WINTERS IN SUMMER

 Sometimes you just have to go SHOPPING!  We didn't come home with anything but a full stomach.  Meet the crew from Winters, a tiny old farm town in the middle of big cities.  You can't believe the farmland around there unless you drive it.  And drive it we did, trying to stay out of the I-80 parking lot due to wrecks.  We got lost twice because internet service was spotty.

I mean really ... who couldn't make this?  It's just a long metal box (or whatever container you have) filled with cactus, succulents, flowers and even aloe.  It had some herbs stuck in the middle.  No weeding involved and it was beautiful!

Putah Creek Cafe was our destination.  REAL napkins and Ball jar glasses full of REAL water, not that chlorine stuff.

This gave me a great idea for MY kitchen.  These are grandmothers recipes for soup, framed and hung on the wall with her wooden spoons.  I think I'll try this.

We thought to order a CUP of clam chowder, but it quickly turned into a BOWL.  That was a VERY good choice.  This soup had more clams in it than I have seen anywhere.  No kidding, there had to be at least half a full can of baby clams in each bowl.   THE most tender clams I've had.  I ate every bite and waddled out the door full to the brim.

But NOT before picking up a piece of pecan pie.  This is a 6-1/2" x 4" box.  No kidding ... the biggest piece of pie I have ever eaten in my LIFE!!  We saved it for dinner and breakfast the next morning.  I even brought part of it home!

We did a little shopping here and there, but I didn't buy one thing.  Cyndae found several just her style.  If I were 25 years younger, I might have found something, but not this time.

From there, we took the back roads to her daughter Beccas community garden plot.  This is NOT it.  However, I drove my truck down a super narrow gravel road.  Not the black road on the left, but to the right of that, barely 7' wide, my mirrors almost scraping the fence.  Cyndae was sure this was it.  

Nope ... I didn't think so ... and I didn't see anything that looked familiar.  Finally, after wandering through the entire place, I scanned the map on my phone.

Cyndae .. it's over here.  Three miles away!!  They rent out plots under the big green dot, water included.  We found the exact place we parked before, but could not determine exactly which plot was theirs.  Sadly, we left with no tomatoes or figs.

Exhausted, we headed back to the house.  In an hour, we left for daughter Beccas house/swimming pool.  Did I mention they have beehives?  Do you know what bees like a LOT?  Water in the swimming pool.  We spent the first hour giving CPR to about 50 bees.  We saved two flying somethings, a ladybug and many bees.  They thanked us by flying away.  

Dinner was leftover Mexican food, followed by a crazy movie where the FBI was trying to find out who killed a whole plane load of people years before.   They sent him to investigate his girlfriend.  I'm sorry I don't remember the name of the movie.  We knew who did it, but were fooled not once, but THREE times before the very end.  It was the FBI guy who did it ... and she set him up.  He was killed by the wine.  I TOLD HIM NOT TO DRINK THE WINE!!!!  Turns out he did it to save her from being killed.  Yeah, it was one of those.

More tomorrow about the return trip!!!

Wish I could sleep this well!