Some highlights from my California vacation:

* Toured the Getty Villa, modeled after exact specs of an excavated villa in Herculaneum, buried in the Mt. Vesuvius eruption of 79 AD. This coincided uncannily with reading The First Man in Rome, which I honestly didn't plan, so I was feeling a strong connection to ancient Rome.

* Found an oceanside geocache in Malibu, before combating midday L.A. traffic to get out of town.

* Sundaes at a McDonald's in Riverside.

* Tea and a Crate & Barrel gift card at an outlet mall in Cabazon.

* Checked into our Palm Springs hotel, the Doral Desert Princess Resort. Very nice, and for cheap, thanks to the wonders of Priceline.

* Dinner and beer at Shakey's Pizza. I wanted to go here for two reasons: 1) There are no Shakey's in Minnesota anymore, and 2) I thought I had a photo of myself having my 2nd birthday at Shakey's back in the day. It turns out I was wrong, and the photo of my 2-year-old self is at Sambo's (wherever the heck that is), but Shakey's pizza was still good.

Day 5 photos start here.