Delta Farmers Market, Ryer Island and Lodi, CA

Saturday, May 16, 2015

Today we decided do some driving around the local area.  Our first stop was the Delta Farmers Market here on this island.

There was lots of kinds of fruit.....

and vegetables.  Mandarin oranges must be ready now because they were everywhere.

There was also many kinds of jams & preserves, local honey, local wines etc.  The map shows the whole Delta area.

They even had an outside area where you sit and eat and drink your wine.  :o)

Next stop was a free ferry that took people onto Ryer Island where a writeup said farmers set up stands and sold their produce.  So we decided to check it out.

We had to cross another bridge that is a lift bridge.  The tower you can see in this picture is one side of the lift.

The whole center of this bridge lifts to let tall ships pass.  We did not get to see the bridge lift.

When Tic got out to take a picture of this bridge, there was...

this big Jack rabbit.  Would you look at the long ears!!

The J-Mac Ferry was a different ferry, so it being closed did not effect our plans.  Notice the Real McCoy II runs 3 times per hour.

Here we are driving onto the Real McCoy II Ferry.  We are going all the way across to the other side.  It is supposed to be a 2 to 3 minute ride.  Would the cost of operating this ferry pay for a bridge?

Now we are driving off the other side.

We drove most of the way around the island and had not seen any produce stands or even anything to take a picture of.  

Suddenly Tic say these swans in the water.  He stood up in the Jeep (T-tops were off) and was able to get this picture.

When we were almost back to the ferry, we saw this sign:

This bewildered us.  Why would the visitors guide tell us about driving around Ryer if it was illegal???  We were almost to the ferry anyway.

We are waiting to get on the ferry.  Apparently it has not left the other side so it will be a little bit. It looked to us that the ferry would hold approximately 6 cars.  We are 4th in line at this time.  Only one more vehicle showed up by the time we were loading.

Our next stop was Lodi, CA.  Tic remembered the song "Stuck in Lodi Again" sung by Credence Clear Water.  So we needed to check out the town of Lodi.

This was the entrance to Old Town Lodi.

This arch is called the Welcome Arch and is located near the old train station.

It was 1pm now and we decided to eat at this Mexican Restaurant.

The water carafe and glasses did not look like a typical Mexican Restaurant.  We reminded ourselves that we were in California.

Tic had a vegetarian burrito.  Some is already gone.  It filled the plate.

I had a chicken burrito.  Obviously mine filled the plate also.  I cut it in half immediately.  Then I cut the rest into pieces.  The cut up portion was plenty of food!!!

We both brought home half of our lunch.  We decided it would be our dinner.

After having such a big lunch we decided we needed to walk around through this area. There were lots of statues around.  Most were painted to appear life like.

This is the only statue we saw that was not painted. Looks like they are celebrating their grape harvest.
 

These Mariachis were on one corner.  Don't they look alive!?!
 

Tic claims this man took his hat.  Because the man had a weapon, Tic did not fight him for it.  :o)
 

 This looks so real!  How touching.

Isn't this a cute couple?
 

This sailor is obviously glad to see the nurse.
 

This is not a live cop either.  
 

 Then we found Marilyn Monroe on a corner near a Performing Arts Theater.

There were all kinds of shops, restaurants and wineries.  It was a fun town to walk through.

Time to head home now.  Tomorrow we head to South Lake Tahoe.