Planes and Palm Trees

Well, I am writing this from San Diego, CA after our first family plane flight! The almost 5 hour flight did not feel too bad since I had managed a 10 mile run yesterday morning commencing at 5am. A 8:40am departure this morning had us waking up at normal school time. BUT, school is over for this year and I now have an eighth grader and a sixth grader. To say that they were/are excited about our trip to California is putting it mildly.

Gina's trip to Cedar Point on tuesday with her class prepared her for the sensation of lift-off. Abby was big-eyed but enjoyed the experience once we were off of the ground. Great flight with clear skies and we actually arrived in Los Angeles on time. We retrieved our luggage and then waited for the rental car shuttle. And waited... It arrived and we loaded the car with our luggage. Many many thanks to Dave for letting us borrow his TomTom navigation unit. We have affectionatly renamed it to DaveDave, even though the voice does not match the name! It managed to get us to the hotel without missing a beat! We tried to fool it with an off-highway excursion to look for a beach access, but DaveDave was patient and let us have some fun exploring before entering "Nag" mode.

Great mexican dinner tonight and we are all ready for a good night of rest. I hope to run a few miles tomorrow morning along the harbor and then we are off to the zoo. We will head to the marathon expo for race packet pickup and more exploration.

The girls are amazed at all of the palm trees that line the streets. Some look like giant pineapples and there are lots of very beautiful plants and trees around! I understand why people want to live here.

Hope to post some photos tomorrow... good night!