Author archive
20 August 2007
Above: At Mission Santa Barbara. We have a big day today, driving from Arroyo Grande to Los Angeles (about 3h drive) before flying to London Heathrow. We had enough time on the drive to stop at the Mission at Santa Barbara, about halfway through the drive. While the mission was founded in 1786 the existing […]
19 August 2007
Above: Concours d’Elegance at Pebble Beach. Kim, Eric and Rodger were off to the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance (classic carshow) today. That really didn’t interest me and I didn’t want to pay an exorbitant sum to see more cars. But I couldn’t stay back at the hotel as we had checked-out for our move down […]
18 August 2007
Above: Street scene in Carmel today. We headed out in the car this morning to Carmel and then Pebble Beach. Along the way, Kim was distracted by a sign saying there was a car show at San Martin County Park. Of course, he couldn’t resist that and we took a detour there. This car show […]
17 August 2007
Arrived into San Francisco at 1225 from Auckland after an overnight flight. We collected our rental car and despite not having tonnes of time, we did a drive around of San Fran to give Eric a look at the Golden Gate bridge. It’s his first time here and it seems cruel not to show him […]
17 August 2007
We flew out of Auckland to San Francisco at 1910, without any hassles, despite on standby tickets. Kim and I had a couple of hangers-on with us: his old friend Eric plus his best mate Rodger as well. They’re all car fanatics and have quite a treat ahead in California with various car events.
4 May 2007
I slept nearly all the way home, seated in Premium Economy. It’s quite unusual for me to sleep on flights, sometimes being wide awake despite assistance with sleeping pill. It was a good end to a trip I didn’t really want to undertake, for good reasons. I had only returned from a long trip to […]
2 May 2007
Flying to Los Angeles via Chicago We filled yesterday with more shopping; it was our second day of shopping. We also filled our luggage! Things in the USA are cheap if one shops wisely. Today, we fly from Fort Lauderdale back to Auckland via Chicago and Los Angeles. We left our hotel at 0800 and […]
30 April 2007
Above: Beach at Fort Lauderdale. Third and final timeshare presentation We took a light breakfast at the Welcome Centre. They didn’t have a toaster for a bagel and untoasted bagels are a little too stodgy. It was the standard two-hour presentation which started with a general chat lasting 1h, then a tour of the property, […]
28 April 2007
Short exploration Our stay at Daytona’s Islander Resort included a continental breakfast of bagel, real juice and a few other items. We had to arrange a timeshare presentation to attend. We had been misled into thinking that we would be required to attend one presentation in Florida, but because we’re splitting our stay across three […]
27 April 2007
Today we visit Kennedy Space Centre before continuing to Daytona Beach. The drive from Kissimmee to Kennedy took less than an hour. The Kennedy Space Centre is NASA’s primary launch station for space flight. Some exhibits were accessible by foot from the entrance area but three by bus. Overall, we got to see some of […]