After one more brief adventure through some Sierra Nevada towns in California — including Truckee, Nevada City and Grass Valley (and what a great bunch of towns they all are) — we headed off to the latter portion of our trip, which was to do some college visits for Ricky.

First we stopped at UC Davis: 

Nice campus! It was hot, but I loved the pine trees on campus and the sprawling greenbelts, and Ricky seemed to love the fact that you could walk to the football stadium, the really cool rec center/pool area, and the overall bicycle/outdoorsy atmosphere:

Davis also has a really terrific “college town,” with several streets in a historic downtown filled with bars, pizza places, sandwich joints, movie theaters, hotels, yogurt shops, a train station, and — yes — MORE bikes! We all really liked it.

We stayed overnight there, then the next day had a big breakfast, got back in the car, and drove for miles and miles down to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, which we took a quick tour of, then got back in the car and drove another hour or so to UC Santa Barbara:

Another gorgeous campus, though this one is all about palm trees, bougainvillea, ocean breezes, and — gulp — a beautiful beach within walking distance down a short ramp! I don’t think I ever would have gotten any studying done if I’d gone there! So pretty.

Lots of bikes and surfboards, too. We caught a guy going by with both in the background here:

So Ricky is expanding his college choices now. Big decisions coming up for him, that’s for sure. …

If you missed any of the previous road trip posts and places, they’re here:

Road Trip! Day One: Manhattan Beach wedding/Mammoth
Road Trip! Day Two: California scenery
Road Trip! Day Three: Ghost Town of Bodie
Road Trip! Day Four: Virginia City, Nevada/meeting my parents
Road Trip! Day Five: Hike to Eagle Falls, South Lake Tahoe

Today, we went on a hike at Eagle Falls in South Lake Tahoe. We crossed this bridge:

And kept hiking and hiking, upwards, about 1.5 miles. From the higher elevations, you could look backward and see this:

But we kept forging forward to the sound of a stream and eventually came upon this:

It’s Eagle Lake — very beautiful, very peaceful. And well worth the hike.

There were a lot of people there this time. We’ve done this hike before, in the fall, and it’s not as crowded then, but on this summer day, there were a lot of people at the lake, swimming or picnicking or letting their dogs swim.

So pretty:

Then we hiked back and had a picnic lunch. Ham sandwiches never tasted so good. 🙂

I have so many pretty pictures of this hike — I’ll try to post more later. Until then, gotta go start packing. It’s onward to Day Six. …

If you missed any of the posts and places, they’re here:

Road Trip! Day One: Manhattan Beach wedding/Mammoth
Road Trip! Day Two: California scenery
Road Trip! Day Three: Ghost Town of Bodie
Road Trip! Day Four: Virginia City, Nevada/meeting my parents

Another fun day at a historical town:

We drove into Nevada to Virginia City and walked along the rickety boardwalk. As “low key” as Bodie is, Virginia City is “high key”: lots of gift shops, souvenirs, panning for gold, candy shops, tours.

We ate ice cream:

And went to the Mark Twain museum, where he first worked as a newspaper man as Samuel Clemens while writing his first novel under the pseudonym Mark Twain:

Ricky bought his girlfriend one of those old “newspaper headline” souvenirs, which was cute, because they both love to write (and she loves history).

We waited for Nathan to scour a souvenir shop. (Didn’t I mention before that this kid LOVES souvenir shopping?) Here’s Ricky and Rene waiting for Nate outside some saloon-type bench:

We also ran into my parents, who we met there in Virginia City. They went on a tour of a mine that sounded fun.

All in all, it was a very fun day.

That night, we met at my parents’ room and played Trivial Pursuit until midnight. It was this team:

Against this team (plus me):

(My mom and Ricky look like they’re getting ready to cheat here, don’t they? Rene is casually looking at something so she doesn’t have to be part of it. …)

Anyway, we had to leave and walk “all the way home” (down three doors) to our condo, then get some rest for Day Five!

If you missed any of the previous road trip posts and places, they’re here:

Road Trip! Day One: Manhattan Beach wedding/Mammoth
Road Trip! Day Two: California scenery
Road Trip! Day Three: Ghost Town of Bodie

Wanted to check out this place:

After a precarious trip down a bumpy, winding dirt road for 10 miles, we found this:

Incredible. It’s an entire town — originally built up in the 1870s — that has been simply left as-is, as if everyone just walked out one day. You can still see the furniture in some of the homes, cribs, chairs, etc.

Anyway, that was quite an adventure.

Then we continued on the road. …

We stopped in some streams:

And took lots of pictures:

I’m always struck by how much gorgeous, open land is in California. Living in such a populated part of it, I always forget. …

Anyway, we made it to our final destination. You guys know where this is, right?:

Then it’s finding my parents, having dinner, a little Jacuzzi-ing, and resting up for Day Four!

If you missed any of the previous road trip posts and places, they’re here:

Road Trip! Day One: Manhattan Beach wedding/Mammoth
Road Trip! Day Two: California scenery

Today was a long drive, and we mostly saw this:

Then we finally pulled into Mammoth, which smells sooooooo good — all pine trees. It was raining when we arrived, which also smelled great. And was very cozy. We ate at a little burger place (Rene said it had the best burgers she’d ever eaten — too bad it’s all the way in Mammoth!), and the sun came out, and all was right with the world — sparkly, dripping pine needles everywhere.

Hot cocoa, a good night’s sleep, and back on the road. …

Ready for Day Three!

If you missed the previous post and places, they’re here:

Road Trip! Day One: Manhattan Beach wedding/Mammoth