37th Anniversary Day Trip - November 28, 2007

Seems like yesterday.......


For our anniversary, we decided to spend a day seeing some new sights. Bud saw an article in the San Francisco Chronicle about the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge located off I-5, north of Williams and south of Willows. It was a clear, windy day in the low 60's - a good day for bird watching. Keep in mind that Bud and I aren't "birders". We do recognize some species like pelicans, sea gulls, hawks, herons, egrets, ducks etc., but mostly it boils down to "there's a white one and there's a black one".

There is a nice visitor's center where we met a very informative, chatty docent. We proceeded along the wetlands trail that has numbered stops with matching descriptions in the trail brochure.

This is a seasonal marsh, yada, yada, yada


Wood ducks, we found out, nest in hole in trees. In the middle of the picture below is a nest box for wood ducks. Boxes like this are placed to make up for lost nesting trees.


Pretty trees along the trail.


The refuge has a 6-mile auto-tour which turns out to be a wonderful way to see the birds. They are not scared off by the slow moving vehicles. On our walk, we sent quite a few birds into flight by our presence.

Bud looking at Snow Geese and Ross Geese. We saw this group take flight and return - incredible sight.


On a clear day you can see the Sutter Buttes....


More geese and ducks. We saw a blue heron at one point.




We then proceeded to the R.H. Phillips winery in Esparto. They also produce the Toasted Head brand. It was a winery we have been wanting to visit. It is a large, beautiful facility in the middle of nowhere. However, the tasting experience was less then thrilling (wine and the staff lacked the right stuff). Now we can say we've been there, done that, but didn't buy the t-shirt.

On the way home we stopped in Old Sac at the Rio City Cafe for drinks and our favorite appetizers - Ahi Tuna Nachos and the Cheese Loaf..... yum