Today we awoke early and left Santa Rosa before nine. We headed down US-101 and across I-80, then went north up I-505 to Winters. We decided to have breakfast at Putah Creek Cafe. We visited this restaurant in 2013 and enjoyed, not only the food, but the ambience. Today the food wasn’t as good and the service left something to be desired. I had eggs, chicken apple sausage and fruit and Mum had poached eggs with salsa and a biscuit.
Mum had ordered a single, medium-poached egg and was given two eggs that were beyond hard-poached. When she mentioned to the waitress that it was hard-poached and also that there were two eggs, the waitress stated that the chefs normally make two so they can try to get it right. We didn’t find that very reassuring. We’re not sure if the ownership/management had changed or not, but something just didn’t seem as good as on our previous visit.
Since we had plenty of time to make it to our destination, we took the long way to Chico via Yuba City. It was a lovely drive on awesome county and state roads up the flat Sacramento Valley. Even with taking the slow route, we arrived in Chico around 12:30. We found a great parking spot in the shade and decided to walk around downtown.
It was a ridiculously hot day (32°C) so we kept in the shade and inside air-conditioned buildings as much as possible. By 2 o’clock it was time to check in and we were glad to have somewhere to relax and cool off. We watched some TV and looked for a way to get to the park. After checking several maps, we decided to just wing it and headed out to do some more exploring.
We eventually found Bidwell Park and wandered around the One Mile Recreation Area. I can see why it would be a popular place for the locals to hang out at, but it wasn’t really anything to write home about. After we walked around the park, we decided to go to the campus
After we walked around the park, we decided to go to the CSU Chico campus as we had read that it had beautiful architecture and grounds. We found out, though, that there was no parking on campus and it was just too hot for us to find parking off-campus and walk around.
We went back to the hotel and tried to figure out what we wanted to eat for dinner. This turned out to be harder than expected, but eventually decided on Madison Bear Gardens. Once we got there, we saw a line-up out the door and, on a whim, changed our mind and went to Mom’s. It turned out to be a great decision and we had an awesome dinner. Mum had a Salisbury Steak and I had a Cobb Salad (and yes, I ate my avocado).
After dinner, we headed back to the hotel for an early night. Tomorrow we will be heading to Eugene.
Thank you for reading and I will talk to you soon.
L
