Travel Diary

It was another fast trip: a dinner show in Cali for one night. Alas, airport parking too pricey at SeaTac and not that great nearby. Nah, instead of $50 plus for that luxury, it’s another train trip. Cheap at least: $3 each way

I suppose I got to sleep in a little bit, and then walk to the train station, and board a train heading towards the airport. It wasn't very crowded as it was Saturday morning. I got there at a decent time and went to the parking garage roof to walk around a bit and make a video. At least it wasn't terribly cold. Then I headed to Checkpoint 2. I figured since I was in that area, I would just go through that checkpoint. But it didn't have Touchless feature, and I'm not sure it even had TSA pre-check open, but there were only about 10 people in line before me. However, even with this short of a line, it still took a very long time. I would say it's best to avoid this Gate just because it's oddly much slower for some reason. I walked over to the connecting trains and then went to my gate. In hindsight, this approach is just not worth all the extra hassle. Better go to the new gates (Checkpoint 6).

Now, I had been upgraded for first class so that was nice. We boarded on time and took off. I had a window seat and it was nice to once again get some photos of Mount Rainier and other snow-capped mountains as we headed south. Since it was a short flight, there was no meal. Just a snack or two. We then landed at Sacramento.

Tony was already there and picked me up. First we stopped at a gas station so he could use the restroom and I bought some cough drops. Then it was southeast for about an hour to reach Sutter Creek. We located the restaurant and then drove south for a bit to find a Safeway and gas station to get gas and more snacks. I wanted a diet soda, but I could only find a one-liter that was cheaper than buying a pint. It was way more than I needed, but I'd have soda for the next 18 hours. We then headed back to the restaurant and found parking and went inside. The place was decorated exceptionally well with a lot of work going into the mystery. They even printed a massive sign, though I think they were a marketing company. They also had custom bottles of Merlot for the employees to take home and other fine decorations for the show, including personalized place markers on the tables.

Our green room was bad—just a corner of a hallway really, but it was all they had for our show. We could also go downstairs to the bar area for restrooms and that's where we had our meal. Ah, the meal. It was comped by the people hiring us, so I ordered a salmon plate that had salmon and mashed potatoes and carrots, although I only ate the salmon. It was a little bland and not terribly tasty, but I wanted the benefits of eating fish so I ate it completely. Another person didn't like the salmon meal at all, and I couldn't let that go to waste, so I had it all boxed up for later. I wasn't sure I'd actually get to eat it, but at least it would be an option and it wouldn't be thrown away there, which would look really bad.

For the show, the client was a marketing or advertising firm. They were a little challenging at first, but having characters for the audience members to play helped a lot and I think most of them were won over by the end. Corporate gigs are just like that. Not everyone is going to be into a dinner show for their company party. Just something to accept when performing for pay.

Afterwards, we headed back to Sacramento, but some wanted to go to Applebee's first, which I was fine with since it was more time to hang out with friends. I wasn't really hungry since I'd already eaten salmon and was really trying to limit calories for the day. Thus, Levi, Tina, Dawn, and I spent a while there chatting and observing drunks act stupidly at the bar.

Then onward to the hotel. I had rented a room near Sacramento airport. Since it had two beds, I agreed to let Levi crash there too as he was flying out the next day from the same airport. After checkin, we got sorted out and chatted a bit—that is until some angry neighbor banged on the wall. I guess he or she wasn’t happy with a bunch of noise past midnight. Oops. Hence, time for sleep.