The weatherman’s promise held true and we had mostly clear skies on Wednesday. The official high temperature here in Corning was 79 degrees. After a couple of wet, rainy days we wanted to get out and do something. So, how about a trip to the National Yoyo Museum? That’s right, there’s a yoyo museum in Chico.
We rode the Spyder out of Rolling Hills RV Park a little past 10am. It’s about a 30-mile ride to downtown Chico – we took a backroad route to CA32 which took us right into town. We parked the Spyder on Broadway between 2nd and 3rd Streets and took a walk through the area. There are numerous restaurants and cafes in the area and some cool shops. Chico is home to the California State University – Chico campus. The vibe downtown is trendy, youthful and fun.
I thought there was a Wednesday farmers’ market nearby – there used to be a few years ago. We walked by the farmers’ market lot and found out it’s Thursday and Saturday. We’ll go back on Saturday to check it out.
We walked back to 3rd and Broadway and found the Bird in Hand shop – that’s where the National Yoyo Museum is located. The museum is nothing more than a handful of display cabinets and a flat-screen video loop of competitors. The displays had memorabilia from national championships dating from the 1930s to 2017. I had no idea that yoyo championship competition was a thing.
The video was running on a loop and it showed competitors in different categories strutting their stuff. These guys were like magicians making their yoyo’s float through the air and creating complex geometric shapes with the string – all while the yoyo kept spinning and they were able to reel it back in without touching anything but the string. I guess it’s kind of like hoop dancing – you don’t think much about hula hoops until you see someone who knows what they’re doing perform. These guys and gals with their yoyos were unbelievable.
The Bird in Hand shop is a rather unique toy and game store. It has the feel of a circa 1960 toy store. Lots of stuff there that you probably wouldn’t find anywhere else.
While we were in Chico, we went into the Broadway Heights building and had lunch upstairs at a restaurant with the same name. I ordered a 10″ brick oven-fired pizza while Donna had a salad bowl with wild salmon cakes with a Thai vinaigrette. The food was very good and we left with a slice of lemon-ginger cheese cake baked by our waitress, Dawn. She’s worked there for 17 years and it’s obvious that she loves her job. She bakes all the desserts for the restaurant.
The wind had really picked up and the ride home was rocked by a few gusts that were over 30mph. The Spyder is really stable, but the crosswind on CA32 had me weaving a bit in a couple of places where there were large, open fields with nothing to block the wind.
I should mention some of the trees in the area. The city of Chico itself has what they call an urban forest. The city was designated as a “Tree City USA” by the National Arbor Day Foundation. Trees on public right of ways in Chico date back to the 1870s when General John Bidwell founded the city.
Outside of town, there are large groves – mostly almonds. As we headed back toward Corning to the west, we rode through a few vineyards and walnut groves. As you get closer to Orland or Corning, the groves change to olive trees. Olive and nut farming and production are big business around here.
Donna whipped up a teriyaki baste and put together kabobs with pork tenderloin pieces, pineapple, portobello mushrooms, onions and cherry tomatoes. She grilled these on the Weber Q. She also sliced a Mexican gray squash – a summer squash similar to zucchini – and grilled it. My kabobs were served over white rice with the squash on the side – Donna opted for no rice.
After a warm, sunny day, a few clouds rolled in before sundown. I thought we might get an unexpected rain shower as the dark clouds passed overhead. But it stayed dry and cleared up again right after sunset.
I don’t have a plan for today and that’s okay. We’ll definitely hit the farmers’ market on Saturday. We’ll see what else comes up.