by Glen A.

Last year for Thanksgiving, we took a trip to Southern California to be with a couple of Angela’s siblings. During the trip down, back and while there, we stayed at four different hotels and also went to five different theme parks on a discounted package called the Southern California City Pass.

This year, we opted to go again, during the Christmas break, to spend the holiday with her family. We stayed at three hotels this time, but only went to one theme park.

The trip wasn’t so much about scaling back financially, as it was scaling back time-wise. That meant we had a lot of time on our hands where we did nothing, but it did fell more relaxing this time than it has in times past. So, I guess you trade fits of boredom for fits of logistics and the stress of packing everything in to the short period of time you have, stress you were hoping to get away from by going on vacation.

Our plans for this trip was to leave Wednesday, December 23 in the afternoon, arrive somewhere in Northern California that night, and then drive the rest of the way on Thursday. We’d spend the night at Angela’s brother’s house Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and then leave on Saturday for a hotel in the area. Since I would be working again on Monday and Tuesday, we needed a reliable internet source and probably more importantly, a quiet place to work.

The stay would be through Tuesday night, with checkout on Wednesday. The trip back home would start then, with another stay in Northern California.

Well, plans have a way of changing. Fortunately for us, in both cases, they changed for the better.

Anyone who has traveled south on I-5 into California during the winter time knows you have to keep an eye on the mountain ranges in Southern Oregon and Northern California, with the Siskyous being the main trouble. Elevation can change quickly as you’re coming through there, and for the most part, you’re above 2,000 feet, ranging upwards to around 4,000 feet. Snow levels like to play around there, and such was the case with both our trip up and our trip back.

Neither foray through the mountains produced any problems, or even slowdowns for that matter. The trip back, however, was the more anxious of the two, as it followed a closure of I-5 north of Yreka and to near the California-Oregon border on the afternoon of our return home. I’ll get to that later.

Suffice it to say, there was snow on the ground in much of the higher elevations on our trip down, but nothing on the road, and very little trace of sand or salt, either. However, we benefitted from coming through the Siskyou range during mid-afternoon, instead of early evening due to a rearranging of work, which allowed us to leave at around 11:30 am instead of what would have most likely been 4 pm.

Not only did we go through the mountains in daylight, and during what is normally the warmest part of the day, we were able to travel farther. Instead of place like Redding, where we actually did stay on the way back, we were able to stay in Merced, which is on the 99 between Stockton and Fresno. We’ve done the straight shot down the 5 before, but the 99 is only a slight deviation and nearly as fast through there, with the advantage of having more places to stop should circumstances require it.

Fortunately, either due to lack of time or lack of desire, take your pick, I hadn’t set up the hotels for our trips up and back. Normally, I would, but this time around I was working longer hours than normal to cover vacation of a staff member, and when I might have done it, I wasn’t in the mood. As I said, it worked out for the best, because I would have needed to redo the hotel reservation anyway (yes, there are occasionally advantages to procrastination).

The Quality Inn–Merced, CA

When it comes to one night stays, I tend towards the cheap. Angela isn’t very thrilled with what that gives us, but it doesn’t seem worth it to pay more for something that may be somewhat better, but not that much more, just to spend the night. The Quality Inn in Merced had a $40 a night special going which included breakfast and wifi. I found it hard to resist, even though I went around checking for other possibilities in the area. I used hotel.com to do the searching, which is the main site I use for hotel comparisons and discounted pricing. It’s also been easier to change plans in the middle of things through them than with places like Expedia, for example.

I booked to rooms for Wednesday night, one for Angela and I and one for Evan. There weren’t very many other options, anyway, but with hotel taxes and fees, it came out to just north of $87, which is less than what we would have paid elsewhere for a room where the three of us could have slept.

Needless to say, I was feeling pretty good about the selection.

What I didn’t realize is, it was in the exact same place we’d spent on our trip down last Thanksgiving. My impressions of the place were not that favorable then. Instead of summarizing all that here, I’ll merely refer you to that earlier post.

Maybe it was the price difference, or maybe it was my Christmas holiday mood, or maybe it was the fact that Evan, Angela and I had each taken a turn driving, but things didn’t seem so bad this time around. Our time of arrival was virtually the same, somewhat after 10 pm, but this time the Wifi was working, and it was an easy thing to get on and let a staff member know that we’d made it.

The kingsize bed was fine, the room was clean, the heater/air conditioner didn’t seem so loud, our rooms were together on the bottom floor, and we took advantage of the Jack in the box across the street for some last minute, late night carbo loading. The hotel has easy freeway access and all things considered, it was adequate for what we were doing.

I wouldn’t recommend it for anything more than that, however.

We skipped the free breakfast in the morning and opted for an IHOP farther down the road. That in itself was an improvement on the stay, too. We ended up at the IHOP in Madera, which isn’t that far off of the freeway. Our server was very nice and the food was good.

After a pit stop in Bakersfield for gas, we rejoined the 5 and made the ascent and then descent into the L.A. basin. Traffic southbound was relatively light. Last year we hit stop and go as far north as Santa Clarita, which is in the area of Six Flags, and not that far along. This time, we were well into Los Angeles before we began slowing, and for the most part, we kept moving. The main problem are the arterials coming to and leading from I-5.

I kept looking around for signs of a state in bankruptcy, since California has been said to be in the throes of massive budget deficits and on the brink of losing favorable loan status. I can’t say that I saw much. Businesses didn’t appear to be closing up shop, and I didn’t see any houses up for sale–though admittedly, we didn’t spend too much time in the residential areas. Still, I thought I would have seen at least one, but such was not the case. Homes which are foreclosing don’t normally have signs, so who knows how many of those were happening, or in the process.

While lighter, it was hard to tell from the number of cars on the road that Southern California was feeling the recession. I know it is, but from the outside looking in, you couldn’t tell it.

We arrived at Angela’s brother’s home before 2 pm and found his family and Angela’s sister’s family safe and sound. There we had meals like tamales, which is a traditional Mexican dish for Christmas, and then the next day we had huaraches and sopes, which are a variation of each other. A huarache is completely flat and does kind of resemble the sole of the footwear it’s named after, while a sope is thicker, rounded, and has a ridge around the outer edge. Both are made out of corn meal, the same used for tortillas, and both serve the same purpose as a tortilla, to hold the goodies that go on top. Refried beans, your choice of meat, Mexican crumbly cheese are all the main staples, and then of course, you can add on things like tomatoes, lettuce, crema, which is a thinner form of sour cream, salsas of our choice, and avocados.

I’m not a big fan of tamales–there’s too much that go wrong with them–but these were good, though pretty spicy. Angela’s family is into spicy. I love huaraches and sopes, though, and definitely overindulged there, to the point where I thought I would explode later. Topped off with some horchata, basically a rice milk with cinnamon, and man, oh, man, was it good. We had IHOP for breakfast in between those meals (Angela’s brother’s house is just a block away).

On Saturday, the day after Christmas, we didn’t leave as early as I had hoped for different reasons. We weren’t able to get into our hotel until 3 pm, anyway, but I was thinking we could go do something as a family. However, Angela wanted to go with her sister to see the shoe stand of the sister-in-law at a swap meet, and neither Evan or I wanted to spend our time doing that, nor did we want to babysit, so we ended up going off together to Best Buy and Fry’s and then hunting for lunch.

Pizza Patron

We ended up at Pizza Patron.

I’d never heard of it before, but it kind of has a Little Caesar style to it, and it’s been around since the late 80s. There were two sizes to choose from, and a shorter menu than you would normally see at a pizza place, but we ordered La Patrona in their biggest size, which had a mixture of meats (Pepperoni, ground beef, ham, and sausage) and vegetables (black olives, mushrooms, onions and bell peppers), and took it home to eat ourselves.

Man, was it good. It’s kind of got a Mexican-thing going with it. There was some regular old table black pepper sprinkled on it, which was light, but very tasty. The crust was good, the sauce was good, and so were the other ingredients. Evan and I had no problem eating our halves of the pizza. The slices, instead of being cut in triangles, were cut cross ways and down, so you had smaller pieces on the outside and longer pieces on the inside. The pizza itself was round and not square.

We also bought some churros, which had a caramel filling, all of which was very tasty. We bought bottles of Sierra Mist to wash it down, though we did have the choice of more Hispanic fare such as Manzanita Sol and Kas Mas.

Outside of the Los Angeles-Southern California metropolitan area, where there are only seven, there is a Pizza Patron location in Las Vegas, a few in Arizona and Colorado, with the bulk residing in Texas. Given the fact they are not all that widespread yet, I think we were lucky to find one so close to where we were staying and would highly recommend it to anyone looking for good tasting pizza with some alternative flavoring. They also offer their own Latin twists on things like buffalo wings, and have jalapeños as a topping choice.

There are other ingredients you can mix and match yourself, of course.

Our meal, the X-large Patrona ($9), drinks ($1.50 each) and churros ($1.50 each) came out to $15, plus tax, which amounted to another $1.25. We probably could have fed Angela with the same pizza and spent another $3 on drink and churro and still had a meal for less than $20. Not super cheap, but not super-expensive, either.

It was well after 7 pm when we finally said our goodbyes and well-wishes for a new year, and headed down to Costa Mesa to the Ayres Hotel.

The Ayres Hotel–Costa Mesa, CA

The hotel gets a rating of 3.5 stars with an average user rating of 4.6 (hotels.com), with 95% recommending. The Ayres in Costa Mesa has a grand style to it, which, unfortunately lost from the outside due to everything that has sprung up around it and crowded in. Not that it doesn’t still command attention, it’s just that you miss it because of everything else competing with it.

It sits on the southern end of Bristol St, just after the road splits into two one-ways (to accommodate a freeway no less), which doesn’t make it very convenient for getting anywhere north of it, as you have to take the equivalent of a large U to get there.

I missed the main entrance the first time. The sign, like the hotel, is obscured by other things closer to the street, but I did manage to see the second building, which houses the suites. After making my way through the empty restaurant (Le Chateau), I found the other building and its front desk. It was nice and formal looking, and the clerks were actually dressed in suits and ties. They were friendly and helpful. It took no time to get our room and electronic key cards, and though on the third floor, it was not an ordeal to get there with our five or so pieces of luggage and computer bags.

Our room looked over an outside dining area, or courtyard, replete with a fountain. While that meant our front door was exposed to the elements, there was an overhang that covered the entire walk area. Other than some cooler temperatures, it did not rain while we there.

The living area of the room was not large, but it did have ample room for a queen-size leather sofa bed, a desk with wired internet access and surge protection, a television on a stand with drawers, a breakfast table and formal padded chairs, and then an area which had room for a countertop, a mini-fridge, a microwave, storage area, sink and coffee maker. Everything looked new, was of higher quality than nearly every place else we’ve ever stayed, and everything worked, except for maybe the refrigerator. It didn’t seem to cool very well and the tamales we had with us went bad quickly.

The bathroom was not large, either, but it had it’s sink, mirror on the inside, along with the toilet and shower area. The shampoo and soap provided was more upscale and the shower head provided not only different power settings, but could be adjusted a little depending on the height of the user.

In addition to the main quarters, the kitchen nook and the bathroom, we also had a separate bedroom, with a king size bed. This bed was awesome, with higher thread counts on the sheets and covers, and with comfy pillows. Nightstands on each side, along with another television set in a nice wood cabinet and another chair rounded out the room. Our views were of the parking lot through the bedroom, and the walkway and courtyard.

We knew we were close to the John Wayne Airport, but we didn’t realize how close until commercial airliners started flying overhead. Over the weekend, which amounted to Saturday night and all of Sunday, they weren’t that frequent, but they definitely picked up on Monday and Tuesday. If you had the television on, it was harder to notice, but if you didn’t, it was hard to ignore. Still, the flights were spaced enough that it wasn’t incessant, and I was able to do the work I needed to do while there.

I had no issues getting the internet up and running for myself or the others. I’d brought along an airport extreme we use in the house, which made it easy for Angela to use her laptop and Evan his iPhone since they were already set to it. The only inconvenience to that was needing to sign in every time you shut down or left off using the internet for longer periods of time, but that wasn’t a big hassle.

We didn’t have a whole lot of incidental noise from hotel guests over the weekend, but it did pick up Monday and Tuesday. Again, not bad, but the walls were definitely nowhere near sound proof, or sound deadening. The worst of it was whenever someone would roll something, luggage, luggage racks, across the courtyard. It sounded like metal scraping on stone and it lasted for 20-40 seconds (not that I was watching the clock or anything).

There were ample parking spots on all nights, and we eventually moved our vehicle to where we could see it from our bedroom window. Moreover, the parking was free, which is more and more a luxury. Other places I looked, you had to pay for parking, like we did during our stay at the Hard Rock Hotel in San Diego last year.

Breakfast was also included, and boy, what a breakfast. There were some variations on the hot foods every morning, but there was always scrambled eggs, and they were the best I’ve tasted anywhere in a long time. Along with that, there were different fried potato dishes, ham slices, bacon, some kind of Mexican alternatives, yogurt, cereals, bite-sized muffins, different juices, toast (which you made your own on a conveyor belt toaster) waffles, and some fruit.

I didn’t try everything, but between the three of us, we took advantage of most of the menu options, and by all accounts, it was all good. The wait staff was friendly and quick to clear your dishes when you were done with them.

The breakfast was served in the Le Chateau restaurant in the main dining area, with a buffet style serving area in the middle that you walked around. It was very nice, and it was never overcrowded to where you couldn’t find a place to sit down.

I ended up bringing Angela some food up to the room the first morning. The wait staff had no problem with that and the cleaning crew rounded up the dishes the next time they were through.

We made use of the microwave to warm up our Sunday night meals (we bought some microwaveable dishes from a Von’s up the road Saturday night, which did not need to be frozen, nor did they need water). All were pretty tasty. For the rest of the time we ended up snacking on things such as yogurt granola bars, an assortment of dried fruits, mini-chocolate chip cookies by Famous Amos, and even managed to make our own hot chocolate with the coffee maker.

Olive Garden–Cypress, CA

Our only other food expense came on Monday, when we stopped off at an Olive Garden for lunch. Angela and I had our unlimited soup, salad and breadstick meals and Evan had the Stuffed Chicken Marsala, along with soup. Angela’s favorite soup is the Zuppa Toscana, which features a spicy sausage, russet potatoes and cavolo in a creamy broth. I prefer the Chicken & Gnocchi, which is newer, and sports a similar creamy base, but has roasted chicken, traditional Italian dumplings and spinach. Evan also tried the Chicken & Gnocchi and thought it was good.

This will make the third different Olive Garden where I’ve tried the Chicken & Gnocchi and it’s always very good. The dumplings are soft and chewy, the chicken is tender and tasty, and the cream broth is something you could probably dine on by itself.

Evan’s Stuffed Chicken Marsala is chicken breast which is oven roasted and then has Italian cheeses crammed into it along with sun-dried tomatoes. That is then topped with mushrooms and a creamy marsala sauce. It comes with garlic parmesan mashed potatoes. To confuse you, there is also a Chicken Marsala on the menu which is fairly different to this one, so if you like the sounds of this one, be sure to ask for the stuffed one.

Because we’d received gift cards to Red Lobster, which can also be used at other restaurants, including Olive Garden, we used one of those $25 gift cards towards the meal, so ended up paying less than half what we would have paid otherwise. Angela had a Coca Cola and I had a raspberry and then a vanilla Italian soda, without cream in either instance. Evan drank water.

Other work, watch television and play with iPhone or PSPs, the other other thing we did while we were at the hotel was make a couple trips up to Buena Park to Knott’s Berry Farm. I say trips, because we ended up turning back after the first attempt.

Knott’s Berry Farm–Buena Park, CA

We arrived there the first time shortly after 10:30 am. The doors opened at 10. There was ample parking, and we found a spot relatively close to where the roller coaster known as Ghostrider sits. The entrance to the rides is beyond this, and there is parking on the inside if you can get to it and find it. You pass by shops, including a restaurant where they serve their famous Chicken dinners before you get to the ticket counters and the main gates.

We got as far as the ticket counter, saw that they charged $53.99 per person for an all day pass, and then saw that they charged $26.99 if you came in after 4 pm. That was roughly half price, and Angela could see no sense in paying full price if we weren’t going to spend the day. Well, Knott’s Berry Farm isn’t as big as Disneyland, or for that matter, Disneyland and California Adventure combined, two places we managed to stay in for roughly four hours last year. There was no way we were going to make a day of it here.

Personally, that didn’t matter to me, but it did to Angela, and so after some lively debate (okay, arguing), we ended up leaving. Fortunately, the amount you pay for parking is based on how long you’re there, so we weren’t charged for the 15-20 minutes it took for us to walk from our vehicle to the ticket counter, decide we weren’t staying, get to the car, get in and drive to then unmanned exit.

The trip wasn’t entirely wasted. We did end up at a nearby Costco to stock up on some provisions, and then ate at Olive Garden. But we did go all the way back to the hotel, where I did more work before turning around and going back to Knott’s.

We still got a good parking spot, and while cooling off, the temperature was still good. Nightfall was fast approaching, though, which meant any opportunity to take pictures while were there were diminishing. So I didn’t get any photos or video of Evan on any of the rides he went on.

I’m not a rides kind of guy. I think I established that well in last year’s post. Mild rides are okay, but then, what’s the point? The rides Evan wanted to go on were worse than the ones he managed to get on at California Adventure the time before, and there was no way I was going to get on any of them, no matter how many times he tried to convince me, or cajole me, or embarrass me, or play to my sense of family duty. I stayed my ground, because I still remembered what it was like the last time I gave in. It was not fun, it was not worth it, and Evan could get what he wanted out of the rides without me.

He did manage to convince his mother to get on one ride, which, as it turned out, was the worst of the lot (by worst, I mean the best–fastest, hardest, scariest, most tempting death, etc.).

The first one he went on was the Silver Bullet. You’re secured into a seat which lifts off the ground, so you’re flying in a seated position. Those who are out in front have nothing between them and the open air obstructing their view. I’m not sure which is worse, knowing what you’re about to do, or not knowing what you’re about to do, so I’ll leave that up to you to decide. Of course you make some loops and otherwise inverted moves, and you travel at a good rate of speed. It’s rated as a five, which is the most aggressive rating for the Knott’s rides. You go up to a height of 146 feet, drop 109 feet, spiral, corkscrew, go through a cobra roll and overbanked turns, and of course, get an upside down look at the ground six times.

Woohoo. Evan said it wasn’t that bad, and thought I would have actually enjoyed it.

Yeah, right, Evan.

The next ride was the Ghostrider. Angela basically felt sorry for him, so after initially leaving him at the mine entrance (you go down into a simulated mine first, but it’s mostly to extend the length of the line), and then wind your way up to where the ride begins. It’s all made out of wood, including the roller coster itself, and you get to see the line from different vantage points before you get there. So, at what was supposed to be an emergency exit only, Angela handed me purse, all of her wrist and finger trinkets, and got into line with Evan, arm in arm.

Aww…

While I could be wrong, from my vantage point on the ground, there seemed to be two cars of multiple riders hurtling by every two to two and half minutes. Over a dozen people would get off each time the cars unloaded–I didn’t get decent counts–but it could have been upwards of 20 each time. I only got to see the cars at their highest point, which is some 118 feet off the ground, before it would dive into a covered area. By this time, it was already dark (just getting on the rides was averaging around a 40-minute wait), with a near full moon overhead, so visibility wasn’t what it would have been before sundown, anyway.

When the two finally got back, Angela apparently had a hold of Evan’s arm in some of the tighter turns, which did Evan no good, because he wanted to raise his. In all, the ride is 4,533 feet long and is one of the longest and tallest wooden roller coasters in the world.

This time around, Evan felt guilty for dragging his mother onto it, and it was enough to convince Angela she didn’t need to risk life and limb again. She went shopping for a jacket while Evan and I hunted down suitable rides for him.

While I wasn’t, Evan was apparently feeling the press of the clock. The park wasn’t going to close until 9 pm, but in order to get free parking, which was more of a big deal to him and Angela than it was to me (they started charging for parking after 3 hours, and it went from $4.50 to $20 rather quickly), we needed to be at the exit by no later than 7:30. It was already after 6 pm, and some of the faster rides, like Montezooma’s Revenge and the Xcelerator, were already closed.

There wasn’t much of a line at the Supreme Scream, which is a vertical ride similar to the Maliboomer at California Adventure. With Maliboomer, you’re flung up 180 feet at a high rate of speed, you drop, and then bounce up and down a couple of times. With the Supreme Scream, you’re raised at a slower rate to 254 feet, and then you’re propelled down, faster than gravity would take you, at a speed over 50 mph. Then you bounce up and down before coming back down to the ground.

There are no shields in front of you on this one and you have three different legs which a clustering of seats to choose from.

Evan thought it was more extreme than the Maliboomer just because of the larger, faster drop and the anticipation leading up to it. He was in mid-sentence with the guy next to him about how it wasn’t too bad when his side of the ride came down. Famous last words. Like the Ghostrider and the Silver Bullet, the Supreme Scream has a five rating.

So did, the Boomerang, which Evan got on last.

The Boomerang is kind of a combination of the three Evan rode before it. It doesn’t last very long, like the Supreme Scream, it’s a traditional roller coaster, where you sit down in a car, like the Ghostrider, but it has the inversion and the overbanked and the loop like the Silver Bullet. The difference is, you go backwards up one side of the track to launch, and then you go backwards again on the return trip. So, all the banking and looping you did forwards happens all over again to you backwards.

After that, Evan said he had enough. It was after 7 pm, Angela had her jacket, and so we left. The only other 5-rated ride other than the two he didn’t get to because they were closed, was Rip Tide, but it involves water, something Evan wasn’t wanting to do anyway.

So, for just under $81, Evan got on his four rides, and Angela one, for an average of $16.20 per ride per person. Expensive sounding, I know, particularly since I did nothing but hold people’s stuff and watch, but then, I wasn’t going to get on any of the rides, even if they paid me. It was worth it so that Evan could get his ride fix for the year. He’s talking about wanting to back to a Six Flags, which is worse (by worse, I mean better).

Plus, it’s cheaper than the $25 he spent to get on one ride at the State Fair earlier this year that couldn’t have lasted longer than two minutes, tops.

After that, we found a Sonic Drive In in Anaheim. I was hungriest (my stomach wasn’t in turmoil since it had spent its entire time safely on the ground and in one position the entire time), so I got my normal Sonic Burger meal with fries and a Chocolate shake (they were out of banana and caramel), while Evan and Angela shared Popcorn Chicken while each getting a strawberry milkshake.

We like Sonic, and their meals are always good, and the restaurant was easy to find and get to using Google Maps on my first generation iPhone.

We then returned to the hotel after that.

I worked later into the evening than I normally would, and after another good night’s rest, I got up before 6 am to get back at it. Deadlines weren’t until the normal times of 3 and 6 pm, but who wants to work a normal day when you’re on vacation?

Well, as it turned out, I didn’t have to. Everything was ready to go when I got up. Because of the work I’d done the previous day, and because of the work someone else did, I was already done with the larger of the two projects, and mostly done with the second. I’m sure it was a new record. I shipped off both pdfs for proofing sometime before 10 am, had them posted an hour or so later, and while I was waiting to do that, determined that we could end our stay a day early.

At $179 a night plus tax, I considered that to be a smart money decision, since we didn’t have anything else planned to do other than spend the night.

It would turn out to be a good travel decision, too, as I alluded to at the beginning of this post.

While the 5 remained open during our southbound trip, a new storm came in on Tuesday afternoon, and had forced a section north of Yreka and south of the Oregon border to close until late into the night. The southbound opened first, but the northbound remained closed until sometime later. Even so, chains or snow tires on all-wheel drive vehicles were required, and checkpoints were set up to enforce it. We had the four-wheel drive vehicle, but we didn’t have the snow tires, or the chains.

The problem with waiting, though, was another storm was expected to come in on Thursday, possibly when we would be wanting to get through. There wasn’t any severe weather in store for Wednesday, so we had a window of opportunity, we learned later, that might be closing quickly.

Of course, we didn’t know any of this until we arrived in Redding at around 10 pm. I’d had a peek at the weather earlier in the day, before we left the Ayres hotel, but looking at a weather site on the internet isn’t necessarily the most informed way to know what’s actually happening. Radar can help, but again, how do you gauge staying or going based on what you see on the screen?

We checked out of the Ayres shortly after 11 am, and headed over to South Coast Plaza, which is the largest shopping complex I’ve ever seen. Not only is there the main mall area, which is huge, but then there are other large stores, like Macy’s and Best Buy and so forth which have been built up behind it. It’s about as one-stop shopping as you can get.

Angela went into Macy’s on the pretext that she wanted to get some cream for Evan, who was suffering from dry skin on some part of his body. This, even though Evan insisted that he was not suffering from dry skin. Well, as is frequently the case, the foray into Macy’s was more for her. Evan and I drove over to Best Buy for a while, but after about 20 minutes, we were done with just looking around, so we went back to Macy’s and went looking for her. She was having her face worked on and was in the middle of that when we got there. Miraculously, though, we were out the door some 10 minutes later.

After getting gas kitty corner to the mall, we made our way to the nearest highway entrance, which eventually got us to the freeway.

I say eventually, because the northbound lanes of both the 57 and the 5 were slow. Normally, it’s not as bad as what we encountered for the time of day we were going, which was around 1 pm.

It took us longer than ever to get from Orange County to Los Angeles County, and even longer to get out of Los Angeles County. It was after 2:30 pm by the time traffic loosened up, which was well into the hills leading out of the basin. We still had another 7.5 hours minimum to make it to Redding. We didn’t have traffic issues after that, and we only stopped twice, both times to fill up, and the last one to get something to eat at Taco Bell.

As we approached Redding, we could see signs with flashing lights indicating we should turn to 1610 AM for traffic information. The news wasn’t good. That’s when we got the initial information regarding chains. The temperature had dropped as we headed north throughout the day, but that was natural given the time and the elevation. There was nothing really alarming, mainly because we weren’t going to try to go through the mountains at night.

Howard Johnson Express Inn–Redding, CA

In last year’s post about our trip to Southern California, I wrote about our experience in a Howard Johnson in San Diego. We ended up going to the Hard Rock Hotel near the waterfront, which we all consider one of the best decisions hotel-wise ever made.

After that, you would think I would have learned. However, like the Quality Inn on the way down, this was going to be a one night stay, and essentially, after communicating my arrival to the same staff member as before, all we would be doing was getting some rest and getting ready to go the next morning.

However, the cost for the two rooms was more than at the Quality Inn. Instead of $40 each, it was $50 each, which meant just over $110 with taxes and fees. When we got there, there was a line at the front desk, something I’ve not seen very much at motels like this, and it was cold, dark, raining, and late. I was tired–I’d driven all the way this time–and I was growing more concerned about what we were going to do the next day. The whole idea was to get an early start tomorrow–otherwise, we could have waited.

The three people in front of me when I got into line did not have reservations and thus had to go through the process of booking a room. The hotel clerk, without wanting to be, was loud and repetitive, though courteous and polite. I’ll chalk that up to my frazzled state. It took about 15 minutes to work through the line. Because of my reservation, it was quick and I was out the door and lugging up computer gear to the second floor. We managed to park close to where the stair case was so we didn’t have to go to far and we could check up on our vehicle without leaving the room.

Then, we saw our room.

Angela was not happy with it from first glance. Of the three of us, she’s the most particular, but I do have to admit, it was rather dingy and rundown looking. She found what she said was cobwebs in the light fixture (I didn’t see what she said she saw, but it still looked like it hadn’t been cleaned), and just a look at the bed was enough to make her cringe.

The place was more cramped than at the Quality Inn, and I could probably pick this place a part for several paragraphs. I’ll just say that the wall heater/air conditioning unit on the far wall next to the bathroom worked admirably–it was pretty cold in the room when we got there, but Angela was asking to turn it off later, so there was a plus to all of this.

The worst of it, though, was the shower. With deja vu from the Super 8 experience, the temperature never would stay put. It wasn’t for any great length of time, but it would get cold and then really hot for about a second. This happened about a dozen times, alternating on the spectrum while readjusting to what my preference was in between.

I can’t say I got the best night’s rest, either. There’s nothing to attribute to it other than a not-so-comfortable bed.

After what our room looked like, we didn’t even bother to try the free breakfast. That, even though we checked out later than I wanted to as we waited for news of the chain requirement lifting. It didn’t, though, and but it was after 9 am and I didn’t want to hang around the Howard Johnson anymore. We only had until 11, anyway, so we packed up, turned in or keys, fueled up and got some breakfast in the drive thru at the local McDonalds.

Angela said it was the best tasting McDonalds food she’d had in a long time and gave her seal of approval to do it again. Personally, I think she was just hungry, as it didn’t taste any different to me. I had my customary Egg McMuffins (the one with ham, no cheese), while Evan had a Sausage Egg McMuffin and Angela had a Sausage Biscuit with Egg. Must have been the biscuit that she loved, although the biteful of the Egg McMuffin she tried of mine she said she liked, too.

Then, we were on our way again, trusting in divine providence, the elements, or however you prefer to say it, to stay their hand.

Well, as things would end up, they did. Clouds sort of cleared during the trek through the mountains, there wasn’t much precipitation, let alone snow, and a few miles before the area requiring chains, the area was cleared enough to lift the requirement. In the meantime, we made it through most of it at normal traveling speeds.

Of course, the mere threat of something risky was enough to keep the mood in the car fairly tense. I couldn’t drive without being reminded of the speed limit, or the conditions, or that we should ere on the side of caution. I don’t need to tell you the source of the admonishments.

We did not stop for gas from Redding to home, and except for a wild goose chase looking for a Red Lobster (the only time Google Maps failed me the entire trip), we kept on the 5. We arrived home, safe and sound, at 1:23 pm (Evan won the time guestimate), and spent a good portion of the afternoon unpacking, washing, firing up electronics we’d turned off, and otherwise getting reacclimated to being home.

It was not the most attraction-packed trip we’ve made, but all in all, I would say it was a good trip. Except for the Howard Johnson, which we’ve all agreed we will not do again, the accommodations this trip met our needs. I’d recommend the Ayres in Costa Mesa to anyone, as well as Knott’s Berry Farm. Even though I didn’t get on any of the rides, I think it’s worth the after 4 pm admission. I’m glad they give you the option.

I’d also recommend Olive Garden any day of the week. The Quality Inn, not so much, only for overnight stays, and Howard Johnson has it second and last strike from me.

This was our last trip of the year. It went by rather quickly, with nearly three days of driving. I think Angela wants to take a plane and rent a car next time, since we’re already talking about that. Maybe for New Year’s she says. Of course, it will probably be just the two of us, by then, which might make the added expense worth it.

Gas prices were a little more than they were last year, but not so much that they would make flying economically beneficial. We didn’t spend more than $300 round trip, which includes the driving we did while in Orange County. We got decent gas mileage on the freeway, though it dropped off considerably in city driving.