On Monday morning we hit the road to Klamath Falls, Oregon, our first "home" the place where we met, fell in love and married.  The first part of the journey was on State route 29 which was a winding mountain road through trees and up and down hills and valleys.  The morning sun was blinding in places making the going slow.  We came out on State Route 20 and then the I-5 at Orland , California.  

We stopped for lunch in Chico and then headed up the I-5 to 97.  We were in Klamath by 3 pm.  We stayed with Steve's Mom and had dinner at the Sizzler Steak House that night.  While in Klamath Falls we visited with Steve's sisters and their families, we went to the Kla-moy-ya Casino in Chiloquin, Oregon and spent an afternoon at the movie matinee.  We saw "The Help" which was one of those funny, sad kind of movies.  It was pretty good and stuck pretty close to the book which I had read before we went.  The ending was slightly altered from the book  but that made it better and a little more "happily ever after" which the book was not.  

On Friday, August 19, we said our farewells, packed up the car again and headed for San Francisco again.  Since it was very early I took the wheel and let Steve sleep a little longer.  I stopped at a vista point and took these great pictures of Mt. Shasta.  I tried to take some on the way up but the car was moving too fast and the mountain was obscured by clouds.  I love Mt. Shasta.  It is just breathtaking and the perfect example of an active volcano.  There is almost always snow blanketing her slopes and she just makes me think of all the good times of my youth and my first real experiences in the great Northwest. Awesome!

The traffic heading into San Francisco was a nightmare as usual.  I decided that we will go through Sacramento from now on when we go to Oregon.  Sacramento airport is so much easier to travel to and from and the traffic is as nothing compared to SF.  I don't know what would have happebned if I had not gotten directions before we left from Mapqwest.  We would probably still we driving around trying top figure out where the hotel was!  OMG!  


We finally did find the hotel which was exactly on the Pacific Ocean.  It was gray and cloudy and cool.  We walked on the beach and had dinner at the only restaurant near the hotel.  The hotel seemed to be in a mostly residential area.  I found out that my leg and ankle problems, called "Charko-Marie- Tooth" after the doctors who discovered it,  has definitely gotten worse since the last time I walked on the beach.  I had to walk slowly and hold onto Steve.  My ankles kept turning and that caused my knees to twist too.  Not a very fun sensation.


In the morning we discovered that the SF Zoo was not far from the hotel.  We decided to spend the morning there before heading back to the airport.  It didn't take us long to get through the zoo.  It is a little small but it was ok as my legs were still sore from walking the beach.  We bought a few t-shirts for the grandkids and then dragged out the map and headed for the airport.  Like I said, next time it's Sacramento!  We got home without incident at about 10 pm on Saturday night, the 20th.


All is well at home.  No one died or starved to death.  The weeds grew as if we'd been gone for a month instead of a week.  I guess there were monsoon thunderstorms and rain everyday we were gone.  It is still hotter than blue blazes.  Seems like it didn't bother me as much before I spent a week in cool 80 degree weather.  It is good to be home though.  As Dorothy said, "There's no place like home!"