Wedding Day!

We're ready to go -- Thx for the masks, Egg!!

Here they are on their special day, in the backyard of the chicken house where they were housesitting, in front of an appropriately chosen pear/pair tree.

Of course you need group wedding photos but how to manage during a pandemic? EVERYBODY IN IN IN 3-2-1 NOBODY BREATHE!!! C L I C K !! NOW EVERYBODY GET BACK GET BACK. Ahhh. So here's the best one we got.

Lizzie and Dylan were happy to be in attendance and thrilled to watch the group photo from a safe distance.

And here are Rachel and Jacob greeting their guests -- via Zoom! Welcome to the party Grandma, Molly, Sam and his lovely fiancee Liana.

David Askin, Rachel's cousin, officiated the ceremony with warmth and wisdom.

Here is David and his lovely wife Elizabeth sharing a nanno-second group photo with the bride and groom. They may look like they're breathing but we know better.

The reception featured pandemic-friendly live entertainment in the form of -- CHICKENS!!!

Taking full advantage of their wedding gifts, here they are at the reception snuggled in their new queen-size sleeping-bag-for-two.

Rachel's proud parents Kathy Askin and Jerry Foodman. Kathy made a delicious strawberry cake with fresh whipped cream (practice makes perfect lol!) and Jerry provided the best pour-over coffee in town along with a heartfelt and meaningful toast.

But it didn't come close to Kathy's toast.

Destination: ARRIVED!

Welcome to the ancestral home of this village's indigenous Muwekma Ohlone people. (WAIT someone lived here before the gold rush??).

Click here for John Denver's recording of Berkeley Woman. Welcome to town!

Beautiful airbnb, a house that originally served as the "Cubby" for architect Bernard Maybeck's barely-used Packard. Click here for a super interesting story about the house, an unexpected architectural gem. (Rachel, how did we miss this on Zillow??)

(Van fits on this street perfectly. Probably the only neighborhood we parked in where we didn't turn heads.)

As nice as the bed looks -- and it was -- there was a TV in the bedroom that made it even better.

The house had four different patios, each on a different level.

The best part of this particular patio is...

...Lizzie and Dylan...

...along with soon-to-be newlyweds Rachel and Jacob...

And hey wait...whose kid is this...???

Saying goodbye is easier when you know you have the week together.

Got in a socially-distanced stroll with Lizzie the next morning before her work.

And our first LIVE glimpse of her engagement ring (Nice job, Dylan...and Barbara!)

And then a lovely socially-distanced hike with Jacob in beautiful Tilden Park.

Our house was on a treacherous incline in Berkeley Hills, but it offered a spectacular sunset every night (yours, Mols).

But the best way to end a long day on the road is always FINDING YOUR MISSING WALLET UNDER THE SEAT!!

Shabbat Shalom everyone, from Berkeley, Cali.

Gold in Them Thar Hills!

Coloma, California is the home to Sutter's Mill, where gold (click here) was discovered in 1848. Here's the view in the morning when we open the door to our van (framed by the car window curtain to the left and mosquito netting to the right).

We get up and out early to visit Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park.

Wait, Marshall?? Who's Marshall?!!

Warning: HISTORY DETOUR! Judy learns that John Sutter didn't have much to do with the discovery of gold here at all. Sutter, a German Swiss immigrant who had settled in California, was looking to make money off of the rich timber-covered land. He needed someone to construct a sawmill for him on the not-too-distant American River.

Enter James Marshall, a carpenter from Hopewell Township, NEW JERSEY (!!!), who had recently relocated to California after fighting in the Mexican-American War. Marshall thought the lush mountains outside of Sacramento would be an ideal location for a sawmill, and in 1848 he convinced Sutter to fund it. The mill was moderately successful, but when Marshall began remodeling it to increase efficiency, he noticed flecks of gold in the water:

"I reached my hand down and picked it up. It made my heart thump, for I was certain it was gold. The piece was about half the size and shape of a pea. Then I saw another..."

Once word got around that there was gold in them thar hills, this tiny town of barely 100 lumberjacks saw their population balloon to thousands of miners. Coloma grew to include a post office, several hotels, two breweries, each with a beer garden, many a brothel, two Chinese grocers, and California's first bowling alley.

FUN FACT: The gold rush led to the creation of many a new invention, including blue jeans, the brainchild of German-born immigrant Levi Strauss. The pants were called "jeans" because sailors in Genoa (Italy) wore similar blue canvas pants.

This logo look familiar? Ahh, now you get it.

History detour is over. So you've heard of STUDENT-ATHLETES?? While Mark takes advantage of the free wifi in Marshall Park, he can't help but be distracted by Judy's attempt to transform herself into a TEACHER-ATHLETE! (Don't miss Mark's audio commentary here.)