Brucatos Eclipse Trip: Back into California again!

Hello!

Up this morning around 6:30, and down for breakfast a bit after 7 am. To be honest, most hotel breakfasts tend to run together, but suffice to say that it was fine. Then we collected up all of our belongings, and headed to the car. Not too far to go today – about 5 hours from Medford to Sacramento. Before we even knew it, we were back in California! And, while we were passing what we knew was stunning scenery, we couldn’t see any of it! The air was terrible! So, past Mt. Shasta which we saw as rather a ghostly shadow and down the I-5 freeway. We made fairly good time with not too much traffic until we got north of Sacramento, when the road narrowed to two lanes. This made driving a bit more challenging, but we were able to get to the hotel a little after 1 pm. Thankfully, they were expecting us (always good!) and we got into our room -- #325 early.

A very hazy Mount Shasta

Getting a little clearer!

Actually a bit of blue sky and snow!

Lake Shasta!

After a week or so of very pleasant and coolish weather, we are now back into the 100’s here in Sacramento. I think I saw 104 degrees. Very warm, but for some reason, it was really dry, which was unexpected. I had thought that R might want to revisit the California Railroad Museum, but in the heat, he declined the opportunity. So, we settled down for a nice quiet afternoon with pre-season NFL football and baseball.

Literally right next door is a restaurant called Malabar – just out the side door, cross through the Holiday Inn Express next door, and into Malabar’s parking lot! Very nice place, and we were seated near a television so we could continue watching the Bengals vs. the Redskins. We both started with their smoky clam chowder, which, seriously, has to be one of the best clam chowders either of us has ever had! Just amazing! R thinks it might be the Applewood smoked bacon, but it was really just perfect! The rest of our meal took much longer to arrive – don’t know what the problem was, but it was more than a tad irritating. R had (finally) a perfectly cooked rare filet mignon with potatoes and green beans. I had their pulled BBQ pork sandwich with coleslaw. It was okay, but nowhere near as good as the clam chowder! Back to the room about 4:30 pm and we’re in for the night!

So – tomorrow we head to Sierra Madre for a few days with Anne and the family!

Lots of love!