California dreamin'

Hello to all,

When we last wrote (last Thursday - 9/25), we were on our way South from Oregon to California. We stopped in the Napa Valley and took a tour of the Artesa Winery. It's located on the border of Napa and Sonoma counties (the only winery so positioned) in a beautiful setting. The wines we sampled were top notch and we bought some for later consumption.

We arrived in Fremont, CA on Friday evening. There we spent the next three nights with my niece Melanie and her husband Mark Reynolds. They were tremendous hosts and we really enjoyed our stay. The four of us played golf at San Juan Oaks CC on Saturday and stopped by the "Taste of Morgan Hill" street festival afterwards. On Sunday we played golf again with Melanie while Mark was busy beating a good friend in the finals of the Summit Pointe CC golf championship. Congrats Mark! We were also able to connect with Mike & Margot and Michael & Noreen Kakalec, as well as Bill & Marcie Ervin and all their kids over the weekend. It was great to see everybody.

We left M&M Monday am and headed over to the Monterrey Peninsula. We stayed at a nice RV park in the town of Moss Landing. It's right on the beach within walking distance of several nice restaurants. Additionally, the area is teeming with wildlife - sea otters, sea lions, killer whales, etc. It was a great spot to spend two days. Monday pm we took the 17 mile drive around Pebble Beach. Tuesday we played golf at Pacific Grove Municipal Golf Course - a gorgeous seaside layout that's known as "the poor man's Pebble Beach" ($40 to walk 18 holes). The weather was perfect, and we played good golf (Jim's 76 was the low score on the trip so far).

Today we played golf again with Mark Reynolds and the guy he beat in his club championship (also named Mark). We played Poppy Hills - a spectacular RT Jones layout at Pebble Beach. We both played well (99 for Beccy & 89 for Jim) and Beccy's drives were particularly spectacular.

Tonight we're settled in at the "Wine Country RV Park" in Paso Robles. Tomorrow we'll be headed South to visit with Sam and Nan Mazzilli. After that, we're off to Las Vegas for a couple of days. Please stay tuned....