Avengers: Age of Ultron

Duffy and I went to the first showing of Marvels' latest movie. He dressed as Captain America and I dressed as Hulk.

I really liked the movie. It had a good blend of action and comedy. I was glad to see more about Hawkeye. It sets up the next few Marvel movies and now I can't wait for Civil War.

Spring Break Day 3

I started off my day by taking a nature walk.

There were lizards everywhere!

I also saw a deer, a rabbit, and a lot of birds but they were all too fast for my camera.

These plants give a nice texture to the landscape.

i saw these neat ornamental masks.

When I got back from my walk, I wanted to go to the bookstore. I went to Barnes & Noble. They had this Doctor Who display.

These cute little bears were available for sale. Cute!

I bought a couple of doodling and coloring books.

I enjoyed a refreshing iced passion tea from their cafe.

When I got back to the B&B, I took another quick walk before dinner. More lizards!

Pretty flowers

Dinner was a salad bar at the B&B. There were so many toppings!

This was my last night sleeping at the B&B. I still had a few more days of vacation, but this was my last in the Gold Country area. It's a nice place to visit and it's quieter than a big city. Now I will plan my next trip.

Black Bear Diner

While I was in Auburn, I stopped for lunch at the Black Bear Diner. I really like this place. There are bears everywhere! The food is typical American diner fare. The portions are so big that I've always been too "stuffed" to try their dessert.

This bear is a lot bigger than I am!

I don't like this sign.

These bears were hanging out just outside of the booth where I was seated.

The ketchup bottles even have bears on them.

These are the backs of the stools at the counter.

This big guy is in the lobby. I'd love to bring him home.

These are a few of the items available in their gift shop.

Love the word play

See what I mean about the portions? This omelet is huge and they give a lot of potatoes and all that toast.

The menus and place mats are all fun.

More fun things in their gift shop

Gold Country

My first stop of my Gold Country tour was this California Welcome Center in Auburn. They sell postcards, shirts, snacks, and other touristy items. They also have a lot of information about visiting any part of the state. They have a lot of free brochures and maps. I picked up some info so I can plan future trips.

This is a very nice sign welcoming people to the downtown area of Auburn.

An old time Gold Country building

I'm glad this lion didn't get me. Do lions eat bears?

All downtown areas, at least historical or touristy ones, have a candy store. This one was mostly chocolate but that is fine by me. I do like chocolate.

They had a variety of chocolate covered fruits and nuts, caramels, truffles, solid chocolates, and others.

I picked up a bag of cinnamon bears, gold chocolate coins, chocolate covered cherries, and a caramel.

I asked the nice lady working in The Chocolate Shoppe where I might find some coffee. She told me about Depoe Bay Coffee Company. Their coffee is really good! I find that specialty drinks are either too sweet or too dark. This place got it right. They had a lot of different beverages and a small menu of sandwiches and pastries.

I had an iced soy mocha and it was really good.

They have so many coffees! There are a lot of regular and decaf flavors for their customers. It's a great variety.

After I left Depoe, I strolled along High Street and I found this very cute garden shop, Avantgarden. That is a very clever name. They had some amazing little garden displays. I wanted to buy all of them but I didn't have a good way to transport them home.

I would love to have a water feature at home.

This little bear looks like it's either a form for a topiary, or maybe just a sort of statue made of moss. I loved it!

What a nice bench, this would be a nice place to rest and read a book.

There were statues around the area of significant figures from the development of the town.

I thought this bus station was cute.

This was parked in what looked to be an abandoned train station.

When I got back to the B&B, I snacked on some of the candy I bought in Auburn.

I looked through the maps and brochures I picked up from the California Welcome Center so I could get ideas for my next trip.

These are the postcards, pen, and teddy bear I bought from the Welcome Center.

After resting, it was time to make dinner plans. I wanted something simple like a burger so I thought about Red Robin.

This light fixture was really neat. It was made out of old bottles. I'd like to try something like this at home.

I ordered a veggie burger. The sauce was too spicy for some reason. Maybe next time I'll ask for no sauce.

These bikes were outside but they didn't move.

After dinner I stopped at a grocery store and bought a bottle of Califia iced coffee. Then I went back to the B&B so I could get some rest after the day.