We got home from our week-long vacation in California late last night. We started off in San Diego with Clems & Sophie as their "tour guide," except for when they went to the San Diego Zoo and Sea World. San Diego is one of our favorite places for vacation.

We started with our usual visit to Joe's Crabshack in Pacific Beach followed with a walk in the water along the beach. After dipping our feet into the ocean, we went on a scenic drive through La Jolla up to Mt. Soledad. On a clear day you can see down the coastline all the way to Mexico. It is the perfect photo-op spot.

After four days in San Diego, Clems & Sophie flew home and Rob & I drove up to Bakersfield to visit our friend Gretchen. I had not seen Gretchen since 9/11 and, given that past visits seemed to coincide with earthquakes or other disasters, Gretchen joked about preparing for some disaster during the visit. Unfortunately, there was Hurricane Katrina this time, it just happened before we got there. Hmm, maybe Gretchen is on to something...

Anyway, the drive from San Diego to Bakersfield is really pretty. It did take a couple of hours to get through L.A. but other than that, it was very pleasant. The last part of the drive is through the Tehachapi Mountains that is really nice, even though it has been brown (not green) everytime I have driven through there. You might have received a picture showing the mountains full of colorful flowers in some of the mass emails that circulate and, believe it or not,
Snopes does say that picture is for real. Gretchen says that it does really look that way for about 2 weeks in March so maybe we'll have to plan a trip there sometime just to see this.

Our visit with Gretchen and her daughter Annaliese was fun. Rob & I have decided that Annaliese will be in performing arts when she grows up. She is so much fun to be around and "shy" is not a personality trait she has.

We left Bakersfield yesterday and drove to Burbank to catch our flight home. We had a layover in Las Vegas and Rob came home a penny richer (he found one on the floor)!

Check out photos of the trip by clicking on Our Photo Album or check out Clems' Photo Album.