In the South

My drive south was pretty uneventful — thankfully. Instead of leaving Friday evening, as planned, I postponed my departure after realizing that I’d be driving ’till midnight if I left at 4 pm. This proved to be the wisest choice as there were many tasks getting completed at the last minute (refilling the dog food for example.) After a good night’s sleep, we hit the road at 6:45 am.

In my utmost ignorance, I skipped breakfast. I sipped on my latte, and drove toward Hollywood where we would have brunch with DD and his girlfriend. Needless to say, I had to stop to pee, and grab some grub to hold me over.

We drove down I-5 for hours. I rediscovered cruise control and had a good sing-a-long as we went. While driving through vast areas of nothing but agriculture and stinky cows, memories of years of driving this drive with Tom came rushing back to me. I couldn’t help but smile

It was already noon, by the time we hit Hollywood. We spent a couple of hours at DD’s and then resumed the drive towards Orange county.

This part of the trip immediately reinforced why I choose to live in Northern California. The traffic slowed to a stop — all EIGHT lanes of it — and for no apparent reason. From the driver’s seat, I groaned and whined. After far too much of this, and just because I needed the world to hear my protest, I disconnected my iPhone’s connection to the stereo, handed it to YaYa, and dictated my tweet, then another.

Finally traffic eased a bit.  Soon after, we arrived at my sister-in-laws place. We ooo’d and awed as we took in the view of the lake from her place. The traffic was quickly forgotten and YaYa was suggesting that we move to Southern California permanently.  At this point, the traffic was not-so-forgotten.  Memories of traffic standstill came flooding back to me.  I smiled and responded to say NOT!

The view was beautiful indeed however, the people I’ve come to visit are what is most beautiful here. In addition to DD, Tom’s three sisters and niece live here. Did I mention that my in-laws are the greatest?  I married into a great family.  I love them!

I’ve since abandoned the idea of visiting a theme park.  Instead, I have decided to make this trip as relaxing and low-key as possible.  I need that the most right now.  YaYa and I have been enjoying dining, swimming, playing games, and just plain hanging out with the family.  It’s perfect!

In addition, my trip has also included a fabulous trail run with Jeff and wonderful visit with his beautiful family. Of course this is another story in and of itself which I will soon be sharing.

But now, I must get back to my vacation…