A wonderful Friday......

 7:33 am - Saturday - July 26th - LPG&RVR - 57° F, humidity 45%, wind 1 mph out of the southeast.....partially cloudy today with a forecast high of 82° F.  On this date in 2017 TLE and I were taking a hike on the 'Beaver Ponds Trail'.....

One of three beaver ponds on the 6.5 mile loop trail

....the trail begins and ends at the Mammoth Hot Springs General Store in Yellowstone NP.

We meant to go shopping Thursday, but somehow that never happened, so we really needed to go on Friday as the markets in Alturas are very crowded on the weekends.  Once I finished posting my latest missive we got dressed, and were in the VW by 9:30 am heading to Alturas. We weren't due for a big shopping, so we just stopped briefly at Dollar General to pick up a few things, then onto Holiday Market for the rest.  We were finished shopping just before 11 am, so decided to make a stop at 'Wild Mustard', a boutique coffee shop in Alturas, which we have NEVER visited in our four summers at LPG&RVR.  TLE had been talking it up for the last couple of days, so who am I to dash her dreams....lol!  Besides, I haven't had a Mocha Frappuccino in a while.

We had no idea how funky, and cool this place was, and were immediately wondering why on earth we had never stopped....

32 ounce Mocha Frappuccino!

.....I ordered their 32 ounce Mocha Frappuccino....I think that is the largest one I've ever ordered.  We hung out there drinking our iced beverages for about 30 minutes before heading for home.

Within 20 minutes of arriving home I was lounging on the 'lido deck' watching the 19th Stage of Le Tour, with a nice nap thrown in for good measure.....

......all afternoon clouds were moving into the Pitt River Valley, and a little after 4 pm it began to rain just as I was heating up the Sea-B-Que to grill three chicken breasts.  Along with the rain we got lightning and thunder....a lot of thunder.....

.....at times the rain was torrential, but I managed to stay mostly dry inside the dining canopy.  It took me about 30 minutes to bring the chicken breasts to a perfect 165° F.  TLE provided sides of broccolini, and cilantro lime rice.  I wish I had taken a picture!  The entire dinner was amazing.  I'm not married to a 'cook'....I'm married to a Chef!

It continued to rain on and off for a couple of hours after dinner, which was really needed.  It's been getting very dusty here, so the rain will tamp that down for a few days.  We never had to run the A/C Friday, and frankly, we didn't run it Thursday either.  The high temp was around 85° F, but by 4 pm, when it began to rain, it had dropped to 70° F.

Thanks for stopping by!