Trip to CA

I see another month has gone by since I last posted. I've thought about it quite a few times but there never seems to be a "good" time. I guess a good time is when I expect to sit down and not be interrupted. Not too many of those opportunities at home or work.

Trip to CA photo album on Webshots

So, shortly after Aaron got back from his 7 month stay in Reno with his Dad, we headed to CA for our annual family/friends visiting vacation. We spent 12 days amongst the various places and it was definitely nicer to only stay at 4 places instead of 6 or 7. I did miss opportunities to share a meal with 2 long time friends, but with the traffic so bad between Sacramento and the Bay Area, changing towns during the day is imperative.

We headed out the day after Dave and Matt left for U of I for Matt's junior year. This year he moved out of the dorms and into an apartment so we had a truck full of stuff to send up so Dave took the truck up on Friday. Aaron and I left Saturday morning and first stopped in Reno to assess how much stuff Aaron had to bring back so I would know how much room to leave in the car. Since we were a bit ahead of schedule, we took the opportunity to sort through and pack all the crap he had in his room and closet. There was quite a bit of stuff, so we set off to our first destination which was my Mom's. We stayed there until Tuesday and spent days helping her pack and sort through items as she will be selling her place later this year and moving into a smaller place. We did get to see Dad for breakfast on Sunday and I played some dice and had a drink with him on Monday.

On Tuesday we left Mom's and went to Rayleen's. I called as I decided to travel during the day and not wait in Sacramento to have dinner with Jen as I was afraid of the traffic and very anxious to have a shower after being at Mom's for 4 days. She was able to get a hold of Thomas and he was there when we arrived. Rayleen ended up being able to take off work for our stay and it was Thomas' birthday on Thursday so we ended our stay with a great breakfast at a Crepe place in Santa Cruz.

From Rayleen's we headed to Dave's Mom's in Saratoga. This was Thursday. Dave flew down and met us early Friday morning. His truck had given him problems on the trip north, so he was interested in looking at the Acura MDX in the Bay Area since there is much more selection of nicer vehicles than here in Boise. We ate wonderful meals and sat on the covered patio day and night and just relaxed and read. Aaron spent his days in the pool. The Sunday before Dave flew and Aaron and I drove back to Idaho, we drove up to Belmont and had lunch with Nanney. Randy and Nancy met us there and it was great to see them! Because my trip was cut short because of work, I didn't get to go to their houses and stay because of the timing of Dave being in the Bay Area over the weekend.

Dave flew out of San Jose on Monday night and we headed up to Dad's. I was supposed to meet Tricia at this point in the trip for dinner, but again, if I would have left later, the traffic from the Bay Area to Sac would have been gross. So, we went straight to Dad's and spent the night. Aaron and Dad got heavy into some electronics stuff which went over my head after the first few minutes.

Early Tuesday we left Dad's and headed back to Sparks to get Aaron's things. At this point, the car was dragging ass. I had taken a bunch of stuff from Mom's as well as all the stuff we had for 12 days worth of travel. The electronics alone was staggering :) We only went to 3 Fry's during the vacation, LOL Dave brought empty suitcases so I sent him back with a bunch of stuff, but the car was still full. At Aaron's Dad's we were able to get everything but a few clothes and some things he said he didn't need or was going to leave there. We even managed to get the dreaded electric scooter. The car was packed to the roof. This pic is Aaron trying to get something from the back and he's sitting atop all the boxes and his back is parallel with the roof of the car. He was a bit upset with me for taking the pic and demonstrating his Reno behavior. It was funny.

On the trip, I gave MyMileMarker a try. Usually Dave wants to know my gas mileage and I hate figuring it out so I setup this site before I left and emailed him my info so he could check it. I don't think he has looked at it to this day, but at least I didn't have to do any math. I just wish I could figure out how to send it the fillup info from Twitter. Just not sure of the format.

So we got back from the trip to CA and had one weekend before we left for the Oregon Coast for the wedding. To be continued...