Weekend Round-up: Gone Country

Our annual trip to “the weave” was an adventure, as always! In the last three days, I visited a Wal-Mart and a Kmart, learned how to shoot a gun and almost got snowed in. Yee haw! You can see all my photos from the weekend online.

Margaret came to the city on Friday night and we went to the climbing gym before a great dinner at Woodhouse Fish Company (I recommend the crab and cheddar roll). We tucked in fairly early.

Early departure on Saturday morning. The five hour drive north goes fairly quickly. We stop in at a Wal-Mart in Redbluff for allergy medicine and a Kmart in Redding for an errand. I quickly hijacked that visit to stock up on some fun Martha goodies. We make it over to snowy Weaverville around 1:00 and catch up with Rich and Molly while changing into boots and long-johns. She’s an ag teacher at the high school in Hayfork and he is in charge of IT for the high school in Weaverville. Their baby is due in April.

We walk down from their house to the Trinity County Museum in old town. It’s nicely done with lots of Chinese and Victorian artifacts. Well worth visiting if you have some reason to be in those neck of the woods. From there we go to dinner at the fancy restaurant in town. It’s crowded with parents from an elementary school basketball tournament. Rob has buffalo meatloaf and we all enjoy ourselves!

Everyone sleeps in on Sunday morning, it is nice and toasty with the iron stove going. When we finally motivate, it is to walk down to town for breakfast at Mama Lamma. (Located between Eureka and Redding, Weaverville is a mix of ranchers and hippies). After breakfast, shooting!

*Note: I’ve always been firmly pro-gun control and pro-non-lethal self defense. But also really, really scared of guns. I decided this was a good opportunity to conquer my fear and learn how to be safe. *

The guys gave Margaret and me a thorough lesson in technique and safety before we drove out to the range. It’s just a little wood shack in the middle of nowhere. Margaret was good straight away and I didn’t do too bad either. We had more fun when we switched from paper targets to tin cans. Overall, I was proud of myself. We managed to look cute, too:

Back at their house, we warmed up a bit by the stove with Molly who had stayed behind. The guys went to buy fuel for the stove heater while us girls went antique shopping in town. It’s nice that they live just a few blocks from the main street. Back home after a couple of hours.

We started a game of Monopoly that quickly turned into a battle royale. So much so that we played until after 8….until after all the restaurants in town close. We managed to get a table at the Nugget Diner only by having Rob run ahead before they closed at 8:30. Greasy spoon fare and a video back at home before bed.

We woke up Sunday morning to falling snow! Not in the plan for driving home in our tiny Honda Fit with no chains, but very pretty. Rich made us all breakfast and we sat around the stove. At 9:30, Rob, Rich and I went back to the shooting range in his big red truck for one more practice. I got a couple really good shots in.

We returned to the house to pack up and watch it snow even harder. If it had started sticking, we wouldn’t have been able to make it back to Redding. Lunch at a sandwich place called Trinideli and lots of hugs goodbye. Next time we see our friends, they’ll be parents!

We bought chains on our way out of town just in case and hit the road. It was gorgeous with all the snow covered trees and the roads were thankfully fairly dry. We drove home, in and out of rain all the way. Getting back to a soaked San Francisco around 6:30. The country is nice, but I love the city!