Cool Travelers

Czesc!, we heard on the telly this morning of a Polish Festival in Roseville, with camera in hand and drooling at the mouth at the thought of grilled Kielbasa with Kapusta, Perogies, Paczki, Placki Kartoflane and Okocim Polish Beer we headed straight for Roseville and the 17th Annual Greater Sacramento Polish Festival. Now, we have yet to visit Poland, our planned visit to Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary in 2007 was re-scheduled for 2009 so, this is as good as it gets till 2009. In any event, we visited Poland vicariously though the Polish American Club of Greater Sacramento. The event was put on to celebrate, preserve and share Polish food, customs and traditions with the community. We met and chatted with many friendly people as is our custom and enjoyed the food, beer and outside ... read more

On this day we visited the seaside City of Laguna Beach, it also happen to be Donnas' Birthday, so after spending the day taking in the sights around Laguna Beach we celebrated Donnas' Birthday at "Las Brisas" Foods of Mexico Restaurant overlooking the Pacific on Cliff Drive. The food was excellent and the Mariache Band played Happy Birthday to their Birthday Guest, we had a wonderful time. Laguna Beach is a well known beach community and artists colony only about 9 miles square. With a resident population of approximately 23,000 it draws about 3 million visitors each year to its beaches, art festivals and the Pageant of the Masters. Laguna Beach is a great stop if you're in Southern California, but be warned though, it's very congested and prepare to deal with almost non-existing parking particularly ... read more

Hello again family, friends and everyone: We spent our 4th of July week-end in the Mendocino - Fort Bragg area on California’s Northern Coast. We stayed at Grandma Edna’s home in Willits, CA as she was vacationing in Edmonton, Canada visiting Irwin and other family members. Holly and I had the place to ourselves, thanks for the free lodging Edna, we watered the plants and left the place in good repair. We loaded our new truck (our old truck was stolen from the local K-Mart Shopping Center and recovered three months later) with our cross-over bikes and headed out to Mendocino County and three California State Parks. Our bikes are designed for moderate mountain terrain and street use. On our first day out, Saturday, we headed for the Russian Gulch State Park (cost $6 per vehicle ... read more

On this particular occasion it was Stacys' 21st Birthday (Monday) and Hollys' birthday the very next Wednesday. It all started a couple weeks before, when the phone rang. It was Hugh, Hollys brother. Hugh thought it would be a good idea if we could get together as one big happy family and celebrate Stacys 21st and Hollys birthdays at Luigi's - a good local Italian restaurant which we both had visited before. We decided to keep it all under wraps and put together a surpise party/family get-together. Hugh and Nicolette would invite Aunt Florence, Jared & Carly while keeping both Stacy and Holly in the dark. "Bloody-good idea" I thought. I asked Stacy and Holly to reserve the particular evening so that just the three of us could have a small bite together and have a ... read more

Today we hiked the West side of the South Yuba Independence Trail, just North of Nevada City off of Highway 49. The Independence Trail is built on the original water course of the 1856 Excelsior Ditch. This canal carried water from the South Yuba River to the hydraulic gold mines in Smartville about 25 miles away. The Excelsior Ditch is an ingeniously designed and constructed facility made up of a combination of earthen and rock walled ditches and wooden flumes. Because the Ditch was designed to transport water, its nominal gradient makes it well suited for an easily accessible trail. From the beginning of the Independence Trail in 1978, Sequoya Challenge (a non-profit corporation) has constructed trail and facilities suitable for accommodating individuals with a broad range of physical challenges. In recent years, a partnership between ... read more