Stardate 62383.25 - CA Day Five

I'm now back from my 4-day sailing adventure (an early birthday present), so I can continue with the California vacation series.


Because we thought Loren was getting a little bored in the evenings at Yosemite, we purchased her a magnetic Yosemite scene that she could add animals to in different locations. She really liked her "game" and played with it a lot. Here we are just about packed up on Thursday morning, ready to check out, and she is still in her PJs, playing the game. As you can see below, we finally got her dressed and she wanted all of her berets in her hair.


It wouldn't be a long car trip without a picture of Loren in her car seat.


We went into the valley for the last time and let Loren throw rocks into the creek for the last time.





And then we had a hellish time getting to Berkeley. The route we wanted to take, 120, was completely closed by a rockslide (but we didn't know that), so we got sent off on 140 (which also was partially closed by a rockslide). In several places (like the one pictured below), the road went down to a single lane with 2-way traffic. We we waited and waited and waited before we could go. I won't go into all the details, but Loren was pretty good for the first hour or so of delays, but then she wanted out when there were no places to get out and finally fell asleep as we cleared the last of the hideous traffic jams. At that point I was ready to beat someone to death so Cheryl took over driving the rest of the way.


Here on 140 you can see how the road is covered in rocks. They had temporary bridges set up to send you to the other side of the river and back to avoid the slide, but it was taking forever to switch traffic from one direction to another, and at one point a huge truck was 3-4 spots in front of us and was turned around because the temporary bridges were insufficient to support its weight. So that took something like 15 minutes to get sorted out while we sat, and sat, and sat.


As we approached the bay area there were hundreds and hundreds of windmills on the hills, spinning and generating power. Go green!


Here in Berkeley Loren literally stops to smell the flowers at the Doubletree Marina, where we stayed one night.


Across the street from the hotel was a park (Cesar Chavez Park), and Loren enjoyed running in the tall grass.


And watching this kite be skillfully flown.


That evening we met an old High School classmate of Cheryl's for dinner, and Loren was very good at the restaurant. It was then back to the hotel to sleep.

NYC