I'm just amazed at how Mexican it is here. All the names of towns and streets. Every second restaurant is Mexican (and I don't really like Mexican food either). Aparently it actually used to be Mexico and the States annexed the land at some point in history and named it California.
We're having a great time staying with Laura and Sean. I used to work with Laura in Japan and haven't seen her for 9 years! They live in Orange County, south of LA and we went down to the beach last night for dinner and today. We decided not to go into LA as the traffic was horrendous when we came through yesterday and we voted that it was just not worth it. We had a much more relaxing time, we all went shopping this morning and Laura and I had our hair curled in the department store, and LEK and I had a massage this afternoon. Sweet.
Nice to sleep in a bed for a couple of nights. But I have to say the mattresses we are sleeping on (called thermarest), in our new super-duper tent, are great. I sleep well and don't wake up with a backache, which is a bonus. When we stay in camping areas, we have this small tent, and a small gas burner to make our tea and a couple of tiny lights, really everything we need. And other people have huge mobile homes (called RVs here) or 3 room tents and deck chairs and tables and everything that opens and shuts. Anyway, they feel sorry for us because we must look like their poor cousins and are always offering to help us and lend us their stuff. We think it's hilarious because we actually like not having all that unnecessary crap, much easier to set up and pack up in the morning.
Forgot to tell you, somewhere up the coast (can't remember where. Yes I can, it was Depoe Bay), we went to the movies and saw "The Land of the Lost" with Will Farrell (because it was cold and rainy, much warmer in the ciimema!). Actually the movie was pretty funny and MUCH better than we thought it would be. Anyway, I got into the movies on a senior ticket ... first time in my life. That was a hoot. And LEK got asked for ID at a vinyard when we were wine tasting! So a few firsts!
Off to Vegas tomorrow and I have a ticket to see Bette Midler. Pretty excited about that. LEK's not coming, too expensive for her. Hope I get to see Linda. Couldn't get her on the phone for some strange reason, so just emailed her tonight.
Looking forward to some warm weather. We have been wearing warm clothing for most of the trip. Vancouver was the warmest so far, we didn't have to wear a sweater there during the day, but everywhere else has been quite cool.
