I've decided to christen my rental car Beyoncé, because she's black and she has a wide rear end, ha ha. Anyway, after leaving Chico, me and Mrs Z headed south and visited Sacramento, Petaluma and the Napa Valley (where the wines come from). I ended up in Pleasanton, a smallish town just east of Oakland, and that was my base for the NFL match. NFL may not be my cup of cocoa, but Pleasanton itself is aptly named. It was also my inaugural AirBnB experience, and a very positive one. I'll certainly give this a try again soon.
Now I'm in Monterey, which is *spoiler alert* a very prominent stop on the Pacific Coast Highway. Beyoncé has to go back to LA before too long, and I might as well make the most of getting there...
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| Monterey |
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| California State Capitol building in Sacramento, at sundown. |
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| Beyoncé (see explanation above), parked outside another cheap motel, this time in Sacramento. You can just make out the photographer's hairy shins reflected below the car's left headlight. |
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| Note the detailed address on the sign. Wacky. Lagunitas IPA is one of the more distinctive beers of its kind. But otherwise, these guys don't really compare with Sierra Nevada or Brooklyn. Nonetheless a photo is a photo, and a souvenir T-shirt is a souvenir T-shirt. |
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| Vineyards in the Napa Valley, plus car. Baby Got Back. |
