Our 11-day trip to California is complete, without any undue hardships and with some great memories, too. So busy, though — not much time to share with you while we were out. So, hey, here is a place we stayed.
A lot of this land is supposed to be underwater, but Father Nature says No Water for YOU, California!
You can’t see this view (or any lake view) from the Beals Point campground at Folsom Lake State Recreation Area. That’s because the lake was created with a dam…
Without this dam there would be no Folsom Lake. Hey, there might no Folsom Lake pretty soon anyway!
… and it takes more than a dam to hold all that water in. If there is any…
One of many berms that help form Folsom Lake. Some of these berms are probably feeling a little bored about now.
… and back there behind that berm is the Beals Point campground — at least, the part of it with spacious pads and RV hookups. See, so that’s why you can’t see the lake, if there is one, from the campsite.
Disclaimer: there is an older, larger section of the campground, designed more for tent- and dry-camping, that may include views of the lake. I didn’t get over there to check it out, because we were busy watching for snakes.
As we have discussed, Team Toto has an anti-snake bias. There, we’ve said it. We’re not ashamed.
This is the only snake we saw. The one on the sign, I mean. That was enough for us.
So, the other reason we were so busy is that, for some of the team, this wasn’t a camping trip, or an RVing trip, or anything like that. This was a trip to have The Party.
The idea was to celebrate our daughter’s birthday, and also to throw in my mother’s birthday because it had just occurred and we, of course, hadn’t been there to celebrate it in person, because we don’t live there, because there are snakes. We did, however, live in the San Francisco Bay Area for many years and had latched onto a few friends before we decided that living in a damp, cool, rainy climate with good kayaking was more important than strolling along a sunny beach every day. Surely that’s another tale for another time.
Yeah, so we invited our closest, longtime friends to join us for The Party, which was really just a picnic at our campsite. But party prep, party management and party decommissioning was preposterously time-consuming.
We stocked up on soda pop, water, light beer, regular beer and wine for this party. Guess what was most popular?
Tyler and Wally enjoy parties as much as I do; possibly more so. These two terrier images were captured by my niece, but somehow the FollowToto2015 brand has found its way onto them. Never fear, niece: if these images ever generate any revenue, I’ll make a small donation to my brother’s favorite charity. (My niece.)
Tyler doing what I like to do at parties (hide).
Wally knows how to party, too.
The Party was a success, and afterward I got to pretend we were camping for a day.
Bagels for breakfast at Beals Point. Details: the toaster is nearly 30 years old (and looks it), but it still works. The bagels are “low-carb” which appears to mean “low-mass” and possibly “low-flavor.”
About the campground: Beals Point Campground is run by a concessionaire of the State of California. The staff there were all knowledgeable, friendly, helpful. The campsite fees are kind-of high, because California. The place was well maintained. The snakes left us alone. We would go back if we were in the area. So there.
A waterfront picnic pavilion yearns for some water. Heck, there’s plenty of water in California. You can buy it by the gallon at Safeway.
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