Return to the US

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Hello all our friends and family. We took off on the 24th of October to head to the US to visit family and friends. Travel in a foreign country is always different and unexpected things can happen, and they ususally do when least expecting it.

First off, our visit with family and friends went well. We really enjoyed our time with everyone. It seemed a little hectic at times, always knowing at the back of our minds, that we had an exit date, that our time with our families and friends was finite.

We spent good times visiting and shopping for those things we couldn´t get down in South America. We had 4 large suitcases to fill with 50lbs. each allowed for our trip back.

As we were leaving Bahia Caraquez to go to Guayaquil for our flight, Robin had decided to bring our pulpit to a highly recommended welder, have him fix it or make a new one, and then we would pick it up when we fly back into Guayaquil. Robin actually went down to the bus station a few days before we were to leave to make sure it would fit in the bus. But, of course, life isn´t so simple....The day we were leaving, we had to hire two pedi-cabs to carry our luggage and the pulpit. When we got there, the bus assistant tried with Robin to fit it into the bottom luggage carrying space, but it just wouldn´t fit! We had to leave in about 5 minutes, so Robin paid a ped-cab driver to bring it back to the yacht club. We then had some good friends of ours bring it to a local welder to repair. This was why we were going a couple days early to Guayaquil.

Now we had an extra day there to hang, so we took a bus to Salinas to check out the other yacht club and boat yard there . We knew of a cruiser who had left Bahia and was there getting his bottom painted and some other work done on his boat. We visited him and checked out the yard. A little expensive but a very nice facility.

The next day, us with all our baggage took off for LA, CA. We had a stopover in Bogota, Columbia. The airlines, Avianca Airlines, is a Columbia airlines. The service was quite nice, good food, drinks free (even alcholic drinks) and free movies in English. As we were getting ready to land in Bogota, the plane was close to landing then took off again. The weather was pretty bad (rain and lightning), so we headed to Cali to wait for the weather in Bogota to pass. We sat on the ground for about 30 min. then took off again. We finally made it out of Bogota in the afternoon, and arrived at LAX about 8pm. We took a bus to the Union Station to get Amtrak to Solana Beach, near my mother´s house. It was about 12 midnight when we arrived, so I didn´t call my mother to pick us up. We got a taxi, and the fog was so thick he got lost (about a 15 min. drive to my mom´s went on for about 30 min.) It was an expesive taxi ride, but we had arrived nevertheless.

The return trip was even more of a fiasco. Our bags were loaded to the gills at 50lbs each. Plus we had some carryons too, that were heavy. When we got to the airport (Thanks Peter!!!) We had to wait a couple hours before the airlines started checking in.

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Photos

Grandson Kameron
As grandparents taking the grandson to Disneyland, we felt like we could spoil him a little. We had a long day with this little devil face. I definitely had second thoughts on the face painting episode by the evening time.

The Devil & his Princess
Most of the kids were a little spooked by Kameron's face. The adults said it was "Cool!" This little girl didn't bat an eye when she climbed into the car next to Kameron. What a photo!

Family gathering in San Diego
Some of the clan stopped for a photo.

Cute, Cute, Cute!
Little Sierra on one of her many car rides with us. Keep those hands busy.....

Vacuum clean
Nothing wrong with starting them early, I say...

Family gathering up north
Robin's clan from Nevada City and surrounding areas. What a day for the kids and dogs, and a little Santa Claus too!