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Published: June 10th 2011
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For many years I've been thinking that I'd love to visit Australia. My dear friend Maxine who I've known for 42 years lives in Perth in Western Australia. We've seen each other just twice in those 42 years but we talk so frequently that it seems we see each other on a regular basis. So I'm finally heading for holiday and today is the second day of my trip to Australia.
Yesterday I flew from Florida to Los Angeles via Charlotte NC and met up with Maxine's sister Lyn who had flown from Seattle to LA. We both arrived about the same time, met at the baggage claim and reached our hotel about 7pm. We stayed at a hotel (La Quinta) near the airport and also rented a car for a day. I'd had dinner on the plane so wasn't hungry but Lyn had a Caesar salad.
We are travelling today to San Juan Capistrano to see the old mission. Lyn has been there before and and says it's a very interesting picturesque historical site.
Mission San Juan Capistrano was a Spanish mission in Southern California, located in present-day San Juan Capistrano. The ruins of "The Great Stone Church" (which was
all but leveled by an 1812 earthquake) are a renowned architectural wonder, the Mission is perhaps best known for the annual "Return of the Swallows" which is traditionally observed every March 19 (Saint Joseph's Day)'
We had breakfast at an internet cafe across the road from the hotel. Our start at 12noon to San Juan Capistrano was a little bit late because we just didn't seem to be able to get ourselves organized. There were several trips to and and from our room, at least 3, to retrieve things we'd forgotten. Eventually we were on the road heading south. We initially took highway 405 which is an extremely busy 10 lane highway with lots of trucks. We were doing the speed limit of 65 mph but were the only car obeying the law. I found the road to be quite daunting but Lyn had lived in San Diago and was used to driving in the heavy traffic.. I thought her to be quite brave!
Eventually we turned on to California 73 through Carson City and then the terrain changed. We were in open spaces with rolling hills. It was a lovely day with temps in the low 70's and the
skies which had been clear blue and cloudless became a little overcast for a while, but cleared again as we reached the Mission.
The Mission was absolutely beautiful, with immaculately maintained grounds, lots of colourful flowers and quite a few fountains.
We were there for several hours and took lots of photos before heading back to the hotel in LA. At one point we were lost and found ourselves in the middle of an oil field complete with oil rigs. For some reason I found that to be rather unusual because I've never thought of California as having oil fields.
Our flight to Australia was to leave at midnight so we returned to the hotel, had dinner, showered and changed and headed to the airport about 9:30pm.
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