Merced, CA

We had an uneventful trip across the Sierra Nevada.  Amazing how much a week can make in driving conditions over the Donner Summit pass.  While there was plenty of evidence of the earlier snowfall, the roads were clear.  You could tell by the depth of the drifts on the side of the road that there had been a lot of snow this year.

Took the Capitol City Expressway into Sacramento to the CalExpo and after a couple of wrong turns, we found the Quilt and Arts Craft Show.  Not too exciting, but we were able to check out some different types of sewing machines.  Mostly just looked at the machines - too crowded to do any in-depth research.  We marvelled at some of the machines which did computerized stitching - Vi does hers by hand.  Some awesome quilts on display.

Afterwards, we got on CA 99 and drove south to Merced.  It's kind of neat to drive that route in clear weather because you can see the Sierra Nevada far to the west and the Coastal Mountains far to the east.  Orchards are starting to bloom, although the vineyards looked like they had some time before they started to come alive.  Got to Merced earlier than we anticipated and checked into the Best Western.

Wanted to play golf, but the only golf course in town is the Merced Country Club - members only please!  While we were out in that area, we drove over to Yosemite Lake which was pretty low.  I'm sure that will change when the snow melt begins.  Later found out that it was fed from a canal off the Merced River to the north. 

Explored around town and then came back to the hotel.  Tried to go to several different places for dinner, but weren't impressed by any of the local establishments.  17th St Pub (actually on Main St) only served beer, no food, Bistro 510 was too crowded, and /Bella Luna Cafe had no seats available. Ended up at Appleby's - guess you can't go wrong with the old stand-bys.

Back to the hotel to watch some tennis and some upstart team from North Carolina which beat Syracuse, so Duke goes on in the ACC.  Can't help but mention that UNR also won and will continue in the Mountain West Conference.

NOTE:  In looking at other blogs, we were here in 2016 during the summer - same hotel and same dinner - guess some things never change.