Day 10 –

We awoke to the sound of Tom playing his guitar in the music room, a rather nice way to start the day, acoustic guitar playing, coffee pot brewing and deer frolicking in the garden, it all sounds pretty idyllic and it is!

This morning we were heading to the state capital ‘Sacramento’, this involved a 2 hour journey through the scenic countryside of the Sierra Nevada, before arriving in the capital, ‘the city of 5 million trees’ A bold statement considering I only counted 1,232,673. But any ways, there were lots of trees.

When we arrived, we checked out Sue and Toms Condo before checking into our hotel for the night, a lovely hotel overlooking the capital building. From here we separated and the ladies went exploring the city on foot whilst the gents took off on 2 wheels.

Evie and the gals had some sushi, then went for some tasty, locally roasted coffee followed by a stroll through the park and the rose garden.

Tom and I went for a ride  around the outskirts of the city, crossing the American and the Sacramento rivers, passing lots of friendly hobos along the way. We went through the old town, had a bite to eat at a nice  Mexican restaurant and then rode to our 3 o’clock appointment at the Ruhstaller microbrewery in the middle of town.

It was a really cool place, hidden under a building with plenty of tasty beer to drink. Tom has invested most of his time introducing me to the great range of local Calofornian IPA’s which I have to say are gosh darn delicious! Each day when we head to Safeway, the last aisle we head down is the beer aisle, where we choose a different beer. It’s a tough decision but someone’s got to make it.

After our visit to Ruhstaller where we had met up with Toms friend Mike, we headed down to the capital to see the Christmas lights switch on. We met back up with the girls here and we merrily drank cocoa, ate cookies and people watched as we waited. It was all very jolly and the tree was very Christmassy!

Carrying on our food and drink tour, Sue and Tom took us to The Press (a very cool restaurant/bar) for a drink, before heading to a Spanish restaurant for a very yummy and interesting dinner. It was great to have the local knowledge as there were so many different restaurants, but the food was delicious and we were all happy customers!

We had a nightcap near the hotel and went to bed at the late hour of 11pm!!!

Day 11 –

After our late night we weren’t permitted a lie in, so walked down to the condo where we had a nice brekkie and packed up to head back up into the hills and home to Sonora.

On the way we stopped for a Vietnamese noodle soup whilst it rained outside, a welcome sight to Californians, but all too familiar to us Brits.

We spent the evening in with shepherds pie, more beer and wine and Tom sang some Johnny Cash on the guitar.

Day 12 –

Today Tom and I went down to the New Melones Dam to get some practice in on the kayak ahead of our trip to San Francisco Bay in a couple of days.

We carried our boats down to the very low water line, due to the drought, where we launched out into the water. I soon found my balance and we travelled up through the canyon for 5 miles.

It was a really interesting trip, not the most beautiful scenery but definitely spectacular. We  had some agility training going between the rotting old forest that had been submerged in 1979 when the dam was finished.

Along the way we saw an Otter, who was a little shy and a couple of bald eagles who were pretty vocal. We took a bit of a walk around at our turnaround point and stuck some reggae on for our return journey.

Carrying the boats back up to the car was a bit more hard work, but it just meant we had earned our beer for tonight.

We met the ladies at Starbucks and head home to start the Christmas cheer. We’ve put two Christmas trees up, plenty of lights and right now everyone’s pretty sick of the xmas tunes already! (Secretly I’m loving it)