Well here we are at the Marriott Newport Coast Villas resort. The trip yesterday was pretty much uneventful, which is great for a cross-country flight. The flight from Greensboro to Atlanta was somewhat funky in that it was on a Bombardier 65. I think that Bombardier should stick to making snowmobiles instead of trying to make planes. This was the smallest 2 and 2 seating plane I’ve ever been on. The overhead bins were too small for our carryon bags so we ended up in the sardine-like seats with carryon bags sitting on our feet. I felt like I was in a straight jacket. In any event, I was very glad to get to Atlanta. Amazingly, flying on Friday leaving at 9:50 found the GSO airport virtually deserted. Atlanta also was not too crowded for noonish on a Friday. We arrived at LAX (Los Angeles) and everything went fine...Until.... we went to the Hertz rental car place via a 15 minute bus ride. Jerry went inside to get the car and he never came back. I went inside to check on him and he was in one of those zigzag lines with about 4000 people in front of him. There were 30 or so counter positions but only four or five had bodies in them. An hour later he emerged and we took possession of our Ford Taurus (Grey of course). A while later, after an hour or so on the 405 south, we arrived at the resort. In the meantime I spent a while trying to figure out the "Hertz Never Lost" that had come with the car. Mostly all I succeeded in doing was having this reasonably pleasant woman tell me about turns that didn’t agree with the directions we had. We arrived at the resort and were checked in at the curbside by a very pleasant, helpful, good-looking young woman. We located our unit, made a foray to find supper, and then a trip to the grocery store. After locating several restaurants that appeared to have long waiting lines and/or valet parking, we opted to head directly to the grocery store and just buy dinner to eat leisurely at the condo. The grocery store was called Pavil ion, and was very nice, like a big Harris Teeter. (Except in California, the grocery store sells beer, wine, and liquor) We rounded up everything we needed for survival and landed for the night. Traveling all day and a 3-hour time change had whipped our butts.
Saturday, I was up early (04:30) due to the fact that it was really 07:30 my time. I read a book for a while then got started on cooking breakfast for all. After breakfast we adjourned to the pool and spent the day meeting all sorts of cool folks. But somehow starting @ 04:30 with Bloody Mary’s and then a 12 pack each of Tecate and Dos Equis in the pool and in the hot tub and in the pool and in the hot tub, etc. etc. and it turned into quite a day. I played a lot of solo tetherball, forgot to put on sun block, and oops got quite a set of red neck and shoulders. Cooked Italian meatballs on the very nice gas grill provided outside then simmered them with Marinara and diced tomatoes for a great pasta dish. We had a fine dinner and eventually wound down for and long night’s sleep.
Wes
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