Hampton Inn & Suites Temecula, Ca

... thus far:<br><br>We'll be starting in Lake Elsinore where we'll be renting our car and starting travel no later than 10 am! Our first stop will be in northern Cali! A place called Sonoma Coast State Beach! It's right on the ocean and rumor has it that during the winter whales and elephant seals migrate and can be spotted here. There will probably be a stop in San Fran to see the sights as well but we'll play that by ear. (Keep in mind the places I'm saying are just to get us from ...

... shirt and sun-screen! Anyway, I did make it back alive and well, if you were wondering. It was a great time! The highlight was visiting Key West FL. Aside from the destination, I got to visit with friends I hadnt seen in 10 years...super cool!<br><br>Thanks for reading all my mindless blogging. I do have a few pics to post but not much....mostly cycle related. Its kind of difficult to snap photos when your riding a bike.<br>

... them and would recommend it Jeff!<br><br>We were soon back on the road to Temecula and as we drew close Wendy phoned Cheryl to say we were nearly there and we would go straight to the winery to meet her. We did make one small detour though, it wasn't really sat nav's fault, we weren't concentrating as we should have been. Sat nav directed us to turn left at what we assumed was the next lights, but in actual fact it should have been two lights down ...

... working mine! It's really neat to see how they locate and blast out the crystal deposits. Later that same day, they planned to blast out a new section but, we weren't allowed to hang around. : ( After such an amazing trip, this will be my final adventure. It's time to push on home and prepare for my big move. I have one last blog entry to make and this will mark the final chapter in this epic tale. ; ) ~JQ

Well my wonderful family and friends, the time that I have awaited for a long time now has arrived. Early tommorow morning I will be boarding a plane to depart for my year long Study Abroad program in Spain. As long as I have waited for Tuesday (tommorow) to finally get here, it is still a very surreal feeling that I have right now about all this. I feel very fortunate that I had the opportunity to stay with my parents this last month and spend some good times with them ...

... meet' and bought my own fishing gear so I could join them. The swap meet was like a giant garage sale or market. I bought shoes, clothes, surfboards, magazines, ski masks and hats, along with the fishing rods and crab traps. Besides that there was also all sorts of household items and trinkets, sports equipment, art, food vendors, electronics, books n movies, music, toys, furniture, vehicle parts, many things... I like swap meets!<br>The next day I went surfing, the waves were ...

... table (i.e. losing). After this I watched some of the water display that they have (which also features on the Oceans Eleven film). I then headed back in and walked around and then headed over to New York, New York casino. Sadly there were a lot of drunk people about and it seemed a little too quiet and uncomfortable so I headed back to the MGM where I ended up spending the rest of the night and morning walking around, playing the tables, playing the pokies, playing ...

Following another long-haul flight, we gratefully touched down at LAX and once through the rigmarole of bureaucracy, we made our way to the Qantas desk to try and re-route one our flights that would save us time, if not money. Unfortunately, after wasting three-quarters of an hour, we were unable to change our tickets, despite initially being told we could! I'll have to get in touch with Bridge The World about that! Next came some terribly naive travelling, with ...

... places. I walked from Santa Monica to the end of Venice Beach, about 90 minutes at an easy mosey. Santa Monica itself has an uncanny resemblance to Nice in France. It is a very clean and ordered seaside 'city', with upmarket shops and cafés and a mainly tourist population. I stopped into a mall with a food-court and had a pasta salad, my first concession to healthy food on this trip. It was decidedly chilly by the time I got back to the hostel. I was feeling really ...