What to eat while on a birding tour

Driving out of the San Francisco Bay area, we birded along back roads. In particular on Mining Road, where we
ate at the Junction Café. Many motorcycles had been zooming past us -- and here they were!

Between our stops at parks with birds, creeks with birds, roadside birds, and high mountain passes with birds, we've been eating some interesting meals. Some were even pretty tasty. Here are a whole lot of photos of the most interesting and unusual features of diners, cafés, and restaurants where we've stopped.

The Junction Cafe is special. Several of our group had the Mexican food there,
which they liked. I wasn't so lucky: my sandwich wasn't at all good. 

The decor is interesting.

At Emberz bar and restaurant in Sonora, where we spent the third and fourth nights of our trip, the most interesting thing
was the self-serve wine machine. A number of bottles are hooked up with flexible tubing and pumps attached to
a credit card machine. You put your glass under the spigot and press some buttons... 

Another view of the automatic wine dispenser. The food was pretty good.
I had chicken marsala, which I liked. Unfortunately on the second night
of our stay, we ate there and the service was horrible. 

Breakfast at the lovely Perko's diner in Sonora. Here's the group. Among the things we ordered: chicken-friend steak with
white gravy and hash browns, fruit plate, pancakes with fruit compote, sausages, eggs cooked in lots of ways, French Toast,
and every other thing a diner could possibly offer! 

Perko's decor. 

Perko's kitchen and our waitress who remembered everyone's preferences
for coffee etc. on the second day when we came back.

My favorite: a Mexican café in Arnold, CA near the Calaveras Big Trees State Park.  

The kitchen of the Mexican Diner.

Lunch today at the Hippo Bar just over the Sonora Pass across the Sierras.

Another view of the Hippo bar.

Finally: dinner tonight near Mono Lake:

Everything was made in-house, including these really tempting cakes and pies. I had blueberry pie.