UMTravels

Well — that is the phrase from WhiteWater about the Nice, Lucerne area of Clear Lake, California — the “White Trash Riviera”.

The day started with a quick breakfast of waffles and eggs and the last bit of packing. Out the door by 10:30 — and to the Germain-Robin “warehouse” for a tasting — ended up buying a bottle of their Poet Tawny Port for someone who just had a big event, and a bottle of their Hanger One Mandarin Vodka for another person at said event. Let’s hope it makes to trip home a month from now.

Did the shopping at the Sentry Market — found some “interesting” things for the raft trip. Got 6 liters of wine in aseptic boxes of 1 liter each on sale for $6.99 each — not as cheap as the five liter ones, but close, and it will be a nice variety. Must make a good impression!

Got to love California — picked up some things for my own beverage bags — limit, two cases (or in my case, two orange sacks — one large, one small). The score? 1.5 liters of premixed Bloody Marys, and (4) each Long Island Iced Tea and Margaritas (yes, with REAL booze in them).

Got to the WorldMark Clear Lake a little early — room was ready — as the two WorldMark folks I saw in the Sentry said it would be. They were shopping for guest — you can fill out a list and the groceries are waiting for you when you arrive in your unit. Too bad I don’t know what I’m cooking before I see what’s on sale, special, etc.

Pictures of the 2-bedroom condo here: http://www.twango.com/channel/markso.GrandCanyonTrip

Dinner was marinated pork on the grill and a big salad. After dinner is reading the paper and updating the two blogs. And postcards, and web revisions… which will get put off until tomorrow cause I’m out of steam — but the two day old headache is gone. Is it change of venue? aspirin? wearing sunglasses while driving today? fresh air? quite time on the lake? Who knows — we’ll see if it comes back tomorrow. If the “owner re-education” at 10:30 doesn’t do it ($50 in AMEX booze cards), it might actually be gone.

Can’t quite decide what to do tomorrow — probably should be billing some hours while I can — but touring wineries (like Steele) sounds tempting as well. Oh — maybe I could hit the wineries on the way to the bay area since it’s only a couple of hour drive.