September 2009 Issue | Download the Full Issue

The Rotary Club of Fallbrook’s annual Lobster on the Green fund-raiser is scheduled for Friday, Sept. 11 at the Ingold Sports Park in Fallbrook.
Lobster on the Green is a fun-filled evening that features good music, great food, exciting auctions and more! Dinner includes all-you-can-eat Maine lobster (flown in the night before), thick, juicy steaks, tasty coleslaw, endless corn-on-the-cob and delicious desserts.
Proceeds from the event help support community charities and organizations.
According to Rotarian Larry Rothacher, the money raised from Lobster on the Green is distributed to more than two dozen local groups. Organizations like the Fallbrook Music Society and the Art Center of Fallbrook, as well as many high school programs benefit from donations.
From scholarships to project funding, the local community is significantly impacted by Rotary Club contributions. Take the new playground, for example, that was recently built in downtown Fallbrook.
“Last year we donated $10,000 to the Boys and Girls Club of North County,” Rothacher said. “This money was part of a matching grant program which ended up raising more than sixty thousand dollars. Our donation was the seed money that allowed them to go out and raise more and ultimately build the new playground.”
Rothacher said it was a phenomenal sight to see. “There were more than 400 people out there, mostly youth, that participated in building the playground,” he exclaimed. “It was truly rewarding to know we played a role in that achievement.”
If you would like to contribute to your community while enjoying a night out under the stars, check out Lobster on the Green. Tickets are on-sale now for $80 a person and can be purchased online. Doors open at 5 p.m. with dinner starting at 6:30 p.m.
For more information call 760-723-4640 or go to www.lobsteronthegreen.com. Please note that tickets are sold in advance only and there will be no tickets sold at the door. Pre-event registration is encouraged as it will greatly reduce wait time into the venue. For more ticket information, contact Frank Baca at 760-731-9423 or send an e-mail to kikosson@pacbell.com.
***
Q&A with the Rotary Club of Fallbrook
Q: What do you think participants feel is the best part about Lobster on the Green?
A: The food, the social aspect, and the fact that it’s for a good cause. Whenever you can go out with friends and be with a large group that has the same purpose in mind, it makes for a wonderful evening.
Q: What are some of the items people can expect to see at the Silent Auction?
A: Floor tickets to The Lakers, a puppy, a Jim Helms sculpture, movie passes, autographed items such as a Duke Snyder baseball and many, many others.
Q: Who’s cooking this divine meal?
A: Joe Fedorchek, owner of El Jardin Mexican Restaurant, is our executive chef along with his well experienced Rotarian crew
Q: With the recession, people are reprioritizing spending and donations. What are the main reasons they should contribute to Rotary?
A: Now more than ever the service groups we help are in dire need for donations. Rotary passes all proceeds to organizations within our community that are strapped for funds. Now is the time to be generous if one can afford to be.
Q: No event can come into fruition without people going above and beyond. Are there any sponsors, organizers, groups or individuals who deserve recognition for helping to make this event happen?
A: There are many contributors that we need to recognize, most notably, our Title Sponsor, Arlene Ingold, and our Platinum Sponsor, Supervisor Bill Horn. Major donors include Coldwell Banker Landmark Group, Major Market, Bank of America Investments Hegardt Group, Pacific Western Bank, El Jardin Mexican Restaurant, Pala Band of Mission Indians and Paradise Chevrolet Cadillac. Also, without the complete support of our Rotarians and many of their wives, we would not be able to make Lobster on the Green a reality.

Bonsall Country Festival: Something for Everyone

Plans are being made for the 6th annual Bonsall Country Festival which is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 10 at the River Village Shopping Center. The event goes from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and you won’t want to miss a minute of it!
With events like a coloring contest and bike decorating contest for the kids, and a beverage garden and live music for the adults, this year’s festival will have something for everyone.
“We’ll have craft booths, food booths and commercial booths in addition to some of the new things such as a designated children’s area with entertainment on stage,” says Ruthie Harris, festival chairman. “We also have other things in the works such as a cake walk, and maybe some jumpers and a rock wall. We are also looking into some dancers or a Zoofari act.”
Other activities include a display of classic and vintage cars, and, of course, the announcement of Bonsall’s Honorary Mayor and the Bonsall Dude.
One of the main attractions for this year’s festival is the music of singer and songwriter, Tony Suraci. Suraci currently lives in Murrieta and is well-known for his incredible vocals and music. Although he has warmed up for Willie Nelson, co-written tunes with Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top, acted on television shows like Melrose Place and done the sound design for an off Broadway play, he can often be found performing locally at the wineries and casinos.
“We are so excited to have Tony for this year’s festival,” Harris said. “People come because they know his name – he’s incredible and plays every type of music. He’ll be playing from 11 a.m. – 3 p.m.”
Booth space is still available and vendors are highly encouraged to participate.
“With the things we’ve added to this year’s event, we are really expecting a lot of people to come,” Harris said. “It’ll be great exposure for anyone interested in a booth.”
The deadline for vendor registration is Oct. 1. Applications are available to download online at www.bonsallchamber.com.
Be sure to check the Web site for any and all updates on the festival. Harris said they will continue adding fun events and additional information.
“We should have the coloring contest form and picture available to download by mid-September, as well as all the details for the bike decorating contest,” Harris explained.
The main festival will take place in the Daniel’s parking lot located at 5256 Mission Rd, Bonsall. For more information, contact Ruthie at bonsallchamber@att.net or call 760-630-1933.

Grease Car Restorer

Remember that great hot rod that John Travolta’s character used to tool around in to impress the Olivia Newton-John character in the film musical Grease?
Mike Mroz remembers it almost as though it were yesterday. Because it WAS virtually yesterday that he had the car in his garage in Fallbrook. The jalopy had been superficially damaged in a race sequence in the movie, and the private party who eventually wound up with it brought it to Mroz to restore it to its pristine glory. The work mainly consisted of cosmetic restoration of the paint and flames.
It was a Hell’s Chariot 1949 Merc hardtop cut, i.e. made into a convertible. The engine, says Mike, “was a flat head Ford. The valves are in the engine block, not the cylinder head, which was developed for a later model. It was Ford’s top-of-the-line performance engine in the 1950s,” he says enthusiastically.
Mike and his dad, James, are living the dream at the Lone Wolf Garage on Alvarado Street in Fallbrook. The building they work in has been almost continuously a garage since 1946. The old cars they restore, especially from that era, must get some radical vibes from those old bricks!
Mike used to be a cop on an Indian reservation and James used to be in some uninteresting profession.
Mike had been restoring cars since the age of 15. At one point they looked at each other and decided that they both wanted to be doing what they loved.
They only restore classic automobiles, i.e. nothing later than 1975. If it has to be smogged, they won’t touch it. Not too many places do that anymore. You will see some amazing cars in their shop.
When I visited they had a pre-Model T Ford on the floor. A 1907 R Model Ford, one of the first cars sold to the general public, it was the 100th off the assembly line. Appraised at $100,000, this car is still in possession of the same family, the owners of Hansen Vineyards in Napa Valley, who bought it a century ago.
It stopped running in the 1970s. They are doing a full restoration, including rebuilding the transmission, restoring the wiring and refinishing or replacing the wood—that’s the first thing that goes in an old car. In this car most of the original wood is still there, except for the running boards.
The car will be refinished in its original “gloss” black. Its top speed is a blistering 15 mph and its tank holds about four gallons, enough to drive to Rainbow and back.
It uses regular gas—although it was built to run on just about anything back then, including kerosene.
“You could put moonshine in that thing and it would probably run on it,” observes Mike Mroz.
They are also working on an old ambulance that once belonged to the Tri-City Hospital and which they are turning into a “rat rod.” That is a term for a level of restoration that makes a car look like its primered and ready to be painted. It gives it a gritty, unfinished look that some collectors crave. Inside it will be decorated with simulated spider webs and Betty Boop pin up pictures.
Both men are very active in the community. Mike chaired one of the Hot Summer Nights events (the Off-Road Race Car and Classic Boat and Open Header event) in Fallbrook’s downtown area and has been a volunteer with the Fallbrook Christmas parade, where he drives one of his cherished rods.
Mike loves sharing his love of hot rods and is trying to get a hot rod class started with the local Boys and Girls Club. What they need is a permanent location so that the cars can be kept in a safe environment between meetings.
“I want to build a car using the kids—build it from the ground up—and put it on auction to raise money to keep the program going,” he says.
The garage is also the meeting place for several area hot rod clubs, such as the Fallbrook Vintage Car Club and the Axle Draggers.
Outside the garage on the sidewalk sits a little car that looks like a cross between a meter maid car and a golf cart. It’s the Mcgruff Mobile, a 1952 Marketeer, the first fiberglass car made. It was originally built for the handicapped with an electric motor.
“Ours is specially modified,” says Mike. “It has a 250 R quadrunner motor.” Built to go 8 mph originally, it is capable of 55 mph, although since it only has three wheels, driving it that fast would probably be a form of suicide.
Today it appears in parades as part of the Sheriff Department’s crime prevention unit.
“Car restoration is an art,” says Mike. “I take each restoration as a challenge. Each one is a different challenge.”
He usually starts by doing a history on the car. That’s easier than in years past because the Internet has so much information available. “It’s like doing an investigation,” he says. “You can track down where the car was built, its number as it came off the assembly line—you can trace its owners. Every car has its own story and leaves behind a legacy.”
He adds, “I love history and restoration became a passion. There’s a special gratification at the end of the process where I look at the finished product and say, ‘Did I do that?’ I takes so much discipline and so much effort that when it’s finished you look at in awe!”
* * *
If you are interested in seeing what hot rods the Mrozes, father and son, are restoring, visit their Lone Wolf Garage at 217 E Alvarado St., Fallbrook, or call them at 760-728-9615

Mengei Museum: Rite and Ritual—Ceremonial Art Across Cultures
Selections From the Museum’s Collection Sept. 3, 2009—Oct. 16, 2010

This exhibition of around 250 pieces will focus on the beauty of objects used for special familial, tribal and community events in traditional cultures: birth, childhood, initiation, marriage, death and festivals and in various religious expressions among the world’s peoples: Shamanism, Voodoo, Shinto, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Judaism.
* * *
The Mengei International Museum in San Diego and Escondido is unique outside of Japan in its celebration of the mengei movement (literally “folk arts” or “arts of the people”) that was founded in the 1920s by Yanagi Soetsu, a theorist, philosopher and writer. He coined the term to refer to objects that are made by hand, usually by individuals, usually people who are unknown to us—as opposed to actual artists. Such objects, at their purist, are made out of a need of the community and are made to be used.
Their beauty, says Mengei Museum Curator Rob Sidner, “flows from the natural human instinct. We focus on objects of use. We get beyond labels so you can look with fresh eyes. Today people often don’t know how to value things without knowing their cost. The people who made these objects did so because they were needed but not for profit. Mengei is about perceiving and discovering beauty and being enriched by it.”
The Mengei Museum is the first of its kind outside of three such museums in Japan. There have certainly been mengei exhibits before, but never before a museum devoted to the concept.
The new exhibition that opens in September will look at things such as personal daily ritual objects, such as combs and cosmetics, and even smoking utensils.
“For many women the time spent putting on cosmetics or makeup is a special one,” observes Sidner.
The objects come from a variety of eras, some pre-Columbian, although most Mengei are not usually older than 100 years. They are part of much older tradition but they are made to be “used up” because they are part of everyday life.
The exhibit will be divided up into several sections. The exhibits on the first floor will include:
Family—Objects related to weddings, dowries, childhood, birth, betrothals, from many cultures—such as wedding paper from Poland.
Tribal—Referencing a group that is larger than the family but smaller than a religion, and including such things as civic, tribal and carnival masks, a chieftain’s chair from Africa, wands and shafts.
Upstairs the exhibits will include:
Memorial: Objects of funerals and other death rituals, a memorial quilt and a memorial wreath made from human hair, an African stool devoted to ancestors, and an ancestor figure on horseback from the Kalimantan Dayak culture of Borneo.
Religion: Objects of religion have the greatest power and resonance because they relate to the deepest questions. The religions covered include Animism, Shamanism, Voodoo, Hindu, Islam, Judaism, Shinto, with Christianity and Buddhism probably represented by the most pieces.
“We’re not making any judgments,” says Sidner. “The number of objects in the exhibit reflects the current status of our collection.”
They include such objects as Brujeria paper cuts from Mexico, which have to do with fertility of crops. They portray figures that are half human and half animal, and resemble paper dolls.
There are also Ethiopian Coptic crosses, Shinto bells, Buddhist candelabra, a lacquer block printed Hindu temple cloth and an Islamic prayer hat.
A special part of the exhibit will be devoted to the unique tea ceremony of Japan, which, while it relates to religion and, in a sense, to theater, also touches on family and society.
“Many objects related to the tea ceremony are a family’s most precious possessions,” observes Sidner.
There are other exhibits at the museum, including an ongoing origami exhibit and a Niki de Saint Phalle exhibit (known to many locally for her whimsical sculptures at the Kit Carson Museum).
“It’s a small museum but we have a richness,” says Sidner, who directs both sites, which share the same collection. “The pride of craftsmanship that we have in this collection enriches peoples’ lives.”
* * *
The Mengei Museum is open Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, 11 a.m.–4 p.m. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for military, children and seniors.
Memberships in the museum start at $25 for teachers and students and go up from there.
Visit their Web site at www.mengei.org and access 5,000 images of Mengei objects at http://see-mingei.org/
Call them at 760-735-3355.

SDG&E’s Shut-Off Plan Could Affect You

On hot, very dry nights when Santa Ana winds whip the trees and reduce the brush to tinder, you may find your power cut—to prevent wildfires of the kind that destroyed several hundred homes in Fallbrook in 2007 and came close to doing the same in Rainbow, while causing mass evacuations all the way up and down I-15.
The decision by San Diego Gas & Electric Co. (SDG&E) to implement its Fire Safety Emergency Power Shut Off (EPSO) Program has proved to be one of the most controversial things the power giant has ever done—and that is saying something!
Besides much of the Backcountry (Palomar Mountain, Valley Center, Pauma Valley), EPSO includes considerable territory in “The Boulevard,” e.g. Hidden Meadows, Circle R, Champagne Village, parts of Bonsall and Fallbrook.
This program would cut electricity during high winds and low humidity to prevent wildfires from starting from arcing power lines and downed lines. SDG&E unveiled the plan after it took considerable legal hits over the 2007 Witch fire, which may have started from an arcing powerline.
The following conditions would trigger a shutoff. All five are required to activate a shutoff.
• The National Weather Service calling a Red Flag Warning;
• Localized wind speeds in an area or community are sustained and greater than 35 m.p.h. or there are wind gusts greater than 55 m.p.h. Where possible, existing National Weather Service’s weather stations will provide the wind speed measurements;
• The relative humidity (moisture in the air) is less than 20%;
• The moisture level in sticks, twigs and leaves (“non-living” materials) is less than 6% as determined by the National Weather Service’s weather stations; and
• The moisture level in “living” plants and bushes is less than or equal to 75% as determined by Cal Fire and the Forest Services.
To find out for sure if you are within the EPSO sphere, go to: www.sdge.com/safety/fireprep/fireMapIntro.shtml.
You will notice that weather stations are shown on the map. SDG&E will be monitoring those stations in each community. So, for example an EPSO might be implemented for Bonsall and Fallbrook, but not for Valley Center or the rest of the Backcountry.
EPSO will be implemented on Sept. 1, 2009, before the California Public Utilities Commission has ruled as to whether it is legal. It is likely that a consortium of several area water districts, including the Valley Center Municipal Water District (VCMWD) and the Rainbow Municipal Water District, will reactivate an earlier lawsuit to fight this. They say that cutting off power during a possible fire emergency would prevent them from providing water to firefighters.
Gary Arant, general manager of the VCMWD envisions a scenario where, “our reservoirs will quickly drain due to high demand.  If a fire then starts, then we will have an interesting situation on our collective hands:  wildland fire, but little or no water for the firefighters and homeowners with which to fight the fire, and we will have no power to move water around our system to the points of fire attack as we have done in the past.”
The PUC held hearings on the issue during the spring but postponed issuing its ruling until September or later. By then the wildfire season will be in full swing.
SDG&E’s Stephanie Donovan emphasizes that the program will likely be implemented once or twice a year at the most.
“As SDG&E prepares for this year’s fire/Santa Ana season, we continue to seek out ways to help reduce the impact of our Emergency Power Shut-Off plan on customers,” she says.
“We have completed some projects and others are under way that will improve overall system reliability as part of our capital budget, but also have the added benefit of allowing us to remove some people from the plan ‘footprint.’
She notes that Borrego Springs, originally part of EPSO, is no longer included. “By September, we hope to have eliminated a big chunk of Valley Center and Poway.”
For the past few months the power company has been spending $30 million in infrastructure improves that include:
• Over 140 advanced technology “PulseCloser” Switches – in the mountain and inland regions to detect outages, enhance safety and help restore power faster.
• Lilac Transmission Enhance-ments in North County – to reduce customer impacts, improve reliability and help maintain service at critical water facilities in the Valley Center area.
• Replacing wood poles with steel poles – in high fire risk areas to improve reliability and maintenance.
Donovan also emphasizes that the map shows only the areas that could be affected, “but not all areas would be without power at the same time. It’s important to make that distinction: that we expect to see these extreme weather-related conditions once or twice a year, affecting 8,000-10,000 customers per event, not 55,000!”
To help customers prepare for a power outage and improve the region’s overall preparedness, SDG&E will offer community benefits and customer assistance programs, conditioned upon regulatory approval.
• Helping Customers With Special Needs—$1.7 to $3.5 million.
• Community Care Centers with the American Red Cross – will be opened before, during and after an EPSO event to provide food, water, back up power and information on when power will be restored and help people during a power outage.
• Transportation for medically sensitive customers – to and from a location at no charge during an EPSO event.
• Financial Assistance – valued up to a $250 debit card for all low income and medically sensitive customers impacted by an EPSO event.
• Enhanced Customer Outreach to the disabled community including San Diego Regional Center, San Diego Center for the Blind and Deaf Community Service plus implementing new text communication for the hearing impaired.
• Emergency Generators for San Diego County - $6.5 Million
• Emergency generators for critical water facilities – SDG&E is committed to providing a back up emergency generator pool that includes six large generators and pre-wiring of transfer switches at 20 critical sites to support rural water districts.
• Emergency Generators for San Diego County Schools – SDG&E plans to provide a back up emergency generator pool that includes 15 portable generators and pre-wiring of transfer switches at all schools located within the EPSO area.
SDG&E also plans more inspections and tree trimming near power lines. The company is buying a high lift capacity helicopter to help with construction of the Sunrise Powerlink starting next year. It will be equipped with fire fighting capability which can be shared with firefighting agencies.

Andrea Aston: Financial Planning

Andrea Aston is not a doom-and-gloom kind of person. As a matter of fact, she’s quite cheerful, even optimistic.
But she is also very much a realist, and she knows firsthand the value of good planning.
That’s why she decided to go into business as an attorney specializing in wills, trusts, probates and estate planning.
“I’m here to help people prepare for whatever life can bring,” she says. “There are a lot of legal documents out there, so I meet with clients to help make things more understandable, then we make a draft of whatever they decide they want, and they come back in to sign everything. I really try to make it as easy as possible for the client.”
After working as a secretary for an estate planning attorney in the San Francisco area for a number of years, Aston found that she enjoyed working with the clients so much, so she went back to school to get her law degree.
“There I was, going back to school at age forty, going to classes at night and working during the day,” she says with a laugh. “But it was definitely the right thing for me, because I got to learn the estate planning business from the bottom up.”
Aston’s mother came to live with her for the last eight years of her life, but when she died, Aston decided to move a little closer to her sister in Bonsall, who is her only family left.
She started her own practice in 2005, and has been helping residents all over San Diego County plan for the future.
“My job is to meet with clients to help them find out what they need to do to protect their estate,” she says. “I’ll help them set up a will, a trust, or whatever they need – it’s a complete package.”
The one thing Aston says to her clients is to make sure that you take care of the legalities while you can.
“I tell people to just make sure it’s in writing,” she says. “A lot of people have plans for their estate, but you have to make sure you put in writing what you want, or it might not happen. It’s a pretty easy process, and it can help your loved ones avoid a lot of hassle and expense in court later on.”
A unique aspect of Aston’s practice is pet trusts, in which she helps clients plan for the care of their animals after they’re gone.
“For so many people, their pets are members of the family,” she says. “I have a horse and a dog myself, and I want to know that they’ll be taken care of if I’m not around. So we can set up a living trust that specifies how much money will be set aside for the care of the animals and the name of a guardian. We want to make sure that your children, whether they’re two-legged or four-legged, are taken care of.”
But perhaps what sets Aston and her practice apart from other law offices is the personal touch the clients get from someone who really cares.
“I enjoy helping people. Talking with the clients and helping them prepare is my passion,” she says. “I’m a caring person, so I want to help people make sure their loved ones will be cared for no matter what happens.”
For all your estate planning needs, contact Andrea Aston in her Bonsall office at (760) 758-1565, or by e-mail at aaston@rocketmail.com for more information.

Hot Air Ballooning in Temecula

Being full of hot air isn’t always a bad thing. On Sept. 19, 1783, a scientist named Pilatre De Rozier launched the first hot air balloon. The passengers were a sheep, a duck and a rooster. The balloon stayed in the air for a grand total of 15 minutes before crashing to the ground.
This past June, my parents, husband and I were launched in a large, hot air balloon in Temecula. We flew for more than an hour and a half. While this is evidence that balloon aviation has come a long way, I can’t help but wonder what that sheep, duck and rooster thought as they drifted high above the land.
Having now experienced the flight, I like to think the animal noises coming from the balloon that day were those of pure awe and joy. I know mine were, although it wasn’t my idea to go.
My craving for adventure in the sky had long since been quenched by skydiving and bungee jumping when I was young and didn’t care if I died. I rather enjoy my life these days and am not so compelled to compromise it.
But my parents were down from North Dakota and thought it would be “fun” to fly in a balloon. They were right, but it was much more than fun. It was unbelievable, surreal, amazing, beautiful, breathtaking, peaceful, invigorating… and just a tiny bit scary.
Several hot air balloon companies operate in Temecula. They offer both sunrise and sunset tours. We opted for a morning ride across the rolling hills and vines in Temecula’s wine country. Of course, a sunrise session means being up before the sun so we arrived promptly at 5 a.m. for registration.
Once everyone checked in, it was time to find a launch site. Finding the perfect launch site can be daunting because the balloons don’t fly if conditions are not right. With safety being the number one priority, pilots and their teams refuse to take chances. The winds must be ideal and the forecast must be clear.
Once we established a launch site, the teams really went to work. First they unloaded the giant wicker baskets from their trucks. Then they spread huge, canvas tarps on the ground. The purpose of this was to protect the silky, parachute-like material of the balloons which were then rolled out on top of the tarps and connected to the baskets. Next, large, industrial fans blew cold air into the center of the balloons to fill them up. Once the balloons were round and ready to go, it was time to load the passengers.
A regular tour can have ten or more people depending on the size of the basket and weight of the passengers. Custom tours are also available if you wish to limit the number of riders in your group. Either way, be sure to let your balloon company know if you are celebrating an occasion because they will help make it special. We had a Happy Birthday and a Happy Anniversary banner on our basket.
Before take-off, we were each handed a glass of champagne (or juice). You may think this is to calm your nerves, (which works); however, it is more about tradition.
Back in 1783 when balloons first started skirting through the sky, not everyone knew what they were, especially farmers who owned property where the balloons landed. These folks would often run out of their homes prepared to fight and fend off the mysterious craft that landed in their yard. Pilots started bringing champagne to celebrate the flight, and to use as a gift if needed to convince local land owners that they were friendly and harmless.
Once we had our drinks, the pilot cranked up the hot air. Simple science says that heat rises, therefore, so does the balloon (it’s not quite this simple, but that’s the essence of it).
The balloon is made of reinforced heat-resistant nylon with an inside coat of polyurethane or silicon which helps retain heat and air. Hot air doesn't escape from the bottom of the balloon because buoyancy keeps it moving up.
And up you go. One second you are on the ground, the next you are floating in the sky. The pilot can bring you so low that you are literally skimming across the tops of grape vines, or bring you up so high that you are completely engulfed in clouds. Below the clouds, the sky is speckled with other balloons. They are beautiful and colorful, and gracefully floating wherever the winds take them. With the exception of a blowing propane torch every now and again, it is completely tranquil and serene as you drift along at the whim of the wind.
But you are at its mercy. While the pilot has the most control, the wind dictates direction—and most importantly—the landing. After a short briefing on how to land, we were all prepared to bump, skip, toss, turn and potentially tip over in the basket. Fortunately, we ended up cruising inches above the ground in a remote area where high grass slowed us to a complete and perfectly safe stop.
By the time we were unloaded, the “balloon chasers” had found us and we headed back for a nice brunch.
If you would like to celebrate a special occasion in a hot air balloon in Temecula, here are a few places to check out: A Grape Escape (www.hotairtours.com) at 800-965-2122, Sunrise Balloons (www.sunriseballoons.com) at 800-548-9912, Southern California Hot Air Balloons (www.socalballoons.com) at 888-623-7433, D & D Ballooning (www.hotairadventures.com) at 800-510-9000, or California Dreamin (www.californiadreamin.com) at 800-373-3359.

Fallbrook Music Society

The Fallbrook Music Society, the biggest little music program a community could ever boast of, will be of special interest to connesurers this next season, which combines a virtuoso series with symphony season.
Society President Brenda Montiel talked about the upcoming 2009-2010 season, the 32nd, with us recently.
“We’re very excited about the season, because we have two parts to the season, a symphony series and a virtuoso series,” she said.
The exciting thing about the symphony season, she said, is that it will highlight four internationally known soloists who will perform with the symphony orchestras. “This is quite unusual for a village of our size to have these performers playing.”
One of the talented musicians playing as part of the “Symphony Series” is mandolin player Avi Avital of Israel. He will be the featured player with the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, under the baton of Ben Simon, playing a Vivaldi Mandolin Concerto, plus music by Bach and Beethoven.
“Then we have Jonah Kim, a 22-year old cellist from Soeul, South Korea, who will be playing with the Redlands Symphony Orchestra,” said Mrs. Montiel. “He is quite well know, even at his young age. He is an amazing cellist who went through the Julliard school.” Kim will play Antonin Dvorak’s Cello Concerto in B minor, Opus 104.
“We have Jose Menor from Spain. He is a young performer, who won first prize in consecuitve years in prestigious piano competitions.” He will play Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F Major. with the Redlands Symphony Orchestra.
The series will conclude with artist Willi Schwaiger, a French horn player. Schwaiger, from the Mozarteum Orchestra in Salzburg, will be the featured soloist in Leopold Mozart and Amadeus Mozart’s French Horn’s concertos. Leopold Mozart was, of course, the father of the much more famous son.
“With Leopold’s concerto, Schwaiger will use the natural horn with no values,” says Mrs. Montiel. These concertos will also be played with the Redlands Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Jon Robertson.
“It’s a wonderful series because it has music from the Baroque period up to the 20th century, ending with a Gershwin salute for our last concert.”
The season will also include a two concert, “Virtuoso Series,” again with internationally known ensembles.
In one concert, the Quarteto Vivace Brasil, which includes two guitarists, a flautis and one percussionist, will perform music of a variety of eras, including Baroque, Romantic, a little bit of Scott Joplin and Brazilian folk and pop.
The Saint Petersberg String Quartet, which is currently in a one-year residency in the United States, will perform with San Francisco pianist Mack McCray in performing the Dvorak Piano Quintet in A Major, Opus 81. This will be followed by the quartet performing the Mauirce Ravel String Quartet in G Minor, Opus 10, plus a word by Borodin.
“These are all works that have not been performed previously in Fallbrook,” notes Mrs. Montiel.
There will be two non-subscription events.
The annual community-wide Symphony ‘Pops’ on the Green features the San Diego Symphony in an evening of familiar, patriotic and Broadway music under the stars. Families and friends dine lakeside on the grounds of the Grand Tradition Estate with their picnics and blankets as the full moon rises behind the Orchestra.
The society will also present its annual Christmas concert, which will combine the talents of two ensembles well known in Southern California, the William Chunestudy Men’s Chorus, which has 24 members and the Chamber Music Ensemble Camarada.
These two groups, together and separately, will perform Christmas music both traditional, such as Bach, historical and familiar.
“What’s very important,” said Mrs. Montiel, is that this is our 32nd seaon performing in Fallbrook. It’s a real tribute to those who have gone before us that they believed that a place as small as Fallbrook should have this caliber of music. Music such as we present is generally found only in urban centers.”
The society has a lot of input in the music that is chosen. “People really enjoy hearing a soloist with the concert and every concert in this series has a soloist. All of them are internationally known and well respected in the community,” she said.
All of the concerts are funded through individual and corporate donations and some grants.
The society also supports concerts in the schools so that, for example, the St. Petersburug String Quartet and the Quarteto Vivace Brasil will perform for seventh and eighth grade students in several performances.
Another similar program brings soloists and small ensembles to K-6 students in the Fallbrook Elementary School District twice a year during the school day on campus.
Subscriptions and single tickets are available for the four symphony concerts and the Virtuoso Series. Season subscribers receive savings and enjoy the convenience of reserved seating, and those wishing to buy single tickets will find excellent seats still available. Patrons can take advantage of the Music Society's website to purchase their season or single tickets for each performance at www.fallbrookmusicsociety.org
Symphony, Virtuoso Series and Christmas concerts are held at 3 p.m. on Sundays in the 532-seat Bob Burton Center for the Performing Arts.
Tickets, additional information and season brochures are also available by calling the Music Society's box office at (760) 451-8644.
SYMPHONY SEASON
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Redlands Symphony Orchestra – “Austrian Horn Calls” with Willi Schwaiger, Horn.
Beethoven: Symphony No. 8 in F Major, Op. 93
Leopold Mozart: Horn Concerto in E-flat Major
W. Amadeus Mozart: Horn Concerto No. 3 in E-flat Major KV. 447
Joseph Haydn: Symphony No. 31 in D Major ("Horn Signal")
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Redlands Symphony Orchestra – “Romantic Carnival” with Jonah Kim, Cello.
Hector Berlioz: Roman Carnival Overture, Op. 9
Robert Schumann: Symphony No. 1 in B-flat Major, Op. 38 ("Spring Symphony")
Antonin Dvorak: Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104
Sunday, March 28, 2010
San Francisco Chamber Orchestra – with Avi Avital, Mandolin Virtuoso
Corelli: Concerto Grosso, Op. 6 in F Major
J.S. Bach: Mandolin Concerto in A minor
(transcription for mandolin)
Beethoven: Andante con variazioni for Mandolin and String Orchestra in D Major, No. 2
Avi Avital, Mandolin Soloist
Bartok: Roumanian Folk Dances
Osvaldo Golijov: Last Round
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Redlands Symphony Orchestra – “Gershwin Salute” with Jose Menor, Piano
George Gershwin:
An American in Paris
Piano Concerto in F Major
Catfish Row (from Porgy & Bess)
VIRTUOSO SERIES
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Quarteto Vivace Brasil
George Frideric Handel: Suite in G minor (excerpts)
Manuel de Falla: La Vida Breve
Astor Piazzolla: Historia del Tango
Camille Saint-Saens: Carnival of the Animals (excerpts)
Georges Bizet: Carmen (Prelude)
Isaac Albeniz: Sevilla
Scott Joplin: Ragtime Dance
Selections from Brazilian folk and popular music.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
St. Petersburg String Quartet – with Mack McCray, Piano
Alexander Borodin: "Nocturne" from String Quartet #2 in D Major
Maurice Ravel: String Quartet in G minor, Op. 10
Antonin Dvorak: Piano Quintet in A Major, Op. 81
SPECIAL EVENTS
Sunday, December 6, 2009 – Christmas Concert
William Chunestudy Men’s Chorus and Chamber Music Ensemble Camarada

Fallbrook Conservancy: A Shady Retreat in the Middle of Town

Are you looking to escape the heat of the asphalt jungle? I know a place where there are more than two miles of cool, shady paths to walk. Birds chirping, breezes blowing, ducks splashing—you can immerse yourself in nature.
The 43 acre Los Jilgueros Preserve is the Fallbrook Land Conservancy’s (FLC) most popular and most convenient open space preserve. Along South Mission Road, across from the Fallbrook Airpark, it’s easy to get to. This is not a county park!
The FLC maintains Los Jilgueros Preserve entirely through donations and grants, permitting the community to enjoy nature, close to home. Restored native habitat, lots of trees, and abundant wildlife make Los Jilgueros Preserve a great place to visit year round. But as the summer heats up and the sidewalks sizzle, the shady trails beckon.
From the south parking lot, the gently rolling paths lead you past a large open meadow. Live oak, sycamore, and other native trees are abundant, with benches placed to take advantage of their shade.
Many birds—more than 100 species have been recorded here—visit the meadow area, including various hawks, falcons, and other birds of prey. Even owls can be spotted by those who venture out early in the morning or just before dusk.
An expanse of wetlands borders the meadow area along the western side. Ponds and a seasonal stream attract water fowl and other wildlife and support a large stand of sycamore, willow and cottonwood trees. A trail along the west side of the preserve skirts this wetland and is shaded by the canopy of trees along its entire length. A boardwalk takes you over the wetland area to the trail.
Back to the main trail…once past the meadow, the path leads down into a tunnel of trees. It’s always cooler here than anywhere else in the preserve. Old farm equipment can be spotted – implements left behind when the FLC acquired this property in 1990.
Up a short rise and along a levee you’ll pass the preserves northern most pond. Ducks, coots, ibis, herons, and egrets frequent these waters. More cottonwoods and willows offer shade as you make your way around the pond. You’ll cross a cement wash, often filled with rushing water during winter rains that flood the pond.
The trail leads up a gentle hill to the highest and northern most part of the preserve. Here, there are several short trails that wind around the open hillock and down through a lush firescape garden. The garden area offers year round color, with a mix of native and non-native flowering shrubs and trees. Spring is the most colorful time, of course, but in fall the yellow leaves of the sycamores highlight the walk. If you plan to walk to the preserve from the north side, there are two additional entrances here.
Leaving the garden, you’ll walk through a corridor of large black walnut trees, reminders of the property’s agricultural past. They attract many birds in the late summer and fall, especially crows and ravens, whose raucous chatter can be heard long before you get there. This shady trail leads you down through wetlands where you’ll cross a small bridge over a year round creek.
You can then choose one of three trails to return through the preserve past the meadow or wetlands. Enjoy the songbirds along the way, or perhaps spot a long tailed weasel. Although rare here, the weasels are an important part of the ecosystem of Los Jilgueros, which includes coyotes, desert cottontail rabbits, reptiles, amphibians, and the many bird species.
The FLC is a non-profit organization whose private ownership and stewardship of Los Jilgueros has made it available for our use.
Walkers, joggers, and bicyclists are welcome. No motorized vehicles please. Dogs must be leashed and picked up after for the benefit of all who use the preserve and for the critters that live there.
Bring water to drink and pack out your trash!
To find out how you can help support Los Jilgueros Preserve with a tax deductible donation, or to find out more about the wildlife and habitat there, please visit the FLC website at www.fallbrooklandconservancy.org or call (760)728-0889. Or join The Friends of Los Jilgueros Preserve, a group of FLC volunteers that help maintain and raise funds for the preserve. Come enjoy this special place, meet new friends, get in shape, or escape the city heat.

Fallbrook Legacy Foundation

You can think of the foundation as the “go to” guys if you have a cause that you are passionate about and you are searching for the means to help that cause—while getting some tax benefits while you are still around to enjoy them! Its purpose is to facilitate philanthropy for individuals, families, businesses, non-profits and organizations.
Donors don’t give TO the foundation, they give THROUGH the foundation. With the foundation’s assistance they use vehicles such as cash, real estate, bequests, trusts and endowments.
The Fallbrook Legacy Foundation, which was founded in 1994, knows and works with all manner of charities. Its staff and volunteers are expert at connecting folks to just the right one—and in finding ways to make the endowment happen.
It is a “community foundation,” one of about 1,000 in the United States, that manages $10 million for individuals and organizations—mostly with volunteers and two paid employees.
It is a tax exempt charitable organization recognized by the IRS as a 501 (c)(3) public charity. This status allows it to accept contributions from donors that are designated to go to their favorite charities and allow the donors to take tax deductions.
Some organizations the foundation has worked with are Elderlink, REINS, Boys and Girls Club, Children’s Hospital, Fallbrook Music Society, Elizabeth Hospice, St. Madeline’s Sophie Center, and the Dollarhide Cemetery, about 40 organizations in all. Primarily the foundation looks for beneficiaries in North County.
It educates individuals and charities on the benefits of philanthropic giving. Its services include counseling on how to use a variety of tax advantage charitable techniques that maximize the benefits to the charity but also maximize the lifetime benefits to the donors.
I sat down recently with Tina Rainey, executive director and Alexander Esche, public relations director for the foundation.
“We can match you to your heart’s desire for philanthropy,” she says.
She described the “aha!” moment that for many people comes when they understand that they are giving through a legacy to a designated charity..
The foundation accepts gifts for the following types of funds:
• Agency Endowment Funds— These are funds established by non-profit organizations that want to create permanent endowments.
• Agency Investment Funds—Established by other non-profits to have the foundation act as their agent for investment and management purposes.
• Designated Endowment Funds—Established by donors, these funds are earmarked for a particular charitable organization or organizations.
• Discretionary Endowment Funds—Funds established by donors who give the foundation full discretion to distribute grants based on community needs.
• Donor Advised Funds— Funds established by donors who retain the right to approve recommendations to the foundation regarding recipients and amounts of grants.
• Field of Interest Endowment Funds—Established by donors who want to benefit a “field” such as the arts, education or health and human services.
• Scholarship Fund—Fund created to give grants to individuals to help them to achieve educational goals.
• Acorn Endowment Fund— Created as an individual might create a retirement fund. Such a fund can be started with a minimum of $1,000 annually. It “grows” as from an acorn into a mighty oak.
With a Donor Advised Fund, the foundation can match donors with causes.
With a charitable remainder trust, people have assets that they want to get a tax deduction for today, while continuing to get the benefit from the property.
Donors say how much income they want during their lifetime, but at the end of their life they leave the property to their designated charity.
For example, donors could buy an insurance policy to create a future inheritance for their children that would be tax free. So both the charity and the children would benefit.
An example that has been played out many times is that a donor will create a fund to disburse funds to a particular kind of charity. The foundation will take out ads in the newspapers and contact organizations and invite them to apply for grants. Then a grant committee goes through the applications and chooses from among them.
Shortly after the 2007 wildfires, when many homes in Fallbrook were burned, the foundation recognized the need to quickly get aid to as many people as possible.
It became the conduit for $128,000 that was distributed to 97 victims.
“We’re here to help our community any way we can,” says Rainey. “The foundation is a great place to go to if you want to do a non-profit. We are very aware of grant resources. We tell them how to do the homework and show them the resources that are available to them.”
She adds, “one highlight of our organization is the diligence that our board of directors makes going into the investments of the money that is in our care as prudently as we can.”
The board meets on a quarterly basis with financial advisers to help it decide how to invest the money that it is responsible for.
“Bring us the problem and we will try to figure out a solution,” says Rainey.
* * *
To learn more about the Fallbrook Legacy Foundation, visit their Web site at www.legacyendowment.org or mail them at P.O. Box 2710, Fallbrook, CA 92088 or call them at 728-3304.

Rainbow Oaks Restaurant

Duke Maples is obviously in love with his new role, that of the proprietor/celebrity of a very popular new restaurant.
He grins with pleasure when people stop him and say how much they enjoy what he has made of the Rainbow Oaks Restaurant, which has long been a local landmark, but had seen better days when he decided to buy it.
“It’s beautiful!” he says. “I have people walk in for the first time since it reopened and say, ‘Wow!’ ”
Where once was a dimly lit eatery with low ceilings, now there is a brightly lit interior, gleaming with lightly colored wood and airy with vaulted ceilings.
Usually there’s a half hour wait to get into the eatery, no matter what time of day it is. “I keep waiting for it to taper off,” says Maples.
An avid motorcyclist, he had frequently driven by the place on his commute from Corona to Marriott Food Services in San Diego, where he had an executive job in the food and beverage department. He previously worked for many years for Sysco Foods as a meat specialist and for U.S. Foods, the largest grocery distributor in the U.S. He quit a $100,000 a year job to build his dream.
One day he stopped by the shuttered restaurant, which had a for sale sign out front, and exclaimed, “Why the hell is this place closed?” He had always wanted to parlay his expertise in the food and beverage industry into his own business. “I was an outsider in the corporate world. I didn’t fit in at all,” he recalls.
He and his wife, Jonell, soon signed a 20 year lease and began what they thought would be a three-month renovation. It turned out to actually take nine months. It reopened in April.
The restaurant, located just a few hundred yards from the freeway interchange off I-15, is the last restaurant before you cross the county line into Riverside. It can claim—with no possibility of dispute—to be the best, most famous and best-loved restaurant in the community of Rainbow. It has been a favorite destination for motorcyclists for close to 60 years.
It still is. Now that it has reopened, Harley bikers and car clubs are among its most loyal customers. Among the most, but not actually “the” most loyal. That distinction seems to belong to the residents of Rainbow itself, some of whom will come in for breakfast in the morning and then return for dinner.
It’s open for breakfast, lunch and dinner seven days a week, including holidays.
It serves a hearty country fare. “No one leaves here hungry,” asserts Maples firmly, and given the huge portions it’s hard to see how anyone could leave without a doggie bag.
The burger I had was a huge 10 ouncer—you’ll rarely find a burger that is 8 ounces in most establishments.
There are 13 kinds of omelettes, nine kinds of burgers, and dinner entrees that include filet mignon, large rib eye steaks and prime rib, all personally and generously cut by the owner to fit large appetites.
He builds his menu around the oversize cuts of meat. The steak he serves for dinner is the same you will find with the steak and eggs breakfast.
On weekends, he has specials that don’t appear on the menu. They include such esoterica as alligator tail, wild boar and baby back ribs (on the same plate) two or three weekends a month. That is the most requested of his off-the-menu specials. The last time he served it, he ran out by 7 p.m.
Another treat that is not on the menu is the Tomahawk River 28 ounce bone in rib eye steak.
Sometimes he offers caribou steaks, bone in lamb chops and different fish depending on their availability.
Weekday dinner specials include turkey with stuffing, mashed potatoes and veggies, corned beef and cabbage with red potatoes, homemade meatloaf and prime rib.
Because Maples knows how to play his vendors against each other, he gets very good prices on his supplies, which allows him to offer top grade food at reasonable prices, despite the tough economy.
Among the most ordered breakfasts are the bacon and eggs, chorizo and eggs, the pancake specials and the chicken fried steak and eggs. But according to waitresses, the most ordered is the French Toast combo that includes six toast halves, two eggs and a choice of four strips of bacon or four sausage links.
Theresa, one of the waitresses, says her favorite is the Farm House Skillet, which is bacon, sausage and ham on top of hash browns, three eggs, bell pepper and onions topped with cheese!
Lunch favorites are the hamburgers, the turkey wrap, Reuben sandwich and homemade meatloaf.
The fish and chips and the turkey dinners are very popular. However, prime rib night on Wednesday is THE biggest night.
“Sixteen dollars gets you a meal that you are not going to be able to finish!” Maples assures me. Virtually everything is homemade, even the dressings, created by chef Jose Gomez, who Maples had known for ten years, and who has been in the restaurant business for 25 years.
The building is something of an historical landmark. Maples discovered that when all he wanted to do was move one of the building’s back doors. That required special dispensation from the County.
One of his most loyal customers, Rua Petty, brags, “Duke has done a phenomenal job. He gutted this place and restored it. It has been an institution in Rainbow and he has done it proud! He has brought it back!”
Ninety-percent of the wood used in the restaurant came from sugar pine and knotty pine reclaimed from the wildfires that ravaged Palomar Mountain (among many other areas) in the fall of 2007. The rich brown glossy bar top is black oak.
The booths are also reclaimed and the tables and chairs used on the patio come from recycled milk cartons. While he’s not willing to skimp on food ingredients, he was willing to save money everywhere else that he could.
The business is doing surprisingly well, according to Maples.
“We’ve brought back an old concept in dining—something you don’t find much anymore. We’re out in the middle of nowhere, and it’s got that old country feeling but our menu doesn’t reflect that.”
No, it doesn’t. And the people who are lined up waiting to get in are the most eloquent testament to that simple fact.

Deer Park Winery: Wine and Old Muscle Cars—Is There a Better Combination?

Deer Park Winery and Auto Museum, long a landmark along I-15, is back open after a hiatus of a few years. It had operated as a winery, but wasn’t open to the public for that time.
It will have an “official” grand opening soon, probably in September or October.
The museum claims to have the world’s largest collection of convertibles and Americana. What is Americana? Think old radios, old TVs, appliances and—yes—Barbie dolls.
There are 120 cars, almost all of them American, in three buildings. It goes without saying that most of the companies that built these cars are no longer in existence. Such cars are called “orphans.”
The buildings include the wine tasting room and gift shop, which has about a dozen autos; the museum building, which has many cars, and appliances; and winery and “new” car showroom, which exhibits cars from the 1950s. The “new” showroom has one of the largest collection of neon “dealership” signs in existence.
I sat down with owner Clark Knapp recently to talk about the history of the winery and museum.
“My dad, Robert Knapp, did the collecting and my uncle, Dave Clark, got us into winemaking,” he says.
Clark was a winemaker first at the Cuvaison Winery and later at Clos Du Val. In 1979 he was a winemaker at the Deer Park Winery in Napa, which the family sold in 2002. Robert Knapp died in 1996.
The winery shut down its public operations a few years ago, although it continued to produce wine.
During the interim when the winery wasn’t open to the public, Clark Knapp began making a transition from Chardonnay wines to more red wines.
“We, I mean, I, am more of a red wine drinker,” says Knapp, by which he means wine made from grapes such as Merlot, Sangiovese, Petite Sirah, Sirah and Zinfandel.
Next year the winery will offer all five varietals, all estate wines, which means that 100% of the grapes for the wines are grown on the three acres of the property and bottled there as well. The winery will also offer a late harvest Sauvignon Blanc, a dessert wine and a California champagne—after all it’s on Champagne Boulevard!
“These wines have never left this property,” declares Knapp.
I asked Knapp to talk about his 2005 Sangiovese estate wine. Knapp noted that, “2005 was an exceptional growing year in San Diego County. With these grapes, I decided to give the grapes a longer hang time. With the longer hang time, you have a little more alcohol but you pick up more complexity of flavors. A lot of jammy fruit, like a dark raspberry or currant flavor. Just a hint of spice.”
He adds, “Sauvignon is a flexible grape that you can use to make anything from a rose to a full-flavored red.”
This is the same kind of grape that you find in chianti, so the wine goes well with heavy pasta, steak, and says Knapp, even holds up with a barbecued dish.
The museum was closed to the public for several years, but, says Knapp, “it was too valuable as a slice of Americana not to open. It’s a wonderful getaway to see all of this Americana, including wine.”
Knapp points out that San Diego County was actually California’s first wine growing county (think Grape Day Park), long before there were wineries in the Napa Valley. However that tradition was destroyed in 1919 with the advent of Prohibition.
He leads me on a tour of the buildings housing the car collection. You could set aside several hours for this and not exhaust its variety.
One of the most prized cars in the collection is the 1953 Cadillac El Dorado. This is the first year that the car was issued. It wins the Concours d'Elegance’s Best in Class every time Knapp enters it.
But wait! There’s also the Kaiser Darrin, a 1954 car that was the first car to use fiberglass in the body.
The 1928 Franklin was one of only seven made. It was, says Knapp, the only gift that Charles Lindbergh accepted after his historic flight across the Atlantic.
Robert Knapp amassed the collection long before there was an Internet. He found old cars and various other pieces by browsing through magazines. Since they were often considered just “old cars,” he often picked them up for a song.
Walking through the museum is not like visiting a typical museum. It’s pure Southern California. And for just $5, it’s probably one of the best entertainment bargains you’ll ever find.
Bring a picnic lunch, buy a bottle of wine and just enjoy the view.
* * *
The winery and museum are open Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m. It is located at 29013 Champagne Blvd. Escondido.
Find more information on Deer Park Winery & Auto Museum at www.deerparkwine.com/ The Web site is under construction right now, so if it isn’t up when you look at it, try again later. Or call 760-749-1666.

Golf Is Not The Only Sport!

Our Putting Around writer was on vacation this month and decided to try out a new sport.
We’ve spent the last week at Tahoe and we have done it all.
We’ve taken an early morning drive around the Lake and marveled at the beauty of Emerald Bay on the west shore. We stopped along the road on the east shore and hiked down to a secluded cove and had a picnic lunch.
We returned later that evening to the east shore of the Lake to Sand Harbor and enjoyed a glorious Tahoe sunset while watching a performance at the annual Shakespeare Festival.
Not yet ready to give in for the day, we stopped in Incline and enjoyed a Golden Eagle (an alcoholic drink in slushy form) at the Hyatt’s Lone Eagle Grill, while sitting outside the lounge listening to Luke sing some of our favorites, enjoying the evening chill and the warmth of the fire around one of their fire pits.
On another day we took the entire family on a rafting adventure down the Truckee River, ending up at River Ranch, where we had lunch on their patio overlooking the Truckee River, while watching other rafters maneuver their rafts to avoid going further downstream just as we had done a few minutes before.
We took the afternoon and enjoyed visiting the shops in the Village at Squaw Valley before boarding the gondola for a breathtaking ride to High Camp. The next day, we got the hiking fever and bit into a piece of the grand daddy of all hikes, the Tahoe Rim Trail. The wildflowers were gorgeous!
The following day we baked on our boat, and stopped along the way to enjoy a delightful dinner on the deck at Sunnyside on the west shore.
The next morning we rose early went paddle boarding and enjoyed a Tahoe sunrise while getting some early morning exercise on the serenity of gliding over a glass calm Lake Tahoe.
On Wednesday we toured historic Truckee, took a walk and enjoyed the shops in downtown Truckee and stopped at the new Village of Northstar before ending up back at the lake to enjoy a Wet Woody at Gar Woods.
How about a day of fly fishing on the Truckee or Little Truckee Rivers, or one of the area’s more secluded lakes if you’re really feeling adventurous?
If you are like me and my wife, Shirley, and our friends Don & Heather Martin, we have all fished before, put the bobber into the water and waited for a fish to swim by and take a bite of the worm—but fly fishing, that’s that thing that Robert Redford made a movie of, let’s see, A River Runs through it.
If you want to try fly-fishing there are a few things that you should know up front.
First, it’s an art and as with all arts, if you haven’t done it before you need to take a lesson.
Second it’s not as easy as it looked in the movie.
Third, you need to know your bugs, that’s what the fish are biting on, which kind, when and where.
Fourth, there is a lot more exercise with fly fishing than it looks, and finally it is as the Beach Boys said, fun fun fun.
The four of us signed up for a session with Matt Heron, a fly fishing specialist who runs the fly-fishing program at the Resort at Squaw Creek. He is a certified casting instructor from the Federation of Fly Fishers, has been fly fishing for 17 years all over the world, has instructed over 3,000 people in the art of fly fishing and works in association with the Fly Fishing Film Tour presented by Drake Magazine.
But most importantly—and it shows in his instruction—he loves to fly fish, talk about flying fishing and teach the art of fly fishing to novices such as the four of us. And I don’t use the word novices lightly.
When I called Matt to schedule our class, he described our options. He has many different classes depending upon the time that you want to spend and, of course, in these challenging economic times your financial resources. His most popular class is the 3 hour Cast N’ Catch class. It offers the best of worlds, casting instruction and fishing.
The class begins with a private 90 minute casting lesson, and then another 90 minutes of fishing on the Resort at Squaw Creek’s private, stocked ponds.
Matt has classes for not only the beginners but for those who want to sharpen their technique or work on their fundamentals. There are beginner fly tying classes for people like us who had an interest in learning about the art of fly tying to advanced fly tying classes.
There is a class entitled Aquatic Macro Invertebrate Sampling. It’s all about bugs and other things that fish eat. Don’t underestimate the value of this knowledge if you are going to get into fly fishing. It’s kind of like taking your friends to a Chinese restaurant when on that day at that time they are craving a taco. Same thing with fish.
Fish don’t eat the same thing every day. There are literally hundreds of different types of bugs, which the four of us learned in a part of our session with Mark that included a power point presentation about insects,
This is an excellent class whether taken by itself or in conjunction (as we did) with one of Matt’s other classes. It’s great for families and kids. One of the nice things about doing a session with Matt is that he always limits his classes to a size that allows plenty of time for questions and discussions. Matt also hosts guided fishing trips on the ponds at the Resort or along the Truckee River or other local streams in the area.
After serious consideration, we four chose the 4-hour Sundowner. We added another couple of hours to it for the power point presentation on insects and also spent part of our time tying our very first flies. If fly-fishing is an art, tying your own fly is taking the whole enchilada.
It’s not for everyone, but we enjoyed the experience and you even get to take your first fly home as a souvenir. Its now on my fireplace mantle, so is Shirley’s.
After the fly tying and the power point, we were given equipment, Matt only uses top of the line gear, Sage, Galvan, Rio, Scott and Umpqua among others, and we headed off to a grassy area to begin our casting careers.
We quickly learned that it’s all in the shoulder and a fluid movement.
There are several different types of casts, somewhat like a baseball pitcher has a repertoire of curves, sliders, fastballs, etc.
Learning any one of them is a challenge. The more coordinated you are, the faster you will get the hang of it.
But when you finally get into the groove it’s quite satisfying to not only see the line but feel and hear the line swirling around you, and ending up in front of you where it should, not on you or on your neighbor.
Matt was very patient with all four of us as we all experienced our own unique mishaps along the way. But after about an hour of Matt’s instruction and insight, we headed off to the ponds where the real fun began.
There was a lot of wind on this afternoon and early evening when we were practicing our casting. Try to avoid windy days, it makes the learning process more difficult.
It didn’t take long for each of us to have a catch. Off course, at the resort all the catches are released and all the hooks are barbless.
We had a great time; each of us caught a couple of nice size trout. Our session lasted about 4 1/2 hours. We also had a dinner break, and enjoyed the dinning room at the Resort for a light meal about midway through our session.
We all agreed that fly-fishing was something we wanted to try again.

 

The Boulevard Magazine
P.O.B. 1529, Valley Center, CA 92082
Tel. 760.749.1112 Fax 760.749.1688