Summer of Paradise

While I described the locale of Maeg's new home on Vashon Island, WA as a "paradise", I did actually visit Paradise, CA this summer, on a quick road trip with my friend, Bonnie. We drove up to her rental home in Paradise to "try on" some new colors for the trim of her stone house before she ordered up the professional painter(s).

It takes about four and a half hours to get there, so we stayed overnight with her mom, Doris, in Chico, a quaint little college town, and decided to have dinner at the Sierra Nevada (as in the brewery) Restaurant. When it was time to order our drinks, Doris and I each ordered a pint of beer. Rather than choose just one beer, Bonnie ordered the "sampler", and our eyes widened considerably when the "sampler" arrived. It turns out that the "sampler" included 16 small glasses of different types of beer. I was licking my lips, excited to think we would get sixteen different types of beer to taste; Doris was worried about who was going to drive home; Bonnie gave me a surprised look when I reassuringly explained to Doris that we (meaning Bonnie) would be just fine driving home. After all, we were going to have dinner, weren't we? Driving was hours away.

While I'm not sure I would describe the town of Paradise, California, as an actual paradise, it's really quite lovely. Woodsy, green, and certainly friendly. Doris was at her 'entertaining' best, we slapped some paint on the trim of the house and oohed and aahed over our choices, had a good dinner (I have no idea what I ate...all I can remember is all the wonderful beer I drank), and topped off our stay with a brisk walk with the walking group that Doris (who turned 92 this spring) meets each morning at a beautiful park, followed by a waffle breakfast with lots of coffee and conversation, and then we were back on the road.

Much to my surprise, Bonnie stopped at a casino on the way home for a pit stop. We managed to piss away not only the coffee from breakfast, but a few buckeroos on our way to and from the restroom. Lady Luck did not come along on this trip, but there's always next time.