view | BrittanyandTahn

This past weekend, I accepted an invitation to go to my good friend’s parent’s house in Amador County. The view from the house was amazing, hence the name of the house, “Bella Vista” (beautiful view). The weekend was full of laughs, delicious food and excellent beverages.

All in all, we were treated like royalty. (By her parents).

In these past few days, I learned a few things during my time at Bella Vista:

1. Saving your money and waiting for your dream home is totally worth it. So often my generation (and the generations before me) have a sense of entitlement and no patience to save or wait for anything. At 21, I was taught by a company I worked for to: “buy your dream home and then everything else it will fall into place.” My friend’s parents bought the property and years later build their custom dream home and it is totally worth it!

2. There are still good, kind, funny, successful, educated men out there. Contrary to the constant evidence saying otherwise, I was reminded for the first time in a long time that there are good men in the world.

3. Having my own, private space is priceless. I had my own room separate from the rest of the house and it was so restoring to go into my own little space and not be bothered.

4. Napa County is NOT the best place to go wine tasting in CA. I had no idea there was a wine country in Amador County, and I especially didn’t know how great it was!

5. The air is different in Amador. When I left for my heaven on earth on Friday afternoon, The Roomy was doing a home improvement project that involved boiling paint off of the hardware of the house and the toxic fumes were really getting to me. I had a pretty intense headache when I left, and about half way to my destination, the air circulating in my car changed. Dramatically. In a short amount of time, I started feeling much better, and my headache was gone.

6. The city is much louder than I thought it was. At night, when I went back to my little private bungalow, it was so quiet, that I almost couldn’t sleep. I’m used to hearing cars go by, a frequent siren or two, and occasionally a neighbor dog barking. At Bella Vista, the night was so dark and so quiet it was incredibly foreign to me. It must be way people love camping so much (sans the dirty, uncomfortable floor you have to sleep on, lack of showers and lack of refrigerator).

7. Animals treated well truly taste better. If you know me well, you know that I care about animals and although I am not and most likely will never be a vegetarian, I want the animals I do eat to be treated humanely, being free to roam and fed grass and not corn. January 1st of 2010 I gave up pork in protest to how poorly the pigs are treated. I vowed to only eat free range, grass-fed pork, which is extremely challenging to find (and very expensive). Except for a handful of times, I have resisted the urge to eat pork. (I usually ate pork at a work function where it was served and I did not want to be rude). The host and hostess of Bella Vista buy all of their meat from this amazing butcher, Swingle (http://www.swinglemeat.com/). The meat (especially pork) was unlike any other meat I have ever tasted. The constancy (especially the bacon) was different than the other bacon I have eaten. It made me feel happy that I could enjoy my meal knowing the animal was treated with respect and dignity.

8. Munnerlyn’s is the best ice cream in the Sacramento area. As a fan of KCRA’s A List, and especially of ice cream, I was excited to eat at the Creamy voted to be #1 on KCRA’s A List for this year. One word about this ice cream: unreal. (http://bit.ly/bAC0WP)

9. Not having cell reception all weekend was a blessing. I did not have cell reception for most of my weekend. Shortly after I returned home, my cell phone rang and instantly I was offended at the noise. Surprising, I did not miss being interrupted, and was slightly sad that I was back to my normal life.

10. I missed my dog way too much. Unfortunately for my good friend and other guests staying this weekend, I spent many conversations talking about Tahn. Since she stayed home with The Roomy, I was away from her for 3 nights and almost 3 days. This proved to be incredibly difficult because I miss her so much while I am at work during the week, and I get so happy to have the weekend with her. But, since I did not have this weekend with her, I missed her very much.

Yes. I know. Crazy Dog Lady.

So, if you are interested, here is the photo roll from the weekend. Enjoy.