Thursday

Woke up in agony! My calf muscles were like lumps of rock and I could hardly walk. Yikes!
I popped some pain killers and lay face down in the middle of the living room with Mark using a rolling pin to massage my legs.

Thursday was also Alex’s first day at kindergarten. Everyone was excited and upset in equeal amounts. He seemed to enjoy himself anyway.

We didn't really do anything on Thursday, apart from pack and enjoy what was left of our time with Andy and Gabi. We'd already aquired quite a lot of extra stuff, so Andy kindly gave us a spare suitcase he had lying around. All too soon it was time for Andy to take us to the airport and officially handed us off to Vinny on the phone. We said our goodbyes, many hugs were exchanged and I managed not to cry - just.

When I put my carry-on bag through the x-ray machine, the lady called me over.
"Is this your bag ma'am?"
"Ummm, yes..."
"I'm just going to take a look inside here."
"OK" (even though I knew I'd done nothing wrong and had nothing I shouldn't, it still made me nervous.

She pulls out the large bag of corn bread mix powder, that Michelle had given me, from my bag, shows it to the x-ray operator and they both smile. Phew.... I guess it hadn't occured to me just how much that looked like a kilo of cocaine on the x-ray!

The flight to San Diego takes just over 2 hours and passes some pretty amazing scenery. As you leave Seattle you get a spectacular view of Mount Ranier. It towers over everything else in the landscape, an incredible sight. I looked out of the window over Portland and waved to Jacob and Sarah. I wonder if they had a strange feeling around 4pm that someone was watching them?
I also waved hello to Oregon for my boss Devra.

Next up was Mount St Helens, with its massive chunk missing from the top and one side, from the eruption in 1980 (?), then Mount Hood and the Three Sisters. It’s a beautiful mountain range.
The pilot was great and pointed out anything of interest as we flew over it.

We saw Lake Tahoe, which is HUGE. It took several minutes to fly over it. Then the landscape started to gradually change from green to brown as we headed South and into California. There were massive tracts of land laid out in perfect squares and loads of circles of green, where you can see the shape the rotating irrigation sprinklers make. It’s frightening to think of the amount of water that’s being used to grow these crops out in what is basically a desert. And it all has to be pumped in. Best not to think about it really, I guess.

Arrived in San Diego and it was HOT. It was SO good to see Vinny's smiling face waiting for us at the airport.
We got yummy Round Table pizza for dinner on the way back to chez Votel. Jodi, Veronica and Vivienne were all there, waiting at the door to meet us. There was lots of running around, hugging, saying "Look at you!" to the kids (we haven't seen them for 2 1/2 years) etc etc.
Thursday night involved much chilling out, catching up and relaxing into the Californian pace of life. Aaaaaahhhhhh.