GOOD
BYES

Finale
We breakfasted the next morning at Ruby's, a traditional American diner just across from the hotel - the food and atmosphere was great and we also ate there in the evening. Most people were now leaving for home or other destinations. So more sad farewells and promises to keep in touch were happening on a regular basis. Lloyd and Gillian were off after a visit to Paramount Studios - a place we had visited last year and really enjoyed. Miki and Tiziana still had more honeymooning to do and David and Amanda were taking the train to Dallas. Ralph was still around but within 24 hours most had gone - it felt strange to be without the crowd we had become used to over the past couple of weeks. Lala was kind enough to give those who asked (and provided a pen-drive) all the photos she had put up on Facebook during the trip - this was in addition to the 500 or so that Sirda had taken; before she and Preacher headed home to Utah. April and Deejay had already gone - they live down in Mexico. We were staying for a few more days so we decided to hire a car - a small sedan or so we thought.

We were offered an upgrade and the hire guy turned up with a Jeep Grande Cherokee! We felt right at home cruising around LA in a SUV. We didn't do a lot more - a bit of shopping and sightseeing (we discovered El Super (a sort of Mexican Pak 'N Sav) where our best purchase was a bottle of very good Californian Merlot for $2.97!) although we did explore the Queen Mary which is an ocean liner that sailed primarily between Europe and the US from 1936 to 1967 for the Cunard Line. The Queen Mary and her sister ship the Queen Elizabeth dominated the transatlantic passenger market until the development of jet airliners in the late 1950s. By the mid-1960s the ship was aging and though still among the most popular transatlantic liners, was operating at a loss. She was retired to Long Beach in 1967 where she still sits - a grand old lady and a reminder of an unhurried and more luxurious time. She used be accompanied by Howard Hughes' greatest flight of fancy - the Spruce Goose, completed in 1947 and the largest sea plane ever constructed. It is made almost entirely of wood but birch not spruce as it happens- it only flew once for about a mile at 70 feet above the water! The Queen Mary now has a Russian submarine moored at her bow. We had visited the ship once before in 1993 but arrived too late to really get a good look.

For the last night we moved to a hotel closer to the airport. We weren't due to fly out until the evening so first thing on our last day we went over to LAX and finding an unattended check-in, we weighed our suitcases and cabin bags to make sure we were within the limits and we only made it by a few pounds.
It has taken us some time to settle back home and into work. We had such a marvelous time and it was such an intense experience that it takes a while to come down off the high and to get on with the ordinary.