Day 4-5 Murphys

The California heat wave continues through our visit to northern California. Glad to be out of Redding, where it’s meant to be at least 110 degrees today. Yikes!

The boys left early after a substantial breakfast of bacon & egg strata and David’s homemade bisquits.  This is nothing like the bowls of cereal that normally keep them going at home. Pat means to keep them going through an energetic game of frisbee gold up at Bear Valley with Chris, Ashley’s husband – no photos of the event! L too bad. Pat, David and I had a relaxing morning updating emails and enjoying a second cup of coffee. Pat and I met her daughter Ashley in Murphys late morning for some small-town shopping and the beginnings of our winetastings. Ashley works at one of the local wineries, so all the other local wine people know her as well. This made it easier to waive the $5 tasting fee at each of the 5 wineries that we eventually dropped in on. The little town is full of funky shops and galleries, a real ladies’ shopping  paradise. Not at all hard to drop a few dollars!

We met up with our frisbee golfers before lunch, and stopped at the historic Murphys hotel for lunch. The boys and i took a quick walk upstairs to peek into the rooms where the famous guests have overnighted  - Ulysses S Grant, Mark Twain, Horatio Alger. The afternoon was spent wandering through some more of the local wineries – the boys were getting a bit impatient with us, not to mention hot hot hot. We sent them down to the creek to wet their feet and eventually Pat took pity on them and we headed home. One more stop enroute – a great winery that had a mining and local history museum, home to the biggest gold flake in the world. It was in its own vault, and no wonder. The boys were pretty amazed and we spent awhile calculating its worth in today’s gold prices. Math practice, and so early in the summer!

Pat and David put on a lovely dinner again; beautiful smoked meat that David had put in the smoker early in the day. Both of the kids came over, and we met Jessica, Brian’s wife. She gave us some great tips for San Francisco, since she works for an urban planning firm in Berkeley. And I complain about my commute! She drives 2 ½ hrs every day down to the valley. Ick.

Had our first taste of absinthe – David is a terrific host! We solve all the problems of the US. economy and North American society out on the deck under the stars with glasses of beautiful liquers.