Rain, rain, go away

I was excited to get back to the field but so far we've been rained out every day in Quail Ridge. There hasn't been much we can do with the projects here while it rains so we ran errands on UC Davis campus yesterday (saw a cute pocket gopher), and today we stopped by our nearest town, Winters. Hopefully tomorrow we will be able to drive around our reserve to get some things organized for trapping next week.

pocket gopher

Windmill in Solvang

My mom and I drove from Phoenix to Sacramento starting on Mother's Day. The first night we stopped in Solvang, CA. It is a town founded by the Danish-American Colony Company in 1911. It was nice being able to park the car at the hotel (The Royal Copenhagen Inn), and then walk around the rest of the evening. We visited the Hans Christian Andersen Museum inside of the local bookstore. The next morning we had aebleskiver which were delicious, then headed back on the road.

aebleskiver

Storks on top buildings as a sign of good luck

windmills on the crosswalk :)

We made it to our Air Bnb in Sacramento, which I had warned my mom was in a basement with a small door at the entrance. We didn't mind the door! It was in the Curtis Park neighborhood with really pretty houses. We visited with my mom's cousin Mary Rita at a restaurant on the Sacramento River, then my mom and I went down to Old Sacramento and the Old Sacramento River Park.

The next morning we really had time to relax~ all we had to do was get my mom to the airport around 2:30pm. We had planned on visiting Fairytale Town, but when we arrived they told us there was a city ordinance that did not allow us to enter without a child!! We were shocked!!! So instead, we went down to another side of the river to River Walk Park and to the Tower Cafe for famous french toast (soooo good!!). Then, we STILL had time to kill, so we walked down the street to a historic cemetery. Some people have asked us why we chose to do that but we saw it on the map and just thought it sounded like a nice place to walk around. It was very interesting because the graves were so old, we found some from the early 1800s. It was cool to read some more about Sacramento history ~ many people buried in this cemetery died from the cholera epidemic in 1850. The grounds were impeccably maintained with beautiful plants and flowers and we even spoke with a volunteer who gardens there.

So, while I still haven't seen my mice, I have seen turkeys, California quail, black-tailed deer, phoebes, Botta's pocket gopher, AND my mom and I saw sea lion's in the Sacramento River!