LA to Davis

We drove out of LA in the morning through the beautiful mountains that surround (and hold the fog into) the city. We stopped at a farmer's stand and purchased a box of kumquats and 30 pounds of fresh oranges for about $10. We also could not resist stopping at a honey store that advertised "free tastings". Although we enjoyed the honey from bees that had pollinated sage, wildflowers, orange blossom, clover, and avocado... we thought buckwheat the was the best.

Although we had been warned of the boredom we would feel for the next six hours up the Valley, the drive on Route 5 was actually quite interesting. We passed many citrus farms. In addition, we passed some pastures with cows as well as a few (unbelievably crowded and smelly) cattle feed lots. [Sadly, it reminded us of the Meatrix!] We compared these California feed lots with the free-roaming cattle we saw in South America. It was a depressing site and a nauseating smell.

Finally, we made it to Davis around dinner-time. I took pictures of the apartment as we did our first walk-through and these I posted above. We have some ideas of how to "deal with" the wood-paneling but would be up for any of your suggestions! Otherwise, the space is terrific. We have an enclosed back yard and a front yard, which I forgot to take pictures of. In the back yard is a palm tree. We also have a driveway and a garage big enough for one car each.

We picked up burritos for dinner and checked out our local supermarket (called Nugget) which is located a quarter of a mile down the road.

At night, we went mattress shopping in Sacramento. We found a nice East Coast King for sale in Macy's and made plans to pick it up tomorrow... We also drove to Amtrak where 15 of our 33 boxes were waiting for us. We brought them back to our place and started to unpack - only one glass plate had been broken in shipment - not bad!

For our first night, camping air mattresses and sleeping bags suited us well. But, we are looking forward to a real mattress!

[Approximately 396 miles]