tcdevelop

We all slept in until 10am, not surprisingly. Not a big deal as we had a "lazy" day today and we soon found out that there's not a lot to see around Cocoa Beach without travelling a long way. After breakfast Penny and the kids went with Jacki to buy some gear for the pool/beach and we took the minivan to explore the souvenir shops for lack of anything else to see. The cars here are big. So you can imagine how big the minivans are! Still, it didn't take too long to get back into the groove of driving on the wrong side of the road again. We didn't have far to go - only a few minutes up the road until we happened across the famous "Ron Jons" surf shop amidst a few similar ... read more

Penny took the girls to school while we made ourselves breakfast, and then we walked Talia across the road to pre-school. Penny then kindly gave us free admission tickets and then subsequently dropped us off at the San Diego Zoo - door-to-door service again! Having member guest passes meant we didn't even have to line up at the gates - walked straight in. We jumped straight onto the zoo tour bus for a 40 minute narrated tour of the zoo. The weather was absolutely perfect - mostly sunny but not too hot. After the tour we decided to set out on roughly the same route, which would enable us to see most of the zoo. After walking a few hours we decided to sit down and eat the packed lunch that Penny had prepared for us! ... read more

One last day in the US, but we plan to make the most of it. First that familiar but forgettable breakfast, then we check out and head for the "Hollywood Forever" cemetary. This time Karina has done her research, and I've drawn a small map from the net. The cemetary is much larger than the other one we searched a few weeks ago, but armed with our map and only looking for 3 graves, it doesn't take long. Mel Blanc, Estel Getty (Golden Girls) whose grave has no headstone atm, and Don Adams (Maxwell Smart), whose headstone has a picture of him talking on his shoe-phone!!! It's quite a picturesque and peaceful cemetary, complete with ducks & their ducklings and even a few peacocks, and we do our best not to disturb the tranquility. Pleased with ... read more

Down to the supermarket for more breakfast bars. We stumble across Nob Hill, which turns out to be the local supermarket that Penny used whilst living in Pacific Grove for a year. It's only a few streets away from her place in fact! After another breakfast-in-a-packet we headed out to find Penny's old place, a blue house near the sea. After some confusion we found it - and according to Penny who saw our photos yersterday, it looks exactly the same. We wandered over to the water but there were no seals around today. Still, I can imagine it would be a very pleasant place to live! We also passed the military language institute where Che must've studied Spanish. Time to head out to the Big Sur down Highway 1, the coastal highway. Quite spectacular scenery ... read more

No breakfast here so it was orange juice and cereal bars again. Then we headed out to Pier 33 for the Alcatraz tour. Fisherman's Wharf was supposedly 20 mins walk from our motel on Lombard Street, which may technically be correct, but Pier 33 is about 45 mins. Fortunately we left in plenty of time. A classic SF morning - fog. Today we were dressed more appropriately, and despite the brisk walk it wasn't long before I donned my 1st layer of long sleeves. We arrived at the pier and collected our tickets - pre-booked from home a few months ago - and waited for poll position so we could get a good seat on the boat and hopefully good photos of the island as we approached. Although 1st in line for the 10:30am boat, we ... read more