On Friday, Andrea and I drove up to the Sierra Foothills of Amador County to attend our 2nd wedding of the year. To be more precise, we were driving up for John and Jamie's wedding reception. They had gotten married on Thursday in a small private wedding ceremony just for their immediate family. I've know John since my college days in Davis. We've remained good friends, living as roommates for a few years in San Francisco and even going on a backpacking trip through Western Europe together. As long as I've know John, he has always done things differently and followed his heart... often braving the road less traveled when the rest of us would prefer the safety and the security of the known. So it didn't come as a surprise when John and Jamie (I think Jamie is equally free spirited) announced that they were going to keep their wedding private but celebrate their marriage with a big bash. 
The wedding and the reception was held at the Montevina Winery, in Plymouth, which is in the Sierra Nevada Foothills about 45 miles southeast of Sacramento. Our friend Chris Leamy is the winemaker at the Winery and he was able to open up the Winery for this celebration. If you don't know much about this region, it is an area know for its beautiful scenery, small quaint towns and great wine (there are 21 wineries here). Andrea and I have never been up there, so we decided to make a weekend out of it.
We had breakfast on Saturday at a near by town of Sutter Creek. All of the towns here have been around since the 1800s... initially as logging towns then booming during the California Gold Rush.
After breakfast, we decided to go on the Sutter Gold Mine Tour near Amador City. The Sutter Gold Mine is a modern hard rock mine and it includes several historical mines, one of which Leland Stanford made his fortune that enabled him to found Stanford University.
We had to put on these hard hats before getting on the diesel buggy for our drive down the tunnel 600 feet below the surface. I asked for the beer helmet but I guess that's against "federal regulations".
The Sutter Gold Mine is one of the only decline mines in the U.S. (others are drop mines where you take elevators). We drove down a 12% grade into the belly. At 600 feet below, it was cold and damp. It was about 100 degrees up on the surface and about 60 degrees below. Andrea was looking for the gift shop down in the mine for a sweatshirt. Unfortunately she was between a rock and a hard place... literally!
Before we knew it, it was time for the wedding reception. The Montevina Winery was beautiful. The reception was held outdoors. It was a perfect night to wine and dine under the moon with good friends. We sat at the table with Ken and Michelle, Vin and Nora (Nora is missing... feeding baby Jackie).
It's been a while since this group has been together at one time and place. On the left, John (the groom), Ken, myself and Mike were exchanging recipes for the best Flourless Chocolate Cake (ok, so maybe we were talking about the upcoming football season). On the right, the gals Allison, Barb, Jen, Michelle, Nora (& baby Jackie), and Andrea took a timeout from discussing how fortunate they were to have married such fine guys like us, to pose for a quick picture.
This was a great weekend. Not only did John and Jamie get married but Andrea and I discovered and explored a great little area only about 2 hours away. Congratulations to John and Jamie! Andrea and I are very happy for you both and wish you lots of adventures together.
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