Happy Father’s Day to all.  It was a fine weekend indeed.  While I’m not technically in the Father category, I tend to go with any excuse I can to celebrate.  We kicked things off on Thursday with a little warmup in Sacramento.  We’ve talked several times about driving to Raley Field to watch the River Cats.  They’re the AAA team affiliated with Oakland, and the closest thing to watching a baseball game we have around here.  We were talking about it again Wednesday night, and when we looked up their schedule we found the Omaha Storm Chasers were in town!  Closest thing to a Royals game we are gonna have for a while, so we put on some team gear and made the 30 minute drive.  Since we were making the drive to the Big City, we decided to try a new dining spot, and after some research came up with River City Brewing.  As far as dinner goes, we were both rather underwhelmed.  It wasn’t terrible, but with so many other new places to try it didn’t have anything to bring us back either.  The game was a great time though, we’ll be back there.  It wasn’t watching the Royals at Kauffman by any stretch of the imagination, but it was a nice stadium and the seats were cheap.  Guess it’s going to have to do, because I have no intention of driving two hours to watch the Giants or A’s.

Since we had an outing Thursday, we sort of laid low on Friday.  We headed over to Folsom and went to a pseudo-wine-tasting at a lawn and garden center I guess.  I didn’t have much interest in the wines, but they were demo’ing a few grills I wanted to see.  Our gas grill didn’t survive the move, so I’ve been lightly shopping those for a while.  Might just stick with the good ol’ charcoal for a while, we’ll see.  They did have a very nice one I was impressed with, but it had an impressive price tag to match.  After that, it was back home to enjoy the nice weather on the patio, and watch the baseball games.  Quiet night.

Saturday we spent the better part of the day back in Folsom, at the second annual Rhythm & Brews festival.  I’d heard horror stories of last year, I guess they weren’t quite ready for the size of the crowd that showed up.  I was hoping that would keep everybody away this year, but that didn’t seem to be the case, it was plenty crowded.  It was a good time, we’ll probably put that one on the list for next year.  Of course we got a little lucky with the weather, it was quite a bit cooler than it has been.  We actually stayed for the whole thing, which surprised me.  After that we stopped for a light dinner at Bistro 33, then called it a day.

Sunday was a quiet one.  We were a little slow getting around, but finally got up and went for a nice bike ride around noon.  It was a fine day for a ride, and we managed to get in nearly 12 miles of mixed on-and-off road.  For dinner I made myself a Father’s Day Feast;  Grilled ribeye and lobster tail.  Man, it came out good.  Unfortunately I managed to about lop off the end of my finger working on the lobster tails, dang it.  Sure was good though, even if I’m typing with a sore finger tip for the next week.

Oh boy, where have I moved to.  Early June and it’s 105 degrees already?  Whew.  Time to pay for that extra-mild winter everybody kept talking about I guess.  At least it’s a dry heat.  (One-oh-five is HOT, I don’t care how dry it is.)  We didn’t hunker down in the a/c ALL weekend, though.  Just most of it.  Friday, as it happens, that was exactly the case.  I couldn’t even bear the back patio, so I just sat in front of the TV.  Predictably, that led to falling asleep about 7:30.  Big Friday at the Kenagy’s.

Saturday we headed to Folsom Lake to try the beach again.  Since our trip a few weeks ago, we’d refined our plan of attack a bit.  We picked up a cheapy ez-up to give us a little shade, drove a bit farther to a spot that was less crowded, and found a location where you could drive right down to the beach.  Granted, there weren’t a lot of other passenger cars there, mostly four-wheel-drive trucks and Jeeps, but the ol’ Honda did just fine.  We took Teagan with us this time too, having determined that, on the whole, the lake is pretty dog-friendly.  For once, our plans went relatively flawlessly.  Teagan got so tired I thought I was going to have to lift her in the car to go home, which was one of the primary reasons for going in the first place.  We were shaded and comfy under our tent, and most importantly I didn’t sink the car in the sand.  All good things.  We were there three hours or so, then headed home and fired up the grill.  Tri-tip was the flavor of the evening, and it came out well if I say so my darn self.  Might have gotten it a bit too smokey…  Jury’s still out on that one.

Sunday we actually got in a bit of physical activity, which is an increasing rarity.  We loaded up the bicycles and headed to Folsom, where we got on the American River Trail (a.k.a. Jedediah Smith Memorial Trail) for a ride.  It’s a very nice resource, we plan on getting back there soon.  The cycling was nice and easy, and relatively flat considering the surrounding areas.  We kept the distance down to ten miles since 1) neither of us have ridden all year, and 2) it was 100+ degrees out.  I must admit, the kayaks down in the water looked like they’d chosen the better recreation for the day, but we enjoyed ourselves all the same.  After that we headed home and cleaned up, then went BACK to Folsom (whew, that’s a lot of driving,) to see a show at the Harris Center.  The Hit Men were on stage, and they weren’t terrible.  The guitarist and drummer were actually very good, I just despise that type of music so it made it a bit harder to enjoy.  Let’s just say it looks like it will be more difficult to find an enjoyable show since we made the move to the ‘burbs.  What can ya’ do.

After that enjoyable week off, we got back into our normal routine of “nothing” this past weekend.  I dropped comfortably back into my normal Friday happy hour schedule at Relish, with a few hours on their nice patio.  After that we went home and ordered delivery from Mountain Mikes pizza, which I’ve wanted to try since we moved here.  I’d say it was just as marginal as any other pizza we’ve had here, with the added bonus of bringing it to my door, so it’s officially in the ordering rotation now.

Saturday was the dreaded “shopping” day.  Gotta do it sometime I guess.  We’d effectively emptied the fridge before leaving town the week before, so we needed a full restock.   That, of course, meant the dreaded Costco trip, ugh.  After we circled the aisles a few times, though, we decided there was no way we were going to wait in the checkout lines so we ended up just leaving.  Guess we’ll be eating out or making nightly grocery runs this week, which actually we usually do anyway.  After that we took a trip to Lowe’s, again buying nothing, then went by the new house to check up on the progress.  After all that pointless driving, we decided to stop by this Farmer’s-Market-looking place just outside of town.  We’ve driven by this place countless times, but never stopped, preferring to just pick up our produce at the store.  Well, we didn’t feel like going to the store, so we decided this was the day.  Alas, the one day we finally made it a point to go there, they were having their annual “Strawberry Festival.”  Apparently it’s a semi-big deal, as we had to park out in the middle of some distant field and hike all the way to the grounds, only to find a bunch of vendor booths selling jewelry and stuff once we finally go there.  Any produce they may have had earlier in the day was long gone.  Sigh, off to the good ol’ grocery store.  We picked up some Copper River salmon for dinner, and fixed it on the grill.  First time I’d ever plunked down the extra coin for this supposed delicacy, and it was indeed a tasty piece of fish.  Worth the 3x premium over the Atlantic salmon right next to it in the case?  I’d probably be hard-pressed to go that far, but at least I can say I’ve tried it now.  After dinner we settled in for a movie night.  Bad Grandpa was the selection for the evening.  I guess I must found it at least moderately entertaining, as I actually stayed awake through the whole thing.

Sunday looked like some particularly nice weather, so we decided to head out on one of our local brewery tours.  After negotiating some nasty construction tie-ups, our first stop was at Rubicon Brewing.  We hadn’t actually been to the brewery itself, but we’ve had their brews before, so our main focus was the lunch menu.  It was definitely delicious, but their portions were a little over the top.  The first thing we ordered was a large guacamole, to tide us over until the food arrived.  I guess it’s our fault for not asking how big a “large” was, but I swear it came out in a mixing bowl.  I’ve never seen so much green goop in my life.  We should have just called it a meal and been done, but of course we then ordered sandwiches too.  We were so full by the time we left it nearly ended our entire day, but we fought through the adversity like troopers, and headed off to Track Seven.  This one featured the seemingly popular format around here of opening a brewery in a warehouse row, then throwing the overhead doors open and pouring some pints.  Hey, it works for me, even if the surrounding scenery is a bit bland.  At any rate it was a fun place, but we were so stuffed it was definitely a one-and-out stop.  After that it was on to New Glory brewing.  We’d been to that one before, but it’s a nice place (another warehouse) and is right on the way home, so it made the list.

After the Sonoma Tour-de-Vino, we headed over to Lake Tahoe.  This was the longest drive of the trip, roughly three hours.  We actually drove right by our house at the mid-point, but we kept rolling so as to not disturb the pets.  We did take a break early in the trip though, with a stop at B.R. Cohn winery.  This place had the added bonus of making olive oil & vinegar, which was interesting.  The whole place was nice actually, we’ll have to put that one on the “return trip” list.  We were there a while, then continued the trek east.  We got to Tahoe right at check-in time, but other than going to dinner with the group we didn’t really do anything.  I think everybody was running out of steam.  We all hit the hay early to rest up for the next day.

We all got up well-rested on Thursday, ready for the day.  (Don’t quote me on the actual day…  They all kind of ran together.)  The Martins took off for a hike, while we joined the Aushermans on what was to be a light bit of shopping.  Specifically, I wanted to get the kiddos (Kane & Teagan) a few toys, as all kids expect presents when returning from a trip.  We pulled into the shopping center where the pet store was, and the first thing that caught Jill’s eye was an art gallery.  Hey, we like looking at art, let’s check it out.  We walk in the front door and boom, both Doni & I say “oh I like that painting.”  Man, Ms. Snooty The Sales Lady was on us like a used car salesman.  I don’t know how long we were there, I think I may have blacked out for a bit.  At the end of the visit though, we were the proud owners of our very first painting, which I am oddly pleased about.  I figure after 38 years of marriage, if we stumble across something we both actually like, we darn well better get it.  We didn’t actually take it home though, I’m too scared to put it in the car.  We’ll save that for another trip.  After that, our shopping trip was over;  Sorry kids, no money left for your presents.  We grabbed a light lunch on a nearby patio and enjoyed the sun for a while.  (David & Jill had some tasty sandwiches, while the wife & I scavenged some nearby dumpsters for scraps.)  After that we circled up with the Martins and went for a cruise on the Bleu Wave yacht.  Two thumbs up on that excursion, I’d do it again.  It was a little chilly, but we finally actually got out on the water, which we hadn’t gotten around to on any of our previous trips.

After our trip to San Francisco, we loaded up and drove on to Sonoma.  On our way out of town, we stopped by Anchor Steam brewery for a tour.  Once we finally found a parking spot, we spent a few hours on a very informative tour.  Truth be told, they don’t put out any of my favorite brews, but there was a lot of history behind it and they are currently expanding as well.  From there, our itinerary listed Lagunitas brewery as the next stop, who, as it happens, DO put out some of my favorite brews.  I’ve also heard from many that it’s a great place to hang out, with a large outdoor area and a good food menu.  Alas, a quick check of their hours showed they were closed on Mondays, rats.  I guess that’s on the list for another trip, it’s not that far from our house anyway.  Deprived of that destination, we made the quick call to head to Russian River, which was located near our final destination for the day anyway.  They brew what is considered one of the top IPA’s in the country, so it was a suitable substitution to be sure.  We enjoyed a good lunch there, then checked into our hotel.  For dinner we went to a friend’s house who lives in town.  He fixed a great meal for the whole group, and we got to check out his cool gardens.  (Big vegetarian;  He’s got quite the setup.)

The next day, we all met up at his house again and loaded up in a limo for a Sonoma Valley wine tasting trip.  Our first stop of the day was at Coturri, which was quite a drive.  Our friend Steve knew the owner at this place well, so we got quite the hook-up.  I’d never to been to a winery anything like this place, it was interesting.  I’d call it “informal,” he kept grabbing random bottles from his storage building and bringing them out.  He had a table set up outside, and we just kind of enjoyed the weather and some tasty vino.  We stayed there quite a while, then headed off to our next stop at Buena Vista.  This one (and the remaining stops for the day,) were more what I’d experienced before:  Stand at the counter, taste a few glasses, move on.  And move on we did, to Gundlach Bundschu.  This was an interesting stop, as it is actually the oldest winery in the world.  Or maybe it was the oldest in California.  Possibly just Sonoma.  I don’t know, I was losing interest in wine rapidly by this point.  The building was certainly interesting though, and so were the grounds.  We spent some time there, then wrapped the day up with a nice little picnic in the square downtown.  Next stop, Lake Tahoe.