147 CALIFORNIA HERE I COME

Well, I’m pretty much all packed and ready to go, except for a few last-minute things to go in the morning.  I tweaked my back a few days ago, of course on a Saturday and no way to get physio treatment on it before I leave.  But, with all the physio I have undergone in the last few years, I did my own treatments on it.  So, I’m hopeful.  It’s painful, but I can still walk, it’s just it takes that much longer to get moving.

Of, course, I wake up bright and early, at 3:30 AM, not intentionally.  I roll over and try to go back to sleep, but it’s just not happening.  I lie there until 4:30 AM and then give up and get up.  Off to my office I go and start killing time on the computer.  The flight isn’t until 1:35 PM and the plan is, I’ll leave at 9:30 AM to beat rush hour and have a chance to partake in breakfast at the Maple Leaf Lounge.

Finally, with all the last-minute items packed, I’m ready to go at 8:00 AM and I cannot think of anything more to do to keep busy and I wandered out and got my truck and loaded up.  Not wanting to just sit around, I headed for the airport at 8:20 AM.  I figured that I can at least wander around the airport and take pictures.

Well, how wrong I was.  Everything was smooth sailing until I get down on the perimeter road when the traffic starts to build.  Finally, it comes to a standstill and the road is a parking lot, and I’m not even halfway to the airport yet.  Traffic reports on the radio aren’t helping much and the hosts on TSN 1040 are late because of the traffic.

What was supposed to be a 1 hour and 15-minute drive turned into a 3 hour and 5-minute ordeal.  But I got there.  Not enough time to wander around taking pics.  I checked in, checked my suitcase and then went through the Nexus and US Customs lines.  Had a little trouble getting the machine to scan my passport and fingerprints, but it finally worked.  The US Customs agent was impressed with my travel plans of photographing the San Diego zoo.

Now, the next challenge.  Finding the Maple Leaf Lounge.  I spoke to 3 different Air Canada gate agents and an Airport cleaner and none could really tell me where to find it.  I just got vague instructions.  I ended up at the far end of the airport.  With no other option, I started the long walk back toward the gate, which I had passed early in the trek.

Finally, I found the lounge.  It turned out, by riding the moving sidewalk to save my feet, I had gone right past it and not noticed.  By the time I got upstairs, I found I had missed breakfast, but they were just laying out a light lunch.  I had a bowl of the most wonderful Minestrone soup, some salad and melon.  Just as I finished, they put out some very nice pizza, so I had a couple of pieces of that.

But that pretty much used up my time and I had to report to the gate.  We boarded the Bombardier CRJ 900 which is pretty much the smallest commercial aircraft I have been on.  I ended up with an entire row of seats and nobody right behind me.  The takeoff was smooth as was the whole flight.  The only annoying thing was some guy about 4 rows back was coughing up a lung and not covering his mouth.  I hope I don’t get sick.  I positioned the air conditioning fans, to blow back towards him, so here’s hoping.

DEPARTING VANCOUVER

They fed us on the plane too.  I had a tasty salad and a choice between Butter Chicken and a cheese/pasta dish of some kind.  I chose the Butter Chicken, because I’ve never had it before.  It was amazing.  She did warn me the plate was hot, but I thought, it’s an airplane, how hot can it be?  Turns out, it was burn my fingers hot.  I forgot about the perks of business class.  Desert was an amazing piece of Cappuccino Cheese cake.

We got to San Diego and the clouds were just breaking and the temperature was a pleasant 19C.  I had a little trouble getting my Uber as my phone would not log on to the airport Wi-Fi.  Once I got that settled and got my car, it was off we go.

LANDING IN SAN DIEGO

San Diego, like Orlando has changed so much since the last time I was here 35 years ago.  The driver I had was a pleasant fellow and we had a great chat all the way to the hotel.  He told me about all the changes in the city and we talked about places to see.  We drove past Old Town San Diego and it looks really cool.  I’ll have to go there too.

After getting into my room, it was now 6:00 PM and surprisingly, I was hungry, so I headed over to the onsite Restaurant/Pub.  First Item on the menu was real, Southern Fried Chicken (the Chef is from Georgia), mashed potatoes with Chicken Gravy, two southern style biscuits and Zucchini chunks in a tomato sauce all for $19 US, of course that translates to $31 Canadian.  I’ll tell you though, it was amazing.  I have never had fried chicken like that.  There were 4 large pieces of it.  I am not usually a gravy fan, but I’ll make an exception for this.  I forgot to order it with no gravy.

I got back to my room, just in time to stream the Canucks/Sharks game but the internet went down and the last score I saw was 2-1 Sharks in the first period.  I channel surfed trying to find the game on TV but no luck and fell asleep around 10:00 PM.  It was a long day.