I feel pretty, oh so pretty...

You know what's great about California? It's diverse landscaping. Where else can you go where you have beautiful blue beaches all along the coast

Santa Monica, CA


San Luis Obispo, CA

but as you travel north and move inland a bit, suddenly you're surrounded by pine trees and mountain tops??

I'm amazed that just one short week ago I was driving parallel to the ocean, and had a close-up view! Last night I found myself zipping up the I-49, winding along through miles and miles of dense green forest. This morning when I looked out the window I could see nothing but tree-covered hills, nary an ocean breeze to be found or felt. Above me the sky was still a pale pastel blue, and around me a breeze still blew, but the air was more reminiscent of Flagstaff, AZ, my college hometown.

So where the heck am I?

Bunking down with my mom's cousin Karla, her husband Scott, and their daughter Kayla.

Playing ball with daddy; a dancing queen; dancing with mommy

Watch this video of Kayla dancing, it's too cute!
If your volume is turned up you'll also her her talk a little bit
(sorry it's sideways, I can't figure out why it won't rotate)

Oh, and their two dogs,

Saucy and Scoober

their cat,

Hank (who's actually a girl!)

a herd of small deer, and plenty of bats (and, according to Scott, a couple mountain lions, too).

They live waaaaaaaaaaaaaay up at the top of a hill that's rather difficult to navigate if you've never done so before and there is no guiding light (natural or man made) to speak of! Which is exactly what I found myself doing last night, speculating aloud what would happen if someone were to be coming down the single-lane freshly paved road to Karla's house as I was going up it. Yikes!

This is only the first bend, it goes on a while longer!

I finally found the right house,

Karla managed to keep the dogs from barking and waking up Kayla, and I gratefully sat down in front of a heaping plate of spaghetti with meat sauce, admitting to Karla that my diet thus far that day (yesterday) had consisted of jelly beans, root beer, a Slurpee, and, as a forethought before leaving Davis, a piece of leftover pizza.

Yes, I know those were terrible choices (except maybe the pizza, when you think of the nutritional value of the other items in comparison!)

No, I have not been eating like that my entire trip. Only yesterday, when I hit the ground running at 8:30am and pretty much didn't stop until 12 hours later.

So where am I now??

Well, here was your first clue, over at Meryl's Describetions:

As you may be able to deduce from the brightness of the photo, there is lots of sun. And when it's sunny and hot outside, you would probably want one of these around...

Those are darling little coffee mugs w/ saucers, sitting in the sunny window at a coffee shop called Caroline's Coffee Roasters in a tiny town called Grass Valley.

Grass Valley is only about 10 minutes away from my current location!

Your second clue...

...is a street sign for a highway with the same name as the tiny town it (the freeway) goes through! It's the...

Yes, that's right...I am currently residing in a town with a most intriguing name...
Rough and Ready, CA!!

Here I am, Ready for a nice woodsy hike with my fancy-shmancy walking stick (I think it's Scott's, I found it downstairs where I'm sleeping!).

Except, wait, I'm supposed to be Rough, too.

Alright, I guess I have some work to do before I'm ready to be rough in Rough and Ready!

Tune in later tonight (hopefully!) for an update on my rustic refuge!