Next, we headed east of Sacramento to the tiny, blink-and-you-miss-it, town of Georgetown on the American River (a stone’s thrown away from Sutter’s Mill and the epicenter of the California Gold Rush).  We spent two days in Georgetown visiting Ted’s sister, Lisa (also known as Sister Ann Marie), who has lived at the Carmelite Monastery for the last 20+ years.

Then we pushed on to Southern California where we visited our friends, Mike, Stephanie, their two wonderful children (Ella & Nicolai) and mild mannered Labradoodle (Olive), and soaked up a lot of warm sun on the sandy beaches of Malibu. We tested our rock climbing skills at The Cliffs of Id, a massive indoor rock climbing gym in Culver City.

We also spent a fun filled day of roller coasters and queue hopping at “The Happiest Place on Earth” (Disneyland), before tackling the bumper-to-bumper traffic on I405 to San Diego. There we visited Renata’s cousin, Julia, her husband Pablo, their newborn son (Bodhi) and their lightning fast dog, Oscar, and witnessed firsthand the canine chaos at Dog Beach in Del Mar.

We eyed an developing swell in The Gulf of Mexico, so we grabbed our passports, packed our bags, and got ready for Cancun, Mexico.