The suitcases are still sitting on the foot of the bed or on the floor, but at least they are now empty, and thanks to my host in California, all my clothes came back clean! No washing to do—what a great thing. The mail is all opened and sorted, and the bills are paid. All I have to do now is run all the financial stuff through the shredder (identity theft is a real issue, by the way, we should all have little shredders—I got mine at Wal-Mart a couple of years ago and use it almost every day.)

It was a good trip. The first thing I did was to go with my friend to my favorite restaurant. If you are into fish, as I am, the first thing yo have to know about visiting San Francisco is that the fish is different. Example; Don't order lobster in San Francisco, unless you are willing to have something flown in from a distance or frozen solid about six months ago. Aim for local fish. And that is what we did, we had fresh petrale, which is a kind of western sole which is best when it is broiled on a char broiler. And we had fresh crab, Dungeness crab, which is the sweetest crab in the world. That and a bit of sourdough French bread made for a great lunch. We did this about three times during the four weeks I was in the west.

A lot of my vacation had to do with history—California history is of interest to me and I enjoy exploring little odd dimensions of it. Last year, some of you may know, I looked up the story of the odd death of Paul Bern the 1930s MGM film producer. Tracing down the scandal about an apparently impotent man who despaired of satisfying his apparently devoted wife Jean Harlow led to the very town where I was born, because in that area, Bern's first wife apparently killed herself on labor day in 1935. Fascinating. I visited the site of the death, found an article about it in the Sacramento BEE and saw the burial site. What fun. Odd, but fun.

I took a ride on some old rail and streetcars at a wonderful rural museum out in the country in Solano county. It was fun to sample an experience of how people traveled in the early 20th century. I also visited the California railroad museum in old town Sacramento-- which was fun, too. Among other things, they have a dining car set with examples of various kinds of railroad china in use over the decades—did you know that each railroad once had its own china?

Not all was focused on the past. I saw a wonderful documentary film, Bottle Shock,about the development of the wine industry in Califronia and its growth to be a real challenge to French wines. Fascinating film, with wonderful character development. It could not have been better. And there is something wonderfully congruent about driving across the Napa Valley wine country, seeing the vines and the rolling hills and the castle-like wineries—and then going into a theatre and find the setting continued on the screen!

Bill Pulham and Alan Rickman and Chris Pine head a star-studded cast for this little independent film which is so good that everyone who is anyone apparently wanted to get into it.

A little time in my home town of Antioch Calfornia, some time sightseeing in San Francisco and lots of shopping capped off a fine vacation. Wonder why I am so tired?

The Rev’d Lloyd Prator, Rector
Saint John’s in the Village Episcopal Church

New York City