Winchester House of Mystery and beyond

Well, that was actually pretty neat. It definitely lived up to the hype, at least for me... combining two things I quite enjoy (old mansions and funky construction) into one very large sprawling package. Although our tour guide had the sort of voice projecting that gives me a headache if it goes on too long (which it did) -- she seemed really nice when I chatted with her outside the "tour" aspect, but wow. That was quite a shout. What I found most interesting, though, is that they really have no idea why Sarah Winchester did what she did... the story about a mystic telling her that she needed to be constantly building on the house to keep the spirits of those killed by the Winchester Rifle at bay is actually just speculation. Considering how superstitious the woman seemed to be, it does seem likely that it's true.

When we left San Jose, we headed up through San Francisco, which may have been a mistake... although I don't know what other direction we could have gone that would have been quicker. The traffic was a bit of a mess, but we eventually made our way across the Bay Bridge and up through Vallejo toward Sacramento. We visited with my grandparents again for a bit, making sure their computers were all still up and running without any problems (mostly we were worried that we might have missed something when we fixed them on our way down to San Diego). They weren't feeling up to going out to dinner, so we looked up places nearby and ran out to grab take-away from The Pasty Shack -- exactly the sort of place I like to find when I'm on vacation... a small local place that's been around for awhile (about 60 years) and has a unique menu. Their pasties were pretty decent... although I've definitely had better.

After dinner we headed north again and settled in for the night at a hotel in Red Bluff... when we head out this morning, we're planning on doubling back a bit to Corning so we can pay one last visit to the Olive Pit, then we'll wend our way up into Oregon. The plan is to make stops along the way at some of the sights... although I don't think we're going to be able to make it over to Crater Lake on this trip, like we'd been hoping. We are planning to stop off at some of the caverns around Mt. Shasta, though!

Oregon Vortex!! Squee!!!

I have always, always, always wanted to go to the Oregon Vortex, but when I was a kid my parents would never stop... and as an adult, I would end up driving past Gold Hill, OR way too late in the day to go. I assumed that it would probably be just a bit cheesy, but I didn't care... and it was SO worth the visit. Very funky with the visual perceptions, however it's done... and just great cheesy fun. And yes, I bought a t-shirt. And an Oregon Vortex book. I also suspect the the employees were a little weirded out that I was so excited to be there. Heh.

Backing up a bit and speaking of cheese... After a gorgeous drive past Mount Shasta, we stopped in at the Rogue Creamery in Central Point, Oregon again, where we picked up some of their Oregonzola and Oregon Blue, and were very pleased that they had some fresh cheese curd sitting on the counter (it was a really yummy cheddar with fresh rosemary). There is nothing better than cheese that squeaks when you bite into it. We picked up a few more of the Smoky Blue Cheese truffles and were told we should really check out the store next door, the chocolatier that made them: Lillie Belle Farms. We wound up buying about a dozen chocolate truffles... they're small, but oh so good (at least so far) and really quite beautifully shaped.

( We'd hoped to maybe swing out to Crater Lake on this trip, but... )

And if you ever find yourself in Roseburg, OR then I highly recommend you try Alexander's Greek Cuisine. Excellent food and service (our waitress got really excited when she saw the "Tick" t-shirt I was wearing, because she'd only ever met one other person who knew about the show)! And to prove that it's a small online world... when we got back to the hotel room after dinner, I went to look up the name of the soup I'd had (I can never remember how it's spelled), and when I loaded the first webpage that looked to actually have it listed (the soup is Avgolemono, btw), I was surprised to see julesong smiling back at me, wearing Jayne's cunning hat! Now I'm wondering if this recipe made it into the Big Damn Cookbook. I'll have to check when I get home.