A small town summer evening

This is Main Street in Murphys CA, population 2,000. It usually doesn't look like this, because normally, there are cars lining the street. They must have cleared it for the photographer! Often it's this empty at midnight!
Murphys has a park, and on the first Friday of every summer month, there is Music in the Park. Although you can't see it in the picture, just beyond the picnic table is a stream, cold from snow melt, but shallow enough to warm up in the summer, shallow enough for little kids to splash and swim, deep enough for tubing. There's a bridge from the park to the town library. Tonight was Music in the Park night, with the three-piece band named Plan B. The drummer is a local insurance broker - I don't know the other two. They played '60's and '70's music mostly, but they didn't just copy the Beatles or the Stones, they played their music, so the sounds were different, fresh. Most of the park is lawn, but the area just in front of the gazebo is gravely black top, and on a night like tonight, filled with dancers from babies in arms to toddlers, to oldsters who danced as if they'd never stopped. The eight dollar dinner is always provided by a local purveyor, and tonight's was by the local Sierra Market, and was the best I've ever had at the park, chicken, tri-tip, deli salads, watermelon, cookies. I was with friends, of course, and the music was too loud for conversation, but the warmth of sitting with best friends - as well as the warmth of the evening - was a balm to my heart, so I could listen to words of love and not cry. "They're writing songs of love, but not for me," kept going through my head. Music is still piercingly poignant.


This is the Murphys that I will be sad to say goodbye to.

Alameda with Roxane

One of the new old friends from the reunion, Roxane, has a daughter who lives only a couple of hours from me, and Roxane was at her daughter's house last weekend. I drove on Saturday, Route 4, to 238 to 880, and off the freeways, finally, near the Oakland Airport, to Alameda. I went to the Coral Reef, where Roxane had left a key to her room for me at the front desk, and went to her room where she appeared a few minutes later. We knew each other through college, and only reconnected at our 50th reunion, and it is an amazing gift to be her friend today. We had supper at the Bombay Superstar, where I've been with my son a number of times. Here's the tea leaf salad!

Clockwise from the upper right corner: powdered shrimp, peanuts, dried garbanzos, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, roasted garlic slices, chopped red bell pepper, and at 12 o'clock, a lemon. The center is a bed of rice with the tea leaf dressing, which is in consistency like pesto, but a flavor unlike anything I've eaten. Salty, spicy, savory. They serve it like as it appears, and then toss it for you. All tossed, it's not as beautiful, but the flavors and textures are perfection. 

After dinner, we went across the street and browsed in a bookstore, that I thought was independent, but my son, Will, informs me that it's a chain of independent-looking bookstores! I practiced restraint, but Roxane found a few books to buy. Then we went to Tucker's for ice cream - it's famous, and rightly so. They had purple yam ice cream, which we tasted, but it had no particular taste at all except sweet.

After much conversation, and a night's sleep, we went to breakfast, and to the San Francisco Airport, nicely avoiding the Giant's game.

I drove home, reversing the route, and skipping Stockton, so you can add Routes 204 and 180 east, and leave out I5 north. If I were writing from Southern California, I would put the word "the" in front of the route number. The 580 to the 180. Southern and northern California are different states. 

July 4th Redux

We in Calaveras County celebrate July 4th on a nearby Saturday. There's a parade in Arnold, 20 minutes up Highway 4, and in Murphys, we have a big wingding of fireworks and music at Ironstone, Kautz Winery and venue for big name concerts and other more local events.  But we were not at Ironstone; we, Gail and I, went to Barbaranne's new house on five plus acres, a couple of hills south or maybe west, from Ironstone. Barbaranne was hosting us and her son, Kelly, for supper, games, and dinner. 


Before dinner, we talked and tried to solve computer mysteries. Barbaranne is very on top of all things computer; Gail is a teensy bit computer phobic; I am a moderately skilled user. We had a tablet going, we tried to get a desk top Mac going, we even preempted Kelly's computer for a while. Barbaranne served ice tea punch and chips and salsa and guacamole.


The next thing on the agenda was a game - Ticket to Ride. You might know it, but Gail and I didn't. It's simpler than it seems at first, involves strategy and some luck and its rules are interestingly different from many games' rules. We got tucked into the game, and then decided it was time to eat, while we played.


Barbaranne brought out chicken Caesar wraps, and the melon balls I had brought, and we ate and continued our game. We were waiting til dark when the fireworks were to start. The location of Ironstone from the house was plotted and we kept starting hopefully at the hilltops for the first rocket's red glare. It took a long time to get dark enough, so we started in on the dessert that Gail had ordered from a local chocolatier in Angels Camp. 


It was a chocolate pizza! They made the "dough" from a spicy (i.e. peppery) chocolate, and Gail had chosen a turtle topping - chocolate, caramel, pecans. Only the spiciness of the chocolate kept us from eating second helpings right then and there, I think, but we brought seconds home. Sadly, I can't get my camera to download right now (what's with that?) so I can't show you a picture of my slice. 


The pie was almost finished when we saw the first burst of fireworks. We went outside in the cooling summer night and had the best seats in the house for 30 minutes of ooh and ahhh! It was a spectacular view of wonderful fireworks display, with good friends, good food, beautiful country.


When the last burst faded, we went back and finished the game. Kelly won.