EAT, PRAY, LOVE

Flying to California at the crack of dawn..ETA... half past noon. First stop on the Southern California trip is San Diego. We are staying at the Loews Coronado . The " things to do and see list" is looong! Tours, San Diego zoo, bike riding, a cruise, swimming, sunning and, of course, shopping! Massages, beauty treatments, and the like also on the list..we will be unrecognizeable ! Did I mention eating? Speaking of that..time for a bite of chocolate before we board to start the day.

My sister is a "nosy body"...watching everyone at the airport. Suspicious of everyone...and usually has a comment about something...in her special little way. And..she asks me questions..like..why this, why that..." why are the two people next to us by the charging station waiting until the final boarding announcement is called before they even attempt to board their flight? My reply.."how do I know?" As we are boarding..the first sound we hear is a screaming crying baby in Seat 1C. Erica discreetly comments to me " I hope we are far away from this". I agree. We get to our seats...I get the window seat! Sis has the middle seat, turns to me and whispers... "The guy next to me has BO". Not sure I heard her right (I have a hearing deficit) and before I could say what...I got the " drift"....literally! WHOA!! This will be a pleasant 5 hr 10 minute flight.
She starts fiddling with her headphones, explaining that these headphones are wonderful and perfect for traveling but expensive. But..they are the best and very comfortable. She plugs in, pushing buttons, increasing volume and informs me that her TV station is garbled. She's going to alert the stewardess. I take out my cheapo earbuds..they work fine. She try's hers..they work fine. Ok..so the couple of hundred dollar "Beats" headphones..don't work. Oh..but wait!....she discovers she doesn't have them plugged in properly. Snacks and beverages are served. We eat...and drink..and dig into our chocolate stash...(we are Swiss, after all). And now we start to pray. We are praying harder now...in fact, literally praying for our lives. . SERIOUSLY! OMG..this is the most turbulent trip I've ever been on. We are actually being lifted out of our seats. Rocking back and forth and being jerked around. Erica remarks that we may have to swim...."I hate to tell you, Eric..we are flying over land"...(but, if you want to swim..you will probably look funny ..go ahead and give it a try, though. What the heck!) Not sure if I should be saying good-bye or what! Holy cow!!! Holy is a good word right about now. More like Holy Crap! I notice on the TV screen that we are flying over Kansas. Of course, the map is blurry from all the shaking. Great! Isn't Kansas tornado country? By all the shaking going on "we may not even be in Kansas anymore...we may end up "somewhere over the rainbow"!!!! My funeral song..oh no!!!! I'm not singing that one right now...not ready to go yet but, I'm kind of wondering if.we will make it to California...I'll sing Elvis..."I'm all shook up", try to keep a positive, cheerful, upbeat outlook and pretend this isn't bothering me. Whew! The steward is walking around with bottles of water...we must be thru it...THANK YOU, JESUS! I'm not kidding..the news just reported that there are tornados in Kansas today! Triple-threat storms!! REALLY?! I could have told them that..! Anyway, we make it in one piece, so do our Samsonites! We pick up our rental car and make our way to our hotel. Gorgeous resort with views of the water and a shuttle which drops us off in Coronado proper.
We are so excited to be here although a bit tired. We jump into the elevator and are chatting away about our plans. All of a sudden we realize we never left the first floor...forgot to push the button. We start laughing hysterically, make our way to the room and decide on the days plans. We walk along the beach and choose a restaurant for dinner. We decide on fish and chips with a delicious curry ketchup and a horseradish tartar sauce accompanied by a pumpkin seed coleslaw ... and let us not forgot two ice-cold local micro-brewed brewskis to wash it all down with...followed by a rum raisin and coconut gelato for dessert. When the shuttle picks us up for the return trip..the driver asks the other people in the shuttle with us...where they are from....to our surprise...Switzerland. We immediately jump into conversation with our Swiss dialect and find out that they are from a town near our mother's hometown. Small world. Well..this is the love part...we do love California. The weather, the pace of life, the views, the ocean and the gorgeous sunsets...and those ebags. Yes...they are as great as they say they are.

Tomorrow..another adventure awaits! Stay tuned!