As we left Ocean Park, and the Long Beach Peninsula, this morning, Phillip commented that he wished we had spent more time on the beach. I had been thinking the same thing. But that's the only negative thing I have to say about the past two days.

The thing I wanted to do more than anything else was to play my djembe on the beach - to get lost in the rhythm of the drum while I watched the waves and sea birds. It almost didn't happen. When it wasn't raining, it looked like it was going to start raining any moment. Most of yesterday was sunny, but we were busy doing other things - like visiting the cranberry research farm or looking at Jake The Alligator Man. This morning, we stopped at the beach one last time on our way home, and I got my opportunity. It turned out to be mostly a photo-op, but that's OK. I got to play my djembe on the beach.

When I pack for a vacation (in my limited experience), I like to err on the side of underpacking rather than carting around unnecessary stuff. On this trip, we should have packed our corkscrew. The cabin's kitchen had a corkscrew, but it was a cheap one and wouldn't get the cork out of the wine bottle, so we had to bring the wine back home unopened.

I'm glad that Phillip didn't do any driving this weekend.

Phillip's having more troubles with his email. In two days, I will be standing on the edge of the Pacific Ocean. I'm looking forward to being far away from computers for awhile. (Well, except for the computer-on-wheels we will drive to get to the coast.)

I spent about an hour this morning writing a letter to Kelly - an old-fashioned, pen & paper letter folded and stuffed into an envelope with a stamp and return address sticker. She had suggested that I do that, but I'd have to read through old emails to remember why she suggested it. There was a time when I used to write letters to friends all the time. Then email came along. (I just this moment remembered that it was Kelly who first introduced email to me! It was way back in our Boeing days, when she showed me that our CADS computers had something called Mail. It was an intranet email, but I didn't know it at the time.)