Greetings from supah-sunny Caul-eeee-fawrn-ya!!

Yep, I'm on another vacation. Nope, it's not fair, seeing as how I just took a mini-vaca only a mere three weeks ago. Deal with it, firefighter.

This time it is the family roadtrip down the coast of Oregon and all the way down to San Diego, with stops in the bay area, Long Beach and the Redwoods along the way. Internet connections are few and far between and, even though I brought le laptop along, I'm reporting from a borrowed machine currently.

Highlights, observations and oddities seen thus far include:

• a Toyota (yay! a palindrome!)-ish SUV pulling a trailer holding a(n) historical military cannon (circa Civil War, ours)...we photographed this as we passed it by, as the driver proudly beamed (dude, we were amused and mortified, not impressed, get over yourself)
• a senior-citizen biker gang, some avec bitches and some not (on Harleys, for reals)...this was far more impressive than the dude with the scary cannon
• waaaaay too much roadkill (quite the variety, though)
• stopping in a farmer's market/produce stand/store in Gilroy, CA (garlic capital of the world) and watching J bust a move to The Pointer Sisters' "I'm So Excited" to the shock and surprise of onlookers
• K, intending to join J and I across the street at the relative's home, walks into the wrong house (which, incidentally, was right next door to where she needed to be) and calls out a "hello?" to J and I (who are, of course, in the correct house) and, upon receiving no response, proceeds to walk through the home looking in the rooms and hoping to find us there...eventually, she realizes that she might be in the wrong house and comes next door
• conversation overheard in a boutique selling women's surf-inspired clothing:

Salesclerk: "What size is she?"

Grandma (to sales clerk): "She's pretty big."

Salesclerk: "So, like a 10 or a 12?"

Grandma (mortified): "No, she's an 8!!!"

Yes, I'm officially in Southern California, now. Where a size 8 is considered pretty big and the size of the brain appears to be irrelevant (please, no hate mail about how faboo SoCal is - I lived here for five years and I know that there are some folks here who are smart and not superficial and all that...I'm just talking about the prevailing idea of what = beautiful here and that it bugs me a little...I actually love a lot of things about this place - super-duper multicultural, great food and better year-round produce, the cultural arts and music options for those who love them, you can buy booze in the supermarket - I just HATE the whole beauty contest that nobody's gonna win that is so everpresent).

I'm neither super grande, nor am I tres petite, but I just hate the whole skinniest girl contest and all the icky judgment that goes along with it. There's nothing good that comes of it and it makes a lot of chicks feel crappy about themselves. That's no bueno, to be sure.

Today, after a late breakfast enjoyed while shouting out the answers to questions from Who Wants to be a Millionaire and The Price is Right, we went body boarding at Seal Beach and then hung out at Huntington Beach for awhile. The people-watching was fan-fucking-tastic.

More to come, on an as-able basis.