We abandoned our initial plan to bus to Union Station and caught a taxi from the hotel. We'd never seen an unmarked taxi before and I wondered if the guy at reception had just rung a mate with a nice car he knew was cruising nearby.
We arrived with a lot of time to spare and retrieved the tickets we booked online while back in New Zealand from the machine. I sat around reading, but Lynette got bored went for a wander and discovered something was going on across the road. With about half an hour to spare we headed across and watched some dancers and then wandered down part of what we discovered a week or two later was Oliveira Street. Lynette is definitely the brains of our family, certainly when it comes to playing tourist.
Lynette kicked her present shopping off with the first of many "Dora" themed acquisitions for her 5 year old niece. Alright, I admit the Dora Lucha Libre mask was cute and I'd have bought it if she hadn't seen it first.
We made it onto the train and wandered for ages carrying our packs trying to find two seats together. I discovered later that if we'd gone a couple of cars further we could have had a whole carriage to ourselves. Everyone was energetically cramming into one end of the train and staking out their turf while there were about 3 carriages at the other end completely empty.
Me on the train. Lynette did the "tourist taking photographs of everything" bit very well.
The train journey to Oceanside where we were meeting Laura takes about 2 hours, but at least half of that is getting out of LA. Anaheim to Oceanside is about an hour. Train food on a short trip is no better than it is at home. Edible, but that's about it. We saw our first nuclear power plant. We're notorious for not having any of those things here, so we didn't even recognise what the big dome things on the coast were. And they're not signposted, funny that.
We were texting Laura with updates on where we were and she was telling us where she was until we pointed out that we had no idea where the places she was talking about were as an indicator of her progress from Ramona. Equally I confused her by texting we were someplace I saw on a billboard that isn't anywhere near the coast. I got off and dropped some rubbish in a bin and when I turned around I saw my first genuine Brand Xer.
They're not very big are they?
Actually Lynette and I both said later that Laura looks taller than her 5 foot flat, from a distance. Up close she's definitely hobbitlike.
While she was waiting for us Laura got Lynette coffee and twinkies. She had texted that she was looking for a place to buy flowers but I replied saying Lynette couldn't see the point in flowers and that twinkies would be better. We can't get those here and Lynette may have had one or two while she was there, and brought a box back with us.
The scenery on the drive to Ramona was fascinating. So different than any place back home.
Lots of marvellously twisty canyon roads that were later to freak out Anita "FirmDancer" Tyler in a big way, but which had me wishing for a nice 750 or bigger bike to throw around some corners. Except I'd probably have thrown myself right in front of a truck. I didn't really relax on the drive because all my instincts were that we were on the wrong side of the road and we would at any second round a corner and be facing some behemoth coming the other way. And that's just the utes (pickups to Americans). Those suckers are big! What do they get, 4 gallons to the block?
We didn't realise how long Laura had to drive to meet us and felt quite guilty when we did. That willingness to run us around was something we encountered time and again from many people and we were enormously grateful for it every single time.
Laura talked a lot and laughed a lot, a pattern we were to become very familiar with. She packs a lot of personality in that little frame! I can still hear that laugh now.
We checked in to the Ramona Valley Inn and found to our relief that the room was very satisfactory indeed. Quite simple, but clean and comfortable. We'd had conflicting reports on the Inn, but could not really afford to stay anywhere else. I handed over the sculpture of Dan Silver that Laura had commissioned me to make for her to give to him and again was relieved when she liked it. Phew!
We ran through Kmart for shampoo and stuff,
then went to dinner at Denny's (yes, Denny's, TP!) with Laura's family.
A choice of the locals, not ours TP, although we certainly had no objection to finding out how American Denny's differed from NZ Denny's. Laura's family were very nice and we had fun watching Bradley, Laura's son, open the presents we had brought him. The bag of "kiwi poo" had him very worried, I don't know that he picked up that it was only chocolate coated raisins for a start, but I wouldn't put it past him. He's a bright kid.
Lynette was surprised that when what appeared to be scones turned up, everyone put whipped cream on them. I think the scones were "dinner bread" and the "whipped cream" was definitely butter. Here butter is yellow and it's not whipped, perhaps because our cows are all grass fed? Or is the butter processed to death over there until its colour is gone?
We picked up a few more supplies at Albertsons (supermarket) on the way back to the motel, after reminding Laura that we needed to, she having already driven past Albertsons. Laura's memory and attention span being something else we became very familiar with. "Ooh, shiny! Sorry, what were you saying?".
And we briefly saw Brand X from the main road. There was a brief frisson of terror at what we would encounter there the next day.
We texted Andrea to set up our ride with her to Brand X the next morning and wnet for a walk to settle the Denny's. We didn't know it, but by the time we'd gone "one more block" and "to the next set of lights" a few times we were most of the way to Brand X.
Tomorrow, our first day at the controlled chaos that is Brand X on a Monday. We meet lots of Brand Xers and of course the fierce Garddawg and stern BlueBugofJustice (I didn't know!). Stoopid stuff is committed and I sacrifice skin to learn to kip.
That's likely to be a big post folks, we had lots of info to process!
The photos in this post are from the following albums, feel free to browse around.
http://picasaweb.google.com/metric.nz/Union_Station
http://picasaweb.google.com/metric.nz/Other
Some will feature in posts yet to come, others will not.
We arrived with a lot of time to spare and retrieved the tickets we booked online while back in New Zealand from the machine. I sat around reading, but Lynette got bored went for a wander and discovered something was going on across the road. With about half an hour to spare we headed across and watched some dancers and then wandered down part of what we discovered a week or two later was Oliveira Street. Lynette is definitely the brains of our family, certainly when it comes to playing tourist.
Lynette kicked her present shopping off with the first of many "Dora" themed acquisitions for her 5 year old niece. Alright, I admit the Dora Lucha Libre mask was cute and I'd have bought it if she hadn't seen it first.
We made it onto the train and wandered for ages carrying our packs trying to find two seats together. I discovered later that if we'd gone a couple of cars further we could have had a whole carriage to ourselves. Everyone was energetically cramming into one end of the train and staking out their turf while there were about 3 carriages at the other end completely empty.
Me on the train. Lynette did the "tourist taking photographs of everything" bit very well.
The train journey to Oceanside where we were meeting Laura takes about 2 hours, but at least half of that is getting out of LA. Anaheim to Oceanside is about an hour. Train food on a short trip is no better than it is at home. Edible, but that's about it. We saw our first nuclear power plant. We're notorious for not having any of those things here, so we didn't even recognise what the big dome things on the coast were. And they're not signposted, funny that.
We were texting Laura with updates on where we were and she was telling us where she was until we pointed out that we had no idea where the places she was talking about were as an indicator of her progress from Ramona. Equally I confused her by texting we were someplace I saw on a billboard that isn't anywhere near the coast. I got off and dropped some rubbish in a bin and when I turned around I saw my first genuine Brand Xer.
They're not very big are they?
Actually Lynette and I both said later that Laura looks taller than her 5 foot flat, from a distance. Up close she's definitely hobbitlike.
While she was waiting for us Laura got Lynette coffee and twinkies. She had texted that she was looking for a place to buy flowers but I replied saying Lynette couldn't see the point in flowers and that twinkies would be better. We can't get those here and Lynette may have had one or two while she was there, and brought a box back with us.
The scenery on the drive to Ramona was fascinating. So different than any place back home.
Lots of marvellously twisty canyon roads that were later to freak out Anita "FirmDancer" Tyler in a big way, but which had me wishing for a nice 750 or bigger bike to throw around some corners. Except I'd probably have thrown myself right in front of a truck. I didn't really relax on the drive because all my instincts were that we were on the wrong side of the road and we would at any second round a corner and be facing some behemoth coming the other way. And that's just the utes (pickups to Americans). Those suckers are big! What do they get, 4 gallons to the block?
We didn't realise how long Laura had to drive to meet us and felt quite guilty when we did. That willingness to run us around was something we encountered time and again from many people and we were enormously grateful for it every single time.
Laura talked a lot and laughed a lot, a pattern we were to become very familiar with. She packs a lot of personality in that little frame! I can still hear that laugh now.
We checked in to the Ramona Valley Inn and found to our relief that the room was very satisfactory indeed. Quite simple, but clean and comfortable. We'd had conflicting reports on the Inn, but could not really afford to stay anywhere else. I handed over the sculpture of Dan Silver that Laura had commissioned me to make for her to give to him and again was relieved when she liked it. Phew!
We ran through Kmart for shampoo and stuff,
then went to dinner at Denny's (yes, Denny's, TP!) with Laura's family.
A choice of the locals, not ours TP, although we certainly had no objection to finding out how American Denny's differed from NZ Denny's. Laura's family were very nice and we had fun watching Bradley, Laura's son, open the presents we had brought him. The bag of "kiwi poo" had him very worried, I don't know that he picked up that it was only chocolate coated raisins for a start, but I wouldn't put it past him. He's a bright kid.
Lynette was surprised that when what appeared to be scones turned up, everyone put whipped cream on them. I think the scones were "dinner bread" and the "whipped cream" was definitely butter. Here butter is yellow and it's not whipped, perhaps because our cows are all grass fed? Or is the butter processed to death over there until its colour is gone?
We picked up a few more supplies at Albertsons (supermarket) on the way back to the motel, after reminding Laura that we needed to, she having already driven past Albertsons. Laura's memory and attention span being something else we became very familiar with. "Ooh, shiny! Sorry, what were you saying?".
And we briefly saw Brand X from the main road. There was a brief frisson of terror at what we would encounter there the next day.
We texted Andrea to set up our ride with her to Brand X the next morning and wnet for a walk to settle the Denny's. We didn't know it, but by the time we'd gone "one more block" and "to the next set of lights" a few times we were most of the way to Brand X.
Tomorrow, our first day at the controlled chaos that is Brand X on a Monday. We meet lots of Brand Xers and of course the fierce Garddawg and stern BlueBugofJustice (I didn't know!). Stoopid stuff is committed and I sacrifice skin to learn to kip.
That's likely to be a big post folks, we had lots of info to process!
The photos in this post are from the following albums, feel free to browse around.
http://picasaweb.google.com/metric.nz/Union_Station
http://picasaweb.google.com/metric.nz/Other
Some will feature in posts yet to come, others will not.
Posts
7 comments:
hey now!!!
oooh shiny!
The butter at pancake restaurants is usually whipped...makes it melt faster on your breakfast foods. :) Butter is not usually very yellow though, margarine is definitely yellow in most cases.
Bradley on the Kiwi Poo: There's so much chocolate you can hardly taste the poo!
He doesn't care for raisins much lately so it might as well have been real poo. ;)
LOL at Bradley.
We liked him a lot. A very clever kid, but don't tell him that or he'll get big headed. You're not reading this are you Bradster? :-)
Here both margarine and butter look like butter, both yellow. I can't taste the difference, but Lynette can. I suspect it's an anosmia thing on my part.
Yes, the twisty canyon roads freaked me out. And the steep drop offs, really. Yes, I went to BrandX and met pukie almost every day - but not in the workouts - just driving those roads.
Lynette made me promise to post this: On Sunday morning, I frantically pm'd GD, BBoJ, and LauraR begging for some alternate route to the gym. I told them I didn't care if I had to drive to Oregon - I just wasn't crossing that mountain. LOL! - I survived.
-Anita
Stern?
Ok only a little insulted, mostly pouty
LOL @ Mikki
Wait until Day 3's report and the "stern" remark will make sense.
Yeah, the whipped butter? Like Laura says, its for meltyness. Probably because of pancakes. Regular butter, if it's all cold, will tear up a pancake . . . .
And that thing about the roads being all twisty and all . . . I'm with Craig . . . we were coming back that way with Kempie, LRH, and Laura in the Sebring (a chrysler sedan . . . ) and whipping around those canyons and I told Kempie that I wish I had my car . . . then we could have had some fun. Of course, Anita would have barfed. :-)
Ha! Stern BBOJ! Ha! Oh, she was stern trying to rodeo three knuckle head boys(and I say that with complete affection for the affliction of being male) :-) because they kept messing around when they were supposed to pack . . .
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