We’re back from the road trip. We had a great time. The drive down went very smoothly. We stayed at The Palm Cottages in Ashland. It is a great funky mid-century motel. We loved the gardens and the funky decor. The next day we drove through Lassen National Park and down through Reno to Mammoth. We didn’t notice any smoke until we got to Reno. We couldn’t even see the mountains surrounding Reno – it was terrible. The second day was pretty long – 10 hours driving almost non-stop.

Mammoth was wonderful as usual. I liked our condo much better than the condo we had last time at Mammoth Inn. Snowcreek Condo was wonderfully equipped and the owner was great to work with. He had a lot of small extras which made a nice stay. We did two hikes. The mosquitoes were terrible but the flowers were great.

Next we met up with our family at Annett’s Mono Lodge outside of Bridgeport. There were 20 of us and 4 generations. We had a great time talking and enjoying the outdoors. We even got the local hot springs but we were scared off by the thunder. It hailed and rained back at the camp which put a bit of a damper on the night be we all pitched in and cleaned up.

We spent a few more days in the Valley and then we headed for the Mendocino coast. We stayed at a very interesting Zen cottage just north of Fort Bragg. Very private. We never saw the owner and it was so peaceful and serene.

We finished up the vacation with a drive through the redwoods, a night in Grants Pass and another long drive home. Our cat was so glad to see us. She has been quite vocal about how upset she was that we went away and hasn’t left my side.