SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE (MINE)

I've just returned from a three-day Valentine's getaway with my wife.

Who else did you think would agree to share that much time with me? We went up to see some of California's Gold Rush towns: Columbia, Sutter Creek, Angel's Camp, Jackson, Sonora. We wandered historical exhibits, shopped, ran threw several showers with giddy laughter, and coughed up more money than I care to admit (well, more than my wife cares to admit) at a couple of casinos.

As I accepted the gaming losses without protest, my dear wife also catered to my interests without asking. She let me pop off the road in a driving rain to take pictures of a towering slate roadcut one day, and on another let me pop down to a trail that was dotted with discarded bits of unpolished marble and dolomite. I bought some new fossils from Russ Shoemaker at his store in Angels Camp, 'Stories in Stone.' I also went up and down all 234 steps, many in a tight spiral staircase, in Moaning Caverns, and (with great difficulty) soldiered through a chapter with much math in Martin Nowak's 'Evolutionary Dynamics'.



We stayed at a pair of bed-and-breakfast's, with the last one (The Foxes Inn) especially charming, cozy and pampering.

We stayed in the 'Honeymoon Suite', pictured on the right.

Their breakfast was outstanding in terms of presentation, variety, flavor and wholesomeness. I want to go back just to have more of their justifiably-famous oatmeal, and (frankly) just to put all thoughts of work and worry out of my mind.

It was a wonderful, head-clearing three days. I'll be posting pictures and videos of this soon enough!