Visiting Dave and Kristyn

  San Luis Obispo, California, United States
Saturday, April 28, 2007

Our flight from Rarotonga to LA was an overnight flight which I actually managed to sleep on. Air New Zealand is as cheap as the American airlines but luckily we had a pouch of eye shades and socks that mom left us from Quantas. We sat near the back but thank goodness the kids were in the front. It wasn't a full flight so we were able to stretch out a bit. I even managed to sleep for a while. Without seatback screens, good movies and good food, there was not a lot to stay awake for.

When we arrived in LA we managed to get out of the airport. It wasn't a big rush of "We're home!" because this isn't really our city. We somehow ended up with a 6 day layover here and had little desire to spend all the days in the city (sorry Los Angeles fans). 

With Kristyn and Dave

Thankfully our good friends Kristyn and Dave live three hours north in San Luis Obispo and were happy to host us for a few days. We took an airport bus up to Santa Barbara where she would be picking us up.

When you are away from America for so long you really notice all its unique qualities upon return. What we noticed right away was the SUVs. California has their fair share. When we were dropped in Santa Barbara we saw a parking lot with four SUVs and a Hummer. Just to remind us that we were in Southern California a woman roller bladed by, walking her dog and talking on her cell phone.

I have known our friend Dave since elementary school and have known his wife Kristyn since she met Dave in high school. Dave is one of those people who lived up to his high potential, getting a PhD in Astrophysics and a teaching position at Cal Poly. They managed by the grace of God to get a lovely house for a good price in the nearby town of Los Osos. This house was well deserved as they are fabulous hosts. We felt right at home staying with them. On Friday while they were at work we caught up on all the Argentina and Belize plans and solidified many details. On the way home from the coffeeshop we bought some local strawberries that were amazing. No one grows strawberries like California.

Over the weekend they took us around the area including a big elephant seal colony and Hearst Castle. They are as frugal as us so we all agreed to just view the mansion from afar and visit the museum at the tourist center for free. 

Elephant Seals

 The museum was really interesting and surprisingly empty. We also walked along the ocean at many different small towns and took a quick look at the nearby kite festival. On Sunday we went to their friendly church and even did a trip to Costco and Trader Joes. Ahhhhh.... now we feel home again.

Even with the activities we still had lots of time to sit around and relax, watching baseball and basketball with Dave. We discovered an unprotected wireless signal from one of their neighbors which Kristyn joked made our visit all worthwhile.

Kristyn agreed to drive us back to LA on Monday and we decided to go at a leisurely pace. We stopped at the Firestone Winery (of "The Bachelor" fame) for some wine tasting and even went to the faux-Danish town of Solvang for some fabulous pastries. To top it off we had lunch at In and Out Burger for some California fast food. We managed to miss the worse of the LA traffic and arrived at the hotel in the evening.