Wrapping Up our Sacramento Visit

We arrived in the Sacramento area back in late April just before mom's birthday.  It is nearly two months later, and we are just a few days from leaving.  It has been a very wonderful time.  When April started, Marica had not met any of my brothers, sisters or their spouses, and she had only met two of my three children.  Now she has met them all, has met a few of more of the many cousins I have, and another aunt.  (When mom and dad lived in Missouri, she had the pleasure of meeting a few up there previously. )

While here, we also had the opportunity to visit many lovely California National and State Parks, Lake Tahoe, the Ocean, Napa, a quick trip to San Francisco, and other places around Sacramento.  There are many places in the state we wish to see, and places within Sacramento we want to visit too...all will come on future visits.

Of course, one of our favorite things to do is to eat, and no one does BBQ better than my brother-in-law, Arny.  However, we also have discovered two local eating establishments, and one national chain which I wish to share today.

Arny's favorite restaurant in the area is Felipe's Mexican Restaurant, which has been in operation since 1983.  The "Felipe's Famous Chimichanga" is HUGE, and hard to pass up when you know you won't be back in the area for awhile.  We also like their enchiladas, tamales, and we especially like their bean dip.  They don't take reservations, but if you have a large group, like when 10 of us went out the other night, a call to them with 45 minutes notice could help get you get seated faster.

My two sisters have been doing the "weight watchers" thing for a number of months now, and every Sunday they go to their "weigh in", and then everyone meets for breakfast at the Corner Stone Restaurant, near the corner of Greenback and San Juan.  Every morning they have a "early bird" breakfast, and on Sundays, Marcia and I get the vegetable omelet which came with hash brown potatoes, toast and coffee for around $5 each.  The serving size is huge, the service is wonderful, and it is just one of those nice family owned restaurants that we like to go to.  (Unlike the IHOP in Napa where the same type of meal cost $14 each and with that they skip the friendly smile, great family atmosphere that you get at Corner Stone.)

Now for the national chain....and we like this place because it really isn't a restaurant.  It is a home-style pizza establishment called Papa Murphy's.  I call it "home-style" is because they make the pizza, and you take it home and cook it.  They don't make the pizzas ahead of time unless you call in and order it ahead of time.  Depending upon how busy they are will depend upon how long it takes to get your pizza when you just walk in. When we went up to Mount Lassen, we took two medium size Papa Murphy's pizzas with us, which just fit into our Convection/Microwave oven perfectly.  We cooked the first one they day we left when we got up to the Shasta area, and cooked the next one the day we got to the KOA.  Both were great, fresh meals.  The only thing that could be better is if they offered a wheat crust pizza, which when I inquired about, was told that they did offer it at one time, but did not have enough requests for it to have on the menu all the time.  Just the other day we took a large Papa Murphy's Veggie DeLITE pizza over to mom and dads, and the total "on special" price was just $7, and it took less than 4 minutes to prepare it.  They always have specials, and their website is full of coupons.  We wish there was a Papa Murphy's in Palm Harbor...perhaps some day soon there will be. 

Yesterday was Father's Day, and we had another great BBQ with Arny's Tri-Tip, Marcia's Greek Potatoes, and Sandy's Brownies and Lemon Bars.  Of course, we all met over at Corner Stone for breakfast and then Marcia and I went to church at Calvary Metro for the last time this visit.  Once home, we visited, watched NASCAR, third game of the NBA playoffs, with a bit of golf in between, and a good nap.  My son Michael gave me a father's day card, my daughter Stephanie mailed a card which I saved to open on Father's Day, and my son Ryan called.  (Wish the latter two could have been here too.)  The day ended with Skruffy and I driving Michael over to the Bay Area so that he could catch a BART back to his house...which got him home much faster than if he took the Amtrak there from Sacramento.  An good end to a wonderful day...  

It won't be easy for us to leave, but we also look forward to our future travels.