On the road again!!!

Monday 29th June

Well here we are back in the USA!!!

The flight over was great.  Even though we thought we would have extra rood in our seats right up the back of the plane and didn't I was so happy with the positioning as we wer able to get up and down and stretch as we pleased and there was no walking all the way down the aisle to the loo and noone to climb over hurray!!  I slept for a short while and David had a really good sleep.  Watched quite a few movies including 'Wild' which I had wanted to see for a while and hyped us up even more for the PCT.  Yes we are planning to hike parts of the Pacific Crest Trail or PCT.  We used our pillows and sleeping bag liners on the flight over and they were a godsend we were cosy and comfy.
We arrived at LAX at 6:30am and got our car (a mazda 3) from Alamo and set off for Wildomar and a short visit to John and Fritzie.  It was lovely to see them both again and show them our photos from last year.
Then we drove down to San Diego and found our favourite place to eat Chick-fil-A yum! and had a salad for lunch.  Once in San Diego we found the REI outlet with help of our trusty GPS and got ourselves a few supplies a compass, some tentpegs and a bearproof cannister!
And then Walmart for some food and stuff that we will need for hiking.
After arriving at the hotel and getting our stuff sorted we went for a short run to clear the cobwebs of being awake for 48hours and maybe a little night duty hangover.  Then we walked up to our next favourite eating place Dennys for dinner.  It's quick and tasty and just what we needed.
It was not a late night.

Tuesday June 30th

Today we drove over to Seaworld we really could have walked but the girl at reception said there was no path (we discovered there was but we were already in the car and almost there) Parking cost $16!
Once inside Seaworld we headed straight for Shamu Stadium and the killer whale show.  We sat in the 'soak zone' thinking surely you couldn't get that wet!  The show was great and we got saturated from one whale tail splash! not sure how much they splash in litres but I was dripping wet!!  It was then I decided to move our passports into a ziplock bag to protect them (as I had had a little trouble at Sydney airport because my passport got a little wet when we were doing a border crossing on a rainy day last year) then we went on the ride through the rapids and got a bit more wet.  We watched several shows including Cirque de la Mer and the Sea lion show and got a bit more wet in the rain.  Then we went to the arctic display to see the Polar bears and Beluga Whales and froze because we were still a little wet although my shoes had dried off.  Then we went on the Journey to Atlantis ride and got the wettest of all!! and to top it off the Dolphin show and sat un the 'soak zone' cause hey I was already beyond saturated so what was a little more water?? right?  When we got back to the hotel we both had lovely hot showers and then I went to my handbag to get my phone out and there was a puddle in the bottom of my bag with my phone floating in it!!! why had I not thought to put my phone in the ziplock bag with our passports??  Tonight we decided to try Red Lobster for dinner and what a very strange dining experience.  Firstly no prices on the beers (but prices on the wines)?  Prices on the food BUT when we ordered the waiter tells us that we can only have one cup of soup at the price on the menu $2.97 and that for the second cup we pay the 'bowl' price??? $5.59 because we only ordered one entree (main meal to the Aussies) to share!!!  He takes our drink order and we get 2 shocktops and water.  The waiter serves them to us and leaves the beers are sitting on the table untouched and suddenly Dave's starts to foam and bubble over the top of the glass!!  bizzarre I have never seen a beer do that before! so then the soup comes out .......in bowls!? very strange.  We eat our meal and decide we'd like some dessert and the waiter turns up with the bill??  Um no we'd like dessert please.  OK so we order one dessert 2 spoons please which seems to amuse him a little, we do this not because we are cheap but if you have ever eaten in an American restaurant you'll know where we are coming from!  I'm so glad that we have a little way to walk to our hotel because I needed to do some walking off!  Another earlyish night as we are pretty tired.

Wednesday 1st July

First job to take my phone to get fixed so we find a cell phone repair place and go there.  The young man behind the counter asks what he can do to help me and I say "I think I drowned my phone at Seaworld!" and hand it to him he goes out the back and two seconds later pops out and says "no the water damage indicator has not gone off I just did a 2 button restart and it's all good!!"  sooo happy! Although in hindsight I think I've killed the speakers as it's not made any noises since we'll see when I take it for a run in the morning.  Then we find the post office to post a package to Utah for conference.  Then it's off to San Diego zoo.  I do love zoos and this one is not too bad but Taronga Zoo in Sydney still wins best zoo hands down IMHO.  You have the animals and the magnificent view you cannot beat it!  Tonight it's Chilis for dinner and probably another early night tonight before we are off to Idyllwyd tomorrow.  Sorry folks no photos couldn't be bothered!