A couple of days ago, I described the dramatic weather changes we experienced on our recent trip to Clear Lake. As always, the time seemed to fly by, and much too soon we were packing up to head home. I had arrived at the lake separately from the Big Guy; he rode along with a buddy who was towing our bass boat, and I was driving a rental car so that I could get around during our stay, while he was on the water, fishing from sunup to sundown (as you do).

Our accommodation was on the northeast shore, in Nice (pronounced like the city in France). On Friday, as I was preparing to drive home, I decided to stop along the road and check out a few things that caught my eye — that’s the great thing about driving your own car! My first stop was just a short way down Highway 20, at Lucerne. This small town calls itself “The Switzerland of California” (make of that what you will). But my reason for stopping was extremely nostalgic. Back in the 1970s, my family used to travel over to Fort Bragg on the Mendocino coast via Clear Lake, and I have clear memories of one particular journey when we stopped at the Foster’s Freeze in Lucerne for a bite to eat. I honestly don’t know why it became such an indelible memory; but I clearly recall sitting with my mom and dad, eating hamburgers and listening to “Love Will Keep Us Together” by The Captain and Tenille playing on the jukebox.

I’ve never returned to the restaurant, but every time I drove by I would promise myself to stop and take a picture.

Afterwards, I continued on to Anderson Marsh State Historic Park. I’d actually been there the day before, but I really love this place and couldn’t resist having another look around.

I wonder how old this tree is?

Instead of taking my usual route home via Interstate 5, I now prefer to take the back way — from Lake County to Yolo County along Highway 16, which follows Cache Creek to Woodland. I’ve only passed this way twice now, and I’ve barely scratched the surface of all the things there are to explore. One of these days I’m going to take more time. This spring I noticed a few lingering scars from the LNU complex wildfire that reached the Capay Valley last August.

Common Farms Kitchen in Guinda