Travel Summary

I was away on travel status this week and it was a very long but productive work week.  To save my taxpayer's dollars, I drove up to Northern California instead of flying and renting a car.  It was a long drive but it was lovely to see the signs of spring.

I was in quite a few cities and saw quite a bit of the landscape.  There were so many signs of spring including the blossoms on the fruit trees as far as the eye could see, babies of every kind - cows, goats, and sheep all prancing around.


There was even a sighting of turkeys in the middle of the city.  There were a total of four birds I saw all just taking a walk by themselves.  One struck a pose for the camera.

I stayed in Sacramento on the first few nights since it was in the center of where the work had to be done.  The hotel was first rate - Le Rivage which is where the NBA players stay.  The best thing was the bath tub!  The bath products were so sumptuous that I had to take the samples home with me.  I will need to look up the product and see if I can order some.  All the products were infused with blood orange essential oil and had a quite lovely smell - my favorite.

My co-worker who came out from Houston to help me made the hotel arrangements and I handled the food.  The first night we ate at the restaurant attached to the hotel - Scott's Seafood.


We had the Wild Prawn Fettuccine and Peppercorn Crusted Sterling New York Steak.  Both were delicious.

The next night we went out for Chinese food with my parents and ate at New Station.  We had a family style meal with soy sauce chicken, deep fried fish fillets, spareribs, beans and pork, house special fried rice, deep fried prawns, and monster oysters (these were as big as my hand).

We next headed to the coast and tried to stay at the Double Tree at the Berkeley Marina, but when we arrived they had lost power and we could not check in.  We headed to the Oakland airport and stayed at a Hilton.  We were able to meet up with my cousins Angie and Tony and family and have dinner at Tatsu Sushi which they have been raving about for years.  This was as good a time as any to see what the fuss was about.


The sushi at this place is amazing and the portions were gimongous and delicious.  We were totally stuffed afterwards.  Angie is a regular there and the owner and staff were super friendly and we were served cheesecake as a dessert.  Here are the rolls we had - so many that I can't even remember the names.

Here we are were at the end of a great meal.

That little cutie is my first cousin once removed - Harper.  She is two months old and is a hefty little thing and she generates heat like nobody's business.  I was getting a hot flash from holding her.  She is happy and entertaining.