Going to Cali

We left Oregon a couple of mornings ago.  A friend texted that she was also in the area and maybe we could meet for lunch in Bend, OR.  She used to live in Homer, AK and we were part of the AK Obama delegation to the national convention in 2008.  We have kept in touch though we have not seen each other since that time; now she is living in Portland but happened to be in the vicinity for the eclipse.  We made arrangements to meet at a coffeeshop in Bend, though I told her we had a long day of driving ahead of us and couldn’t stay for long.  Unfortunately she kept running into traffic delays so Rich and I got to the coffeeshop, waited a bit, ordered our food, ate our food, and waited some more and she was still not there.  I felt bad about it but finally texted her and said we had to move on.  She was understanding but I wish we had been able to connect.  😦

There was a LOT of smoke in Oregon, still quite a few fires burning.  I hope no lives were lost and no major property damage happened.

 

We drove 11 hours that day, which is a huge amount for us old folks who are pretty lazy when it comes to long trips!  But we wanted to make it to Sacramento to spend the night. As we crossed the border into California, all cars were directed to a check point to inspect for fruits and veggies.  Oops.  I wasn’t aware and Rich had forgotten that you can’t bring certain foods into California.  The ag inspector asked us if we had anything and we said yes, we had some cherries in the cooler.  Rich got out to open the cooler in the back seat and realized there were also three lemons sitting right on top.  The inspector confiscated all of it and threw it in the trash. He did thank us for being honest, though, so there’s that.  🙂

 

In Old Sacramento, we stayed over at the Delta King, an old riverboat that’s been made into a hotel.  It was pretty cool and we enjoyed our quiet night there, though we got in pretty late.  The next morning, we had a lovely complimentary breakfast in the restaurant and then made our way down the highway to Rich’s cousin Mary Ethel and her husband Roger’s place in El Dorado Hills. Rich’s sister Vesta had also driven up to meet us there,  and we met ME and Roger’s granddaughter Megan who has been living with them for the past two years attending community college.  It was great to see Mary Ethel and Roger, who are among our favorite people, so genuine and friendly and funny and welcoming.  Megan was delightful, seemingly not minding hanging out with the old folks.  And it was good to catch up with Vesta, of course.

 

Mary Ethel and Lisa

Roger

Somewhere on the road

Mary Ethel

Lisa and Megan

Megan and her grandpa

Vesta

Delta King

Rich and Mary Ethel

The next morning, Mary Ethel and Roger went with Megan to move her into her apartment/dorm at Sacramento State, where she will finish her degree.  Her mom Lisa also came over and Rich had a good time reminiscing with her.  I had never met her but totally enjoyed her as well.  While they all went to Sacramento, Rich, Vesta and I stayed at the house, did some laundry, cleaned up, read, and talked.  Later Mary Ethel, Roger and Lisa returned and we all went out to dinner, talking, telling jokes and laughing some more.  All in all, such a fun visit!  We really do love these people.  🙂

 

Roger, Rich, Mary Ethel, Vesta

Roger, Mary Ethel, Jane, Vesta

Mary Ethel and Rich

Yesterday we drove to Sonora to see Rich’s stepdaughter Hannah who is attending community college there.  We took her to lunch and then to the grocery store to stock up on food for her apartment. We had not seen Hannah in a few years and were happy to have a little bit of time with her.  From there, we drove on to Kingsburg to spend the night with Rich’s sister Vesta, who had dinner cooked for us and we enjoyed another nice night of visiting.

This morning we drove to Canoga Park, outside LA, to meet Rich’s nephew Jeffrey for lunch.  He’s another one we haven’t seen in awhile so it was really good to have some time with him.  Originally we decided to make a reservation for dinner at a place in LA called Osteria Motto, but to kill some time, we drove through a bit of Hollywood to the huge LA farmer’s market.  Yes, this is us: drive through Hollywood but only go to the farmer’s market.  🙂 It was pretty cool and we wandered around for awhile.  Eventually Rich said he wasn’t really up for dinner after all (we were still full from lunch and had to make a 5:15 reservation for dinner because the only other available times were 9:15 or 9:30).  So we had some flan for dessert at the farmer’s market, picked up some fruit for later, and cancelled our reservation.  Maybe another time, Osteria Motto.

 

Flan

Farmer’s Market

Hollywood High School

Rich and Jeff

Farmer’s Market

We are meeting some friends for lunch tomorrow near I-10, which will be our route home.  Tonight we are spending the night at a hotel nearby so we don’t have to drive far to see them tomorrow.  We’re still not hungry so we brought in our fruit and snacks from the car and Rich made us a margarita. We are chillin’ in the room, lamenting the fact that the hotel does not have HBO so we can’t watch Game of Thrones. 🙂

Tomorrow after lunch with our friends, we will start our trek home.  It’s been such a great trip–we have completely enjoyed every bit of it.  Meanwhile we’ve been watching the news about Hurricane Harvey in Texas. It sounds like it is really bad at the coast.  Thankfully none of our family live close enough to be affected, but we are thinking about those who are suffering through it.  I hope everyone is safe, though I know there are going to be some tragedies and that breaks my heart.