Getting coffee at the train depot

There’s a new coffee shop that has just opened at the Shingle Springs Depot. It is called Wisegal Coffee and it is run by two ladies, Rachel Bezdek and Brylee Lance. Their motto is bad jokes and good coffee, which is what these girls both enjoy and is partly why they started operating this coffee shop. I recently visited with my family, my dad had a mocha with oatmilk, and mom and I got a gingerbread vanilla latte with oatmilk. And they were really delicious!! The reason why this coffee shop is special to me is that I have known Rachel and her family from a church that I have attended and my grandparents attend. I think it is cool that Rachel is running her own coffee shop with a friend in a really cool location, in the depot of the El Dorado Railroad. They are located at 4241 Mother Lode Drive in Shingle Springs, CA. They are open Mondays and Wednesdays to Fridays from 6am to 1pm and Saturdays and Sundays from 7am to 2pm. They are closed on Tuesdays. They have a website with more information about the business: https://wisegalcoffee.com/

I hope you enjoyed reading my blogpost and God bless!!

For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.                                                John 3:16

 

Spending my birthday at California's Great America

Hi everyone, I came back from spending my birthday visiting one of Northern California's two major amusement parks, California's Great America. I have actually never visited this park until this year, which is surprising since me and my dad love to ride roller coasters having visited Knotts Berry Farm in Southern California, Silver Dollar City in Missouri, Dollywood in Tennessee, Kennywood in Pennsylvania, Lagoon in Utah, and even Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo, California. But since the park is planning to close in 2033(1), 9 years from now, I felt like it was time for my family and I to visit the park. I decided to spend my 23rd birthday (the day before my 23rd birthday) evening at this park. And when we went, I was pleasantly surprised. 

The grounds at the park are beautiful and the front carousel is beautiful. And there are some fun roller coaster rides, even though when we started with the Grizzly and the Demon coasters, I felt like I would be right about my judgment of the park not having as good of roller coasters being correct. But I was pleasantly surprised when I rode their new ride Rail Blazer, and their classic Flight Deck (Top Gun coaster), and their new wooden roller coaster Gold Striker, that I was wrong. 

I was thinking about the land situation. It seems like it is in a better location being in Santa Clara near San Jose than where Six Flags Discovery Kingdom is at in Vallejo. Being in the Silicon Valley, tech central, which results in it being a money and power hub. And being near Levi's Stadium where the San Francisco 49ers play. Which is also why the location may not be as good as Six Flags Vallejo, because the park is closed on Sundays when the 49ers play at home because they share the same parking lot because of fears of overwhelming the road capacity and the resources of the community(2). 

Despite all this, many people haven't been to Great America in many years, even in the Bay Area. And Six Flags has become a popular choice for people in the Bay Area with more popular roller coasters and attractions being between the Bay Area and Sacramento. Which in Great America's heyday in the 80s and 90s was only Marine World which was originally in Redwood City and moved to Vallejo in 1986. When Premier Parks bought it in 1996 was when the major roller coasters were first installed at the park, which there are 10 of as of present(3), while Great America has 9 of them(4). And Six Flags operates the aquarium and zoo attractions that Great America does not have. 

Despite these things against Great America, Great America was still a fun and appealing park to visit and honestly didn't feel like a park in permanent decline as I initially thought. And the atmosphere at Great America is cleaner and more family friendly in my opinion than Six Flags with more pleasing shows and even their Halloween celebrations were more fun than I thought. I especially enjoy the Peanuts theme at the park with Snoopy and Charlie Brown like Knotts Berry Farm has. 

I really enjoyed visiting this park and I think it would be good place to visit and even take your family to visit. I think you would enjoy it!!

1. https://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2022/06/27/cedar-fair-prologis-great-america.html

2. https://www.sfgate.com/travel/article/great-america-closure-what-its-like-18471961.php

3. https://coasterpedia.net/wiki/Six_Flags_Discovery_Kingdom

4. https://coasterpedia.net/wiki/California%27s_Great_America

The History of the Folsom Outlets and why it was built?

For starters, the Folsom Premium Outlets is an 80 store (actually 62 stores operate here, with 13 vacancies at this present time in July 2024) outlet mall at the intersection of Folsom Blvd and Iron Point Road right of US 50. It has 296,035 sq feet of retail space. It is the closest Factory Outlet mall to Sacramento and the only one in the Sacramento metro area. The next closest outlet mall is the Vacaville Outlets which is 32 miles from Sacramento and 53 miles from Folsom. Outlet malls are known for selling the overstock from retailers and their irregular merchandise. But factory outlets got their start in the 1930s when manufacturers started selling their surplus merchandise directly to consumers right outside of the factory. They gained popularity with consumers because they didn’t have to wait until department stores started having sales on products they wanted. Then as time went on, starting in the 1960s, customers preferences moved to the malls and developers were inspired to build shopping malls dedicated to factory outlets(1), which is what Folsom Outlets is. The Folsom Outlets were built and opened in 1990, which was a huge success. But the location of the mall is interesting, since the location doesn’t represent the typical location of an outlet mall. They are usually located near a major interstate route, in a major tourist town, and in the suburbs. Folsom Outlets is in the suburbs away from the city and it is on US 50 and is on the way to a major tourist destination, South Lake Tahoe. But it is 84 miles from Lake Tahoe and only 20 miles from the city, which is not much help in becoming a stop for travelers. And I-80 and I-5 are much more popular interstate routes from the Sacramento and San Francisco area to other places in the state and the Western United States. But the outlet mall was successful and is continuing to be a popular place for shoppers in the region with major outlets like Nike, Coach, Michael Kors, Levis,
and Gap continuing to operate there. And new outlets such as J. Crew planning to open at the property(3). Which is despite the fact of its general location and even its location in the city being away from its major thoroughfare, East Bidwell Street, which it is 3-4 miles from and 8 minutes from, and the fact that the outlet mall hasn’t received a renovation since 2000, when it was expanded to the east to include where Levis, Gap, and the then Saks Off 5th outlet are at. Saks has since closed that outlet to move to the Creekside Town Center in Roseville(4), which they also closed later(5), which could be a sign the outlet mall is not as popular for retailers as it once was. The area around the mall has been struggling with retaining major tenants. The only sit down restaurant on the property, Applebee’s, only operated for a few years until it closed in 2008 during the recession, and the restaurants that came after Casa Ramos which lasted from 2010 to 2020, and Mariachi’s from 2020 to 2022, have both gone out. Taco Bell which was next to the movie theater closed, in order to focus on other Folsom locations, which is a rarity. The McDonald’s next to the outlet mall was slow to remodel to its newest look till 2023 and had the honor to be the last McDonald’s in the area to have play equipment from the 1990s, which they removed a few months ago and the restaurant later closed this month, October 2024 (5)(6). And even the mall has lost all its tenants in its food court. Despite the outlet mall’s unusual location, the outlet mall and the area continue to hang on with a popular movie theater, two hotels, and a Chili’s next door also. 

 The malls that have opened since the Folsom Outlets nearby are the Galleria at Roseville in Roseville 15 miles north, the largest mall in the Sacramento area, built in 2000, Fountains at Roseville a lifestyle center next to the Galleria in 2008, and the Palladio at Broadstone in Folsom itself built in 2009. And power centers such as Broadstone Plaza built in 2001 and Folsom Gateway in 2004. These centers have provided major competition, but the outlet mall continues to be the only outlet mall in the Sacramento area. 

 (1) The History Of Outlet Malls: From Factory Outlets To Shopping Destinations: https://www.outletshoppers.com/the-history-of-outlet-malls/

(2) Q&A: The differences between an outlet and mall store by Mary Chao https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2016/06/02/q-differences-between-outlet-and-mall/85286328/ 

(3) J.Crew Factory begins work on new Folsom Premium Outlets store by Jake Abbott: https://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/news/2024/07/24/jcrew-factory-joining-folsom-premium-outlets.html 

(4) Saks Off 5th closes store at Folsom Premium Outlets by Sonya Sorich:https://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/news/2015/04/16/saks-off-5th-closes-store-at-folsom-premium.html 

(5) Saks Off 5th permanently closes in Roseville; space could get new future by Sonya Sorich: https://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/news/2021/09/07/saks-off-5th-closes-in-roseville.html 

(6) When McDonald’s remodels a location with an Indoor PlayPlace, they often replace the equipment with new play equipment right away. The fact that this McDonald’s kept the old equipment a year after its remodel and removed it and have been slow to replace it, might be a sign of this retail area’s struggles. According to PlacerAI, this location only had 19,000 visits in June of 2024, which is less than the two McDonald’s on East Bidwell, one at Broadstone Plaza and one at Folsom Faire, which have between 32,000 and 36,000 visits each.

(7) McDonald's restaurants closes near Folsom Outlets: https://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/news/2024/10/08/5-things-mcdonalds-closes-near-folsom-outlets.html

My experience golfing while TopGolf expands

 

TopGolf is apparently planning a second Sacramento area location in Natomas, according to a Sacramento councilmember. I was surprised to learn about this because I didn't know our area was prime to have two. If you don't know about TopGolf, they have a location in Roseville off Hwy 65 off of Blue Oaks Blvd and are a place to eat and drink while practicing at their driving range. This post is relevant to me because I recently played at TopGolf a couple weeks ago with my friend who loves to play golf, and had a really fun time working on improving my golf skills because I am also participating in Special Olympics golf at the time of this writing. I have been playing at Empire Ranch for the past few weeks and a few weeks ago at the course was the first time I played golf. So, I am new at the sport and am learning every week on how to improve on the sport. I am very pleased that TopGolf is planning on expanding their presence in Sacramento and that the Sacramento region is still popular for new locations of new businesses. 

Here's the article: https://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/news/2024/08/12/topgolf-natomas-location-talamantes.html

Here's TopGolf's website to learn more about them and where they have locations: https://topgolf.com/us/

I hope you enjoyed reading about the article and that you learned more about TopGolf and are inspired to visit it.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.                                                John 3:16

Big Lots closures are not equal. Why does Big Lots struggle more in California than in other states??

 Big Lots is closing 300 stores, which includes 75 out of 109 of their California stores. Which includes most of their Sacramento stores such as:

Big Lots is closing five Sacramento area stores:

Elk Grove

Folsom-Greenback

North Highlands

Placerville (I actually learned this bad news as I was driving to visit Pollock Pines to take pictures for my new video, which I would highly recommend checking out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBGOFW81lgQ&t=1s. 

Why does another Placerville store have to close??)

Sacramento-Valley Hi

Sacramento-La Riveria

Woodland

Which leaves Big Lots with one Sacramento area store that is not closing:

Roseville

But states such as their home state of Ohio with 102 stores only has 6 closures set, and even Texas with 116 stores has no closures set. https://chainstoreage.com/big-lots-closing-about-300-stores-california-takes-big-hit

Here's full closure list: https://www.fastcompany.com/91168279/big-lots-store-closings-new-full-list-of-doomed-locations-35-states

And their website of their stores: https://local.biglots.com/

And Big Lots is saying they are working on a turnaround plan that seems to be working: https://www.retaildive.com/news/is-big-lots-transformation-plan-enough-to-save-it/722589/

What do you think? Why are they struggling a lot more in California than other places? Are Walmart and Target much more popular in California than other states, or since Rite Aid still operates in California, which isn't that common in many states anymore with many of them being pared down to CVS and Walgreens in that industry, does it drive business away from Big Lots?? Do people in California think less of Big Lots and have less of a reputation than in the Midwest?? Or has Big Lots become less of a discounter in California than it is in other places?? 

                                     

Attention Cameron Park: There's a new Mexican restaurant next to Applebee's

Are you looking for new restaurants to try in Cameron Park?? Do you know that there is a new Mexican restaurant in the Fork Lift/Applebee's shopping center. It is called Valenz Mexican Kitchen, which is located at 3275 Coach Lane in Cameron Park, California at the end of the plaza behind Applebee's. The owner is Antonio Valenzuela, who originally started this restaurant as a ghost kitchen during the pandemic, which blossomed into two food trucks serving the local area. Valenzuela decided to sell one of those trucks to fund the operation of the restaurant, which is 3,280 sq ft in size, and allows him to expand his horizions in the restaurant industry. The building has been home to several different restaurants, including Fondue 152 which operated for three years-from 2020 to 2023 and ZacJack Bistro which operated from 2011 to 2016. I ate one chicken and one steak tostada which were both really good and delicious chips and salsa. I went in seeing a fairly limited menu and I went out with delicious food that I believe is on par and even better than the other local restaurants in the area. I would recommend giving this place a try and if you like it, please tell me what you thought about it!! 

For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.                                                John 3:16

Thank you for reading my blogpost and God bless!!

Utah: my top favorite things about the Beehive State

Hi everyone, I just came back from visiting the state of Utah and I would like to discuss some of my favorite highlights from the trip, which I hope you will enjoy. 

We flew in on the fourth of July into Salt Lake City which was a fun time to enter into Utah, because they have some spectacular fireworks displays especially in the Utah Valley, which we had the privilege to drive out to see at the Cabela's in Lehi's parking lot, near Thanksgiving Point. We saw the displays from Thanksgiving Point, in towns in the Utah Valley even as far south as Provo from the parking lot. 

Before we did that, we started our trip eating lunch at the popular Red Iguana Mexican Restaurant, featured on Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives, where I ate delicious fajitas and chips and salsa. (1)

After eating there, we headed to City Cakes (2), an amazing gluten free bakery where we got donuts, cupcakes, cinnamon rolls, cookies and my favorite, their cheesecake. They have two locations, one in Salt Lake City and one in Midvale, which we visited on the trip. 

In fact, as we were driving through Salt Lake City to head to the bakery was when I happened to see a row of trains on the railroad near the Rio Grande station. And I learned that one of those trains was the famous Big Boy No. 4014 train(3), which ran from December 1941 to December 1961 having traveled 1,031,205 miles in its 20 years in service. The train was reacquired in 2013 from the RailGiants Museum in Pomona, California and was restored and returned to service in May 2019 to commemorate the 150^th anniversary of the Transcontinental Railroad’s Completion. The locomotives were 132 feet long and weighed 1.2 million pounds. They were articulated to allow them to negotiate curves with a 4-8-8-4 wheel arrangement, meaning they had four wheels on the leading set of “pilot” wheels guiding the engine, eight drivers, another set of eight drivers, and four wheels following supporting the rear of the locomotive. There are seven of them on public display in different cities in the country. St Louis, Missouri; Dallas, Texas; Omaha, Nebraska; Denver, Colorado; Scranton, Pennsylvania; Green Bay, Wisconsin; and Cheyenne, Wyoming. That was an amazing surprise and a delight for railroad enthusiasts to look at. 

Since we were trying to escape the heat in California during that time, we decided to stay the week in Park City, Utah which is at 6,936 feet in elevation, which meant the temperatures were in the 70s and 80s most of the time. It got to 91 the day we left. But it was a very pleasant week in the weather and in the things we did there. 

We stayed in the condos at Kimball Junction (the big box chains and affordable area of Park City) in Newpark Town Center(4), in the shopping center with Best Buy which was fun to see and to walk around in being a main street and also being next to the Swaner Nature Preserve which protects beautiful marshland, creek, mountain views of the area, and wildlife including Sandhill Cranes. The area is one of the communities that would be considered a new urbanist community: https://www.cnu.org/resources/what-new-urbanism. With an environmentally conscious footprint with dense housing, businesses within walking distance from residences, and preserving nature in the plan. 

In Park City, we enjoyed visiting the Olympic Park(5), which was a venue for the bobsledding, luge, skeleton, and ski jumping events for the 2002 Winter Olympics which took place in the Salt Lake City area, and is where they have a fun Alpine slide, ziplines, ropes courses, and tubing which we all enjoyed doing and is a very unique place in our country, one of the only two Winter Olympic Games fun parks I know of, the other one being in the Lake Placid area. And is very unique in having mountain tubing in the summer at expert level. 

Park City is known for being a winter ski destination, but its summer activities as stated with the Olympics is still strong. The ski resorts when the snow leaves, are turned into mountain biking, hiking, and horseback riding areas. We took advantage of going horseback riding at the Deer Valley grounds(6) which provided some beautiful scenery walking in the forest and up mountains. The mountains have beautiful pine trees and aspen trees and green grass, a delightful surprise in the Western United States. 

And the area's mountains have amazing vistas, especially going south from Park City at Empire Pass and Guardsman Pass, climbing up the mountain to see views of the Park City area and also of the Heber Valley and being awarded with an area in the Great Basin that receives about 30 to 40 inches of precipitation, most of which is snow in the winter, which brings the Pacific Northwest to the Great Basin in someway. 

And Park City has the fun main street to walk around with fun retail shops and restaurants in historic buildings nestled in the mountains on an incline street. One of my personal favorite businesses to visit in Downtown is the Dolly's Bookstore(7), an independently owned bookstore with many different books, which I especially enjoy for their geography and traveling section. They have been in business since 1972 and is Park City's premiere and only bookstore. 

Outside of Park City, we visited Ogden, where we skydived for the first time at the IFLY(8) in Downtown Ogden which was an intense experience in a surprisingly underwhelming building. Being in 120 mile winds flying was really impressive being in a small space and honestly took my breath away for a minute. 

After going to IFLY, I decided to visit the Ogden location of EntertainMart(9), a store dedicated to selling used books, games, and their large music and movie section, which I heard about from research and knowing the store took over the former Hastings, a former music and movie chain which had large stores, I thought I could do some music and movie shopping at a brick and mortar establishment that I can't do as much elsewhere and it did not disappoint. 

In Heber City, we visited the local favorite Dairy Keen(10), where they have delicious burgers and fries and chili. And most of all, their atmosphere is fun having the train theme which includes a running model railroad track around the restaurant. 

Heading south from Salt Lake City, we started at the Lone Star Taqueria(11) which is another Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives restaurant, where I ate fish tacos and enjoyed seeing their fun eclectic restaurant decor representing a 50s restaurant. 

I hope you enjoyed reading my short story about our Utah trip and I hope it gave you some ideas for new vacation ideas and I hope you have good luck on the trips you plan to take. 

For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.                                                John 3:16

Here are some links to the places I visited:

1. Red Iguana:https://www.rediguana.com/

2. City Cakes: https://www.citycakescafe.com/

3. Info on the Big Boy Train: https://www.up.com/heritage/steam/schedule/index.htm

4. Newpark Town Center: https://newparktowncenter.com/

5.Utah Olympic Park: https://utaholympiclegacy.org/location/utah-olympic-park/

6.Deer Valley Horseback Riding: https://www.deervalley.com/things-to-do/activities/horseback-riding

7. Dolly's Bookstore: https://www.dollysbookstore.com/

8. IFLY Ogden: https://iflyutah.com/

9. EntertainMart:https://entertainmart.com/

10. Dairy Keen: https://www.dairykeen.com/

11. Lone Star Taqueria: https://www.lstaq.com/

Thank you for reading and God bless!!