Last Wednesday, we began what turned out to be a rather monotonous 6-hour drive up I-5 through Central Valley to visit Melody’s home town of Stockton. Despite its location further up North, the small suburban town suffered from intolerable heat, with midday temperatures in the 90’s. We spent Thursday going through her childhood memorabilia, and visited her high school, middle school, and elementary school. On Friday, we drove to Yosemite National Park. Though the landscape was gorgeous, many of the waterfalls were dried up by this time in late summer. I stared at an impressive sign declaiming “Yosemite’s Crowning Glory”, only to glance up and behold the puny trickle of water that was Yosemite Fall. Nevertheless, we did find a large flat rock upon which we could sit back to indulge in an unimpeded view of the majestic Vernal Fall, which shimmered with the colors of the rainbow under the lazy afternoon sun. Our relaxing evening which ended with a cafeteria-style buffet dinner at Curry Village, however, was quickly overturned with an adrenaline-filled driving adventure along Route 120, bearing miles and miles of sharp twists and turns in dark, unlit roads through the Sierra Nevada mountains. Happy to be alive, we decided to ease off and spend Saturday in San Francisco, where we caught an afternoon matinee of 42nd Street. The show was pretty entertaining and well-choreographed, though I’d be more satisfied if the songs and dance numbers were better-integrated into the development of the plot. We finally concluded our little NoCal side trip today with the same boring drive back down to LA. Exhausted from all the driving, we’ll most likely take our time over the upcoming week to unwind.