I’m off to a vacation with my three friends Howard, Bill and Dave to Southern California to visit our friend Rachel who is having her Bat Mitzvah.

I started waking up early, but before leaving home, I quickly planted some seeds. I figured that they’ll have a four day heads start if I sowed them now than if I sowed them when I return. I planted Coreopsis ‘ Plains (Bicolor)’, Yu Choy ’50 Days’, Broccolu Raab and Misome into Jiffy Peat Pots… my first time using this medium. I placed them into a propagation tray with a plastic lid (mini-greenhouse) and once I see sprouts, I’ll start hardening them off and bring them outside.

We left the Bay area around 11am and the weather was not bad, but after a hour or so it started pouring rain. At times, I think it was hailing, but most of the time it was sprinkling.

After a few hours driving, we stopped at San Luis Obispo at get some gas and some lunch at Burger King. It’s funny, because I saw a Bottlebrush Bush–I think that’s what they are called–at the Burger King parking lot and upon close examination, found what I think are seeds. So, knowing me, I collected some…

We continued driving and the weather got better. We drove on 101 because we heard that Interstate 5 required chains because of snow. The drive is longer, but I must say the views are nice, especially once we got to the Ventura/Channel Island area. We could see the Pacific Ocean and it was beautiful.

Some things I observed on the road was that there were lots of wild Prickly Pear Cactus and Agave along the freeway. There were also many Orange Orchards and I think we past by a place called Monrovia. I don’t know if that’s where the plant grower Monrovia is located, but I did see a lot of greenhouses and plant growers along the highway.

We encountered the evening commute around the LA area, so we were in stop and go traffic and it was bad. I was driving at this point and I hated it. My hands were sweating since it was stressing me out just a bit. We finally reached our destination around 9 or 10pm, checked into our hotel room then grabbed a bite to eat. Afterwards, we headed to bed and I checked my email, updated my Facebook and all that stuff.