More Scenes from California

We’ll share our travelogue from our days in Napa tomorrow, but here are a few more photos from our visit to the Golden State. We flew into Sacramento and stayed with family in Davis; and I finished the trip in Southern California (sadly sans Aron, who had to return to work a day sooner).

Asparagus are perhaps my favorite vegetable, and they were at their peak when we visited the markets.

The Davis Central Market is always a favorite stop; we picked up wildflowers and Yolo Press Olive Oil from nearby Winters.

Our nephew, Peter, was more excited about balloons (note the cute ladybug wrist corsage) and merry-go-rounds. However, I think the pedal-powered speed was a little slow for his and his brother’s taste.

We celebrated babies-to-come and welcomed one who had just arrived (six days before!) with friends.

And we watched some unsuccessful games of fetch (my parents’ dog–brought up from Southern California–was non-plussed and much more interested in sniffing about). By the way, don’t you love it when kids are so excited to play that they forget to take off their helmets? It actually gave us an added sense of security on the playground…

UC Davis employs a few double-decker buses, imported from England–one of those little quirks we’re fond of–and the boys looked forward to riding up top.

An afternoon of bike-riding and horse-admiring on campus wore Peter out.
We all refueled on Aron’s mom’s delicious banana cake with mocha frosting.

And we returned just in time for the University’s open-house, “Picnic Day.”
It starts with a parade! Have I already used the phrase quirky?

Whenever we visit the school in the spring I look forward to checking the horse barn for new colts (our alma mater was once the agricultural extension of Berkeley and still has a strong aggie program and vet school).

We took turns milking a cow (a first for each of us).

We learned, at the Entymology department, that termites follow ink trails, before setting off in search of picnic fare and fire trucks. We spent about seven hours on campus; by the time we left we were all worn out.