Wednesday 4 January 2023

Not much to report today as not much happened. I got up to a very brief break in the almost constant rain and went out to take a photo of the sun rising over the mountains. Then it started raining. Again.

Temecula to San Diego to Temecula

After a lovely couple of weeks with daughter no 2, it is time for her to go home. So we drive her to San Diego to catch her flight. This time she has not booked with Southwest Airlines, so the flight actually exists. Just as we reach the outskirts of San Diego, the rain finally stops and the sun comes out. We drop daughter no 2 at the airport and I manage not even to cry too much!

I’ve never been to San Diego before, and we don’t need to be back for 7 hours, so I attempt to convince the old man to stop (a) on the harbourside and (b) in Balboa Park, but he’s having none of that tourist nonsense and is keen to get back so he can crush that all important candy.

So we drive straight back to Temecula and its almost constant rain cloud. The homeowners’ flight is delayed, so we now have 8 hours to kill before we can depart for our hotel in Los Angeles. That’s a lot of candy! A fun filled afternoon of cleaning and reading and cleaning entails.

Temecula to Los Angeles

Finally we are relieved of our adopted menagerie and can drive the 95 miles to Los Angeles, so we are nearer the airport for tomorrow’s flight to Tokyo.

LAX Stadium Inn

Tonight’s hotel is a bog standard airport hotel. A bit of a come down after 2 weeks of housesitting, but it’s a nice to enjoy a bit of peace and quiet and no dog hair. It’s not the best hotel we’ve ever stayed in, but it’s not the worst either. It’s reasonably clean and comfortable. The main downsides are that there are no duvets; just a very thin blanket, and I end up having to put my fleece over my pyjamas to keep warm. Plus it is sandwiched between a busy road and the airport but only has single glazed windows, so it’s also extremely noisy.

After a long drive, we decide to unwind before bed time with a beer. The old man already has some beer, so I go to the off licence across the street and buy myself a couple of cans. They’re very big cans – 25 fl oz to be precise. I don’t really know what that equates to; apparently it’s 1.5 pints. Cheers!