Journey to Sapporo

Saporro? What the ...am I doing in Sapporo? We left Los Angeles (My son drove me to the irport whhiich can be an iffy thing driving to LAX from San Diego in rush hour) Our flight to Tokyo's Narita airport on NWA #1 was scheduled to take 11 hours. At about the tenth hour, the pilot came on and said that due to headwinds we didn't have the fuel onboard to safely continue to Tokyo and we'd have to land at Sapporo to refuel. I was a little apprehensive that I might miss my connecting flight to Manila but after a bit less than an hour, we took off for Narita. I was able to make the connection and got into Manila around 11PM. It was mayhem. Another 747 had landed and the facilities were over taxed. I was unable to get a cart for my suitcases and had to wrestle the two through customs and down the long downhill ramp tp the pickup point. I knew I was back in Manila as my hair started to curl from the humidity.

I look back at my time in California. That state has everything. I would love to do a book on the flora and landscaping of the different regions. In my son's backyard are beautiful bird of paradise that really look like birds.

In future blogs, I will deal with motels, food and trip planning for seniors.

Leaving on a jet plane

Tomorrow I leave San Diego for Manila. The flight to Tokyo will take 12 hours. I really am not looking forward to this part of the trip. I will really miss staying with my son Rob and Matt. Their home is so comfortable and the weather here is San Diego is great. I,ll be posting a summary of the trip when I get back to Manila.

The Mystifying World of Showers

Remember the good old days when shower fixtures were basic. You had your hot, your cold. When the mix was right you turned on the shower portion. Done!
During our trip we encountered many confusing shower challenges. On our first stop, the Queen Mary, the shower came with 4 inputs - hot and cold fresh water and hot and cold sea water. Of course the sea water taps were now non-functioning but must have been amusing during ocean travel.
Our second stop was an old motel in Sonora. When Loly went to take a shower she tried pulling out the knob that usually opens the shower portion to no avail. As it was a rather old motel, she was afraid that pulling too hard would bring the entire plumbing out of the wall. She went to get the night manager, who came and gave it a mighty heave and voila! Water.
During our stop at San Francisco, we stayed in an aging hotel. When I went to take a shower, for the life of me I couldn't get the water to come out of the shower head and so had a very uncomfortable chore of trying to wedge myself under the lower tap!
By and large all motels use the uni-ball system for the shower. Under this system, there is no such thing as a gentle warm stream. If you want gentle, it's cold. You want warmer, the volume increases. You want warmer, it's like Niagara Falls. How much water is wasted!! This time, I think progress and modernity should rethink how things were managed previously.

Ontario to San Diego

We visited the 3rd Golden girl in Ontario and had dinner with her family. When we checked out from the Day's Inn in Ontario we were anticipating the same problem we had had at Day's Inn in San Simeon. When we tried to pay cash, the proprietor - Kumar Swaminarayan told us that Day's Inn does not have the software to issue a printed receipt for cash (??) He just wrote by hand . Paid cash and his initials on our Registration folio. Hope that charge does not show up on my Mastercard.
We arrived in San Diego around lunchtime. The following day Rob took Loly and I to Balboa Park before dropping her off at her cousin's house for a family reunion.

San Simeon to Solvang

When we woke up in San Simeon, we went outside to get breakfast. Our motel is right alongside US 1. The road was completely empty. We felt like some unaware survivors of a disaster film. We must have stayed there for 3 minutes before a car finally came down the road. After breakfast we went to San Luis Obispo mission church. The most beautiful part was the garden where I was able to videotape the songs of the birds.
Our final destination yesterday was Solvang, a town settled by Danish immigrants. It was like walking around Europe. They had windmills (Holland?), Danish pastry of course, stores selling beautiful laces and Royal Copenhagen.
Unfortunately the WiFi connection in my room didn't work so this is one day delayed. Next leg is Solvang to Ontario to meet up with an old friend.

Marina to San Simeon

It was a really twisting drive along the coast. We went through Carmel, Monterey and Big Sur before arriving in San Simeon. We got stopped twice on Rte. 1 due to road repair and the painting of the yellow line on the highway.
We had lunch at Hearst Castle. It was overpriced as they have no competition. I paid more than $8 for a slice of pizza and a coke. While I had long wanted to see Hearst Castle, I found the interiors a bit disappointing. I think Mr. Hearst was a collector of anything that came his way and didn't exercise much discrimination. The grounds though, were truly amazing. The pool and rose gardens were impressive.
We are now at a Day's Inn in the middle of nowhere where we don,t have signal for our phone and the nearest outpost of civilization (read Supermarket) is 8 miles south.
Tomorrow we leave for the Danish influenced town of Solvang.

Train Ride

We went to the Philippine Consulate early in the morning to pick up our car that we had parked there while we were in San Francisco. When we got therr we found a car parked in the street blocking the driveway. The police were called but we didn't want to wait for them to get there or get a tow truck to remove the car. We were very lucky that Medel, one of the staff, was able to drive the car out using the sidewalk.
We got off to a late start as we had to get to Felton to catch the once daily steam engine ride through the mountains. We barely made it and sprinted through the parking lot and bought the tickets. I waved the tickets at the conductor and said,"Please hold the train! I have to go to the bathroom". He did and we had a great ride through the forest.
After the ride we went to have lunch at the red caboose. I ordered a hamburger. When i unwrapped it, it had pickles, onions, tomato and lettuce. I took it back to the counter and said, "Where's the Beef?" They were slightly embarrassed.
The whole experience there was fun as they were doing a Civil War re-enactment and cannons kept going off.
Tomorrow we visit Hearst Castle.