Penelope and I are finally back from our mini vacation to visit family in San Diego. We were only there for 2 and 1/2 days but it was nice to see everyone. Penelope had a great time visiting with her cousins  and I really enjoyed being out of the Bakersfield heat. I am especially glad to be home after our unplanned adventure on the way home. What would have normally taken me about 3 hours and 45 minutes to get home took 7 hours! First we were stuck in traffic for what seemed like hours in LA. Then when I finally thought we were out of it we hit Burbank only to be stuck in more traffic. It was stop and go for about an hour and why? Not sure what happened but the highway patrol was out in full force and had completely closed I-5 and we were detoured to highway 14, towards Palmdale, Lancaster. UGH! I am not familiar with the area so I called up Chris and mom who told me that the 14 would eventually meet up to 58 which goes straight through Bakersfield. Unfortunately I would have to drive through the Mojave desert and it would tack on a couple of hours to my drive. Are you serious?! We ended up stopping in Lancaster and filling up on food and gas, poor Penelope was starving. We left San Diego at 9am and made it home to Bakersfield at 4pm. I am so glad Penelope is such an easy going kid and a happy traveler. She didn't fuss at all but I did get very tired of listening to the same CD like 10 times. Oh well, if it makes her happy to sing along to Pop Goes the Weasel and Skip to My Lou over and over and over again I guess I can put up with it...