Wedding Day

In terms of driving we had a fairly uneventful day compared to others.  There were still some highlights but the main purpose of today was to get to our hotel, get dressed, and head for the wedding.  We hit the road at 9:15.  Google said it was a 3 hour drive to the hotel then a 45 minute trip to the wedding from there.  We had to first stop and find some shoes for Chris since we had forgotten ours at home.  We first went to Kohl’s to see if there was something that would match the outfit we brought with us.  There wasn’t but there were some nice looking shoes which unfortunately did not match the clothes we brought for the wedding.  Jackie had an idea which Chris immediately shot down.  She thought we should buy a new outfit to match the shoes that she liked which she wanted to buy.  Chris’s response: “No, I’m not a girl, we don’t buy an outfit to match shoes we haven’t bought yet”.  So we went to Payless which was next door.  We found a pair of shoes to match Chris’s clothes right away.  We used a AAA discount to save 10% on our purchase and we then made a quick stop at Target to buy a card and wrapping paper.  We hit the road for good by 9:45.  We drove through Sacramento and we were impressed at one of the forks in the road where it said “I-80 West, left 5 lanes”.  There were also 3 lanes splitting off to the right at this point.  How much traffic does this place get where an 8 lane highway is needed?  Luckily on a Saturday traffic was relatively light.  We stopped two more times on the way down, both for virtual geocaches.  The first stop was a gas station with something unusual sticking out of the roof.  It appeared that an alien ship had crashed into the roof.  If that seemed weird enough when you went inside there were green aliens everywhere inside of the store.  You have to see the picture to believe it.  Some people have just too much time on their hands.

The next stop was in Livermore, CA at the firehouse of all places.  We stopped to see the Centennial Light, which is the world’s longest lasting light bulb.  The light has been burning nearly continuously since 1901!  The last time the light was turned off was in 1976 when they relocated it to its current home.  It is now hooked to a backup generator in case the power goes out, and there is a 24/7 webcam pointing right at the light bulb so all of you at home can see it too!  We felt kind of weird approaching the firehouse and asking if we can see the light bulb. Jackie felt so weird doing this that she stayed in the car.  Chris walked up to the open doors of the firehouse and found no one inside.  We probably could have walked off with all kinds of firefighting equipment if we wanted to but instead we found a doorbell and rang it.  After a minute or two a fireman came downstairs and asked if he could help.  Chris explained that he wanted to see the light bulb and the fireman got pretty excited.  He walked him over to the bulb, explained much of what we just explained and had Chris sign a guestbook.  He said that people come from all over the world to see this thing.  Looking at the guestbook he was right, the other day someone was there from Spain and before that Brazil.  We talked for a bit and we were on our way.  Driving away we couldn’t help but wonder what they built light bulbs out of 100 years ago that made them last.  Why can’t they make them out of the same materials now?  It is probably some kind of scheme by the light bulb companies.  Make them inexpensively, they break and they make more money when people need to buy new ones.

Driving down the highway we didn’t make any more stops but we did see something interesting.  In a pickup truck in front of us there appeared to be a dog in the back.  That isn’t so interesting in itself, but upon closer look it was not a dog at all, it was a goat.  The goat was sitting in the back of the truck, we assumed tied up, just enjoying the ride at 75 MPH going down the road.  We got a couple of pictures.

We arrived at our hotel pretty early, just before 1.  With the stops at the gas station and  the firehouse the trip was just over 3 hours so google must overestimate a little bit, or we just drive faster that google says we should.  We took the opportunity of arriving early to do a laundry and relax a bit before heading out to the wedding.  While this in only our third day out here you would think we had no reason to do a wash yet but that 110 degree heat back in Vegas sure makes you sweat and a single change of clothes doesn’t even get you through a single day.  While we were hanging around we went next door to a good Mexican/Salvadoran restaurant for some yummy pupusas.  This was really a Salvadoran restaurant but they probably advertise themselves as a Mexican restaurant to draw the “white crowd” who would probably never think of going to a Salvadoran restaurant.  The place was filled with mostly Hispanic families, which is always a great sign of good food.  This place did not disappoint.  Jackie got some frijoles con queso pupusas (beans and cheese), which is pretty standard but still good, while Chris got a few we hadn’t seen before: papas con chorizo (potato and sausage), camaron (shrimp), calabaza (zucchini), and queso con loroco (cheese with loroco).  We also got an order of platanos and yucca con chicharron.  We enjoyed our meal back at our room and headed to the wedding .  

Google said it was a 45 minute drive and it did take us 45 minutes but traffic was horrendous.  We’re sure we could have made that trip in a half hour without traffic, maybe even less.  The wedding was on the beach in a very nice setting.  While we were there Chris spotted a webcam and managed to get a picture of himself on the beach.  After the wedding we all headed to a local restaurant to celebrate.  It was nice to catch up with family that we haven’t seen in years.  The wedding was beautiful in a beautiful place and we hope the newlyweds are as happy as we have been!

Who is the guy in the dark pants?

View from the restaurant