Beauts

Away from the City and into a county with no traffic signals we went this weekend, in order to send off our amigo into the world of wedded bliss. He'll make it official in a few weeks, but this was effectively our last chance to party in style before his big day. Photos are here.

This bachelor weekend was light on debauchery, but definitely memorable in other ways. In between delicious meals, ping-pong matches and Scrabble throwdowns, we managed to climb the Sierra Buttes, a mammoth escarpment in a fairly remote area of the Sierra Nevada. (This person has a good photo. The fire lookout, where we enjoyed lunch, is just to the right of the little notch in the top-center of the photo. You can see it here too.)

The only thing I wish I'd remembered to photograph was the rock at the peak of the Buttes, etched with the names of early Gold Rush-era adventurers who scaled the peak without the benefit of well-maintained trails (or metal stairs, up by the top!). Flickr came up empty on this one too, unfortunately. How mindblowing to think of what it would have taken to get up there in 1880. Wish I'd thought to take that snapshot.

Other memorable things from the past few days:
∙Old Potrero Hotaling's Whiskey
∙Pork ribs, barbecued chicken, succotash, lox, cobbler, soufflé....
∙Surely the only Negronis poured in Sierra County all weekend
∙Pro karaoke in the street after midnight. There was, um, a guest apperance.
∙Clamper doins along the river in our backyard
∙The astonishingly homely local woman who, upon hearing that I had driven up from San Francisco, said, "Well I don't mean to offend you, but... are ya gay?"


FMFM: The incredible Curtis, a varied tour de force from 1970. I mean, I had no idea what I was missing all these years. A knockout.