I did a girl thing this week—a mother/daughter/cousin thing. And we had so much fun! My daughter and I flew to Oakland, California and stayed at my cousin’s daughter’s (would she be a cousin or second cousin?) house and then drove to Sonoma, California for wine tasting. We had a darling Airbnb and shopped, tasted wine, and ate fabulous food. The youngest of the bunch did the driving in California and we saw San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge from a distance. We toured the Jack London home/museum and his surrounding ranch. We sampled wine from exquisite cellars. My cousin and daughter might or might not have gotten lost in a hedge maze. (We could hear them giggling so we knew they would eventually come back.)

I was amazed at the smells of the eucalyptus trees, the long straight lines of grapevines, and equally straight redwood trees. I love the tall cypress trees that remind me of paintings around the Mediterranean. Since I’ll probably never be able to travel there, this was wonderful.

We had a designated driver who knew her way around. We had a couple of wine tastings but never got a tour of a winery. Next time.

From Enid to Oakland is halfway across the United States and requires a lot of running through airports and dragging bags. I’m glad I had my daughter to help with that. We were on planes for 12 hours. I am in awe of people who fly for a living. This old body was showing its age.

We ate some extraordinary food and crashed at night in a bed that felt like a cloud. That might have had something to do with how tired I was.

We’re already talking about seeing San Francisco next time. Or they could come here, and we’d introduce them to Oklahoma. I may see a story here.

What are you reading/writing this week?