Zann Plan the Second

I created this blog to write about my first trip to America and here I am on my second visit! So a brief rundown. On Sunday 26 May I took the train to Sydney and met my lovely AJ, we had dinner at Darling Harbour, took the mono-rail (shuts down for good at end of June) so had last ride on it to Town Hall station, on to Circular Quay and the amazing Vivid spectacular, a lovely night, thousands out enjoying it all. The colours and shapes changed so quickly, managed a few reasonable snaps but if you search for vivid sydney there are some amazing images, well done Sydney.





 

 




Monday morning, arrived early at airport, what is there to say about airports and a 14 hour flight except that one survived. Had some interesting chats with people while we waited so not all bad. What with the earth spinning and time zones I left Australia at 3pm Monday and arrived midday Monday. Loose two days on way back though. Met Coz at San Francisco airport and Rob was waiting in the 'cell phone' lot, what a civilized concept, especially when flight late and customs crowded, so one can wait there for free, and can ring to have them come and pick the passenger up outside.
Spent the night with Rob's aunt and uncle somewhere on edge of SF. Rob has so many amazingly interesting and lovely relatives.
Next day made our way to historic Volcano, old mining village, the family have a holiday cabin there, the perfect place to for r and r, we played games, went for walks and visited Rob's incredible 97 year old Grandmother, who is way sharper than I am on my sharpest days, an honour to meet her.

We stayed longer than planned, very hard to leave.

 Made scones, but not as we know them, added some slow cooked cherries and made a weird but edible slice, had a huge box of cherries to use up.

 Visited Indian Grinding Rock State Historic Park (IGR) is located in the Sierra Nevada foothills 12 miles east of Jackson, CA. The park nestles in a little valley 2,400 feet above sea level with open meadows and large valley oaks that once provided the Native Americans of this area with an ample supply of acorns. The park was created in 1968 and preserves a great outcropping of marbleized limestone with some 1,185 mortar holes -- the largest collection of bedrock mortars in North America.

 

 Sign in Volcano

 A turkey family lived in one of the meadows

Cool walk