Massage?
After Bodie we stopped for lunch in a nice little town called Bridgeport. We had read about it in Sunset and thought it would be a fun place to see. The reality was that there was less to see than we had expected, but we did find a good lunch in the old hotel.
I was curious about this little place across the street – burgers, burritos, ice cream… and massage? I’ve never seen those four things go together before. Though I guess on a hot day a rub down with ice cream could feel good.
Cruising through the trees at Sonora Pass
Quite the hills approaching Sonora Pass summit
Bodie is at the far right hand side of the state, and we were headed to the far left side of the state, with the Sierra mountains and high elevation in between. Mike selected a gorgeous minor highway that took us over the Sonora Pass. It hits an elevation of 9624 feet and is extremely steep at some points- 26% at the maximum. This lends itself to very windy roads, beautiful scenery, and fortunately very little traffic. It was almost like driving the M on a picturesque hiking trail. With the top down, the views were stunning.
Dylan (adorable sock thief)
As we descended the mountains, it became clear that this was a Friday afternoon and it seemed that some large proportion of Northern California was headed for the mountains for the weekend. Traffic in our direction didn’t get too bad until we got to about Livermore, and then it quickly slowed down to a crawl. After all those miles it was frustrating to be stuck in traffic so close to our destination!
At last we got to Oakland and Kevin and Melinda’s home just off of College Avenue. Cool drinks awaited us, along with the enthusiastic greeting of Dylan and Sammy, the resident cuties.
Sammy (equally adorable sock thief in training)
Those wonderful Meyer lemons
We had time to relax under our favorite Meyer lemon tree in the backyard before heading off to a wonderful dinner at Hopscotch in Oakland. It was also nice to be in a little bit cooler weather and so good to catch up with Kevin and Melinda.
Stay away from those post-Zimmerman trial riots!
Oakland has been getting its share. According to our friends it is not so much the residents spontaneously rising up in anger, but mostly white boys from other areas who see Oakland as an under-policed area where they can get away with causing trouble. It was a real shame to see restaurants and small businesses with broken and boarded up windows. How does vandalizing small businesses who are trying to revitalize the center of a broken down city help anyone?