It could be worse; it could be raining!

We stopped in Walnut Creek on Thursday and had a lovely visit with Bob and Sandi and Tess. The evening was warm enough that we dined al fresco on flank steak, grilled corn on the cob and a salad. There was bread, too, and a lovely cabernet sauvignon called Earthquake.  I don't know that it was earth shaking, but it was very good and made an exquisite accompaniment to the dinner.

We got on the road, next day, about 8 AM.  Traffic was a good deal lighter than I had expected in the bay area, and we whizzed along in our new car, making better time than anticipated.  At Grapevine, we stopped for lunch and to check fuel economy. That leg (Walnut Creek to Grapevine) netted us 32 mpg! Not bad for a car that is still in the break in stage.

And then there was Los Angeles.  We arrived in the greater L.A. area at 1:50 PM, where we came to a stop. Traffic was worse than I have ever seen in the big city, and it didn't improve.  Oh, yes. Occasionally, we were able to get up to the speed limit, but never for very long.

The drive through Camp Pendleton was trouble free, but then we hit Oceanside and the Friday afternoon-going-to-opening-day-of-the-county-fair traffic.  Stop and go, stop and go all the way to the fairgrounds' turn off at Via de la Valle.  At last, traffic thinned out and we toutled along at 65...until, that is, about a mile north of the I805 junction. From there it was stop and go all the way into San Diego.

At last we arrived at the Sagawa residence, a mere four hours after we came to a stop on the freeway in L.A. And to think we had covered 100 miles in such a short time! I told the kids, we are planning our next road trip to visit them, to commence the day after they move north of Grapevine, CA!

[Note to self: DO NOT drive in SoCal on a Friday afternoon, if you want to get any where!]

It is good to be with the family again. The boys are big enough that they get excited to see us, without having to go through a "warming up" period.  We look forward to a pleasant visit.