Go Home Bessie

Up In Smoke

I don't know if everyone who reads my blog is aware,

but my county is up in flames.

I live where the King Fire is raging.

Current stats on the fire say that it has burned 97,099 acres,

 150 square acres, is 74% contained, and has

7,214 fire personnel assigned to it.

The fire has been burning since September 13th,

that means that tomorrow it will have been an

entire two weeks since it started.

Via

 

I found this size comparison chart floating

around Facebook last week, so it's King Fire

information is outdated, but you can figure out the

size by inserting the current stats

from above into the chart.

 

 

It has destroyed 12 residences and 68 structures to date.

Also, the air quality has been horrific.

I personally know two people who are getting

married this weekend, and I'm crossing my fingers

that they don't have to change their wedding plans

because the smoke is too thick.

 

Here are some pictures of just a small portion of

some of the devastation it has caused.

 

Via

 

All of the following pictures are from Facebook

and don't have names of the photographer attached

(cause I couldn't find them).

 

 

Beautiful and sad at the same time.

 

Stumpy Meadows burning.

This is where Todd and I often go to kayak.

 

I am hopeful that they can get this monster under

control this week.  The firefighters need to get

home to their families, the people who have been

evacuated need to get back to their homes,

and the rest of us would like to get back

to breathing the beautiful fresh mountain air.

Celebrating the big 25 - Sort Of!

Our fantastic anniversary weekend 

that we had planned -

ya well, it didn't really happen.

Poor Todd got a flu bug and was

really sick Friday.  So sick he came home from work.

He did feel a little better on Saturday,

so we stuck with our plan to at least go out to eat.

We ended up going to Rudy's Hideaway.

We had driven past it several times, and always

said that we wanted to try it out, but never had.

So we made reservations and ended up

 getting there around 5:30 PM.

From the outside it doesn't look like much,

but the inside was pretty nice.

I wouldn't say it was super romantic,

but it was clean and had some really cool artwork.

The food - fantastic.

I ordered a strawberry daiquiri, and Alaskan king crab legs.

I had never ordered Alaskan king crab,

and man, it is lots of crab.

Here's a picture for perspective.

I had 4 or 5 legs, and I had to share 1 1/2 of them with Todd.

Btw, did you notice my bib is falling off?

What a dork!

You can see a little bit of the artwork in this picture.

Todd ordered the Fisherman's Platter.

He enjoyed his dinner and said it was delicious,

but I know he was jealous of my long Alaskan legs.

So, as if dinner weren't filling enough,

we had to go overboard and order dessert - 

chocolate mousse!

Thank goodness we only ordered one

because we couldn't finish the "one"

dessert between the two of us.

Best $5.00 ever spent!

We thought about possibly catching a movie

after dinner, or doing something else,

but Todd still wasn't 100%, 

so we just went back home and relaxed 

the rest of the evening.

Was it an action packed anniversary date?

Nope.

But it was very much us.

Besides, like I eluded to earlier,

we have other plans,

but they won't happen until summer,

so you'll have to wait until then to find out what they are.

(Hint:  a clue is in this post!)

Happy guessing ;)

Mawwiage

Or I should say,

Anniversary.

Todd and I have now officially been married

ONE QUARTER OF A CENTURY!

What?

I can't believe how time has flown.

No big plans to celebrate currently,

just probably dinner and a movie.

But Todd and I are hoping to do

 something special 

next summer.

(Can anybody guess where my blog post title is from?)

Not So "Labor" Intensive Weekend

Todd and I wanted to get away on Labor Day.

We didn't want to spend lots of money,

so we decided to visit Empire Mine and Donner Lake.

I've lived in the general area practically all my life,

and I have never been to either one.

So we headed out Sunday morning in the Jeep.

It was a beautiful day and I really enjoyed the

wind in my hair and sun on my face!

It took less than an hour to get to our destination.

The mine itself was interesting,

but I thought I would be able to go into the mine shaft.

There were lots of building to tour with tons of

antique tools and artifacts,

but the actual mine was closed off.

Apparently it's filled with water up to where the

natural water table would be,

making it impossible to tour.

The mine did have a small section open

that you can explore.

If you can believe it,

this is where the men sat, it's called a "man skip",

and it delivered 18 men at a time 

into the mine at a rate of 600 ft per minute.

No thanks,

I'll pass!

After we toured the mine part of the park,

we decided to take a look at the 

clubhouse, "cottage" and gardens.,

all of which belonged to the General Manager of the mine.

The clubhouse was impressive,

especially when you consider how long ago it was built.

But the cottage and gardens/grounds took the cake!

Keeping in mind that the structure was built in 1897,

the house had electricity and many other amenities.

Everything was beautiful and perfectly manicured.

There were fountains,

and a reflecting pool.

All the water, I believe, is recirculated.

When were pumps invented?

After we had finished our tour,

we decided to head over to Donner Lake.

I've driven past the lake, but never happened to stop and check it out.

It's pretty, but man was it busy.

Of course, it was Labor Day Weekend,

so that was to be expected.

We drove around the lake and ended up in Truckee.

There was a furniture store that was calling our name,

so we stopped in and took a look.

Finally, when we were exhausted,

we stopped at our favorite pizza place

and got some nourishment.

On the way back home we happened to see

some mountain climbers on the rocks. 

Do you see 'em?

No?

How about now?

It was pretty awesome seeing all the 

people who are adrenaline junkies 

climbing all over the rocks.

When we arrived home it was around 7 PM

and I was looking mighty wind blown...

7+ hours in a Jeep will do that to ya!

I had such a great time with Todd.

It's so much fun visiting places with him.

We really need to make it a priority to go 

someplace local that we've never been 

at least once a month!

So did you do anything fun on Labor Day?