California Dreamin'

We are back from a whirlwind trip (three days, including two full days of driving) to La Porte, California in the Sierra Nevada mountains. La Porte (French for "the door") was the gateway to the goldfields in the California goldrush. Billions of dollars worth of gold came through this town in the boom times. Now it is a sleepy little village with only 26 or so year-round residents. The old houses - and some newer houses as well - in the town are mostly owned by Californians who use them for vacation homes. The town is a mecca for snowmobilers and four-wheelers nowdays.

Tom's family has owned one of the old houses (see picture above) ever since his dad's friend brought him up there to see the place. The house was buried in snow, and Tom's dad skied over the top of it. That convinced him he wanted to buy it. Tom and his sisters grew up going there for holidays and summer vacations. Tom spent summers in high school and college working for his dad building new houses in the area. Tom's dad moved there permanently when the kids were all grown and gone. He lived there - a much-loved character in the town - until his death in 1998. Since then, Tom and his sisters have kept the house and use it as a location for family get-togethers and vacations. Here is the back door and deck with sweet peas growing wild in front:



We moved the futon couch that we got with the Montana cabin down there, along with a few assorted chairs and pillows. That freed up some space in Montana for our furniture. And it will provide more sleeping accommodations when the family gets together. Here is a picture of the futon in a corner of the living room of the La Porte house. You may notice that there is no shortage of books here, either.



In La Porte, there is a unique sign that was mounted on a tree. The tree has since grown around the sign. The sign says "Deer Keep Off Highway. Motorists are Passing." Those California deer are clever enough to be able to read highway signs! I'm not sure if they are law-abiding enough to follow the advice, though.

Note that these pictures aren't very high quality. I forgot my camera, so I had to take pictures with my cell phone. Since I used to make my living engineering the camera chips for cell phones, it was an interesting experience. But since you can't download pictures without sending them (and paying for it) and since the quality is not great, I doubt I'll do it again. I have no idea if the camera chip in my phone is one of the ones I worked on at Micron. Still, it is somehow appropriate that I would finally end up using one of these stupid things.