It was going to be a trip to California to see the family and the OC but first I had to meet with Carol Greenhouse from Anthropology on Monday and have the shredder man come on Wednesday to take our wares to the grinding machine. On Thursday, I had a faculty lunch with Joyce Carol Oates (Creative Writing), Warren Warren (Chemsitry), Adele Goldberg (Linguistics), Liz Gavis (Molecular Biology), Stan Katz (Woodrow Wilson School) and Kai Li (Computer Science). Then, John Ikenberry came by for a minute before this gentleman moved his truck but wouldn't allow me to take his picture.

I picked up Jane and we drove to the airport parking here and catching the bus here so that we could sit next to this gentleman on the plane and watch him read Jane's copy of The Catcher in the Rye while he shared his book with Jane but unfortunately it was unreadable. My meal was no better than Jane's except for the main course of mine which made me hope the flight would land soon so that we could put our bags and ourselves on the bus to get to Avis where this gentleman watched as we rented this car and took the freeway to see Larry and Janet who was incognito.

Next morning, Janet was happier as I played with the computer and Jane acknowledged that we were in The OC as we headed off to see the silos and talk to Mikey and the other employee as we observed the silos and the eventual end for their contents as the pellets go into the hopper and up the chute on their way to production. This gentleman appeared as we were recording the gauges and the metal machines that won't be around for long even as Mikey feigned work and Larry posed for the soccer picture while we all posed with the silos to prepare us if we ever had to do a full scale protest.

Next we drove on down the highway past the In-N-Out Burger and in the line of traffic past Santa Claus and onward in our search for tourist information through various turns and beyond the palm trees

until we found the Orange County van and passed through the light to the first signs of Newport Beach and onward

until we saw the beach and rounded the curve to Laguna Beach where we parked good enough for me but not good enough for the locals and pushed the button to make our way to the Village Mart where the waiter showed the way to the rest room where I got this collection sign and then on to the beach where we used this bench to enjoy my sandwich as the pelican and pigeons watched and wondered if the guards would appear as I took this self portrait and we again crossed the street behind an authentic OC hatted person to make our way to the chocolate store where there was a good selection and lots of Sponge Bob's friends as this gentleman provided us with chocolate you don't want to eat in the car. We said good bye to the Laguna Beach Greeter passed an OC sweat shirt and found that there were people who felt my parking job was inadequate.

We were back on the road and eventually got to San Diego for some food though there seemed to be a lot of phone calling in the air as I posed for a self portrait and captured Jane before she started talking on the phone but this ended when we studied pictures and Syl posed as we looked at another picture and then took the elevator to Aesop's Tables where we captured the tables the salad crackers Mediterranean plate and chicken Caesar salad before heading back to the decorations with a little for Hannukah and then playing cards until the phone rang but Dan focused and won as we ate more fruit more chewies and more brownies washed down by tea from these bags before calling it a night.

Saturday morning, we drove tot he pancake house where we had a short wait before we were seated with our tea given menus with the history and then left to our coffee hot chocolate and pancake concoction as the waitress took this family photo and the omelette and pancakes arrived. We stopped at Home Depot but they had poinsettias and Bonsai but not what we were looking for. Then, we drove home and parked and had our lunch of soup and cheese set out and served as Jane Syl Dan and I admired the vegetable faces I made as tea and oranges (brought all the way from China?) were served.

Later, we drove to Trader Joe's and after a few pictures the manager told us that we could take her picture but no more pictures of the store. We drove on to Rancho Bernardo and had a fine dinner with Anne, Irv, Rob and Linda served by this waiter who also took the picture of the assembled.