{"id":11307,"date":"2018-06-13T19:22:13","date_gmt":"2018-06-14T03:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/foodiddy.com\/?p=11307"},"modified":"2018-06-13T19:26:35","modified_gmt":"2018-06-14T03:26:35","slug":"friendship-flowers-and-food","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/foodiddy.com\/?p=11307","title":{"rendered":"Friendship, Flowers and Food"},"content":{"rendered":"

I never take the day off to celebrate my birthday – ever. In fact I don\u2019t really take many days off, so this was something new and different… and I loved it.<\/span><\/p>\n

My girlfriend Carolyn and I started our morning off with a trip to Starbucks for a free birthday drink. I\u2019m boring – Venti iced green tea, no sweetener. I made up for it later in the day with delicious eats.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Amador<\/p>\n

Our first stop was the Amador Flower Farm<\/a> in Plymouth, CA … to get a sneak peek at their daylilies.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The flower farm hosted their Daylily Days event this past weekend. Their website claims to have more than a million flowers in bloom and after spending an hour plus walking the grounds, I believe it. The weekend festivities invited guests to join the flower farm family for picnicking, demos, wandering, free tram ride tours, garden art artisans and more. I would consider attending next year, but it was nice to have the entire place to ourselves\u2026 minus staff running around prepping for the event.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The farm is 14 acres of serene beauty – it was so peaceful to chat with each other as we wandered along the paths and enjoyed the shade of the huge oak trees.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Calla lilies and hydrangeas are favorites of mine and they had plenty on the grounds.<\/p>\n

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I was tempted to buy a bunch of things but refrained and instead took away some great ideas. I\u2019m seeing a few Bergenia \u2018Sakura\u2019 –  in my future. When researching online I learned that if you place a Bergenia leaf between your thumb and forefinger and rub, you are rewarded with a very realistic pig squeak – for real? Now I really want some. The leaves also turn a deep plum tone in the winter – which intrigues me. While the plants at the farm didn\u2019t have any of the pink flowers, the ones online are very vibrant and would add a pop of color to one of my more shady areas of my backyard. <\/span><\/p>\n

Our next stop was a quick drive through Fiddletown, population 235 – I did say, \u201cquick\u201d – I had never been and it was fun to see the historic buildings. <\/span><\/p>\n

Sutter Creek was up next, the home of my favorite garden store, The Antique Gardener on Main Street. If I won the lottery and opened my own little shop, it would certainly have the same type of vibe as this place. Every time I visit, I pick up more decorating and yard decor ideas. My take away this trip is that I need to find a rusty\/old metal watering can and wagon that doesn\u2019t cost $50-100. Hey Paul… I also might need your vintage stove \ud83d\ude42 – just kidding. <\/span><\/p>\n

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We then hit up the Sutter Hotel for a little lunch break. The hubs and I have previously enjoyed several meals at the hotel and I really like the overall vibe of the place.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Sutter<\/p>\n

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I ordered the Wedge Salad (Baby gem iceberg lettuce, applewood smoked bacon, cherry tomatoes, and Point Reyes blue cheese) – it was perfect! Crunchy, creamy, and very refreshing on a hot day. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Carolyn ordered the Crab Louie Salad (Baby iceberg, cherry tomatoes, crab, shrimp, avocado, deviled egg and Thousand Island dressing)  – which she enjoyed as well. <\/span><\/p>\n

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After lunch we strolled through a few more antique shops and the Fine Eye Gallery where we both wanted to buy a bunch of stuff\u2026 but again, refrained. Go us! <\/span><\/p>\n

The drive home found us stopping in at Meadowlands Restaurant<\/a> in Sloughhouse for some cocktails and cake. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Pineapple mojitos and a piece of zucchini cake with candied orange…pure heaven. I could eat that cake all day long. Our server named off the desserts, they weren\u2019t on a menu, so I don\u2019t even know what the sauce was and never asked. We enjoyed the deck patio and watched the band set up for their evening performance. This picture below was from a previous visit where we enjoyed the outdoor patio and live music. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Thanks Carolyn for being my birthday buddy and planning a fun day!
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\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I never take the day off to celebrate my birthday – ever. In fact I don\u2019t really take many days off, so this was something new and different… and I loved it. My girlfriend Carolyn and I started our morning off with a trip to Starbucks for a free birthday drink. I\u2019m boring – Venti … <\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11304,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,810,50,56,57],"tags":[838,543,775,741,839,840],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/foodiddy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11307"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/foodiddy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/foodiddy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/foodiddy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/foodiddy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11307"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/foodiddy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11307\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11317,"href":"http:\/\/foodiddy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11307\/revisions\/11317"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/foodiddy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/foodiddy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/foodiddy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/foodiddy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}