I’m hoping it’s true that a picture is worth at least a few dozen words, because otherwise I will never catch up on the tripblogging so far.

On Monday we left the town where GB‘s family lives. They call it the “City of Flowers,” but it’s only occasionally that you can really see why:

We went to visit some of GB’s relatives from his dad’s side. There are very few things about California that I really hate, but this long, hot, thirsty, brown drive through the middle of the state would be one of them.

We were understandably happy, then, to finally come across one lone cafe, in the middle of nowhere, just as I was starting to wonder if I really was going to pass out from dehydration and heat.

Not just *any* cafe: the cafe’s parking lot houses the James Dean memorial. Apparently his fatal car crash occurred 900 yards from this spot. How ’bout that.

This is one of the plaques at the memorial, with LB and GB shadowblogging.
And I think GB was suffering from the heat and dehydration too, because he got this sticker out of a gumball machine in the restaurant and decided to go ahead and stick it on the car.* In case you can’t read it, it says “I (heart) hotties with bodies.”

Onward, then, to visit the other side of the family. I totally get why GB might be prone to multiple personalities, since the two sides of his family, if they weren’t related, would almost certainly be involved in generations-long feuds. But we had a lovely visit, and this beer tasted mighty good.
The next day we went to Yosemite, which was way too close to where we were not to visit (especially since I’d never been there, despite all my years on the west coast). It was absolutely freaking amazing, and we spent a good part of the afternoon.
My favorite part of the day: wading in the river. (I’m waving, not shaking my fist–though I’ve been doing some fist-shaking too. But not in rivers. Mostly at other drivers.)
Then it was off to San Francisco! Damn, I miss this city.
We stayed with Skycat and the Yogini Tuesday and Wednesday nights, and I don’t have bloggable pictures of that, really, but my god, I can’t remember the last time I laughed that hard. Seriously. I thought I was going to break something. On Wednesday night we had tacos for dinner, per my birthday request. Too. Fucking. Good. And altogether so, so much fun. Sigh.

We did also make it to my favorite restaurant in the whole entire fucking world. Yes, it’s a sub shop. No, I have no idea why no one else can make sandwiches like this, but they just don’t, okay?

In what is, I think, our longest ongoing ritual together, we did what we’ve always done, and took our subs to the park. Sigh. Sigh. GB, my favorite subs, the Botanical Gardens in Golden Gate Park, and then going back to Skycat and the Yogini’s rooftop abode. I am the luckiest girl in the world.


And that brings us just about up to now, in the hotel we’re staying in tonight where the wireless is indeed free. But I have more eating to do this evening before I even get to the drinking part. Drunkblogging will follow!

*It’s GB’s car–he left it at his parents when he came to the other coast, and we drive it when we’re out here. The rest of the time, his poor uncle–who is not especially a supporter of Animal Liberation, or Donna the Buffalo, or any of the other bumper stickers that GB has on the car–though he may support Hotties with Bodies–borrows it.