It was a bit sad to leave Stinson Beach today. We survived the various wedding festivities and brunch the following day. The wedding, was, of course, lovely. It was hard not to make comparisons to Dave & Meghan's fabulous soiree, although the bride's arrival on a horse was pretty unique. Once again, we danced our asses off at the reception! In addition to Sunday morning brunch we also had a farewell dinner with the Krakowskis. Happily, nothing was lit on fire, although the conversation was pretty fierce despite everyone's somewhat-fried state. I may in fact need to check myself into detox after all this partying.

After much strategerizing, we came up with the following plan to retrieve the rental car: I would ride to SFO with Dave & Meghan, who were returning their car to the same company but didn't have any space in their car for luggage or many passengers. I picked up our car, a funky little orange boxy thing, and drove back to the beach house one last time. Oy, I'm just about over this twisty vomitocious road!

Unfortunately it was necessary to drive it one last time as we headed up to Chico for our first couchsurfing destination. We plugged in our various devices (GPS, satellite radio, iPod) and set off. A somewhat different experience than taking chickenbuses and pickup trucks! But it was nice to travel in luxury, and we easily reached Chico in just over three hours.

Our first US CouchSurfing hosts were a mother-daughter team named Michelle and Threnody. We didn't get to spend as much time with them as we'd have liked, since Chico was just a stopover to break up the drive to Carlton. But we did manage to whip up a nice meal in their small kitchen, and had some fabulous conversation as well. I'd met Michelle on the "Independent Women" group on CS, and it was great fun to meet one of my favorite IWers in person. And the precocious 12-year-old Threnody was a trip, announcing to a friend on the phone: "We have an Independent Woman staying with us! And Mark!" Good times.