Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Goodbye to the Delta

I don't think I blogged about our trip to Stockton for fuel weekend before last. That was our last hurrah on the Delta. We got to the boat maybe thirty minutes ago for our last night on the Delta, at least for this year. We leave in the morning for points West on our return to the bay and our first cruise destination when we bought Pineapple Girl II a year ago Thursday, Marin Yacht Club in San Rafael.

We are getting everything put away and prepared for a somewhat early departure in the morning. The forecast looks decent and conditions will determine whether we stop in Benicia or head on to Tiburon, our destination for Thursday to meet up with our cruise out group from Coyote Point.

We are sad to leave but hope to be back here next year for more great adventures. Willow Berm is a great marina with wonderful staff and tenants and we have enjoyed our month here, and our month at Delta Bay in July.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Delta Asphalt Sloughs

Last weekend on the delta was one for car based exploration.  We drove up Saturday morning by a different route that took us past all the windmills near fairfield to approach Rio Vista from the West.  Once we were through Rio Vista we decided to take a scenic drive instead of heading straight to the boat.  I forgot the camera so I will try to add some links...  we drove up to Walnut Grove and Locke

These places both have a lot of history to them and were home to a lot of the Chinese who originally built the levees.  There is still a large Asian American presence in both towns and there are some interestring historical spots in both, but particulary Locke, which has kind of an eery feel and is definitely a throw back to another era.

We noticed an ice cream shop (Mel's) in Walnut Grove and stopped in for a scoop.  We noticed some people eating sandwiches and Matt remarked that they looked good.  One of the patron's turned to us and gave his sandwich a rave review and said the roll was especially excellent, so we decided to get a sandwich for later as well.  Well let me tell you, these folks do not mess around.  I ordered a single scoop on a cone and there was so much ice cream on there I had to act fast before I lost any of it off the sides.  Matt got his single in a cup and I think they mounded up about a pint of ice cream in there.  He couldn't even eat it all.  When they realized we were going to share the sandwich they threw in a second bag of chips.  We ate the sandwich later and was indeed delicious.  I think it was called a Hog's back (named after a local landmark) and it had bacon, I think ham AND turkey, cheese, various veggies.  The roll was a type I was not familiar with and cannot remember the name of but it was good and was not soggy even though it was awhile before we ate the sadwich. 

We headed back down 160 and stopped at the Ryde Hotel, which we had noticed on the way up.  The place has a lot of history, it was built in 1927 and had a speakeasy in the cellar back in the day.  We checked out one of the rooms and are considering a visit at some point, or at least going for brunch someitme.  It is right on the river and has beautiful grounds. 

We finally got to the boat sometime in mid afternoon and spent awhile cleaning it, then decided instead of hot dogs for dinner we'd walk over to Alebrijes at the Lighthouse, right next door.  We had a fun time and they had a great band.  Unfortunately we could still here the band quite well when we were back on our boat trying to go to sleep but oh well...

Sunday we decided to try someplace in Isleton for lunch.  We went to the Levee Cafe.  Matt absolutely LOVED the Chile Colorado that he ordered and my BLT was good.  It was a very "hometown" kind of place, nothing fancy and just one person taking care of the whole room (not that they were busy at 2 on Sunday).  Matt wants to go back and try some more of their Mexican Specialties.  I'd love to try their breakfast sometime.

So as you can see we mostly drove and ate our way across the delta.  Next weekend we are letting Joe and Carrie use our boat as a home base for playing with their ski boat so we are going to visit Coyote Point for the first time since June!  We plan to take the boat to Stockton on 8/20 for an overnight and to fill up with diesel at the Chevron station there, which has really good fuel prices. 

Monday, August 1, 2011

Delta Photos

making bacon!

Tiki J and Ada Helen leaving Willow Berm to anchor out at Threeriver Reach while we head to Oxbow for one night

The Mokelumne swing bridge (Hwy 12) opening for Steve and us as we head up the Mokelumne to Georgiana Slough to Oxbow Marina.  We had been told the bridge opened on the hour and on the :20 and :40 but itopened for us immediately without our having to even hail the bridge tender.

Matt cooling off at Oxbow

Joe checking our bow line.

the "Fun Island" in use (Kim and kids, Carrie on her float)

Pineapple Girl with our $50 pop up canopy.  Worked out great.

Matt getting ready to try water skiing

Another view of Pineapple Girl from the ski boat

The three boats on Threeriver Reach, from the ski boat as we prepare to pull Matt out of the water

About as close as Matt came to water skiing.  He gave up after four tries.  But he had fun!

A morning visitor in at Threeriver Reach

Passerby on the San Joaquin as we sat on Pineapple Girl. 

We were right of the Stockton deep water channel / San Joaquin River and we saw a few freighters slip by while we were there.  They move at a pretty good clip.  One caused all sorts of small bubbles to rise up out of the water all around us as it passed by.  Very Odd.