I loved California. It was not what I was expecting at all. As soon as we left the airport in LA, I thought that we were in a third world country, it was dirty, covered in graffiti and overall kinda disgusting. However, 30 minutes outside of LA was very pretty countryside, that was very sparsely populated. If CA is the most populated state in the country, we have nothing to worry about in concern to overpopulation. We spent a couple of days driving around the countryside and would often not pass even the smallest town for over 50 miles. GA is way more populated in comparison. It was very beautiful this time of year, yellow, purple, and orange flowers were blooming all over the countryside, and it wasn't as much desert as I expected. The strawberries were in season and you could smell them for miles as you drove by acres of fields with undocumented workers picking them in the warm sun. (notice my political correctness) The oranges were wonderful as well, and I stopped at roadside farms and bought delicious fruit.
The highlight of my trip was the fact that I didn't have ONE BIT of anxiety. Our trip started off with a bang and that didn't even throw me for a loop. We left 10 minutes late, had to go out to Nate's shop, which killed another 15 mins, got a speeding ticket on the way down which killed some time, and barely made it to the airport with an hour to spare. Unfortunately, we had to park far away, and then we were checking a bag as well. I paid for the bag to be checked and then proceeded to put it on the loading ramp. The lady behind the counter said that we were 10 minutes to late to check our bag, we would have to see the customer service people to help us figure out what to do or put us on another flight. We hurried to that section and the lady there told us that all future flights were overbooked. She suggested that we store our large suitcase in a locker and buy carry on luggage instead. I told her that carry on would cost a fortune in an airport, but she directed me to a store that was having a sale. I hurried to the store while Nate went to secure a locker. I found luggage for $30 and $40 bucks so I bought them and hurried towards the area that the lockers were in so that we could unpack and repack quickly. I met Nate in the middle and he said that they wanted $56 to store our suitcase. The case wasn't worth that much so we decided to "lose" our large luggage in the food court next to the trash cans and elevators. We made it through security and hurried towards the concourse (trains) with only 15 minutes till take off. We got on at concourse A and we needed to depart from concourse D, when we arrived at D with only a few minutes to spare, I asked Nate what gate were we supposed to depart from. As it turns out he said that he told me we were supposed to have gotten off at concourse B and go to gate 24, I clearly heard concourse D, and if I hadn't why didn't he get off at B, since B obviously comes before D. At this point we realized that there was no hope, but just to make sure the nail in our coffin was pounded tight we went to B24. Of course our flight had departed and we had to wait in another line and see when they could get us to LA. The nice lady said that there were no available flights until 6pm that night and in order to book it we would have to pay an additional $150 a ticket. We decided to go standby, which was an enormous risk because all flights were overbooked and there were 10-12 people ahead of us. Our flight was at 11 and the next one wasn't until 1:45, so we had plenty of time to go in search of our "lost" luggage. We asked the janitorial staff first because they seemed the most obvious choice not to have us interrogated for abandoning luggage. When that didn't pan out, we tried lost and found. That too was to no avail. Finally, we had to approach the airport police, after I had said a few choice words like "we left it, ditched it" to the lost and found people Nathan ordered me to be silent while he spoke with the police. They said that our bag had been found, sniffed by the dogs and then sent to be destroyed. No one could locate it, so it was presumed destroyed. We decided to go eat lunch, and while I was this time, truly watching our bags I saw a janitor come out of an elevator. I motioned him over and asked if he had seen a large black bag in the bowels of the airport. He said that he just had now seen such a bag near the incinerator. He offered to retrieve it for us, and when Nate got back with the food, he had the privilege of escorting our wayward luggage to the car that was parked two miles away.
The story does not end there. We went to the gate that the 1:45 was departing from and realized that yes indeed they were overbooked and we were not going to be on it. The next flight was leaving at 3pm and there were 6 people ahead of us on standby. So we enjoyed the airport for a couple more hours and then nervously awaited to see if our names would be called for the 3pm flight. We watched the screens and were thrilled to see that we were the last 2 to board the plane. Of course we did not have seats together, but he was one row behind be across the aisle. It worked out that I was able to switch my window seat for the aisle and he was able to switch his middle seat for the aisle, so that we could kinda talk now and then. We were in the very back of the bumpy plane, but I was fine. Praise God!
Pages and pages of pictures.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
The Sea Lion story
We were driving along the scenic Pacific Coastal Hwy when we decided to pull over and walk along the beach since I have never seen the Pacific coast. As soon as we pulled over I spotted a large creature in the water coming towards the shore. I started yelling uninteligable words like, "wallspike, sealorn, waterspanther" and flailing for the camera. I dove out of the car running at full speed down the rock wall and flinging shoes, adjusting the camera and yelling at Nate "hurry, you'll miss it, isn't this so exciting." This is what I first saw.
Then before I was even half way to the waters edge, I saw this.
And finally up close and personal, this is what I encountered.
He was so very dead, but I really didn't care, it was the second highlight of my trip. I even petted him while Nate told me not to. I hardly ever disobey my husband anymore, but he didn't really mean it, he was just repulsed at the idea that I wanted to touch it. Some other curious bystanders came along and were watching me take photos of it and touch it, but they were too scared to do it with us watching, so they waited until we moved down the beach and then I saw them touch it too. We don't know how he expired, because there were no visible wounds, but blood would come out of his nose after the waves rolled him a bit.
Then before I was even half way to the waters edge, I saw this.
And finally up close and personal, this is what I encountered.
He was so very dead, but I really didn't care, it was the second highlight of my trip. I even petted him while Nate told me not to. I hardly ever disobey my husband anymore, but he didn't really mean it, he was just repulsed at the idea that I wanted to touch it. Some other curious bystanders came along and were watching me take photos of it and touch it, but they were too scared to do it with us watching, so they waited until we moved down the beach and then I saw them touch it too. We don't know how he expired, because there were no visible wounds, but blood would come out of his nose after the waves rolled him a bit.
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