Zannee’s Blog at BargainsLA.com

Crescent City is dull and cold. A total bore. I had heard so many amazing stories about the scenic country side and towns on the Northern California Coast, that I had a vision of a city that didn’t exist.

Onward we drove thru spectacular Redwood forests and ocean scenery. The redwoods never cease to amaze and we took our time before ending up in Eureka. Again I had heard many stories of the amazing Victorian mansions and homes. I expected to see something unlike anywhere else.

Nope. Totally dull and underwhelming. Though a few spectacular Victorian do exist, one is a private club, most are poorly kept, subdivided into apartments with streets in need of maintenance and upkeep. Okay it’s a working community. I get it. But couldn’t somebody please mow the lawn or paint the exteriors occasionally?

We split pretty quick from the dull and dreary Northern California Coast scene. Sadly, we had to pass on some historical and scenic areas in North Central California because of the fires and ended up in San Jose, specifically at the weird Winchester House.

Okay, if you haven’t been there, you haven’t witnessed what happens to a women possessed. Stairs that lead to nowhere, obsession with the number thirteen, unfinished rooms…. That poor woman was a whack job. But the home has a lot of Victorian architectural details that I enjoyed.

From there we decided to head down to Paso Robles so we could see Hearst Castle. Paso Robles is another cool town that has its share of wine tasting, fine and funky restaurants along with fun shops to peruse. A neat launching point for a weekend away.

Hearst Castle was, as always, terrific. We haven’t been in 13 years and there are always new pieces of information to latch on to. But it is over so commercialized now that it diminishes the experience. However the indoor mosaic pool never disappoints. The coastline is stellar and the view even better.

After Hearst Castle, we headed into Solvang to see their July 4th Parade. Arriving late July 3rd, we scoped out the town for the usual Danish faire, but settled on dinner at the Chefs Touch. Part cooking school, part restaurant, you get to watch your meal being prepared on two large screen monitors or you can walk up to the open kitchen.

Honestly, I had the best pasta I have ever had anywhere. Really! Great wine selection, happy service. It was a delightful surprise. I never would have thought an innovative California style restaurant would be found in Solvang. This is such a great food and a great concept in a restaurant that I begged the chef to open one down here.

The July 4th parade was fun. A different sensibility is needed to appreciate it. I have never seen so many members of the Rotary Club or Kiwanis Club honored before. Tractors, horses, vintage cars, motorcycles, hay rides…. A terrific small town parade. Good fun all around.

After stuffing ourselves with pastry from Olsen Danish Bakery and marzipan chocolates from Ingeborg’s  www.ingeborgs.com we sauntered around the town, checking out shops for awhile.

We made it home just in time to catch the local fireworks at La Crescenta High School.  I day of laundry and answering emails proved finally I get more emails than anyone I know. I got so many that an e-mail box that is suppose to handle thousands was completely overloaded  and many of you got bounce backs. Sorry.

That will probably be our very last road trip until the price of gas comes down or we get an electric car. But it was worth every penny.

Yep, we’re finally back from a 3500 mile road trip. Yes, we paid thru our noses for gas. This is a BIG country. We drove up to Sacramento and then to north Nevada to take care of family stuff. From there went up through Idaho, over to Oregon and then finally back down through California.

We went to Nevada through Donner Pass on Highway 80. Though Truckee is fun a stop, Nevada for the most part is visually dull with the most vibrant areas being around casinos. In North Nevada, outside of Elko we made our first destination stop, an old mining/ ghost town called Tuscarora that now hosts an artist community of ceramicists. http://www.tuscarorapottery.com/

This is the only time I made a purchase the entire trip. I was vacationing from everything, including shopping. I bought a signed ceramic basket by Dennis Parks. I wanted to get a piece from this unique, highly accomplished artist.

We went initially to Tuscarora to bury Kevin’s dad’s remains at the local working cemetery, (he passed away at Christmas). But we also visited with long time family friends from all over that Kevin hadn’t seen in many years. Though the people and burial service were wonderful, we were accosted by a bug called a Mormon cricket.

This creepy bug arrives in swarms. Hopping in large swaths, millions strong across the landscape. Now I know what a biblical plague looked liked. Apparently it’s a common feature to the area. Our car was a battered with millions of them. The crunch of their bodies being run over by our car was unbearable. Really! Unbelievably gross!

Southern Idaho is more visually interesting than Nevada. The people are incredibly nice and helpful. We tramped along the Snake River canyon gorge, marveled at the Shoshone Falls, wondered at a large herd of Elk. We later found out that there is an elk farm right next to the river. We climbed around at the volcanic landscape, went through tourist trap ice caves, hiked lava tubes and visited Kevin’s old Alma Mater, The College of Idaho.

Oregon was stunningly beautiful. We went through Newberry Lava monument and walked for over a mile in a dark lava tube with only a lantern to guide us. We went to the top of volcanic cones and hiked around a huge obsidian lava flow from 2000 years ago. Two particularly nice towns with good shops and restaurants were Grants Pass and Bend, Oregon. Both are worthy of a visit again.

We drove up to and through the Cascades Mountains along an incredibly scenic highway with dozens of lakes, rivers and ponds finally ending up at Crater Lake which is, in short spectacular. There was still 4-6 feet of snow in the area around the crater.

Oregon though beautiful and friendly should really improve the signage on its highways. We made a lot of U turns cause we missed poorly marked exists and often did not see highway markers, one way signs or maximum speed signs. This of course gained us the interest of the local highway patrol that eventually nailed us with a ticket.

We finished up Oregon by visiting Oregon Caves Monument. They have a landmark hotel there that had super reasonable rates. One of the National Park’s Great Lodges, the historic Chateau is a six-story hotel located on the Monument. It has 23 rooms and the large lobby on the fourth floor of the building contains a huge double fireplace of marble construction. The lodge is scheduled to be open late April through late October. These dates are subject to change. The Chateau is operated by Oregon Caves Outfitters, a non-profit organization. If you like old lodges and hiking this place is for you. For information and reservation, phone (541) 592-3400 or visit their website at oregoncavesoutfitters.com.

We took a hour and half tour thru the large cave and then drove south through incredible forests and river gorges arriving at California’s northern most city, Crescent City.

This Mothers Day Weekend hubby and I finally got away for some R & R We settled on Big Bear Lake and a comfortable B & B called the Switzerland Haus.

Located right at the foot of Snow Summit, we knew it would be quiet since there was no skiing going on. Price packages for a weekend getaways were very fair at $269 for two nights, including $40 dinner gift card at Peppercorns and two rather fabulous breakfasts. We had a lovely large room complete with king sleigh bed with canopy, TV, balcony and a private bath.

For daytime entertainment, we opted to go off road into Holcomb Valley for a couple of days.  During the 1860s, Holcomb Valley was the richest gold mining area of Southern California supporting some 10,000 residents. Belleville the largest town in Holcomb Valley almost overtook San Bernardino as the county seat.

We have a 4WD Subaru Forester and cruised around the back area investigating points of interest, picnicking etc. On the second day we picked up a pamphlet at the Discovery Ranger station which gave us all the info for a self guided tour through the area with locations of old mining shafts and equipment, cabin remains, saloons, and more were visited and we got plenty of hiking in as we investigated the area.

The last few miles of the road were very rough with boulders, large rocks, gullys and streams, narrow rocky roads with steep drop offs and hair pin turns. Our little Subaru did just fine!

We did get a big surprise when we ran into 2 dozen Toyota off road vehicles blocking our route. In the middle of nowhere they came spilling down off the mountain on to our rocky path from what looked like a washed out road. The surprised looks on their faces when they saw us in our little Subaru was funny enough but when they caused a traffic jam, we started laughing out load. Of course we didn’t know a convention of Toyota Trail Teams was in town.

As we made our way back to town we saw several caravans of Toyota FJ Cruisers heading back up the mountain. Also on mountain down route was the remains of Lucky Baldwin’s Gold Mine. Though we stopped to look, the die hard off Roaders didn’t.

We had two outstanding meals. One at Madlon’s in Big Bear City. Their Frisee Salad with candied walnuts, grapes, strawberries was scrumptidilicious as was their cinnamon rolls. Our dinner at Peppercorns in Big Bear Village was superb and I highly recommend the warm Spinach Salad with seared Ahi Tuna. Hubby had their Roast pork tenderloin with Dijon cream sauce and garlic potatoes. OMG… both were killer! Their wine list is excellent too. We walked the district and goofed around in the local stores and then slept very soundly in our quiet mountain retreat.

On our way back into town we stopped in Yucaipa to visit the dozens of antique stores that used to be there. Bad economic times have seen most of these close up. One store, Sandlin’s Antiques had their prices marked down super low at wholesale or less (40%-60% off) on everything from Victorian and Federal to Arts and Crafts home furnishings. If you are into antiques, I’d go before they are all gone. (31491 Outer Highway 10, Redlands, CA 92373, 909. 794.4311. Off the 10 Fwy at Yucaipa Blvd.)