Bead Store Under the Wire

Wednesday we arrived in Tracy, CA with enough time to visit Ria Mia Beads, in the downtown shopping district. 

To our surprise, we learned the store was to close, as of Sunday, Sept 12. I found some interesting and unique glass beads there, including a nice little domino-looking bead. Fun!  I also got some seed beads, drops, in colors I hadn't seen before.

So now bead shoppers in Tracy will have to drive to the Stockton store, but it seems to me most people there expect to go to Stockton frequently.  We did have a fine dinner at the Texas Roadhouse near the mall in Tracy. The food was unexpectedly good, actually. So we've got something to look forward to on our trip back south. Tracy has become our regular half-way point.

Yesterday we made it to St. Helena in time for lunch at Taylor's Automatic Refresher, which isn't Taylor's anymore, really. The sign out front remains Taylor's but the building itself says "Gott's Roadside, Tray Gourmet" which is a funny pun in itself. Same owners and same food, so the change of name is a puzzler for me. But the Mahi Mahi fish & chips was as good as always, the picnic tables in the sun watching the endless parade of traffic up St. Helena's main street was entertaining as well. But I happen to think that "Taylor's Automatic Refresher" is a better name. More mysterious, yet tempting.

However, here's a hint for travellers. Whatever Google Maps says, don't trust it when taking a new, unfamiliar route unless you get a map printout of the ENTIRE ROUTE. Because sometimes, Google's driving directions are, shall we say, inconsistent with reality. Like leaving out approximately 15 miles and at least one turn in the middle. 

However, we realized our mistake (our mistake? I don't think so!) as we headed off into the mountains again and made a patented Allen-U turn, and only went about 10 miles out of the way. 

We arrived in Mendocino to sparkling weather, wonderful scenery, the house is as we remembered it. It's like coming home. Ahhhh. 

Today, the Farmer's market in town in Mendocino. Lots of recreating. Love it. High tide in about 3 hours.