Back in Sac for the Holidays!

Alex and I have been back in Sacramento since Dec 22nd. I know it is lame we haven't been blogging recently. I was in Huntington Beach the last time I blogged. I'm going to make this one short.
We went to Laguna Beach and that is definitely a place I would love to go back and visit. It rained the entire time we were there and not sprinkles, it was heavy rain. It seemed like a very artsy community. Every store had some type of art gallery along with whatever else they were selling; food, clothes, jewelery, etc. We had coffee at a bohemian-esque place called "The Koffee Klatch." I got an Aztec Mocha, which is basically a mocha with cinnamon added to it. The cinnamon was really peppery. I enjoyed it. Alex and I used an umbrella as we walked around the town and that was quite the experience. It was a rather small umbrella and both Alex and I were under it. Alex was trying to hold it so that the umbrella protected both of us from the rain. Alex is 6'4" and I'm 5'6" so as hard as he is trying to keep both of us from getting wet, he wasn't doing a very good job keeping the rain off of me. I tell him to bring the umbrella close to his head and he says he can't see if he does that. I then tell him that I can still see, so I'll just have to guide the both of us as we walk through the pouring rain. Our walk didn't last very long because the rain was so bad. Our umbrella almost went flying the other direction turning it inside out. We checked the weather and were notified of warnings of flash-flooding and mud slides in the entire area including San Diego area, which was next on our destination list. We spent a lot of time in the bus, taking naps, browsing the internet, and playing games on our phones. There really wasn't much to do aside from trying to occupy ourselves in our van. Laguna Beach seemed like it would be a really fun town to go back to see.

Our last stop before coming back to Sacramento was in Vista, Ca. Vista is about 45min from San Diego and about 15 min from the Amtrak station in Oceanside. Alex and I decided to leave our van with some friends in Vista and then take the train back to Sacramento. That way the whole driving situation wouldn't feel so rushed to get back for the holidays. We stayed with Len and Peggy Marinello and I was so glad that we were able to leave our van with them. They are a couple that I met at a family camp growing up, CFO, which stands for Camps Farthest Out. If you want to know more about it you can google it. I'm trying to make this blog short, so yeah. Anyways, The Marinello's are a very lovely and hospitable couple. Peggy Marinello loves to talk and share all kinds of random stories. She is a great story teller and they are always interesting. There wasn't a dull moment while we were with them.

Our plan was to catch the train the next morning. It poured rain the entire night and at 7am I got a call from Amtrak telling me our train had been canceled due to flooding on the tracks and two reported mud slides. Are you serious??? Canceled?? All trains were canceled from San Diego to San Juan Capistrano. We found out that we could catch the train in San Juan, but that meant our morning was going to be a little more rushed. San Juan was an hour away from Vista. Thankfully, Len Marinello was more than willing to drive us the extra distance.  The entire day was just more stress for me. Alex wasn't really that stressed out, which was probably a good thing, because if both of us were stressed that would be a recipe for disaster. Our train in San Juan was an hour late. Then I was worried about missing out bus transfer in LA, but we made it. Then our train in Bakersfield was two hours late. We got back to Sacramento at midnight and I was so glad to finally make it here.

Since we've been in Sac it has been great. We had a wonderful Christmas with family and we have already been able to catch up with friends. Not everyone is reading our blogs, so I've re-told a lot of the stories I've already blogged about to friends and and family, which is fine. Re-telling these stories actually makes me look forward to getting back on the road. After the Holidays we will be headed east. Alex and I leave again on January 2nd. So, I won't be blogging again until after the New Year. Thanks for reading!