Having decided on leave the next day, I planned
out a 3-day itinerary. Leave July 2 about 6 am, arrive at Klamath Falls
in about 4 hours, then turn and continue to Lava Beds and get there
about noon. It seemed like we could spend the rest
of the day there, and then come back the next day - there were about 20
lava caves to explore, a dozen hikes and other scenery. The second
day we'd leave early, and head up to a place closer to Crater Lake for
the night. Then get a very early start on July 4, see Crater Lake and
then return that evening to Davis, in time for the 9:30 pm, July 4
fireworks. The Lava Beds park offers guided tours - at 2pm, and 10 am -
and I felt it was critical we got at least one of those. The tours are
quickly sold out, it wasn't possible to make reservations, so our best
chance stood for the 10 am tour on the second day. Crater Lake offers a
boat cruise and a trolley tour, both also need reservations that sell
out very quickly. We thought we'd take our chances upon getting there.
But first there was a little persuasion to do, to get the kids on the side of the long drive and leaving their home and toys. Somehow, it happened - Deepali must have told them some story - both of them decided to come along without too much fuss. (And, Utsav wasn't here - one less person to convince :) And, as we'll see, good for him he wasn't on this particular trip.) There was also a work-related difficulty. I needed to do a tele-con-meeting with some researchers at Facebook in New York. plus I had some meetings at work. Canceled the work meetings, and moved the Facebook call to 6 am. We started the drive at 7 am.
Anticipating about 5 hours of driving I had identified couple of breakfast choices, and gave the kids some descriptions - Black Bear Diner - which they like, and a second place - Penny's Diner - for which the reviews talked about their "fluffy French Toast" which got Pranav excited.
Penny's Diner is one of these "hole in the wall" type places - actually it looks from outside like a mobile train coach. Open 24 hours! In a town called Dunsmuir, population 2000. Dunsmuir is in Northern California, about 3 hours drive from Davis. The mountains begin at about 2 hours away (at which point we get to Redding - already 1,000-2,000 ft elevation), which makes the drive is quite enjoyable. The highway at Dunsmuir is at 4,000 ft and the mountains higher of course. So, this Diner is a small shack nestled along the highway and basically surrounded by mountains. There is nothing else - except that one building you can see on the right - a small motel - and I don't know where the remaining 1,997 people live. But as I just discovered there is definitely more to do - a nice town area (http://www.epodunk.com/cgi-bin/genInfo.php?locIndex=10095) and the beautiful
So, we made our stop at Penny's Diner. Inside is a row of a few seating booths on one side, and the other side is their kitchen equipment etc. You can sit and watch them making the food - basically omelettes, toast, and just a few other things. And they even had a bathroom!
We ordered the kids some french toast,
and for us some "hashed browns" (potato thins + vegetables) and coffee.
Pranav, thankfully, liked his french toast! Downed pretty quickly, back to his book. Mallika didn't care for hers so much - but she was willing to eat toast. And the hashed
browns were actually quite good - particularly the vegetables, and
topped with with some spicy jalapeno peppers. A good 45-minute stop, and
we were back on our way at 10.45. Our next destination was Winema Lodge,
which is another place I had found on the Internet. It is about 20
minutes away from Lava Beds National Park, and was to be our place
for rest at night. The plan was to make a quick stop, get our room and
dump some of our bags, get some lunch, and then try to get on that 2pm
guided tour.
More on this later and the next time.
But first there was a little persuasion to do, to get the kids on the side of the long drive and leaving their home and toys. Somehow, it happened - Deepali must have told them some story - both of them decided to come along without too much fuss. (And, Utsav wasn't here - one less person to convince :) And, as we'll see, good for him he wasn't on this particular trip.) There was also a work-related difficulty. I needed to do a tele-con-meeting with some researchers at Facebook in New York. plus I had some meetings at work. Canceled the work meetings, and moved the Facebook call to 6 am. We started the drive at 7 am.
Anticipating about 5 hours of driving I had identified couple of breakfast choices, and gave the kids some descriptions - Black Bear Diner - which they like, and a second place - Penny's Diner - for which the reviews talked about their "fluffy French Toast" which got Pranav excited.
Penny's Diner is one of these "hole in the wall" type places - actually it looks from outside like a mobile train coach. Open 24 hours! In a town called Dunsmuir, population 2000. Dunsmuir is in Northern California, about 3 hours drive from Davis. The mountains begin at about 2 hours away (at which point we get to Redding - already 1,000-2,000 ft elevation), which makes the drive is quite enjoyable. The highway at Dunsmuir is at 4,000 ft and the mountains higher of course. So, this Diner is a small shack nestled along the highway and basically surrounded by mountains. There is nothing else - except that one building you can see on the right - a small motel - and I don't know where the remaining 1,997 people live. But as I just discovered there is definitely more to do - a nice town area (http://www.epodunk.com/cgi-bin/genInfo.php?locIndex=10095) and the beautiful
Mossbrae Falls
Mossbrae waterfalls
(http://nice-cool-pics.com/img-mossbrae-falls,-dunsmuir,-california-4194.htm).
Another day. So, we made our stop at Penny's Diner. Inside is a row of a few seating booths on one side, and the other side is their kitchen equipment etc. You can sit and watch them making the food - basically omelettes, toast, and just a few other things. And they even had a bathroom!
We ordered the kids some french toast,
and for us some "hashed browns" (potato thins + vegetables) and coffee.
Pranav, thankfully, liked his french toast! Downed pretty quickly, back to his book. Mallika didn't care for hers so much - but she was willing to eat toast. And the hashed
browns were actually quite good - particularly the vegetables, and
topped with with some spicy jalapeno peppers. A good 45-minute stop, and
we were back on our way at 10.45. Our next destination was Winema Lodge,
which is another place I had found on the Internet. It is about 20
minutes away from Lava Beds National Park, and was to be our place
for rest at night. The plan was to make a quick stop, get our room and
dump some of our bags, get some lunch, and then try to get on that 2pm
guided tour. More on this later and the next time.
No comments:
Post a Comment