Wrapping Up 2017

Merry Christmas!

As we approach the final week of 2017, we thought we’d post an end of the year wrap up.

It’s been a different kind of year for us. The first half was filled with travels, then we slowed down and sat a while as we renovated then listed our house for sale. We were able to do a bit of traveling in and out of California as our top-notch realtor worked her magic.

Now that the house has officially closed, we’re back in Sacramento to spend Christmas with family before hitting the road next week.

Here are some of the highlights of the past several months.

Ponderosa RV Resort

Much of our time in the area has been spent at the Ponderosa Resort in Coloma. This is another in the chain of Thousand Trails resorts.

Nestled on the banks of the American River, the Ponderosa Resort has beautiful views. On one of our stays, we were able to secure a river front spot. It certainly made the stay more pleasant waking up to this view each morning.

Cathy & Mandy

Overall, the Ponderosa Resort is decent. The biggest drawback is the lack of full hookup spaces (there are less than 20). As with most Thousand Trails resorts in California, environmentalists have prevented the campgrounds from installing more sewer sites, so many times we were stuck with water & electric sites only.

Coloma / Lotus

Coloma is only 35 minutes from where our house was, yet we had hardly spent any time here before. There are some great hidden gems we discovered, and interesting historical attractions as well.

One of our favorites was Marco’s Cafe. Located right off highway 49 in Coloma, Marco’s has a great outdoor seating area. They feature live music on weekends, including an open mic night on Thursdays. The local talent was pretty incredible, and the food was excellent.

With Family at Marco’s Cafe, in Coloma, CA

Another great find was the Riyo Frozen Yogurt shop. We’ve had frozen yogurt all over the country, and this definitely ranks as one of the best.

Hiking in Coloma

Cathy’s niece Lori took us hiking along one of her favorite trails. She pointed out some of the Native American relics, including acorn grinding holes in the bedrock left by the Maidu Indians. It’s said that the Maidu women would sit for hours grinding acorns into meal.

Acorn Grinding Holes

Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park Park

We spent an afternoon at the Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park – a state park that commemorates the discovery of gold by James Marshall at Sutter’s Mill in 1848. It was his discovery that sparked the California Gold Rush.

James Marshall Memorial

View from the park of the spot gold was discovered.

Reno, NV

We did manage to travel outside of California a number of times while the house was on the market. We traveled to Reno in September to visit Cathy’s cousin Ellie and her husband Terry. The mountain views at our campground were lovely, and the weather was getting chilly, but it was a very nice time.

Canyonville, OR

Then in October we needed to have some service done on our motorhome, so we headed to the American Coach service center in Oregon. We stayed a couple nights at the Seven Feathers Resort in Canyonville, right across the border. It was very picturesque.

This is the view from our front window at Seven Feathers Resort

Stanford

We didn’t expect it to take so long to sell our house, but God was in control as it made special time and opportunity to help Cathy’s friend, Grace who endured 39 rounds of chemo, doc appointments and eventually a huge surgery at Stanford University on Oct 4.

At dinner with our friends Grace & Roy

Cathy & Grace at Chemo.

We lived for a week in Stanford’s parking lot spending every minute with Grace. It was a touch and go recovery. Lots of prayers as amazing Grace continues to recover.

Dry camping in the parking lot at Stanford Hospital.

Celebrating our 26th Wedding Anniversary and Grace’s successful surgery.

Sacramento Kings Game

Zack and Morgan came up for Jeff’s birthday, and Zack took us to a Sacramento Kings game at the new Golden 1 Center. He used his connections to get us an incredible behind the scenes tour of the arena. Wow. We had a blast!

The View from the Kings Executive Offices

We also celebrated Jeff’s birthday with family. A good time was had by all.

Last week we celebrated an early Christmas with Zack at our favorite Sacramento-area RV Resort at the Jackson Rancheria. This is a beautiful 10-10-10 rated resort which we’ve highlighted before. It was a wonderful Christmas celebration.