What a Week!

Pre-Vay-K - Demolition

As I wrote in the last post, we are in NoCal this week on a vacation...and I'll get to that in a bit, but what you should also know is that before we left, we moved all the furniture out of Turbo and DramaGirl's bedrooms because we are having the floors removed and replaced. The contractor has been removing the old floors the last couple of days. He called today to report that the floor in DramaGirl's room was about THE WORST he's ever seen...nice...

But before we left, because destruction, for some reason, makes Walter happy, he wanted to destroy a wall that is being removed as part of the overall remodel/floor replacement plan. Turbo was happy to help him.

Turbo...taking a swing at a wall as Walter watches approvingly.

This is what I get to come home to...but before we get home tomorrow night, we've had a heck of a week up here...If you really don't want to read a vacation report, read no further cuz that's all I got, but if you (like me) revel in these things, stay tuned...I'm posting the short version.

Day 1 - Sacramento

We started off in Sacramento. Don't ask why (JoLynn), but we had to stop there. We went to the state Capitol where Turbo stood in front of the Governator's office door and tried to look Governator-like...

Future Governator

Turbo and I outside the state capitol

I did enjoy touring the state capitol. I'm sorta a geek that way. I find politics and government and all of that highly entertaining and interesting. My favorite part of walking around the capitol was that I thought we might get to see the Governator himself. There seemed to be a lot of people walking in and out of his office...which in and of itself was just crazy that we were just walking around without anyone giving a hoot or holler that we were there!

I mean, I was in Washington DC and in New York a couple of years ago and you couldn't go ANYWHERE without being told to "not touch" or "not go there" or were searched with some full body cavity search contraption that blew air at you so that if you had any microscopic terrorist residue left on you the machine would sense it and OMFG you were in TROUBLLLLE!

Apparently, Sacramento is not a target for terrorists because we just strolled around the state capital and nobody stopped us AT ALL. (well we did have to go through a security thingy, but I think that was just a formality.)

Anyway, I enjoyed overhearing some lobbyist or official governator-type person telling some other underling that he had to give someone else the bad news that the governor had just signed AB625 (or whatever number it was)...and best of all. THE LOBBYIST WAS WEARING F*ING FLIPFLOPS.

God I love California!

Anyway, part of our purpose in headed toward Sacramento was to visit some friends of ours who live up here. Our kids never really get to see their kids, or us each other. It was a great visit!

Turbo was thrilled to be the only young dude

Day 2 - River Rafting

The next day we headed up toward Coloma and went river rafting on the American River...too much fun.

Don't I look like a natural at this?

I won't torture you with another picture of the elbow, but yes Irene...I just tripped and fell while walking down the street in Folsom (a suburb of Sacramento).

An aside...here's the thing I find funny about Folsom, California. When I was growing up, the only thing I knew about Folsom is that there was a state prison there (the one that Johnny Cash made famous in Folsom Prison Blues after he "shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die" and if you'll remember, I'm from Reno, so I know about these things).

In any event, Folsom is sorta a chichi place now, and it seems like the downtown area is trying to go all upscale, but seriously they gotta do something about those sidewalks! I was, really, just walking down the street and just slipped off a stupid, slanted, unfinished, sidewalk curb (I swear, I could sue and win...if I were that kind of person), and before I knew it I was bouncing face first into a heap of f*ing hay, which was apparently put there so that if people slipped and f*ing fell face first, they'd have something to cushion their landing. (well thanks for THAT Folsom!)

Anyway, after I stood up and DramaGirl and I scanned the scene to make sure that nobody saw me fall (and since nobody was pointing and laughing, or pointing and looking aghast with horror, or even pointing and looking like they wanted to help me), we nonchalantly brushed the hay off me and walked, ever so classily, back toward the restaurant. At which point Walter told DramaGirl she should help me brush off some more hay (because clearly he hadn't seen me fall), so DramaGirl and I went to the ladies room, washed off the blood dripping from my hand and elbow and THANK GOD our table was ready so that I could have an enormous glass of Chianti. (Yes, there is a God!)

A God who also makes some kick-ass pizza - Chicago Fire Pizza...seriously, we may go there for lunch tomorrow. It was THAT good.

Day 3 - Graeagle

The next day we stocked up on road-trip/car-trip staples so that the kids would be entertained to make our way to Graeagle...which is pretty much in the middle of nowhere, north of Truckee.

Mandatory travel food

On I-80...around, before Donner Lake is the nicest highway rest-stop that I have ever been in (and trust me, I've been in plenty).

DramaGirl and I were pleased with the accommodations.

On the way to Graeagle, we saw plenty of cows...and since this is the Hefferblog, we took photos. I offered the kids money if they could get a photo of a cow running, but no such luck this trip.

Trust me, those are cows...at 65mph...us, not the cows...

Despite the amount of sugar consumed on the way to Graeagle, we were hungry when we got there anyway, so we went to this little diner. The food was OK, but we got fair-food for dessert.

Deep-fried Oreos...gotta say they are just OK

Deep fried Oreos make an after lunch/dinner walk necessary, so Walter and I found a trail near the place we were staying.

I hope I just walked off an Oreo

The next morning, Walter and I decided that we needed more than just a walk, so we ran a nice little route on TRAILS (hear that JoLynn and Stuart..I did a trail run...It was nice...I sorta get it now!!!!)

It was quite pretty. I took nowhere near enough photos!

Days 4 & 5 - Squaw Valley

Unfortunately, Graeagle just wasn't the right place for us, not on this vacation. To be more exact, we didn't really have the right gear for it. If we'd brought along our own bikes, our own hiking gear, our own kayaks, etc, it would have been a great place to vacation, but we really packed for a vacation where everything was just ready and waiting for us to rent whatever toys we needed...Also, the place we were staying would have been just fabulous if it were just Walter and me, but wasn't really a family-friendly kind of place, so we stayed the one night and left for Lake Tahoe (about an hour away) and Squaw Valley!

more cows

Getting to Squaw Valley requires a trip through Truckee and by The Tourist Club, which is one of my favorite dive bars of all time (and that I have a favorite dive bar in f*cking Truckee California tells you lots about me...yes, I've been here before!)

Because I didn't again want to hear DramaGirl ask when we were going horseback riding, the moment we got to Squaw Valley, we checked into our condo and rushed off to the stables for a 2 hour horseback ride.

BTW...2 hours is a f*cking long time to sit on a horse. I was pretty happy about all the other time I've been in the saddle (settle down, I'm talking about my BIKE...what were YOU thinking?)

Yeah...I look all cowboy, don't I?

Walter's Horse was HUGE (and I'm not just saying that to make him feel better)

Pretty much my view for 2 hours

I have lots more pix like the one above, including one of Walter's horse farting and peeing, but I'll spare you.

After horseback riding, we went back to Squaw Valley.

DramaGirl in the Square...those cables go to the top of the mountain. We may do that in the morning.

OK...I'm almost done here...This morning we went to Lake Tahoe

Family photo - inside the lake ... except for Turbo who can't hold still

Ah...the Lake.

It is absolutely beautiful here. We went kayaking and jet skiing today. I'm hoping the kids have had enough activies to satiate them. We're headed back to Sacramento and then San Diego tomorrow, so that I can deal with the turmoil that is certain to be my floors when I return.

Oh yeah...and that little 1/2 marathon I'm going to run on Sunday...THAT...