Monthly Archives: August 2014

We traveled from Grass Valley to our friend Cheryl’s home in Truckee by the scenic route – State routes 49 and 89. We stopped at the growers’ market in Nevada City at the start of the trip. Along the way there were many wondrous sights but one that was surprising was the Sierra Valley. We passed through Downieville, which looked intriguing and on the way home, we stopped there.

In Truckee, we had some great meals and good chats with Cheryl and a call to the other member of our travel book group, Gloria in Illinois. We took a hike – a short one since it was quite warm, visited Thunderbird Lodge on Tahoe’s east shore, and attended As You Like It at the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival. Two highlights of the trip were introducing Cheryl’s grandkids to Tico, the African Gray, and her grandson’s amazing dominos tricks.

On the way home, we once again took the scenic route and this time stopped in charming Downieville. A well known place to stop in Downieville is the wine store 49Wines. We intended to check it out briefly but ended up chatting for an hour and a half with the proprietor Will Clark who is a renowned host. We talked about wine and beer and oh so many more topics. John brought Molly the dog and Tico in and they joined in. And we got some great wine and beer recommendations.

We are at Canyon Creek Resort on Putah Creek near Lake Berryessa for two nights. This is a private park on Putah Creek at the bottom of a dam. Lots of families here and lots of fishing – catch and release – but not much catching perhaps because the water is so low. It’s quite pleasant here but quite warm (91 deg-F) so we lazing about.

We heard there was another African Gray in the park so we took a walk with Tico to find it. We found the site with the parrot but nobody home. We’ll probably do another try at finding the other parrot.

Here’s a photo of John and Tico on our walk and another showing the creek and the hill above it.