We took an unexpected trip this weekend up to the gold rush town of Murphys in the Sierra foothills. We came for a memorial service for my cousin at the park in town. This is Robert II’s dad’s side of the family. Robert thought it was important to come up and pay respects, even though he is not very close to this side of the family. Anyway, we met Bob I and Gertie here, who drove down from Shingletown.

Murphys is quite a place. It is on highway 4 going into the Sierras, on the road to Markleeville south of Lake Tahoe. There are trendy restaurants, cafes and boutiques. It looks like quite a pleasant place to have a home, or a second home, except for what appears to be a pretty regular invasion of loud motorcycles and cars on the weekends. Any house would need to be off the main highway. We’ll check it out.

This is fathers day weekend, and since these days the only gifts we are giving are framed photos of Robert III, that’s what Robert I got.