Chico/Butte Meadows

 This weekend I ended up in Chico after work on Saturday.  It was a long drive from the Bay Area and I was happy to get a good meal in at the Italian Cottage, apparently one of the favorites around town.  Afterwards my brother showed me some of the highlights of downtown and we stopped for ice cream, a major plus.  Kenny is in school but had some down time this weekend which was perfect and I was able to see his new apartment for the first time.  It's a pretty nice place and the complex is full of college students so he's right at home.  Chico is definitely different than Palo Alto/Menlo Park and there was a lot for me to take in.  After the tour we played a couple of card games before I called it a night because I was so exhausted from my trip.

Yesterday we woke up and got bagels (Sunday tradition!) before heading out to Bear Hole in Bidwell Park.  I've heard my brother and family talk about the place many times but have never been.  Unfortunately I was ill-prepared for the hike we went on (not dressed properly, no water bottle...) but when we arrived where we needed to be it was pretty great.  There were lava rocks everywhere with a river running through them, so we had a nice place to stop and dip our feet in the water.  We stayed and relaxed there for a little while before turning around and heading to the grocery store to pick up some food; we were gathering stuff for dinner up in Butte Meadows where my grandparents have a cabin.  It was a windy drive but nice to spend some time up there, away from the world.  Kenny helped them put up some of their Halloween decorations while we still had some light and then threw the steaks on the BBQ.  Unfortunately I had to cut the evening short because I needed to get down to Sacramento in the same night so that I wouldn't have an extremely long drive when I got up this morning.  I made it to my parents' house at around 11pm and got to hear about their weekend in Disneyland and LA.  By the sound of it they had an absolutely amazing time and I'm really jealous!

This week at the gym we are going to be getting ready for another competition with the compulsories, this time at Airborne in Santa Clara.  Luckily we all compete on Saturday so Sunday will still be free.  I'm looking forward to seeing improvement from all of the girls and giving some of them the chance to finally compete all-around and qualify to State.  Crossing-fingers for a successful outing!