Weekend Wandering...

This weekend I went for a drive and ended up in Sacramento at my dear friends "quirky" apartment (her words, not mine!).  Since the day was more sunny than rainy, we made the in town stops as soon as possible (Hobby Lobby!  Chick-fil-a!)  and then headed up into the Sierra Foothills and Placer County to see what we could see.  

Our first stop was at the Courthouse in Auburn.  A fine, majestic piece of architecture that has been refurbished in a befitting manner.  In the right light, it has a golden glow to it.  Of course, I was on the wrong side of the sun, but it's still impressive. There's a small museum inside that we wandered about, before heading for the wine trails.

We managed to make stops at four wineries, but only tasted wine at three. One of the wineries smelled of something "off" and so it was a quick in-and-out stop.  We found out later they had a skunk in the roof of the hillside cave.  Oops!

Mt Vernon

Vina Castellano

View from FawnRidge (Have you been "fawndled" today?)

 

 

 

 

 

Sunset over Dona Dal Cielo

The next day found us up and out to Thunder Valley for a look at the breakfast buffet (pass...) where we instead had a delightful meal at the cafe' instead.  We christened the nav system in the new car "Trixie" as she correctly gave us directions to the "tricky" to find Lone Buffalo winery.  There's no way we would have found the place without her.  The owners of the Lone Buffalo recommended us to the Pescatore Vineyard who recommended we stop at the Wise Villa Winery, where we met Rolando and his horse J.T., of Cuba originally, although you could tell by his "hey y'all" that he had spent a portion of his life in the south...

Between Pescatore & Wise Villa, we ran across the Gold Hill Cemetery.  I'm always willing to stop at an old cemetery, just to wander around and check out the dates and names.  This is a small cemetery and old.  But clearly, still maintained.  One of the more unique headstones was covered in broken marble.  And this resin angel is standing guard over another's love. 

The drive home in the rain was uneventful, I think mostly due to the fact that folks were home watching the football games. 

Hope you had a great weekend too!