After leaving Tahiti, we flew direct to San Francisco. I’m sure you’re thinking, “that has to be a really expensive flight.” For most airlines that is true but we were lucky to find a new airline (a division of Air France) called French Bee. They offer direct flight for a fraction of the price. If you are wanting to go to Tahiti, French Bee is definitely the way to go.
My Mom and Stepdad picked us up in San Francisco and took us back to their house in Sacramento. We spent a few weeks there prior to Thanksgiving. During that time, we had several visitors. First were Jerome and Renee from Litchfield, IL (my hometown). They came for a long weekend. We had a blast visiting the wineries in the Apple Hill area. We even got to be “wine pourers” at Medrona Vinyards special event that same weekend.
One evening during the week, Jeff and Socorro came for dinner. We enjoyed visiting with them and talking about our travel adventures.
The following weekend, my brother Michael and sister-in-law, Laura came for a visit. It was great to see them and send time playing competitive games. The first day we all went to Napa Valley for some wine tasting. They are members of the Frog’s Leap Wine Club, so we started out there. They offer a very nice tasting experience and have beautiful gardens to enjoy a stroll. Since it is autumn the vines and trees were right in the midst of changing colors. The yellow, red and orange leaves were a delight to the eyes.
Robert and Laura teamed up for a game of Hand and Foot. They killed the other two teams. We also played taboo with girls against boys. The girls won! After wrapping up our last game of cards (Missy and Mike won!) on Monday mid-day, Mike insisted he have In-n-Out Burger before he could leave the west coast. He believes the visit isn’t complete until he has one of their famous burgers.
During the weekend Mike and Laura were visiting, the “Camp Fire” in Butte county California was burning out of control. The town of Paradise is 90 miles north from Sacramento. The smoke was heavy and the wind blew it straight toward Sacramento.
As the smoke covered everything and the air quality index skyrocketed. Mike and Laura flew back home Monday afternoon just before the smoke became extremely bad. Robert had a very bad reaction to it, keeping him in bed with flu like symptoms for the next 3 days. By Thursday, we decided to go to Lake Tahoe up in the mountains for fresh air. South Lake Tahoe is now built up into a great ski town with lots of shops and restaurants at the bottom of the Heavenly Ski Resort Gondola. We stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel and enjoyed the live music at the restaurants.
We ended up staying two nights before taking a flight out early to Seattle. Once out of the smoke and air quality index over 280, Robert immediately felt better. The fire continued for about 2 weeks before being under control. We are praying for all of the people who have lost their homes and family members in the terrible fire.
After a delayed flight, we made it to Robert’s mom’s house at 2:00am. Luckily we rented a car so she did not have to come and get us. It was an unexpected visit but we always enjoy seeing her. She even took us to our favorite west coast retail store, Fred Meyer.
Monday before Thanksgiving we made the 6 hour drive from Seattle to LaGrande, OR. It is Robert’s hometown and where his father and stepmom live. There was no snow or ice on the roads which made the drive through the mountains much easier.
I have been told that when making this drive, one must stop in Yakima, WA for a visit to the Miner’s Drive-in. It is a famous hamburger restaurant that has been around forever. They serve incredibly large burgers. I have been once before several years ago. We stopped there for lunch and it was just as I remembered. 
We stopped at Columbia Crest Winery for a tasting along our way. It is located along Horse Heaven Hills, a beautiful but sparse landscape in Eastern Washington.
The week of Thanksgiving at the Allens was fun and full of family games. There was a large group of 14 to celebrate the holiday. We made traditional Thanksgiving dishes. Cherlyne (Robert’s stepmom) makes a mean pecan pie! Robert cut the turkey and I got a chance to cook with David (Robert’s dad) which I look forward to each year. He is a wonderful cook and teaches me little trick each time we visit.
Today we are off to the airport. We are taking two overnight flights to reach Nairobi, Kenya. There will be joining another Nomad Adventure Tour through Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe. This trip is bitter sweet as it marks the last of our Allen World Tour. After 30 days in Africa we will return back to the USA to start a new chapter in our lives. We will continue our blog as we travel through Africa and into whatever comes next!
Happy Thanksgiving!