Three tours on our last day in Lodi

We decided to take a few tours on our last day in Lodi.  The first stop was in Oakdale at Oakdale Cheese.  They make a wide variety of gouda cheeses from regular gouda to jalapeno, basil garlic, and many more. We got to peek in the factory windows to see the shelves of aging gouda.
Stop number two was at Blue Diamond almonds.  The plant in Modesto processes 500 million pounds of  almonds annually.  We saw a 20 minute movie, but could not enter the plant.  We tasted several flavors and purchased some chocolate covered almonds and some cinnamon covered almonds.  They were pretty cheap in the gift store.  Throughout this central valley we have seen many thousands of almond trees.
The third stop was Hilmar Cheese factory in Turlock.  We saw a movie and a demonstration area on making cheese.  They also have a huge gift shop.  We filled up on the samples, Yum! You can only purchase the Hilmar brand at the gift shop because all of their cheese goes out to other companies who rebrand it.  Supermarkets put their name on the labels and rebrand it.  We saw cubes on cheese that ship out to others in cubes of up to 640 pounds.  Hilmar cheese ends up braned Publix, Safeway, Shoprite, etc.
After a month in Lodi, we are now on the wat to Yosemite and Sequioa National Parks.

Oakdale Cheese

Making Gouda



Gouda resting



Blue Diamond Almonds

  

Almond trees

                                                


Hilmar Gift shop

                             

Deb at Hilmar's employee break area



       
                                                

Cheese production

                                                                              
                                                                                                  

                                                                    

                                                                        

                                                                                                                                                      

Gold Rush Days in Old Sacramento

We made our third trip to Sacramento, this time to enjoy Gold Rush Days.  Most of the streets in Old Sacramento were covered with dirt, so you can't see the asphalt.  All of the parking meters were covered with burlap bags and the town took on a western feeling.  There were several stages throughout town with country, bluegrass, or civil war or music from the 1800's.  Throughout town were parades, gunfights, demonstrations, and cannon firings.  There was a Union encampment, stagecoach rides, buckboard and Conestoga wagon rides.  All 5 museums were open for free, the train was running, taking folks on rides around town. All of the stores were open and numerous craft tents were set up like back in the days of the Gold Rush era.  Lots of food vendors were on hand too.  Many participants were in full western dress.  We had a great day and were pooped by mid afternoon.  We got home just in time to watch our favorite football team, the U.S.F. Bulls beat Notre Dame and then soak in the hot spa.

after the gunfight

Suffragettes

Professional Ladies

Want to go for a ride?

Town folk ready for the gunfight

Lady with a gun

Buffalo Soldiers

The fire department

                                                                                          
                                                                                          

Some Entertainment

Debbie and a Mexican Bandito

            



                                                      
                         

U.S. Marshall

Union Chaplan

Nice Ladies

My Lady

                                                                                      

                                          Indians Dancing (turn up the volume and play)                 

Still in Lodi, California

We are just hanging around Lodi until we leave for Yosemite National Park on Wednesday, September 7th.  We do plan on going to Sacramento again this weekend for Gold Rush Days.  Monday night we went to the Stockton Ports Baseball game.  They are a minor league ball club for the Oakland A's.  They lost 1-0 to the Inland Empire 66ers, who are a minor league affiliate for the San Francisco Giants.  It was $2.00 night, so tickets, hot dogs and sodas were only $2.00.  Earlier that day we went to the Michael David winery for a wine tasting but didn't buy anything, as none of the wines tempted our tastebuds. Today we went to the VA in Stockton for my (Vince's) six month doctor's visit and everything was fine.  We stopped for a late lunch at Angelina's Italian restaurant in Stockton. Deb's tortelini was great but my lasagna was awful.
Flag City RV Resort is the first place in several months that has a hot spa, so we have been going almost every night.  We used to have a spa on our pool deck in Tampa.  Deb just loves a good hot soak.  The pool is a bit chilly, so we haven't gone in to often.  During the day it is in the 90's and gets into the 50's at night, so the pool stays in the 70's.

                                                                               

San Francisco

We went to San Francisco on Tuesday and spent the day.  Our first stop was Coit Tower, to get a view of the city.  Then it was a drive down crooked Lombard Street.  We went to the famous Fisherman's Wharf and had a wonderful lunch at Alioto's Restaurant.  We had a great view of the docks and we swapped halves of our shrimp salad and crab salad sandwiches. We also saw two sea lions catching fish while we ate.  We walked all around the waterfront shopping for souvenirs, Christmas presents, and made a stop at Boudin  Bakery, the sourdough bread bakery. We drove over to the Palace of Fine Arts, walked around the palace, but didn't go inside to see the art.  What a beautiful park.  We then went to the Presidio to see the San Francisco National Cemetery and a view of the Golden Gate Bridge in the fog.  We walked down to the waterfront for a view of Alcatraz prison.  It was as low as 58 degrees during the day, 87 when we got back to Lodi. We tried to go to Ghirardelli's Chocolate, so Deb could get her chocolate fix, but there was no parking available in the neighborhood, so we decided to go there on our next visit to San Francisco.

A view from Coit Tower

Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill

                                                                               

A view of Alcatraz from Coit Tower

Deb with Christopher Columbus at Coit Tower

Lombard Street

Lunch at Alioto's

                                                                                   

The left view from our table at Alioto's

Looking right from our table

                                                                                  

Fisherman's Wharf

Palace of Fine Arts

                                                                                  

Cable Car

San Francisco National Cemetery

                                                                               

The Golden Gate Bridge in fog

Alcatraz

                                                                                   
                                                                                 

She can do anything

                                                                 
                                                                                                                                                                       

Jelly Belly factory - Fairfield, California

Today we went to Fairfield to tour the Jelly Belly factory. Of course, we could not take any pictures while on the tour. The tour was interesting and at the end they gave us a little bag of Jelly Belly jelly beans. Then you can go to the factory store and taste any flavor you want. Just ask and they will give you 1 jelly bean to try. They sell about 300 different packages of jelly beans. They also make many other candies, including a whole line of gummy products, fudge, chocolate bars and chocolate covered products, including fine boxed chocolates. They also make gel products like orange slices, gum drops, etc. They are also the original maker of candy corn, that Halloween favorite, made by the original owners, the Goelitz Candy Co. Who knew that they made so many products?   Between Lodi and Fairfield is Rio Vista, which has a tremendously large wind generating area.  There must be several hundred wind generating wind turbines in that area.   As far as you can see, they are spinning in the wind.

   

Orange Jelly Belly

Cherry Jelly Belly

                                                                               

Debbie & Mr. Candy Corn

My favorite Jelly Belly

                                                                          

                                                                              



                                                    





                                                                          
                                                                            

Sacramento, Day # 2 Capitol & Governor's Mansion

We visited Sacramento again, and this time we visited the State Capitol Building and the Governor's Mansion.  No Governor since Ronald Reagan has lived in this house since 1981.  Reagan moved out after three and a half months due to security reasons.  The mansion sits in the middle of a middle class neighborhood and across the street from a Clarion hotel.  Since then all of the governors have lived elsewhere.  Fact: Current Governor Jerry Brown lives in an apartment above P.F. Chang's restaurant!
The mansion, along with 70 other state parks will close later this year due to California's budget restrictions.  California, like many states is broke.

Dome over the rotunda

California's Capitol Building

Governor's Mansion

Dining Room

  

Governor's Bedroom

First Lady's bedroom

       
                                                              

Sitting Room

Governor's Kitchen