2013-04-17, 18, 19

We were smart when we woke up on the 17th.  I had a bagel, and Marilyn had her piece of toast before we went to breakfast where I got my coffee.  They did have more donuts, but I only had one.  After lunch, we toured the Woodbridge Winery.   It is huge, but they gave a nice tour, and a 10% discount on 6 or more bottles of wine.  We bought 8, and sold two to a friend.  The tri-tip dinner was good, and we listened to Johnny Goodrum sing some more tunes – I bought 2 of his cd’s.

Thursday, the 18th, was the day for everyone to leave except the staff, which stayed an extra night.  For lunch Denny Orr took a group of us back to Costco where we again had cheap hotdog lunches.  As the fairgrounds emptied, we chit-chatted with friends, helped with some bookkeeping for the event, and we all had pizza for dinner.  After dinner, we sat out for a little while solving world problems and gossiping.

This morning, the 19th, we packed up and moved the house back to the Lodi Elks Lodge for a few nights.  After parking at the Elks, we drove the Jeep to Sacramento to tour the Capitol Museum.    They started building the Capitol in 1869, and it took 14 years to complete.  They were going to put steps to the second floor and name it the first floor, but the state ran out of money.  Oh well.  The walls were made of brick with a granite veneer, and the mortar began to disintegrate, so,  in 1975 while the outside looks the same, the bricks were removed and the interior walls were made of steel reinforced concrete – they became afraid of a collapsing building due to earthquakes.  They have tried to make the interior walls, stairs, and some of the offices look like they did in 1902.  Some of the offices and chambers – Governor, Senate and House are still operating in the Old Capitol Building.    The dome is still in place.   Arnie found a bear statue that he wanted in front of his office.  When he left office, he donated the bear.  It still stands in front of the Governor’s office.    The state troupers nicknamed the bear Bacterium but were told that was not politically correct so they re-named it Mike – short for Microbial.

Type at you later.