear the guide. Because it was just Patty and I, we could ask all the questions we wanted. The guides were excellent and it was SOOOO worth the $30.00! 

This picture is of a screw jack. They used these to jack up the buildings. They would then add bricks and build a wall underneath the old building.

Screw Jack

After the tour we went to another Diners, Drive-in's and Dive's place. The Squeeze Inn.

Guy Fierri

The Squeeze Inn had to be moved about around the corner because of ADA regulations into a strip mall. They still prepare the burgers the same way. While cooking the burgers they put about 1/2 lb. of grated cheese on the burger and then put ice chips on the grill and cover with a pan. This steams the cheese into the burger. It is juicy and ummmmm good!

True Cheese Paper! LOL

The cheese crisps up on the grill and makes a skirt around the burger. You can tear some of it off and eat it, which I did, and fold some more of it into the burger. Two lactose pills for me please!

After the late lunch, early diner we stopped by Costco and a WinCo and then headed home. 

Crystal sent us a picture of Gracie's feet. Suzie said she is tap dancing in the oven! LOL!

Baby Gracie!

God is Awesome as usual!

That's it for today, 

Love you all,

Brian and Patty

San Francisco

We always have a good time no matter where we go, but I think if we never go back to San Francisco I will not miss it, nor will they miss me!

Maybe it is because we have been in Timbuktu for awhile. We had a 70 mile drive and it took almost three hours to get there. Not just  because it was busy, but the drivers are rude! Watching the news today it is even worse today. Wednesday was probably the best of the worse! We actually were able to find parking spots.

Busy streets

Our first place to visit per Crystals recommendation was the Walt Disney Family Museum. It is located on the Presidio grounds.

Disney Museum

I'm not as big of a Disney fan as Patty but this was actually amazing. We spent more then three hours here. The museum and was huge.

Building

Patty is one of the mouseketeers!

Mouseketeer Patty

They would only allow you to take pictures in the lobby. Once you started in the actual museum pictures were not allowed.

Walt

While we were in the museum it opened up to this great view of the Golden Gate Bridge. I snuck a picture of the bridge since it wasn't a picture of any of the museum pieces.

Golden Gate Bridge from Disney

After the museum we went to Crissy park which used to be an airfield. The building on the left is a park store. I have a story about that I will share later in this blog. We walked out on the pier you can see jutting out on the right. The pictures you see later were shot from that.

Crissy Park

Here is a picture of Alcatraz taken from the pier.

Alcatraz from pier

Looking back at the city from the pier.

San Francisco

Here is our favorite picture of the bridge taken from the pier.

Golden Gate Bridge

We went back to the truck. It was time to eat diner. Patty wanted Italian food. We called Crystal to see if she had any recommendations. She suggested Thomaso's on Kearney street. She warned us that it was in a seedy area, but that it was good food. She was right, we had a Capresse salad we shared and a large Pepperoni and Sausage Pizza that we shared. We brought home more then half of it.

Now the story about the park store I promised. 

We walked into the park store and two men were walking out and held the door for us. One of them had a loud shirt on, kinda like a soccer or bicycle shirt which caught my attention. Anyways we thanked them for holding the door for us.

Later after Crystal suggested eating diner at Thomaso's and we followed her suggestion, I saw those same two men come into the restaurant. Thomaso's is a very small restaurant and nowhere near Crissy field. I thought how weird that was. I asked the guy with the loud shirt on if they had been at Crissy field. He started talking Italian to the other guy. After a couple times trying to communicate we found out from our server that he was from Italy and was a friend of the owner of Thomoso's, the other guy we had seen. He was giving him a tour of San Francisco! How weird if that? Of all the millions of places in SF we could have been earlier and all the thousands of restaurants we could have been at! Pretty Strange!

That's it for today,

Tomorrow Sacramento,

God Bless you all!

Brian and Patty

Delta Dawn!

We made it to the Delta on Monday. We are staying at an RPI campground called Delta Shores Resort and Marina. On Tuesday we went the 30 miles to Fairfield to see the Jelly Belly jelly bean factory. We have been there before but the tours have never been fully running when we have been there. Unlike the cheese factory tour in Tilamook this one is a guided tour.

Jelly Belly Factory

Outside the factory they have a Jelly Belly bug and Ford Expedition. 

Jelly Belly Bug

Inside the lobby they had the a Jelly Belly chopper.

Jelly Chopper

They had a lot of jelly bean  portraits. This was my favorite! Ronald Reagan! Wahoo!!

Ronald Reagan

The tour started. You can see more portraits on the back wall. You had to wear a hat during the tour. They supplied you with these hats if you didn't have one.

Jelly Belly Tour

Of course they had a store. Last time we bought the "Belly Flops" These are the irregulars. They taste the same but are misshaped. They sell them much cheaper then the regulars. 

Candy Store

Wednesday we are going to San Francisco. We are letting Crystal be are tour planner even though she is back in Ventura. LOL!

We love you all,

Brian and Patty

Our Niece Stevie's Wedding!

Saturday was Stevie's big day. The wedding went off without a hitch. It was a beautiful day at Vigilance Vineyards.

Vigilance Vineyards

We have been here for two weeks and I'm sorry I have not been updating the blog. The truth is that we have not been doing any sightseeing. We have have been working hard helping Frank and Suzie get ready for the wedding.

On Wednesday Crystal and James arrived and it was nice spending the evening with them. They spend Wednesday night with us in the trailer. They had reservations for Thursday - Saturday at Greta's a B&B in Middletown. Thursday Cynthia and Milo arrived. Cynthia also stayed at Greta's but Milo stayed at the Twin Pines Indian Casino Hotel.

Friday about 2:30 Matthew and Jasmine arrived. They stayed with us Friday and Saturday night.It was so nice. Friday night we spent with the kids. First we all went to Frank and Suzie's Boar's Breath restaurant for a ridiculously good meal. James said it was the best pork chop he had ever eaten and Frank had smoked a brisket just for me! It was the first time we were all together since we left on June 1st. We have been having a great time, but we really miss them!

Friday was the dress rehearsal. I hooked up Frank's rail trailer to my truck and Matthew, James and I hauled a refrigerator, logs, and other stuff to the event site. Friday was very busy and everyone was stressing out, but we got through it.  Frank prepared Lasagna and Cesar salad for the diner. It was GREAT. Here's Milo, Matthew, Jasmine and James eating diner.

Rehearsal diner

We all got together again at the trailer and then Crystal and James went back to their room.

Saturday Cynthia and Crystral and James came over for breakfast. Patty really enjoys making breakfast for everyone. We had french toast, bacon, sausage and eggs. YUMM!

We went back to the vineyard for more work and then 5:00 the wedding started!

Stevie and Ryan

Look how big Crystal's tummy is in the picture. Baby Gracie is on the way! But... this is Stevie's day, and what a beautiful bride my niece is! Frank and I agreed that it must be the Ferro genes because we both have beautiful daughters and it couldn't have been us! :)

Beautiful Stevie!

Now I would like to introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Ryan Peterson. Ryan is a Clear Lake police officer. Ryan has a great future with them. But like all husbands of girls I love I let him know he would be hurt if he did Stevie wrong! :)

Mr. and Mrs. Peterson

After the short but wonderful ceremony the reception started. Frank also prepared all the food. You all know I do not eat pork ribs. Well guess what Frank made? Yep, Pork ribs. Since everything else Frank had made was soooooo good I agreed to try them. He had been smoking them for days, not bbq, but smoking them. Here is Milo eating the ribs. 

Pork Ribs

Well guess what? They were awesome! I ended up eating 5 ribs. They didn't even taste like pork to me. They were so smokey and meaty they were great. Frank can cook!!

I mentioned earlier about how beautiful our daughters are. Here is a nice picture of them.

Beautiful girls!

Here is Jasmine, Stevie and Matthew.

Jasmine, Stevie and Matthew

Suzie made the wedding cake. It had some kind of liqueur cooked in it and I didn't care for the flavor. She knew that is had a strong flavor so she had cookies for those of us that wouldn't care for it. It was however a pretty cake.

Wedding cake

We got back to the trailer at about 10:30. Crystal and James followed us back and said their goodbyes. Matt and Jasmine left at 5:30 this morning and Crystal left at about 7:30. As if this writing both have arrived home safe! I thank Jesus for that!!!

Milo and Cynthia leave for home on Monday. 

We also leave on Monday but are going to the Sacramento Delta to Isleton, CA until Tuesday September 4. We then head back to the Soledad Canyon Thousand Trails in Acton for 3 weeks. We will see you all then!

God Bless you,

Love you,

Brian and Patty

Middletown continues

Not much new here. Patty has been busy with Suzie tying ribbons and shopping for the wedding. I've been riding the scooter around the area.

It has been hot here. Tuesday it got up to 106 degrees at the 5th wheel. The dual air conditioners have proven a life saver! Yesterday it was only 101.

It's awesome that Patty is getting some quality time with Suzie!

As I said, not much new. Just wanted to update the blog so you all know we are still doing well!

God Bless you..

We'll see you guys soon!!!

Love you,

Brian and Patty

Middletown, CA

We made it to Middletown for niece Stevie's wedding. After 275 mile drive on the 101 that was a combination of freeway, redwood forest, tight turns, ocean cliffs and city streets with traffic lights. We pulled into the Hidden Valley Campground at about 3:00pm. It is a county park type setting with full 50 amp hookups. There is only one other motorhome in the campground.

Site 24

We have an end site, but the other campers are completely on the other end of our row. It is really hot here. Yesterday it was 106 degrees and today it topped out at 100 Degrees. Both air conditioners are blasting full! It cools off at night so the air turns off.

Suzie was in Santa Rosa getting supplies for the restaurant so we got something to eat at the Jolly Kone and then kicked back at the trailer. Suzie came by at about 9:00pm. It was good to see her, it's been awhile. 

Here is another picture of our site.

HVHA campground

Today the girls went to Clear Lake to do some shopping for the wedding. I was invited to go, but I think it was a courtesy invite. Patty and Suzie needed some sister time, and I didn't mind the alone time either. I went outside to do some maintenance on the trailer and I saw a family of deer. They were right in front of the trailer, where the above picture was taken. I went inside to get the camera and they had moved to the other side of my truck. The sun made glare so the picture is whitewashed, but you can see them.

Deer

Patty, Suzie, and Stevie got back and unloaded some groceries. They all left to go to their restaurant. (Boars Breath). I may ride the scooter over there in a few because I have never seen the restaurant.

I may not update every day while we are here, because we are not site seeing here. Will let you know if anything big happens!

God Bless you all and we love you!

Brian and Patty

Lady Bird Johnson Grove

Today was a busy day. We hiked a lot today!

We started at the Lady Bird Johnson Grove which was dedicated to the former first lady by President Richard Nixon in 1969. The trail is just north of Orick, CA up in the mountains. Most of the coastal redwoods are down lower on the coast. It tends to be foggy or cloudy at the LBJ grove but today was beautiful.

LBJ Grove

You start the 1 1/2 mile loop at the parking lot and cross this bridge over the road to the trail.

Bridge to grove

You can either buy or borrow an interpretive brochure at the beginning of the trail. Because we don't want to store this stuff in the trailer we returned it after the hike. We started on the trail.

LBJ Trail

The hike was pleasant. It was a total of 1.5 miles with a 100 foot elevation  change. It has been so nice to have time here to check out different trails. We continue to be amazed every time we hike a new one. There were some monster trees here!

Huge trees

About half way you come to the dedication site. There are several benches here and the dedication plaque.

Dedication plaque

These trees are not as large around as the Sequoia redwoods but they get taller reaching as much as 350 feet.

Huge trees

The trail continues between these two gigantic trees. 

LBJ trail continues

We got back to the truck and decided to go back to the Prairie Creek visitor center. We had started the Nature trail the other day but decided to not continue on it because we were going to Fern Canyon.

Prairie Creek Nature Trail

This is the bridge that we started on the other day. This time we decided to finish the trail.

Starting bridge

We continue on this 2 mile round trip hike.

Nature Trail

The trail quickly and steeply climbed over 100 feet. It was different then LBJ because that was more gradual.  We came to this area heavy with ferns. We loved how the sun was shining through.

Fern Jungle

The trail dropped back down to the creek and we came to this footbridge. 

Footbridge

Pretty soon we came to the Revelation trail which is a loop trail with interpretive signs.

Revelation trail

This is the inside of a chimney tree. It is a redwood tree that the middle of it has burnt out but the tree is still alive. You can see green up through the middle of the tree.

Chimney tree

We finished the loop and decided to go to one more trail. You would have thought we had done enough the way my feet are damaged but I was still feeling alright. I think this retirement is agreeing with me!

There is a short half mile loop called Circle Loop by the Big Tree wayside.

Big Tree

Big Tree is supposed to be the biggest Redwood in the Prairie Creek park. The dimensions are:

Height: 304'

Diameter: 21.6'

Circumference: 68'

Estimated age: 1500 years old

You can see a guy in red standing in front of it to compare the size of this tree!

Big Tree

From here we started the Circle Loop trail.

Circle Loop

Circle Loop was very flat and only about 1/2 mile. Notice the roots coming from these trees.

Circle Loop Trees

At some point this tree had fallen across the trail and had to be cut.

Trail

We walked around the corner and saw this large X. It was two trees that had fallen and crossed each other.

X-Games?

We got back to the truck and decided we had hiked enough for today. We had walked over 4 miles up and down trails. Every step was worth it! It was a GREAT day.

We saw a road sign that said Cal-Barrel Road, Scenic Road. It was a 3 mile dead end road through the same type of stuff we had been hiking through all day. 

Cal-Barrel Road

Here we are at the end of the road. If the truck was clean (and new) I could sell this picture to Dodge for a magazine advertisement! :)

Dodge Ram Tough!

This tree was over the road. I asked Patty to hurry and take the picture so I could get out from under it!

Hurry!!!!

We got back to Klamath River RV Park.

RV Park

Here is another picture of our park. This better shows how it is located on the river.

RV Park

We only have one more day here at the park. Tomorrow will be church and then getting ready to leave early on Monday. We have 275 miles to drive to get to Middletown. That is where Suzie, Patty's sister lives. We will be there for two weeks so Patty can help with our niece Stevie's wedding on the 25th. 

We will also be seeing Crystal, James, Matthew, Jasmine, and Cynthia during our stay. They will be coming in for the wedding. We miss them and look forward to seeing them.

Love you all!

Brian and Patty