Amanda and Graham's Great Pig Adventure

Monday 16th, Tuesday 17th and Wednesday 18th February. Quite close to San Francisco again but poor weather, as forecast.

The buses arrived in the early morning and we checked into our hotel at 8.00 and had breakfast. Hotel breakfasts here are a bit different! There is drip coffee but tea is more of a challenge. English breakfast teabags are like gold dust and it is always difficult to find hot water, sometimes it’s just a thermos flask, which isn’t really hot enough to make tea. There is cereal, porridge, English muffins, and often bagels but the cooked breakfast is best avoided!!! All the hotels have waffle makers though which is a novelty for us. We are trying to avoid eating too much of the high calorie offerings though!

We had a slow lazy morning. We emptied all our stuff off the bus for a sort-out in the room. Graham did some admin work for his cousin Jan. Most people seemed to be laying low in the morning as it was raining but some made a trip to the Apple Store and others went to the Mall. (So much shopping! We are all addicted to Target, a chain of very large supermarkets which sell everything under the sun, including a great clothes range.)

In the afternoon when the weather cleared up a bit, we got an Uber to the old town (our hotels are always out of town) and Historic Railroad Square which had a feeling of the Wild West and the Gold Rush era.

Not much of it though, so we went for a walk along the creek which turned out to be a great choice. We saw lots of lovely birds, some new to us. People always stop and chat, asking what we have seen and giving us tips on what else may be about. Then they realise we are English and ask why we are here. They all seem enchanted by the Peppa Pig link, which is lovely! We have been asked if we were nervous about coming here with the current situation, too. It is always nice walking through the neighbourhoods a bit out of town too.

The rain held off until we were just back where we started. We were forced to go into a bar (!) as we needed shelter, loos and wi-fi to order an Uber. (We haven’t bothered with e-sims for data roaming and just manage with wi-fi when available, which is fine unless we are out and about.) The bar we dived into was a Mexican place with Happy Hour in full flow so we had two Margaritas – then two more!

We had leftovers from yesterday’s catering for tea, back on the bus, then holed up in our room for the evening. Nice to have some quiet time on our own today for a change.

Tuesday 17th – Pancake Day so I had to have pancakes for breakfast. There is often an automatic machine which drips pancake mix onto a conveyor where they cook, and finally sends them out between two rollers.

A group of us went for a wine tasting at Alexander Valley Vineyard. We got there at 12.00 and were plied with quite a lot of wine so it felt a bit early in the day to be drinking (but we managed!)

The salesman there recommended a burger place and when I put a message on the group WhatsApp to see if anyone wanted to go, the young ones all leapt at it. Cool points for me then…! Apparently In n Out Burgers are famous and only available in California.

The rest of the day was quiet!

Wednesday 18th was concert day. It seems ages since we played! The buses left the hotel at 11.00 and we spent all day in the theatre as it was another rainy day. It is apparently the wettest February for 100 years and they are having floods and road closures – great timing! We had a lovely big green room with drinks and snacks laid on as usual. We all make a beeline for the washing machines too so it is a hive of activity.

Sound check at 3.30 then dinner. Lasagne today, loads as usual and we all filled picnic boxes for tomorrow.

The dresses and DJs have arrived by FedEx from Walnut Creek (where they had been left behind!) so we are back in concert dress today. A very wide auditorium with a curved thrust stage so there were some adaptations needed for the cast. The Mummy and Daddy pig costumes have cameras in so they can see where they are going, but it is quite restrictive and we all worry they might go off the stage. There have been some close calls on smaller stages where they have bumped into the set or a music stand, but it is all part of the fun!

There was a huge reaction today when the pigs came onto stage! Later when Daddy pig goes off for a while, a small child wailed “Don’t go Daddy Pig” extremely loudly! Quite funny!

After pack-down the venue brought out several bottles of wine for us. That was a first and a lovely way to wind down. Venue closed up at 11.00, buses left at midnight. We are getting used to these timings now. Our next port of call is Modesto, not far away.