I finally have time to tell about my vacation. It was great. Now on with business.

Oh, more details than that?

It was a long drive both ways, more than 1000 miles, but well worth the drive. If you haven’t driven through central California along the 5, you aren’t missing anything, but otherwise much of the drive is quite beautiful. Of course, Ariel is too young to enjoy the drive, but that’s how it goes.

We got a later start than we would normally, because Brent had an interview in Irvine, about an hour north of where we live, at 2:30 in the afternoon, for a job he really wants. So we lost several hours of the first day of the vacation to that. Hopefully it will be worth it. But that meant we didn’t get to Sacramento, our first overnight stop, until about 11 at night, which was far from ideal.

The drive from Sacramento to Nehalem, OR, takes about 10-1/2 hours, so it’s not easy. Lots of curvy roads, but stunning scenery as well. We stayed in Nehalem with my grandparents for three full days, visiting the other small towns in the area and generally having fun. Haystack Rock has some half decent tide pools; not as good as the ones in La Jolla in many ways, but some big starfish. You don’t swim there because the rip tides are very strong, not to mention the cold, cold water.

We drove back home along the 101, which is a longer drive, but very beautiful, and it takes you through some Redwood forests. We took two days to get to San Jose to see my dad, then spent the night there before returning home.

And can you believe it, I survived the entire trip without access to a computer! My grandparents don’t have one, so there really wasn’t a choice. Besides, this kind of trip is far too much fun to spoil by staring at a computer screen all day or even just a short time.