Coldspring Community Church, led by David Cooke, is hosting us this week at a lovely home. I awoke this morning to find a wild turkey in the yard, but he quickly figured I was watching and secreted away. Then we headed for Truckee by the north end of Lake Tahoe, but the weather folks warned us that we needed chains on the tires to get there — and we weren’t game for that. So, we headed back down into the milder climes of the foothills and visited Auburn and Caloma, where there are many places commemorating the California Gold Rush of the mid-19th century. It was fun for both of us to see stuff about John Sutter, as in high school we read a biography of Sutter in our German class.

We also visited one of the local vineyards, Venezio, and found a bottle we liked (and could afford). We felt like we were in that recent movie with those two nutcases who drove up and down California checking out vineyards. Kris liked the movie better than I; I liked the wine better than Kris. Cabernet.