Day 23/24: Friday Night Lights/ Clear Lake

My Aunt Christina and my Uncle Dennis live in Auburn while my Aunt Jenny and Uncle Al were a 30 min drive away in El Dorado Hills.  It was a Friday night and I rolled up to their house around 1:30pm.  My aunt and uncle have one of the coolest houses I’ve ever been in and I used to love to visit them when I was younger. You drive down a little winding road off the main drag and their house is nestled right at the bottom.  I was happy to see my aunt and uncle and happy to sleep in a bed another night as well.  Since it was Friday night, we were going to the high school football game because my cousin was cheering. It was fun to see my cousins Kristy and Haley and the game itself was fun too.  I hadn’t been in an atmosphere like that in a long time.  I got a nice, long, deep sleep that night feeling happy to spend it with family from my mom’s side after spending the night before with my dad’s.

When I woke in the morning, my aunt and uncle wanted to take me on a hike up by Folsom Lake which was only a mile or so from their house.  On our walk to the lake, I saw the mythical place of my childhood that I had only heard about but never experienced…

To this day I’ve never set foot inside but the place has been there since I was a little boy showing astonishing resiliency.  It always catches my eye when driving up to their house, so that’s something… The hike around the lake was calm and serene.  Folsom Lake was perfectly still with no jet-ski’s or boats making ripples in the water.  Instead it was so still out there that the surface seemed to shine as if the water underneath were trapped beneath a sheet of glass.

 It was a longer hike than I anticipated but now everything made sense as to why my aunt and uncle kick ass at their steps on FitBit.  They treated me to lunch at a great Mexican restaurant near their house then I made my way over to Citrus Heights to stay with my Aunt Debbie and Uncle Jeff.

The drive to my aunt Debbie’s took about 30min and it also completed my triangle of the Sacramento area.  Her and my Uncle Jeff took me to this phenomenal burger spot named Broderick Roadhouse where I got a burger with a layer of fried mac n cheese that changed the game for me.  It was one of the best foods I got on the whole trip.  We got to hang out at the house after and chill with their dogs and catch up with my aunt.  I love going over to their house because it perpetually smells like Christmas and there is always something excited going on.  I was getting spoiled by getting my own room and bed again and I slept like a baby, content.