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Published: March 24th 2007
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San Diego
The view from our balcony of the sunset Well after a pretty amazing two days in the Grand Canyon, we didn't know what to expect from the next part of the trip. We were heading back to sunny California and to the beautiful city of San Diego. But to get to San Diego we had to do the long trip from the Canyon. I will tell you now that it was not a nice trip, due to a few reasons.
We drove to Flagstaff airport and found out that our plane was delayed so we just kicked back and relaxed in the small airport (it only had one shop) and sat in the cafe for quite a while waiting for our plane to arrive. The problem was that we were catching a connecting flight that took off 10 minutes after our plane was due to land, so we presumed that we had missed that grr.
Our flight to Phoenix finally came, over an hour late by then, and we saw that it was a propelled plane rather than engines, first time for everything I guess...it was going to be small. Sadly the one steward on the plane was the rudest guy I have ever met and
San Diego
The view from the balcony during the day, was so beautiful Andy had to calm me down so that I wouldn't say something to get us kicked off the plane. But he made us even happier by telling us that "Its going to be a very bumpy flight, so just hold on!" - Cheers buddy!
By the time we took off, it was 2 hours late and we just knew that we had missed our connecting flight to San Diego and would have to wait a long time to get the next one. It was a very short flight and as soon as we touched down we ran as fast as we could (Andy faster than me with his long legs) through the airport to see if by chance our flight was still there....and guess what......it was still there! We were told that the plane had no pilot, which was the first time that I was happy about a plane being delayed!
The flight to San Diego was nicer and we arrived to lots of sunshine and we were happy being back in California. We were staying at some apartments called the 'Beach Cottages'. This was a lovely apartment right on the San Diego beach which was a perfect
San Diego
San Diego sunset sitting on the beach setting for us to be with amazing views all day long. We were staying here for four nights, and it was just going to be a time where we could all relax in the sun and hopefully on the beach.
The next day, to really fit in with the locals we went and bought a good pair of flip-flops each and they look very snazzy if I do say so myself. We then fitted in nicely with the Californian dudes and duddets. Being in California with the sun out meant that we had to play more golf, so that afternoon was our first round of golf and we went and played the San Diego Par-3 course. It was a small course with sandy greens and sadly I didn't play as well as I should have and my putting was appalling....I blame the sand...cough cough.
That evening we had our first Californian BBQ and we had some nice T-bone steak cooked very nicely by Mr Clive Mather. Sitting watching the sunset was fantastic that evening, and from our balcony we could see it set slowly over the horizon. That evening we actually saw a group of dolphins in
San Diego
Me and Andy chilling in our golf cart the sea swimming about, we even saw them doing a few jumps for us - obviously to celebrate that I had finally made my way to San Diego.
After a better nights sleep than the night before we had a nice relaxing morning sunning ourselves on the balcony and then the afternoon was dedicated to the beach. We got all our stuff and walked the 30-second trip down to the beautiful warm sand. We lay on the beach for a while listening to iPods etc, but if you know me well, you know that I get bored of just lying there, so I decided that it was time for my first visit to the sea on this trip. i eventually persuaded Andy that we needed to get into the sea, even though at this point the sun had gone in and it didn't seem like the sea was that warm - but who cares, you need to do these kind of things!
We both ran as fast as possible into the sea and I'm sure that we looked like a right pair of idiots. It was tres cold so we were acting very stupidly. It was worth
San Diego
Me teeing off at the 4th hole it and the pacific beach is known to be a good surfers beach - so I did a bit of human surfing (the kind my Dad isn't THAT good at!) and enjoyed the afternoon.
Our last day in San Diego was by far my favorite, this was due to playing a beautiful Californian golf course called 'Woods Valley Golf Club'. It was very posh and was a very nicely designed course with some really tricky holes. We got our golf carts as well which made it even more fun for me and Andy racing them around the course. We all didn't get off to the best of starts, but we picked up our games as we went along, coming out of the front 9 me and Andy were drawing with Clive behind us.
Clive then started playing brilliantly on the back 9, which meant me and Andy had to pull our socks up and start playing a bit better. The back 9 was a lot more spacious and stylish, and they were longer holes so we got the woods out and started smashing our drives down the fairway. I played an average game, and sadly the 18th
San Diego
Tricky bunker shot for me on the 2nd was my worst hole of the whole course, but I actually won the game by 5 shots with Andy and Clive drawing.
Our last night with Ann and Clive was nice and we had another BBQ and just enjoyed spending time together. We had to get quite an early night as the next day was spent getting up early, packing and driving back to LA. This was for them to catch their flight back to Calgary, and we had two nights back in LA before getting our flight to New Zealand. We drove along the Californian coastline heading towards LA, and it was a beautiful scenic drive with fantastic views of the beaches and of the sea. We drove through the famous Orange County and Newport Beach and it was just like it is on TV. There was so much money floating around, and all the kids seemed spoilt and rich, we weren't too surprised though.
We got back to LA, and me and Andy were staying the Orchid Suites again for the next two nights. We said our goodbyes to Ann and Clive, thanked them countless times and saw them off. Our room was a lot nicer
Six Flags
Me next to Tatsu than last time and we each had our own room with king size bed and cable TV - score!
Our last full day was spent doing something me and Andy had both wanted to do for a long time - go to the most famous theme park in the world - '6 Flags Theme Park'. This is made up of the best roller coasters in the world and we just couldn't miss out on this. It took us quite a while to get there, but we made it in the end.
We started on a ride called 'Viper' which we were told was the biggest looping roller coaster in the world - nice way to start. The day was full of so many crazy rides, and we worked out that if we added up all the times we went upside down in the day, it came to over 40!!! The best ride of the day by far had to be 'Tatsu' which was an amazing ride where you ride horizontally and they fly you upside down, flip you many times and all the rest. We went on this ride along three times, made our heads spin quite
Six Flags
Thats how you ride tatsu a bit. What a way to finish our time in North America.
We have done so much in our time in Canada and the US of A. We have loved parts, hated parts and we are already missing other parts. It has been a great experience and a fantastic way to start of the trip. Bring on New Zealand!
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