Sunday, July 30, 2006

Ang's Road Trip

I got a few questions about my trip and wanted to test out the image upload on the blog, so here goes.

I had family things to take care of in the NW, and then the spousal unit and me drove back. It wasn't too bad zipping along through Washington and Oregon in the rented Jeep (we had boxes to bring back) on the first day, but as soon as we hit Redding just before noon the next day, oy vey. We had the distinct non-fun of driving through the Central Valley in triple-digit temperatures. I drove the leg from Willows (look it up) to the junction of I-5 and SR 46. SO took over at that point and headed west to Paso Robles. No way were we going to spend the night in Bakersfield (or worse).

We ended up in the bustling downtown of PR, and came across the Paso Robles Inn. It sits across the street from the main square and park. Lucky for us, there was a room available for the night. What was even luckier for us was the Inn sat over an historic mineral hot spring. Even more lucky, our room was in the last remaining part of the original Inn, so we got a gorgeous room. Yes, that is a picture of the Titanic over the bed. The ceilings were very high, the AC a bit anemic, and there was a fireplace in the corner we didn't try out.


What was even better was the huge tub with hot mineral water. Three taps, one for the mineral water, and then regular hot and cold. Just the thing for two exhausted and aching road warriors. Being conservation minded, we shared the tub to save on both water and electricity. The picture over the tub is a painting of the original Inn. By the time I was done soaking, I smelled like a rotten egg and nearly fell on the floor when I was getting out, I was so relaxed. Oh, and as an FYI, the Thai restaurant on the square, Basil, is a great place for dinner. Good service and great food.

The next day was the march through LA and home to San Diego. San Luis Obispo to LA, just over two hours of gorgeous oceanview driving. LA to San Clemente, two hours - bad traffic from the Getty to LAX, then OK speeds in the carpool lane until we got to Irvine. Bumber to bumper. Stopped for lunch. From San Clemente to San Diego, almost three hours of bumper to bumper from getting on the freeway to our exit in SD.

No more excellent adventures for me for a while, I'm glad to say.

Anglachel

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