Missing Food

These are just a few dinner dishes that I had forgotten to post up. As far as I can remember, they were all delicious:)

Tilapia Tostada
Stuffed Salmon and Roast Potatoes
Spinach Lasagna

Chicken and Polenta

Whitewater Rafing - American River

River Fun

So, this year's birthday surprise for Les involved a whitewater rafting trip on the American River - South Fork. The sneaky folks that took part in the surprise were DonReid, ToraLee, Melanie, Steve and Marz. This was So. Much. Fun!

The planning started a couple of months ago and aside from the occasional "he knows something" scare, it went off without a hitch. All the way up until the night before, he didn't know what was going on. Marz came to our house, we had dinner and then headed up to Placerville to stay at Mom's. It wasn't until the next morning when we met up at the Mother Lode River center and that he finally figured out what the surprise was!

We spent two days on the river working together as a team to be the number one battle boat against the other rafts. There were three other rafts on the river with us and they were all afraid. Our battle cry was adopted from the middle east...use your imagination:) We camped for one night and spent great time together with beer, hookah and yummy, melty, delicious s'mores. Good times for sure!

More photos on the way, they have to be developed - old school style:) Here's a link to my Smugmug page with some pics that were snapped by our friends that aren't lacking technology.

If you're interested in doing this for yourself, our trip was booked through All Outdoors Rafting and they were wonderful. They cooked our meals (proper meals!) and made sure we had a fantastic time. We'll definitely go again next year.

The North Coast Road Trip

We spent our labor day weekend in the Mendocino area and although California's coastline can't be beat....the area left a bit to be desired. It was a very long road trip, four+ hours! Half of it was up 101 which is basically flat and straight, but the last half was treacherous Hwy 1 (Pacific Coast Highway) and made both of us carsick. Poor Huggy was a trooper, stretched out on the backseat trying not to hurl herself. She fared much better than we did.

But once we got there, we set up camp in the dark and got snuggled into our comfy tent with its comfy mattress and even comfier sleeping bags. In the morning, I woke up and started breakfast on our Thane Q BBQ. I have to tell you that I love this grill, it got really bad reviews and has been discontinued, but I love love love it. Not sure why it got such a bad rep because it's always been good to us. So, I made some eggs, onions and potatoes and it was truly yummy. We had some hot chocolate and coffee and got on about our day.

We stayed at the Manchester Beach KOA. Clean and well-run...the only thing I have to say is that kids should not be allowed within 300 feet of me at all times. I really don't care for them at all. That being said, they put us in the tent site right next to the freakin' playground!! We couldn't change this because the grounds were all booked up. So, I had to endure screaming and obnoxious children for three days straight.

Each day, we drove to a new place. The first day, we drove to Mendocino and then stopped at Jughandle State Reserve. At Jughandle there was this freaky guy that ran to our car asking to use our cell phone because he has a "situation" and his "client" had an accident in the porta potty. This guy was truly weird and we weren't sure what to do, so we told him our cell phone was dead. When he went back to the porta potty, he had thrown some clothes on the ground and there was crying coming from inside. So, we called 911 and they sent out the sheriff. We don't know exactly what happened, all we know is that it left us with an uneasy feeling.

The next day we found out that dogs are not allowed in any of the state park trails....all the places we wanted to go. So, we ended up driving and driving and driving as far north as we could stand. We ended up past Westport and pulled over to have lunch in the redwoods. Gorgeous trees they are, embedded in a forest of ferns and clover. Huggy found a creek and got all mucky - Huggy loves to be mucky. The drive back took us through Mendocino again so we stopped to see what all the fuss is about with this town. It's like any other quaint coastal town with specialty shops. We got some fudge, divinity and a carmel apple and took off.

All in all, it was nice to get away from laptops and cell phones for a few days, but I doubt we'll go back. I beat Les at his own card game (best out of 11 games, to be fair) and that was nice because I never beat him at anything. Note to reader....never ever ever play Monopoly with my husband....he has a freakish way of having no money and all property mortgaged and the next thing you know, he has ALL the money and you have nothing. You'll end up selling yourself to him to pay off your debts. It's a sad sad thing to end up a Monopoly whore.

Our digi cam is out of service, so we had to take pics the old fashioned way...it was so foreign to take 35mm photos. They have to be developed and all that bullocks, so I'll post them whenever I get around to it. It's amazing how much you don't realize you're totally into instant gratification until things start to become anti-instant!