It's Back!

So my favorite seasonal brew is back, Samuel Adams Oktoberfest. Rush out to the store and buy a six-pack immediately. It's a good, tasty beer that is slightly sweet. Wonderful for fall. And only available in September and October! Get it now!

This weekend, Alexey and I aim to make the drive up Big Bear Mountain to take part in their Oktoberfest up there. Have some beer, some bratwurst, strudel, and listen to the oompa band. Maybe we'll even get in a little chicken dancing. Or witness a stein carrying contest. Next weekend we'll try to get to the Torrance Oktoberfest. We went to that one last year and were very impressed by the quality of the sausage, the funky german grocery store and the picnic table seating.

Get out there, celebrate Oktoberfest!

Not TWL Rocker

I've been to the World's Largest Rocking Chair (it's in Colorado), this however is not it. This is a big rocker in front of Pickle's Place, a great burger joint in Atomic City, Idaho. They are all about the nuclear power there and we happened to roll into town just as the Atomic Days Parade was starting. This parade shut down the entire main street which was the highway through town. So we watched the parade from Pickle's Place and ate Atomic Burgers before getting out of town.

EBR-1

Experimental Breeder Reactor 1

That's right! Nuclear Power!! We visited the first breeder reactor power plant in the U.S. The goal of our self-guided tour was to infiltrate the system and hit the SCRAM button. SCRAM stands for "safetly cable release axeman" or some such nonsense. They literally had some guy stand on top of the reactor with an ax...and if it got too hot, he would cut the cable to the cooling rods and the rods would drop into the reactor and slow the reaction. Talk about a stressful job! But don't worry, I found the SCRAM button and hit it hard. Plus I turned all the dials and knobs I could in the place. Loads of fun, I like nuclear power. In fact the last breakfast of our roadtrip was at Ensenada Cafe near Yucca Mountain. Nothing like eating eggs at our nation's nuclear waste site.

Reno Sucks

Ok, so I'm not a big fan of Vegas but Reno sucks! I know it's trying to compete but Reno wins the award for most depressing gambling city. Except they do have this really cool Bug/Spider sculpture that is just chillin' on top of a building downtown. Very cool.

Elephant Legs

We stopped here at this museum to look at Elephant Leg Ashtrays but they wanted to charge too much money to look at the museum. Since we only wanted to see the elephant legs, we saved our money, photographed the sign and hit the road.

Death Valley Junction

Near Death Valley there is a little town with seemingly no people. Except for the Amargosa Opera House which is run by an 80-something year old ballerina. She was closed up for the summer but we zoomed through town to check out the Opera House's existence. It's true, it's there. And we didn't see a single person in town. Though the town was only about 2 city blocks. Don't forget to stop by the booming metropolis of Death Valley Junction the next time you're in the middle of nowhere.

Vegas Baby Vegas

In a vain attempt to make up for the lack of recent postings, I'm going on a posting spree. Starting with Vegas, Baby Vegas. Alexey and I, being workaholics and having no time or money to take a real vacation, decided on a weekend trip to Vegas. He had never seen Vegas and it was my third time to Sin City. We stayed at Excalibur to enjoy the pool with the waterfall (it was 106 degrees out!) and the pool bar served daquiris in football shaped containers that were indeed the size of footballs. So we could spend the afternoon in the bathwater temperature pool, floating alongside our football of a beverage. Then we walked around until we developed limps and of course had a Margarita By the Yard, which in Vegas means you can wander the streets while drinking. Public intoxication is completely and utterly encouraged.

Drinking Wine and Feeling Fine

I have come to the conclusion that opening a bottle of good red wine need not be saved for a special occasion. Many diets will support the idea of a glass of red wine per day. I think I shall start the Red Wine Diet. I do truly enjoy the substance and my grocery store has been on super wine mode for weeks now. That plus our road trip detour to Napa Valley followed by Columbia Valley pretty much stocked the wine cabinet. Now I feel like I can spontaneously pop open bottles of wine, willy-nilly, and enjoy the flavor without regretting the loss of a bottle for occasions. How many occasions are there really? Not enough to justify the volume of wine currently residing in my kitchen. I'll have to become a full-bore alkie to consume all this wine. So pop open a bottle, enjoy the slight buzz, the extra romanticism that comes with a rich glass of red wine. In case you can't tell, I've had my fair share of delectable liquid already this evening.