We are set to take off this morning on a road trip up the coast of California, through the redwoods, into Oregon and back down through Mt Lassen and Lake Tahoe.

This is our first trip since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic which put most of the world into lockdown starting in March 2020.  Travel has been very restricted with international borders closed and "stay-at-home" orders here in California for much of 2020.  As of today, Americans are still not allowed entry in many countries (unless for essential business or if you can claim nationality in a country).

During the pandemic, we did a few very small trips; an Air BnB in Ventura in summer 2020, an overnight here or there in Ventura and a few days in Cambria during spring break 2021.  Although we are told air travel is safe, we prefer not to get on a plane at this time.  We could only fly domestically at this time anyway.  We decided to opt for a road trip.  Initially we were going to do this trip in the summer of 2020 but the pandemic was still raging at that time and so much was shut down, there wasn't much point in a road trip.

Now we are ready to get out and explore.  It's been a number of years since we have been up  to the northern part of CA, so it will be great to visit again.  We leave this morning to Ventura to get haircuts and then it's off to Morro Bay for the first stop of the trip...