The Men’s Trip was held again in Twain Harte, CA and we stayed 
at the Button Willow and a new place, Tutto Bene. The two houses were only about 500′ from each other and made it easy on all of us. A total of 14 guys came and they started out with an evening meal and beverages at the local tavern, “The Rock,” followed by a birthday celebration for Charlie Dickinson back at the house with nice pies and ice cream.
On Friday the golfers headed out to the local course and not sure of the scores. The heat had become a factor this year. The rest of the crew headed into historic Columbia and toured the hotel, jail, blacksmith shop and horse stables. The following day, a group headed to Sonora for a walking tour of the old Courthouse, Catholic Church, and the military museum.
They stopped by St. James’ Episcopal Church but it was closed. The rest of the day was spent touring Indigeny Reserve, described as an organic apple ranch, ciderworks, and distillery – pure paradise. The group had a great tour of processing plant and fermentation tanks. They topped it off with a trip to the tasting room and purchased some find hard ciders.
As usual, we ate quite well and Al Casas’ breakfast burritos were what the golfers needed to get their game into high gear. The rest of us enjoyed a leisure meal while they hacked away. Dinners included steak and the final night was with Joan Kimber’s secret sauce for the spaghetti. The treat of the night was Bob Bynum’s fudge he brought with him. Our clean up crew did a bang up job and no complaints from anyone.
Most of us left on Sunday and a few stayed behind for hiking/ camping for the next couple of days. On the way out of town, Bruce Roberts had a chance to visit the local St. James’ – Sonora after the 10am service and had the opportunity to tour the place and meet with the pastor.
We will be back next year to both houses and guys, mark your calendar for Aug 17-Aug 20, 2017.
~Gregg Feeney