I hate feeling sick. I felt crappy off and on throughout the trip last week. Kind of a sucky way to spend a vacation. And this crappiness has dragged on for a week and a half now. I mean what the hell. It's no secret that I don't mind missing work, but it wouldn't do me any good to just never go back. I mean, I do need to go back sometime . . . right?

Road Trip California

We hadn't been on a road trip in awhile, so on a lark, we decided to leave a week early for a wedding that was taking place a couple hours away.

Our first stop was in Lincoln, where we stayed with relatives. I love their big, new, clean house with all its comforts (especially air conditioning). We had a delicious dinner of walnut-breaded chicken, potatoes, and veggies, then we sat out in the back enjoying the warm summer night (something I hardly ever do). We went out for a big breakfast at Awful Annie's, and then got back on the road by noon. Our next stop was at the High Country Inn in Susanville. I had never been to Susanville before, but whenever I have recounted this trip to people, they always say, "Oh, sure, Susanville!" We arrived on a Sunday evening, which meant things were pretty dead. We drove around and took several pictures, especially of all the murals. The next day we headed north toward the Lava Beds National Monument. I was amazed at the landscape as we passed through northeastern California. I am so used to our gently rolling golden hills, that I am surprised to see the stark ruggededness of the high country. The lava beds were a lot of fun, but also a little scary. These are caves that were formed from lava flowing under ground that dried up. Some of the caves are tall, and well, cavernous. But others can be very small and narrow that you would have to scoot around on your stomach to see. We skipped those ones. But for all of them, there is no guide, no directions. They give you a flashlight at the visitor center and send you off to explore at your own risk. And these flashlights were not that comforting, once you've moved beyond the light of the entrance and are enclosed in total darkness. The national monument included a lot of stuff to see besides the caves, so we took our time driving around and taking pictures. From there it was just a hop and a skip across the Oregon border, so we spent that night in Klamath Falls. Unfortunately, things were also pretty dead there. They have a really nice-looking downtown area, but we couldnt't find any open restaurants or bars (it was Labor Day, though). So we ended up having dinner at Applebee's. The next day - Tuesday - was a really long day, because we decided to go all the way back to Tahoe. We headed east and stopped briefly in Lakeview, OR, which doesn't actually have a view of the lake (Goose Lake), but was the cute kind of town that I'd been hoping to see more of on this trip. We stopped again in Alturas, CA, for snacks, but otherwise we just high-tailed it, and arrived in Tahoe around 9:30pm.
I had a headache by that time, which was a bummer. I wonder if I have lost my knack for road tripping? We spent the next two days in Tahoe. Wednesday was a nice lazy day, and then some friends arrived that night. Thursday we hung out at Angorra Lakes, which was absolutely lovely. And then on Friday we headed to El Dorado Hills, for the wedding that night. There is more to tell about the wedding shenanigans, of course, but that is another story for another time.