Holiday Inn Costa Mesa/Orange County Airport

... talking this choice through, after I'd turned in my resignation--it was tense. It took both of us a while to "digest" the enormity of the situation. <br><br>I know I was VERY concerned about being away from my wife and hounds for several months, as we spend most all of our time together, and I like to think we have a pretty well-merged social life and we do a lot together. Financially, we'd bought a house at the top of the market and remodeled it--so we ...

... new opportunity before we left. In short and hopefully a correct explanation of what she will be doing is - working on determining some of the environmental impacts of an Australia government plan to redirect some of the water from the tropical north to the drought stricken south. Apparently they messed things up so much taking water out of the main river through Adelaide and the main water source in the south that the estuary closed up and they have to ...

... Then Samantha and Zaack convinced me to go on another ride which looked like a haunted house, but we ended up strapped in to a room where they dropped us several stories(the whole room) Yep after that I felt well and truly over it. Not surprisingly we headed off shortly after for our drive to San Diego. The kids really enjoyed the theme park experience, Chris and I waved goodbye with alot of enthusiasm.

... under the bridge and pop out facing the castle, again my eyes well up and Drew takes one look at me and gives me a cuddle, he knows what this moment meant to me. This theme happens many times throughout the day, so he gets used to me blubbering pretty quickly. We don't have a map and are totally lost, so we start to wander and head onto each ride as they come. The wait time is next to nothing and we soon discover that the park is really ...

... it's so strange. Especially since Caz and I have SO much trouble working out th pennies and dimes and nickels so by the time we actually get to the cash register and have countd out the xact change we then have to start over all again because we forgot to add in the tax. Also tipping - don't even get me started! It's just a cop out so that the business' don't have to pay their workers anything more than minimum wage... Some of the waiteress ...

... very disappointing when you get to ride anyway. David has another go on splash mountain before we head over to the other more relaxed park. David goes onto soaring over California, jumping much of the queue as a single rider. That said, it still probably took an hour to get to the ride and return to Michelle who was about to report David missing. The ride was actually a surprising hit (in short, you fly over different parts of California ...

... our clan to 1st Class - Finished checking the luggage and headed over to the terminal. Ususally the security lines are Brutal, but this time they were short, sweet and painless. This is HUGE, due to the fact that we have kids (toddler and infant ages) and from past experiences we have had "challenges" with the good old folks at TSA, but this time it was all good - surprisingly. Since we were going 1st Class we had access to the 1st Class Lounge. This was a cool ...

... many more such as Simon Cowell's, Sean Connery, Madonna (before she made her home in London) as well as Frank Sinatra's last two homes and a supposedly haunted home that has the largest pool in California but has had no one living in the property in the last 20 years since the previous owner died in a fire there having claimed for years that it was ...

... on your own without transport. We opted for a half day tour of the attractions on a tourist bus checking out the homes of the rich and famous, then on to the more well known areas of LA. First up was a quick stop in Venice beach, just down the coast from Santa Monica and the old hangout of the previously mentioned Californian Mayor. In his past life this man loved to pump iron in the Muscle beach gym, sadly there weren't any body builders on our visit. Right ...

Saturday, February 20, 1993 I arrived on in Los Angeles and checked into the very old Cadillac Hotel in Venice Beach, the "West Village." The Cadillac opened in 1905, and gone through many reincarnations. Recently it had been a retirement hotel. When it was recently sold , they had to keep some of the old characters, one of whom calls herself "The Virgin Empress Alexandra." I never met her, but was told she is quite lucid and can converse on many topics. Venice Beach reminds me ...