May 12 -- Grass Valley, CA

I'm having an absolutely wonderful visit with my Aunt Linda and Uncle Phil (my mom's brother). I haven't seen them in a long, long time, so it's nice to finally spend some time with them and talk about the family and other things. I'm sorry I haven't had more contact with them in the past.

I spent the morning writing my blog, which is loooong, I know, but get over it. It's my blog. I also uploaded all of my photos for you to enjoy. I didn't take the time to caption them. I will have to do that when I get home. But I think you can get the gist of where I am from the signs that I photograph along the way.

After lunch, we took a short ride to the South Yuba River State Park, which has the longest single-span covered bridge in the U.S. There were some interesting exhibits, as well, of the vehicles people used in the late 1800's to transport goods and people from Pleasant Valley to Sierra City, which is 128 miles away. The Yuba River itself was crystal clear from the snowmelt feeding it from higher elevations and fast-moving.

We then took a drive through "gold country," while my uncle gave me a history lesson on the area and the gold mining efforts of previous generations. It was nice to be able to ride, and not drive, and see the scenery from the passenger window. This is absolutely beautiful country with everything in bloom.

In the evening, I set up Skype for them and connected with their daughter, Jami (my cousin), who lives not far away in Folsom. I enjoyed seeing her for the first time in decades, and they were happy that they could communicate now with webcams over the internet. We then Skyped my mom and spoke with her for a few minutes before calling it a day.

Tomorrow, I will leave for Yosemite National Park. I looked into changing my flight from Monday to Thursday of next week, but it was prohibitively expensive. I guess I will just have to come back out here and spend more time in the Sierra Nevadas. They deserve two weeks by themselves. But at least I will have two days to hit the highlights before I head back to San Diego and then home.