USA at last

Caroline and Zara took us to the airport and we arrived 2h before take off. We weren’t sure if we should be there 3h ahead (David’s instructions) or 90 min (my instructions) so 2h seemed a good compromise. The check-in was open and free when we arrived so the timing was good.
Edinburgh airport departures has been done up since we were last there and there are now several overpriced eating and coffee places as opposed to just Pauls and Weatherspoons, so improvements there.
Gordon Brown was on the flight to Paris so we had to wait around while he and two other accompanying guys were loaded on but otherwise the flight was uneventful.  Spent 23 euros on a snack for 2 at CDG before the next flight which again was uneventful. CDG is a modern very airy airport with high ceilings and lots of windows.

Arrived at LA, 7pm local time and processing through passport control was very efficient. Not too hot at 16oC. Locals unsmiling and making little eye contact apart from a nice guy who showed us where to find the hotel shuttle.It came promptly and we were whisked off to our hotel and booked in by a receptionist who stared glumly into the distance most of the time she was dealing with us. The hotel is the Holiday Inn LAX and was an Expedia secret hotel deal. Bit shabby in the corridors but the rooms are nice and clean. Off to bed at 8 and woke at 2.
Mark had sent a parcel and we opened it in the morning. It contained a phone and a credit card which we’ll need for the cheap car deals that they have gone to a lot of trouble to arrange.
Saturday May 6
Woke early (6:40) starving and spotted a McD’s from the window so decided to head there for breakfast.  David had their ‘deluxe breakfast’ (1010 calories) and I had their healthy breakfast (240 calories).  It looked unappetising being a watery-looking mix of oatmeal, hot water, sugar and chopped up fruit but actually tasted good. After that we set out to find Thrifty rentals which turned out to be quite close.
There was some negotiation about the insurance and I think we ended up paying for too much ($345/week) but eventually David returned with a smart-looking cherry red Chrysler and we set off for Galeta, Santa Barbara. Santa Barbara is a sizeable town some 100 miles north of LA.

David drove through 3-lane highly aggressive traffic on the I405 and then 101 (pacific highway). A lot of the road is concrete which makes for uncomfortable driving and the lanes seemed very narrow especially for the local cars which were mostly much larger than ours. It turned out that we’d brought the wrong sat nav – not the one with the American maps, so we ended up using Google maps on the iPad which was fine.

Galeta is a lovely suburb and where the Kennets live reminded me a little of Titirangi with large sections and long windy shrub covered driveways. The weather was a little foggy and cool, which suited us fine. The vegetation and birds look quite exotic and we saw a humming bird at one time.

We first went to the70th party address as David thought we were late and it turned out to be Mary’s (daughter’s) house. She was looking quite frazzled and we were early for the party so we set out for Jim and Diana’s house which was only about 2 kms away.  Diana (birthday girl) was delighted to see us and welcomed us in where we met Doug (her son) and his wife (Sara), son Lucas (5) and daughter (Keira) 7 months. Doug is a professor of archaeology who is just taking up a post at Penn University, having been at Washington University in Oregon. He met his wife at graduate school and she is an archaeologist too.

The party guests seemed to be almost all academics and our table was shared by a History professor, an archaeology professor (emeritus) and a retired economist who said he claimed to be something else as economists are so unpopular these days. The economist’s wife said she was a volunteer and sat on and chaired various boards –school etc. and said her profession was to be opinionated.
She seemed a force to be reckoned with.
The history professor was interesting to talk to as she was very knowledgeable about the history of just about everything especially the history of Mexico and the surrounding area.

Their kids seemed to have exotic Mayan or Incan names with lots of X’s in and were generally unpronounceable. i think that is the influence of the archeologists or the anthropologists.

I spent some time talking to Daniel who is Mary’s husband. Mary and Daniel had lived in their house for 6 months and during that time Daniel has done much work in the garden.  He is originally from Germany and very industrious.  He teaches primary school and Mary is a senior HR person. They have 2 children Tave and Emma.

Daniel was frustrated by the irrigation system n the garden that is a network of plastic pipes, some of which are not intact.  Water is in extremely short supply and besides paying huge property taxes, Californians have metered water and pay large sums in water taxes. They do what they can to collect rain water and recycle drainage water where possible but pay around $100 a month for water.  The kids are limited to 3 minute showers.

A lot of the dinner conversation was around the fire danger and people who had lost or nearly lost their houses in recent fires.  Daniel is also keen on harnessing energy and has installed solar photovoltaic panels and is currently researching turbines.  He says he has been in the States for 11 years now and is beginning to settle there although he still dreams of settling in NZ.

After the party we returned to the Kennets, ate Pizza and I went to bed around 8:30. Woke up again at 2am.