End of the California Adventure

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I am up a bit after 6am local time. Check my email, play some games, quick edit or two on yesterdays journal. Today we head back to LA and tomorrow will be spent mostly getting to the airport and flying to Cincinnati and then driving home. Everyone is moving by 8am and be breakfast for the last time in Verde, the hotels' restaurant. In the room we fill our bags and try to have things organized so that tonight/tomorrow nothing will have to go into or come out of the big green suitcase. All out traveling possessions fit neatly in the trunk of the Elantra and we walk over to Old Town to grab some souvenirs for Caroline's co-workers and to see the blacksmith work. We also toured the saddlery and saw the burros. At noon we were headed back north to LA.
We made good time on the road, again taking the toll road as it saved us almost an hour. We met up with Selene and Karina at Tacos de Gavilan to feed Caroline's need for tacos de lengua. Karina then went to catch up with Joel and we left for the hotel and to complete the couple of errands we had to accomplish before leaving tomorrow.
On the queen Mary
We first filled up the gas tank in the car for the first time (errand number 1) and found that at ARCO stations it is only cash or debit, credit card not accepted. Errand number 2, we stopped at Target and returned the stroller. Benny, the guy at the returns, did ask why I didn't have the box and I told him, I didn't buy it to return it so I didn't keep the box. Anyway, he processed the return and we were off to the hotel.
The Hampton Inn Carson/Torrence is in a kind of funny location, very industrial, a bit worn down and not near much but the interstate. We seem to have coincided with a corvette convention which I could only assume was the African American Retired Corvette Owners of Southern California, a bunch of friendly old guys with various models of Vettes. At the desk I was given keys to a room different than the one I had selected at E-Check-in and told that the guest in my selected room had stayed over. Not a big deal but I did want to be on the first floor so as not to have to wait for the elevator when we reloaded the car in the morning. Our room was fairly spacious for a Hampton Inn, complete with fold out couch and plenty of space for Abcde's crib.
We were still settling in when Karina and Joel arrived to take us out one last time. Joel quickly changed and I swapped the car seat into Karina's car and we were off. Joel would not tell us where we were going so it was a surprise when we ended up in the port. We were visiting a cruise ship, the Queen Mary, a hotel, restaurant and event venue located in a ship first in service in 1936. We wandered the main deck and then had drinks in the bar. It was starting to get later and we headed back to the car to go to dinner.
After getting a churro and walking the boardwalk we stopped for dinner at Louisiana Charlies. Joel and Karina split the crab gumbo and Wife and I had the red beans and rice with sausage. Abs ate off our plate as she loves salchichas and frijoles. Nearing exhaustion and Abcde having reached a point of manic energy that would soon end in a crash we finished our drinks, I snagged Joel some bar ware for tradition's sake and we headed back to Carson and our beds. It was nearly midnight when we were settled in and even later when Karina and Joel had gotten home as they had to juggle cars and be ready for work in even less time than we had to sleep.

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