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Thursday, May 5, 2022
Happy Cinco de Mayo! Unlike Star Wars day Cinco de Mayo is a somewhat made up holiday. 🤪 It’s true that the date corresponds to Mexico’s victory of the Second French Empire it is not that big a deal there. In the U.S. it has come to be a celebration of Mexican culture. In any event, it’s a good excuse for a drinking party.
Our original plan was to visit a couple of additional national parks along the California coast and then head into Oregon and Washington. So, what the heck are we doing in Reno? Well, I got called for Jury Duty in Las Vegas and the most they would postpone it would be six weeks. Reno is a lot closer to Las Vegas than if we’d continued up the coast and we’ve never been to Reno before. I have to call on the evening of the 11th to see if I’m needed. If not this will have been an annoying diversion. If I do have to serve then we’ll only be a seven hour drive away.
We had planned to visit Sacramento, California’s state capital, during our stay in Vacaville, but the only thing we could find of interest was a tour of the capital building – and they are no longer doing that. Instead we decided to stop in on our way to Reno.
The rather impressive capital building itself was built in the 1860s. It’s a Neo-classical building modeled after the capital building in Washington, D.C. Nearby you can find the Supreme Court building and the main branch of the Public Library. The capital building sits at one end of a large, impeccably groomed, park. We walked around for a bit. They have a large variety of trees from all over the world; fortunately for us they were easy to identify because most of them were labeled. The park also contains the ship’s bell from a 1919 version of the USS California, a statue commemorating the Spanish-American War, a replica of the Liberty Bell, and memorials to California’s firefighters, California’s veterans, and a rather interesting Vietnam Memorial.
Continuing on we stopped in Colfax, CA to eat at a place called Beach Hut Deli. It’s a small chain in the Northern California area. Like the name suggests the restaurant was decorated in a surf theme. We immediately noticed something odd about the sandwiches: almost all come with creamed cheese instead of a more traditional cheese. It sounded weird but we were game. I got a roast beef and Deborah got a turkey sandwich. They sandwiches came well dressed and were quite good. Each one was about $12.00. For good measure we tried an island inspired bottle of Calypso soda. If you like sickeningly sweet Hawaiian Punch you’ll love this stuff.
We had a little trouble checking into our hotel in Reno. First, it was hard to find the registration desk. Next, they gave us incorrect instructions on where to park. After circling the block a few times we went back to the front desk and got better parking instructions. We had booked through a third party site and got a really good deal but they never mentioned the required $25.00 per day resort fee we would have to pay. It seems all hotels have now decided that this is a great way to nickel and dime their customers.
Once settled in we wandered around the hotel/casino for a bit. There are actually three Caesar’s properties right next to one another and they connect: Circus Circus, The Silver Legacy, and The Eldorado. It was late afternoon on a Thursday so, as you can imagine, all three places were rather slow. We did find a lovely game room with a lot of old arcade style machines. We figure we’ll spend a lot of money on ski-bowl at some point. In celebration of Cinco de Mayo we had a couple of Margaritas before retiring for the night.
Friday, May 6, 2022
We walked down to the Truckee River and the River Front District. These was a nice, paved, path that followed the river for some distance. It was so different from Las Vegas where there is a dearth of water. Here everything was lush and green. There is something to the sound of water rushing that is quite enjoyable. The way went through an older part of town. On the right were some lovely houses. Across the river, up on the hill, were large mansions probably dating to the turn of the last century.
About a mile in we found a few small shops. We indulged ourselves and had some iced coffee at Hub Coffee Roasters. They roast their own espresso beans and change the makeup of the mix every season. The coffee was strong with fruity overtones.
We continued along the waterway for a while and then went back to the hotel and picked up our car. At first we tried to find the mansions we’d seen from across the river. They were hard to get to because they were down some private roads. We wandered around the neighborhood for a while; there were many beautiful homes. It was sad to see that so many had been converted to businesses.
Further into town we stopped at the Stremmel Gallery. This gallery is the exclusive home to the work of Phyllis Shafer, the sister of one of Deborah’s colleagues from Weare Middle School. We tried to purchase a painting from her some years ago but Phyllis decided the piece was not her best work and declined to part with it. The gallery was showing works from two different artists. We asked the manager if he had any of Phyllis’ work. He laughed and said that she was one of their most popular artists and that her work sold almost as soon as it came in. They were not expecting any more of her paintings until her next show in September of next year.
For lunch we decided to go Italian. Shocking! We drove over to Mario’s Portofino and as soon as we opened the car doors we knew we’d made a great choice. The entire parking lot smelled of garlic. I ordered tortellini alla pesto and Deborah had eggplant parmigiana. Both were good but lacked a little seasoning (not garlic, of course). At around $13.00 a plate it was a pretty reasonable meal.
After a quick trip to Winco for groceries we came back to the hotel. We toyed with the idea of getting gas at Costco but decided not to brave the long, Friday afternoon, lines.
I had another follow up call with Apple this evening. Nothing to report. Very frustrating.