Birthday Trips, Roller-Skates, and World Peace

Growing up, birthdays were never a very big deal in my family. I'm pretty sure I had only one "friend birthday party", and all I really remember from that was that it was at a park, someone gave me a Barbie doll (I had no idea what to do with, I just wanted roller-skates! the kind you belt onto your shoes and has a key to adjust to the length of your foot), and feeling a bit anxious about who to play with and who I might offend etc. because drama can run high in the eight-year-old little girl crowd. Other than that it was always a family party, meaning I got to pick what my mom made for dinner, and my brother and I would share a cake since our birthdays were only three days apart. Our sister would make a chocolate with orange frosting, decorated with orange slices. A family favorite. Get sung to, blow out the candles, and then take a giant bite out of one side of the cake. That's it! Good enough for me! A perfect 1970's something birthday.

Fast Forward a few decades and now birthdays are something I scratch my head and think, "Woah....I'm not really THAT old am I?!" When the big five zero rolled around a few years ago I thought I reeeeeally didn't want any sort of production of it. So Dave, who is also an August baby, and I decided to get out of Dodge. We hit the road. Did the mid-life red convertible Corvette California trip up the PC-1 hitting all the main sites as fast and furiously as we could. We had such a great time we vowed to do a birthday trip every year. This year we did California again, barely making it back home before it started to burn.

Lake Tahoe. If I had to take every vacation day and spend it here no matter what the season I would. And if someone forced me to live in one of those lake-house mansions I'd probably do that too. Actually, I'd live in a shack on the lake. It's just that incredibly beautiful. We drove by a little boat shop. Dave's eyes got that dreamy far-off look, and I made a mental note to be sure to purchase him one of those boats as soon as I win the lottery. Meanwhile we did the affordable activities of hiking and lunching on the shore of the lake. The hike started up high and then took us down to the Hellman-Ehrman Mansion. There were a few people swimming or eating lunch on the shore. There were signs warning that this is bear country and to be mindful. I didn't really feel like eating lunch there, or being lunch for a bear for that matter. We made the very steep hike back up rather swiftly. I have a healthy respect of things that are big and powerful like bears and lightning.

The Hellman-Ehrman Mansion. Check out the grass on the roof!

The water was a great temperature and the sound of it rocking back and forth on the shore makes for a lovely background sound while snoozing in your lawn chair.

Lake Shasta! We arrived here at Sunset and just when I thought I'd be willing to live forever in Tahoe, this beauty turned my gaze. I'm imagining those "boats" down there could be full-time homes for some. That's my kinda water. Nice and still. Close to land. Okay. I can live here full-time too.

Almost like the ocean....but even better.

Next morning we set out quite early to hike to McArthur-Burney Falls. I say "hike" because we always prep for that, but this ended up being a very well-groomed path, and not very far or difficult to get to. Considered by some to be another of the great "wonders of the world", seeing and hearing it up close, I'd have to agree! By the time we left this beauty and got back to the car, the line of cars trying to come in to the park was forever long. We were grateful for the early start, (not my favorite thing waking and hitting the road early while traveling, but super worth it for these times). We took a look through the map the Park Ranger had given us. Next up, Lassen Volcanic National Park.

(Looking over the lake figuring out where we're gonna build a lake-house...I mean shack).

This was a great hike! Very steep! But very worth it. I'll hike a loooooong way to get to a waterfall. And it did not disappoint. One woman we passed was hiking in flip-flops. She was about half-way to the falls, and I really wanted to tell her to turn back, because I can not imagine good things happening if she started slipping in those things. But then again, I've also seen people hike bare-foot. Far be it for me....

Next up! The Muir Woods, Stinson Beach, San Fran, Napa Valley, ya know....all the fun CA things. This our third time here. Poor Dave....the first time we got here too late to hike through the Muir Woods, the second time we had two of our boys with us and there were no parking spots so he dropped us off. He discovered Stinson Beach while the boys and I hiked and he swore we'd go to Stinson Beach next time we came back. Now to go into the Muir Woods, you must reserve a parking space ahead of time online. I really works out great takes the angst out of trying to find a spot. We took the longer hike once inside. It truly is magical, almost as if you expect to see unicorns and fairies!

Birthday lunch on the Pier at Buena Vista is a must! We ate outside. Dave ordered clam chowder in a sourdough bread-bowl, and I had crab-cake eggs benedict.

This is why we at outside. Normally, when the country and California in particular isn't literally on fire and people aren't freaking out about viruses, you can eat INside this beautiful old restaurant. And I especially love the "family-style" dining, where you seat yourself at any table that has space, and you can strike up conversations with your table-mates if you choose. That sort of energy of food and new-found friends is so great! This time, while eating outside we witnessed two "smash-and-grab" car break-ins just a short distance from where we were seated. The waiter seemed un-fazed and said the police probably wouldn't even come. As we drove through what was once a beautiful city, we were horrified at the trash, the violence, and what seemed to be nearly empty streets other than the drug-dealers and their customers etc. This is August. The peak of tourism. We went to Ghiradelli Square for ice cream and literally NO ONE was there. Just one masked girl that took our order and filled it. It was starting to very much feel like we were in a different country.

Birthday dinner. Napa Valley. Bottega's Restaurant. Incredible food. Happy birthday to me! Again, an empty restaurant on the inside, but it's Napa Valley in August and it was balmy. Just a light sweater. As always, the service is great. This is a food experience, and you will be taking a while to work your way through your meal. I ordered a caprese salad appetizer, and short ribs with mashed potatoes. Dave ordered pasta. Dessert was panna cotta of course! No pictures of the food because it was rather late and dark. I will say that the short ribs were so good, I purchased the restaurant cook-book so that I can maybe recreate them this Christmas.

Ready to hit the road again, but first gotta take the token Golden Gate Bridge pic!

We ate lunch at Bottega's on our way out of town. Because I can't stop. Won't stop. Plus I wanted to see it during the day. Can you blame me?!

Plus I wanted (needed) some birthday chocolate for the road. Very expensive chocolate.

Traveling home, there were orchards upon orchards of olive trees. It donned on me that I had been wanting a house-plant olive tree for forever but haven't wanted to pay $800 plus for one. Dave promised me that if we could make it to a plant nursery or even a Home Depot in time before closing we could go check it out. The man is a saint! I call everywhere I can make Siri find but no luck. Nothing open. Then a sign for "The Olive Pit". "Hey let's check THAT place out!" It was a little market with everything olive you can think of! (Except an olive tree). Naturally. But! They made the most incredibly delicious muffuletta sandwich. And to top it off....a lemon and white chocolate milk-shake with...you guessed it...olive oil on top! And it was ssssssooooooo gooooooood. Oh my gosh. I almost forgot about the tree I didn't get because I was having such a moment with this shake!

California is such a treasure. I hope by the time my next birthday rolls around it won't still be burning. That the people in power will take the necessary steps to bring it back to the glorious place it once was. The Golden State. If there had been a candle on this shake, I would have wished for that. I'm going to believe that people are mostly good. Some are not. And some that aren't are very loud. But there are more good than bad. We have to remember the things that unite us, not divide us. When I was little I hoped for a set of roller-skates. Now I just want a lake-house/shack and world peace. No big deal. Cheers!