Well, it was soon time to return home. The plan was to leave Angwin at around 10am to return home by dinnertime. I was up around 8am and started packing. It was kind-of slow going, because I was still tired. But I was ready to go at around 10:30 or so. We had not had breakfast yet, neither had the relatives showed up--the relatives who had said they would be there at around 9am. Uh oh. I found myself a snack and hung around for a while. My sister said to wait a little while so that they could make a real breakfast.

Unfortunately, before the waffle batter made it to the waffle iron, the relatives finally arrived. Breakfast was put on hold. The kids got a tour of the vineyard while I visited with my cousin. Then we all went outside and walked around for a little while. When it got to noon, I decided that I needed to go, so I decided to head down the hill.

My cousins decided to follow me, since apparently they'd taken the long way around to the house. So it ended up that we stopped in St. Helena for lunch. It was a delicious lunch (at Gillwood's), but after eating and buying gasoline, I was not on the road until 2pm. :(

Then there was the traffic...and traffic...and traffic. There were at least four construction zones on the 5. It seemed as if it took me forever to get home!  I was planning to stop in Coalinga at the Red Robin, but apparently it is no longer there. I had to settle for Burger King, which was eerily empty. The Grapevine was the worst. It was cut down to 2 lanes, and then there was a truck stopped in one of them!

I finally got home past 10pm. I was very tired and glad to be home.

Now I have nothing to look forward to...except publication and more papers. I think I need a new purpose for living.