TO TTN PONDEROSA VIA VALLEJO

Leaving San Francisco in the Tuesday morning traffic we headed across the Bay Bridge and the zigzag detour connecting the old and the new bridge construction, causing a major daily back-up. We did not have far to go, however, as we were going to the Elks Lodge in Vallejo, where we visited an old friend, Rich Eschenburg, an engineer with whom I worked in the Philippines some 45 years ago and his wife “Gee”. Rich had married a lovely Filipina and had asked me to be his Best Man at their wedding in Manila (Makati), and of course, everyone said it wouldn’t last! It had been about twenty-five years since we last met and we enjoyed catching up on the missing years over luncheon on the Vallejo waterfront.

Wednesday (6/23) we set out for the TTN Ponderosa Preserve on the South Fork of the American River near Coloma, where in 1848 James Marshall discovered gold while building a saw mill for John Sutter and touched off the great 49er gold rush; changing California forever.

Amazingly, for the third year in a row we were able to get our preferred site on the south bank of the American River where we could monitor the rubber rafts, tubes and kayaks plunging through the whitewater rapids, with their screaming and hollering passengers. Although the weather was turning warmer (in the 90’s), we sat on the banks of the river with some of the other campers enjoying our favorite libations.

One day we headed 10 miles up the road to the tiny, two block town of Cool (it wasn’t!) and the Happy Palace Restaurant. This is an unusual restaurant as it serves real Chinese food here on Hwy 49, in the heart of the Gold Country. The owners/cooks came from Hong Kong to the Bay Area a few years ago and were looking for a restaurant they could buy. It turned out to be here in Cool, and they seem to be doing quite well. The owner’s wife remembered us from a year ago and even mentioned how much they liked a dish that Fran had suggested that they add to the menu. Another day we headed for Folsom where Fran had found a new hamburger “joint” called SMASHBURGER and believe me, they are terrific! It was profiled on The Food Network, and I believe they have one in or near Tempe, which we had never heard of before watching the TV show. There are a number of variations in their menu; we tried the Mushroom-Swiss and the Spicy Baja burgers, both great!

BTW, It took some time but after great difficulties in placing the photos in these blogs I finally read the instructions! Pretty smart, eh? It turned out that there was a newer version of Blogger that along with other improvements, made it much easier to install the photos. I had assumed that with a new computer and Windows 7, I would have the latest of everything, right?----Wrong! So now I hope all will go well (or at least better).

Well, that’s enough for now. Bye!