Happy to have an automatic transmission.

Maybe if I knew how to drive a manual transmission, I'd want one of those but since I don't, I was so thankful to have an automatic transmission today.We got a new car. New to us, at least. It is a 2001 Honda Accord V6. With less than 40,000 miles, we're hopeful it will last us quite awhile. It isn't the car I expected us to end up with but I am thrilled with it.

We needed a new car because in the weeks before we left Iowa, someone plowed into our car while we were sleeping. The car was totaled. The insurance money was sure easier to transport to California than the car would have been so it ended up working out.

The picture above was taken on a road trip/camping trip Cameron and I took over the 4th of July (more on that later). I thoroughly enjoyed driving the car up Hwy 1. But I really appreciated it today, while exploring the streets of San Francisco (photo by Mark Downey).This morning, I gave Cam a ride to the Oakland airport. I dropped him off around 7. I could have driven back home but I needed to be in San Francisco at noon. So instead, I decided to spend the morning exploring our city in our new car. I drove the perimeter then up and down streets one by one. It was fun, frustrating, educational, confusing and most of all steep.

I'd forgotten how incredibly steep some of these roads are. While sitting at a stop sign at the top of a hill like this one, I was so glad not to have to shift gears and that I was able to just press the gas petal and the car would know what to do (photo by Pierre Gouyou Beauchamps).