10-13-2026 Entry

Travel day. I slept fitfully after the first four hours or so. Woke up and couldn't get back to sleep. Eventually I did was awoken by Ann's alarm at 4:00. Showered, packed up the car, and even had time for breakfast before we left a little before 5:00. We first ran into traffic in LA County, and even then there were just a couple of slowdown through LA. Once we got past Griffith Park I don't think we had any more traffic to deal with. Over the Grapevine, we stopped for a bio break once we got into the Central Valley. I drove for about the first 5 hours, then Ann took over after another break at a rest stop. We drove to Santa Nella and stopped for lunch (at Carl's Jr, ugh) and to fill up the tank. Then it was another hour and a half into Oakland, again not seeing much traffic as we headed into the city. Got to the Airbnb early, but the host was able to let us in early as well, which was nice. We settled in and got situated. Kathy and Heather had flown into SFO, and they took the BART to a station (MacArthur) near us. We went and picked them up and brought them back to the apartment. Emily and Caleb's flight was delayed, so the others ended up eating spaghetti and garlic bread for dinner. I waited a bit, then drove to OAK around dusk to pick them up. Traffic was decent, most of the afternoon rush was done. I got to the cell phone lot and waited until I got a text from Emily, then I drove to pick them up, and we drove back to the Airbnb from there. The three of us ate dinner when we got back, then the rest of the evening was quiet for me.