Tomorrow (Sunday, June 7), I'm driving up to Berkeley for the week. It's just under 400 miles from my Thousand Oaks home to the Bay Area when I take Highway 101. Much of it is an attractive drive, particularly the stretches in which the 101 overlaps Highway 1 and runs along the coast.

The primary occasion for this trip is mother's 92nd birthday on June 10. She's still living in the house that my dad completed in 1948. I've been living in Southern California since 1967 and have always found it comfort to be able to return to the house in which I grew up. Apart from lusher vegetation in its large yard, the house hasn't changed much over the years.

The old Rasmussen home

My second reason for going up to Berkeley--and the reason I'll be staying there an entire week is to do research in the Mark Twain Papers on the Cal campus. As I think I've mentioned elsewhere here, I'm collecting letters to Mark Twain from his readers for a small volume that will be published by the University of California Press. I've done a great deal of research over the years but I can't remember any that has been as much fun as this project.

A highlight of this trip to which I'm looking forward is meeting the husband and older son of Suzanne Lipsett, the late novelist with whom I was close during my college years at Cal. She is the author of the wonderful memoir Surviving a Writer's Life, which I only recently discovered. After I return from my trip I plan to start a discussion thread about her book on Constant Reader.