Well, where to begin. 4:30am came around all too fast but we were suitably present in the empty lobby and waiting for our car to arrive. They rang my mobile to confirm we were waiting and arrived about ten minutes later.

We had a pleasant and unexceptional trip to the airport and the driver was very helpful with information about where we needed to go when we got there. More security measures. We had to pass through two different check points and this time we had to remove our shoes, my plastic watch, the computers, all coins and the mobile phones. This also meant that the handbag and coats had to be in separate bins, and the computer in a bin by itself, and the backpacks by themselves. By the time I finally got through it all I didn’t know if I was Arthur or Martha and thought I was about to trip over my long shoe laces before I would get a chance to do them up.

We then sat and waited for our boarding call to the San Diego flight, and it was totally packed. It lasted for six hours and went through numerous time zones and across many states, but as Barbara would say, “If you don’t step on the soil they don’t count.”

When we landed in San Diego to beautiful sunny conditions with a light breeze it was 2:30pm. We knew we only had to ring the hotel – Dana on Mission Bay – and they would send around a shuttle bus to pick us up. We only had to wait for about five minutes before it arrived and Don, the driver, told us he was in the area so it was all good.

Even better when we got to the hotel was when Rachael, the Receptionist, told us she could upgrade our room for $10 extra per night, and then there would be one available for us to move into immediately. So, we did.

We took our luggage across to our room – we needed a map to find the way because the hotel is a resort style with individual two storey blocks set in parkland interspersed with hot swimming pools and parking areas – turned on the air conditioner to cool the room and ventured across to the Firefly for a quick afternoon meal for lunch. Russ had chicken strips with French fries (the real type) and I had clam chowder with sourdough bread. It was very nice and filled the hole.

Russ decided then that he should do his meditation and I decided I had lots of photos I could be working on converting from RAW to JPEG, so that’s what I did while he snored. When I needed to rest my eyes I did a bit of reading.

We ventured to the Blue Pearl for tea later in the evening. It is a bit more upscale than the Firefly, but not by much, however, we could get a decent meal at a decent price. Russ had steak and I had Salmon fillet.