Califoregon Living

I love it that we are close to so many great locations for day trips.  David took Friday off and we all sauntered over to Lake Tahoe.  We stayed on the South shore.  I was stunned to realize how much there is to discover there.  We barely even scratched the surface.

To acclimate a bit, we decided to find the first public beach we could, so we could see the lake.  We drove into Pope Beach and looked around for a few minutes.  The boys found huge pinecones and wanted to take them all home, but we limited them to one each…

It was lunchtime when we arrived, so we went to a natural foods restaurant called "Sprouts".  David and I had one of the best sandwiches ever.   I am so glad we found this place.  This will be a "must visit" whenever we go.

After lunch, we visited the Tahoe Visitors Center.  The attendant suggested a couple of places for us to check out.

The fist place we went to was the Tallac Historic Site.    This is a park that contains three "summer homes" built in the late 1800, early 1900’s.  The Pope estate was the largest, with cabins all around for their staff.  All the rooms are preserved to look like they did back then.  It is a fascinating look into the the rich and famous of yesteryear.


This was the tutor’s room.  It was one of four rooms in one cabin.  The room is as big as what you see here…

Maid’s room, in same cabin as the chauffer, butler, gardener, and tutor…

Servant’s dining area.  This was attached to the kitchen in a separate building from the main house.  This is where the servants and children ate their meals…

The servants cabins…

The main house is on the right.  David, Grandma Margaret and boys are looking  into the kitchen…


The boat house.  I don’t know if this was on the Pope estate or the Heller estate…

I love this picture.  We were walking back to the car and ‘R’ picked up a leaf and started yelling "Hosanna"  (a shout of praise that the crowd made when Jesus entered Jerusalem.  They also waved and laid palm leaves at his feet).  ‘A’ followed suit.
 
The next place we went to was called Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit.  We did a couple of easy trail hikes, the "Rainbow Trail" and "Smokey’s Trail".  The Rainbow Trail had signs teaching about meadowlands and marshes and had a stream profile chamber to see what lives under a stream bed.

Smokey’s Trail taught us how to properly tend to a campfire, so as not to start a forest fire…

On the way home, we stopped off in the town of Strawberry for ice cream at the Strawberry Lodge, (once a Pony Express stop.)

One of the things that made me excited about moving to this area was that we are 2 hours from Napa Valley.  I had never been there, but I love seeing aisles of vines all terraced on a hill.  It reminds me of being in France or Italy.  We left early and made it to Napa when the wineries were opening.
The first winery we attended was Rubicon Estates, owned by Francis Ford Coppola.  This is a gorgeous, family friendly property.  The boys, especially ‘R’, kept raving about its beauty.

This is a room off the lobby.  The boys are looking at a few private tasting rooms for private tours or parties.  Straight in front of the boys is the door to their cafe.

The lobby of the estate contain items that Francis Ford Coppola collected that are related to the early moving picture industry.  There were also a few items about the family, including an Academy Award ‘Oscar’  for ‘The Godfather’.

This is a picture of the boys going upstairs to museum that contains more items of the early motion picture industry, including "magic lanterns". 

After the museum walk, we went to the cafe for a couple of mochas.  They loaned the boys a wodden sailboat for them to play with in their fountain.

This property contains a lovely garden and hillside.

The next winery we went to was the Robert Mondavi winery.  It is next door to Rubicon Estates.  It is a completely different style from the first place we visited.  The property looks like a Spanish mission.

Throughout the property are sculptures by Beniamino Bufano.

I love this scupture that is the first thing you see upon arrival to this winery.  It is by Beniamino Bufano and is St. Francis of Assissi.

I had packed a picnic for us, but apparently many properties do not have a "picnic license", so no picnicking on the Robert Mondavi winery.  Instead, we went to the adorable Oakville Grocery and ate at one of their picnic tables.

After lunch, we went back to the Robert Mondavi winery for their Discovery Tour.  We tasted one wine while touring the grounds, and a dessert wine at the end.  Children were welcome on this tour and since it was only 30 minutes, it was short enough to keep their attention.  They were bummed they did not get grape juice though, as I had promised.

It was a fun day and I look forward to exploring this area more.

We live close to a delightful historic town called Auburn.  I prefer to take back road to get there, instead of the interstate.  These roads go through some neat little towns.  We stopped in the little town of Newcastle to meet up with a friend for a minute.  She suggested we meet at ‘The Tin Thimble’, a darling little shop full of fabrics, yarns, and  other craft type items.  In front of the store is an old fashioned washing machine.  Here is a picture of Grandma Margaret explaining to the boys how the machine worked…

Grandma picked up a new hat in Auburn.  It looks great on her!

The boys love playing on this statue of the founder of the town.  They pretend that they are nuggets of gold being sifted…

After our visit to Auburn, we drove down the Auburn-Folsom road, a beautiful drive.  I had packed a picnic lunch and looked for a park to eat our lunch.  I saw a sign for a park and turned to drive to it.  We drove along a windy road for a long time.  When I was about to give up and turn around, there was the park.  There was also an $8.00 park fee…we decided to turn around instead and eat on the side of the road.  We chose a spot that was between two farms.  One farm had llamas, and yes, and emu!  The other park had a bunch of goats.  They all provided plenty of diversion while we ate our lunch.

We were excited to have Grandma Margaret join us for a week!  We packed this week with a bunch of wonderfufl day trips.  The first trip was the day she arrived.  The boys and I picked her up at the airport and took her to Old Sacramento.  After walking around a bit, we stopped for lunch.

‘A’, with his favorite food, prawns…

After lunch, we went to the Capitol Building.  They have a free tour every hour.  In the 70’s, the building was tested for earthquake stability and it failed.  They had a big division between the assemply and the senate.  One group wanted the building to be destroyed and a new building built, while the other wanted the existing building to be retrofitted and restored.
Fortunately for us, the original building won, and we toured a beautiul piece of history.

This is where the Assembly meets.  There is a general green colored theme to it.  The details of the room were beautiful.  

There is a hall with the portraits of the past governors of California.  The governors got to choose who they wanted to paint them.  Most were traditional, like this one of Ronald Reagan…

However, there was one portrait that stood out among the rest.  That was the portrait of Jerry Brown.  Apparently, some arts commission/organization approached him and asked if he would let them choose the artist for the portrait.  He agreed and Don Bachardy created this…it seems a fitting portrait for a very unique governor.

This picture did not turn out that geat, but this is where the senate meets…

Alovely mosaid on the floor of a hallway, depicting the state flower, "golden poppy"…

The state seal…

The gorgeous rotunda…


Floor detail in part of the rotunda…

Outside the governor’s office…(no, we did not see him…)


California has 58 counties.  The building has a large corridor that has all the counties on display in glass showcases.  It was neat to see how each county represented themselves.  Some looked all slick and graphically professional, while others looked homespun, like a fair exhibit.  Here are the boys in front of our own Placer county…



A variety of trees on the gorunds include this orange tree…

…and gorgeous magnolia trees…

After the tour, ‘A’ asked if we could go inside a cathedral that was nearby called, "The Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament".  I did not feel comfortable taking pictures inside, but there is a small movie on their website that shows the interior, if interested.  This was the fist time the boys were inside a cathedral and they enjoyed lowering and raising the kneeling pads for praying.  Margaret and I were smiling over the attendants "swiffering" Jesus on the cross.  You just don’t think of the logistics of maintaining a property like that, you know? 🙂