Nantucket to San Diego

I have been trying for the last hour to post some photos to go with todays post, but to no avail so hopefully with some help I'll be able to get them on tommorow.

The next couple of days were spent exploring, shopping, taking tours, the cranberry bogs were very interesting & generally soaking up the wonderful atmosphere, little weathered shingle houses, with roses growing over the roof, big houses with "widow's walks" on them, huge houses belonging to the rich & famous, and lots of really nice people.

On the morning I was leaving I was in "The Seven Seas", a little store, while I was talking to the owner, she tok a penny out of the till, and said that if I threw it overboard as I was passing the lighthouse, it would mean I would return to Nantucket some day. I dearly would have loved to return in December to seen all the Christmas finery.

Back to Boston & on to Montreal, met some great people on the train. There was one older gentleman from Texas, he was taking the train right around the country, not getting off, just travelling. He was recently widowed & I felt he was doing it for the company.

In Montreal I stayed in a Pensionne run by a grand old Russian lady named Madam Zanko, we talked for hours, she had some great tales to tell.
The older parts of Montreal were pretty. It snowed overnight the day I was leaving, I had to be up at 5am to catch my bus, & when I looked out my 3rd floor window, it was another truly beautiful sight. There were no footprints or tyre tracks in the snow and it had settled on the bare branches & the pretty iron lace balconys, with the soft glow from the street lights it was magic.

Bus & train back to Middlebury. It was Halloween time & with all the decorations, pumpkins, mums,indian corn, outside the stores, businesses & home the whole town did look lovely. The Clarke's took me to a display just outside of town where there were hundreds of pumpkins all beautifully carved, not just with faces, but really intricate designs & with their candles flickering inside it was a treat to see it.

A few quiet days then I caught a plane to Chicago & on to LA. Two trains & two buses later I was in Oceanside, where Vicki & Paul were there to meet me. It was so good to see their smiling faces.(A number of the people I was visiting, had lived in Oz at some time & I had met them there Paul had stayed with me one Christmas). We ate at this great diner on the waterfront called "Ruby's", lots of red vynil & chrome, the waitresses in red & white striped uniforms, had great hamburgers & cherry coke, then home to Escondido, which is where Vicki & Paul lived.

It was lovely there, Paul & done a lot of work to give them an outdoor living area, overlooking their avacado grove. Next day we went to the SanDiego Wild Animal park, what a great place, the setting is wonderful & they are having a lot of success with breeding endangered species. It had snowed beforeI left VT, & when I arrived in California it was 97 degrees, so I had to borrow some cool clothes, lucky I fitted into Vicki's.

Debbie, Vicki's sister was my driver for the next few days, we wnt to the Hotel del Coronado, what a superb place, with it's timber panelling & wonderfully decorated rooms. Seaport Village & La Jolla were great too, excellent shopping, & gallery's, tried all sorts of food too. We went to Mexico, to Rosarita, which was pretty depressing, so much poverty & degradation, I was glad to get back across the border.

Paul & I took some lovely long walks around Lake Hodges & Daly Ranch, saw some cabins (like in On Golden Pond). We mostly ate outside, the weather was just perfect. Went with Vicki to what most be the ultimate Christmas store, it was really mind boggling to see all the displays, just so many wonderful ideas. (In case you haven't guessed, I'm besotted by Christmas).

On my last night with them, Paul, Vicki & I went to this great Mexican restaurant, had fantastic food & my first Margharita. We then caught a trolley to the Gas light district, had fun walking around & ended up at a Marie Callander pie shop for pecan pie. The slices were huge & with the icecream, Vicki & I could barely walk.

What a great week I had spent in San Diego, made all the more so, by the company of the lovely people I spent it with.

In the book of life, the answers are not in the back.