And I take the BLONDE award for the day....

I swear, I've been to Sacramento a MILLION times before. My extended family lives up in that area as well as some friends who I've already visited before!

So that doesn't really excuse my actions today.

Well, there was a good deal of traffic from Vacaville on down towards my home stretch of freeway, and I kind of got caught up in a daze by the monotony of having to stay seated in my car without actually going anywhere. (Loud music and a sunroof also don't bode well for my attention span). But I guess somehow I missed the offramp from 80 to 680 -- something I've taken a million times.

Anyways, I kind of figured it out when I crossed the Crockett Bridge instead of the Benicia Bridge -- it looked a little older and different than what I thought it looked like yesterday. Then I realized landmarks weren't making any sense to me at all, and when I saw the sign that said "Richmond," that really clinched my assumption that I was, in fact, lost.

But then my mind conjured up a conversation I had quite a few years past with another friend from the Bay Area. Although I've noticed it before, her verbalizing this fact made me really clear of its accuracy: "There are a whole bunch of intertwining freeways in the Bay Area." So then I started looking for upcoming freeway signs and realized that I was getting closer to Berkeley and Oakland! Score, being an avid A's fan, I can certainly tell you that I know at least three different ways to Oakland from my house. Long story short, I finally found my way out of there -- I took 80 to 580 to 24 then finally met up with 680 -- and it took me 16 miles longer than necessary had I originally turned off 680 from 80 in Fairfield. (See below for those of you who need a visual, the red circle indicates my missed turnoff, while the arrow denotes the freeway I eventually caught up with.)


Well, at least I got to experience the scenic Bay route....