:)
But even in Jan. ad Feb. I'll try to get away from the central Bay Area and do a little outdoors something. Sometimes it is riding off road motorcycles, maybe mountain bikes, maybe some cold weather fishing.
A few years ago I got into shotgun shooting. Right here in the Oakland Hills is the Chabot Gun Club. I took a Hunters Education Course there and during the class breaks I watched the guys and gals shoot at the trap range. Hmmm it looked like fun.
So I told a friend about it and he said he had 2 old shotguns in his safe I could use. I kept his guns for a few months and shot trap there on weekends. That led to me getting my own gun, a Winchester SX3. It's not the most expensive gun ever sold, and it is far from exotic, but it fit me well, and I really liked the soft way it shoots. The rangemaster at the Chabot trap range has one and he loved it. So all that was good enough for me.
While trap is fun, and I still go shooting with friends at a few ranges around here, I also have been bird hunting.
Last weekend I met 2 friends at Quail Point Hunting Preserve off 505 near Zamora.
Huh? Where?
OK, um north of Fairfield, south of Williams.
We have been there before and always have fun. We rented one of their dogs to use for the day. We had a German Shorthair Pointer named Amy. We spent a few hours in the field and came back with 8 pheasant, a few birds got away. It really is fun walking a field with friends and watching the dog do her thing. You can be chatting away, telling a joke or a story then all a sudden the dog goes on point and holds. One of us would walk up to try to see the bird and the others try to move to the sides in order to get a safe shot. The bird jumps up and if things go the way they should pretty soon the dog is coming back with a mouth full of feathers and you slip a bird in your vest.
At the end of out hunt we drop off the birds to the cleaning station, and this time we traded in some of ours for their already cooked and smoked birds. Those smoked birds tasted great! We waited in the clubhouse while they were cleaned. It is nice and warm inside and a good place to take a break.
After the day of hunting my friends headed south back to the Bay Area, but I headed north. My destination was Williams. I wanted to go there for 2 things.
First I hadn't been to Granzella's since they rebuilt from a big fire a few years ago. They have some great food there, great sandwiches, a sit down restaurant and gift shop. It was a good as ever. I had a prosciutto and pastrami sandwich with peppers.
My drive would take me to a little cabin on the water in Clear Lake, so I needed some dinner as well. In Williams just down the main street there is a Mexican grocery store called Roys. They have a really good meat department in the back and their marinated beef and chicken fajitas are just crazy good. I always try to get some if I am heading past Williams and hope they aren't sold out. They weren't and I got a pound of each.
At Clear Lake the little cabin our family has had since the 60's was in good shape. It hasn't been too tough of a winter, the lake level is really low, as low as it was at the end of summer. If it stays this low I probably won't be able to get a boat to our dock, so let's have some rain please!
It was getting dark so I turned on the heater, lit the fireplace, and ended up watching two movies.
It was a double bill of Freddy vs Jason (with the commentary) and Shaolin Soccer (the Chinese version with subtitles). I'm a pretty big fan of both films. Ronny Yu directed the Freddy vs Jason movie, and he is on the commentary, funny stuff. Steven Chow directed Shaolin Soccer, so there is a Hong Kong movie theme to each film. It was a good double bill. If you watch Freddy vs Jason be sure to watch it again with the commentary. Robert Englund is hi-larry-us and gives lots of insight to the whole Freddy thing.
Sunday I said hi to my neighbors, great people I've known for years, and left about noon.
I went home on Hy. 29 and was pretty impressed with the new Twin Pine Casino in Middletown. At the top of Mt. St. Helena it was about 44 degrees at 1pm. The Napa Valley was looking good with the mustard grass growing in the vineyards. In the Calistoga area off Silverado Trail there were some really beautiful vineyards. More than a few cars were pulled over with people and tripods setting up those perfect shots. Here's one I took a few winters ago.
I made it home in time to take the dog on a 5 mile mountain bike ride before Sunday's big rains came. Then I had smoked pheasant for dinner.
That's a pretty good weekend.
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