Hello All,
This time please read sitting comfortably with a choc ice…
Sunday 1st June
We checked out of our lovely motel to head for San Diego, well Solana Beach which is fairly near, to meet up with Dennis, a friend Laura met in London, who was looking forward to putting us up for a few days. We boarded the train from Anaheim to Solana Beach playing Klondike all the way. We reached our destination after telling Dennis what time we would arrive….we waited and waited and waited and waited… a whole 45 minutes (telling the story throughout our stay the wait time was obviously extended to about 4 hours!). After a bit of abuse he loaded up the car and off we went. On the drive back he told us how great this restaurant was and how awesome that bar was…promising to take us to all of them…hurrah. He lives in this neighbourhood called Cardiff Bay, a guy from Wales built it and named all the roads after cities in Great Britain, ahh felt like home. He wanted to show off his English friends so invited the neighbour and her small insane child, his ex wife (Betsy), his 2 children (Dane and Riley), his other neighbour, his friend Charlie and random other people he bumped into along the way. So we had a big bbq with red wine and nibbles. It was a really lovely evening. By the end of the evening Betsy wanted to introduce us to other people she knew who would show us a good time…one being Captain Mick (more of him later). I was on the sofa bed and had a great nights sleep.
Monday 2nd June
Woke up to coffee smells and music playing, Dennis had been busy. He had to go off to LA overnight later so took us for a drive in my pjs to show us the walk to his complexes pool. Laura drove back and we got there in one piece so all good. We all had breakfast then Laura and I took off for the pool. It was deserted as mainly families live there and were all at school or work…not us 🙂 We topped up our tan, listened to the ipod, splashed around in the pool for a good few hours then headed back to an empty house. We unpacked a little, had baths, did washing, cooked some nice food, had a bottle of wine and settled down to watch a film. Another restful evening.
Tuesday 3rd June
Awoke all fresh, packed up a little lunch and headed for the pool for day 2. We had our little spot up there and a routine now so it was very relaxful. I managed 40 lengths so I felt better having done a little bit of exercise. Laura tried to rescue a bee from drowning but unfortunately she was too late. Dennis had organised for us all to go to a George Clinton gig later that evening so we invited Captain Mick and cooked Daddy (Dennis) a meal for his return home from the office. We had an aperitif and Daddy had about 3 helpings and off we went. We nearly werent allowed in when we forgot our passports or id so the bouncer asked me a few quick fire questions about when and where i was born and how many fingers he was holding up and we were in! Phew! we finally met the infamous Captain Mick, who wasnt really a captain at all. He was a mechanic. He did have an amazing job though that he had quit that week. It was a crazy night and George Clinton is a nutter. Apparently he is a crack addict so was late on due to having a quick smoke but his band made up for it. It was wicked, really funky and when George came on he really got the crowd going. He is 70 odd and has the maddest hair. It was a corker of a night and had such a good dance. It had been a while. Got home and crashed out. Laura woke up fully clothed and covered in pringles. I think me and Dennis crushed loads all over her but im not at liberty to divulge such information.
Wednesday 4th June
Hangover day! Dennis had work to do so Laura and I piled in his massive bed. He promised to make us a fry up so went off to buy products, came back and burnt everything so we ate black sausages, eggs, bacon, hash browns, tomatoes. We stayed in bed allllll day watching National Lampoons and this channel all about crime and car chases and stuff. Had us hooked. Dennis went out that evening so we slobbed some more until he came back with some pizza and a few beers…which we ate in bed. Luckily the weather was rubbish so it wasnt a day wasted. We even slept in Dennis´bed so he got the couch.
Thursday 5th June
Dennis wanted to take us on a “hike” well what Americans call hikes. Which is merely just a walk but it was nice all the same. We met up with Captain Mick and went on a hike to Torrey Pines which is beautiful. From the hilltop you can see for miles. There are all these paths that lead to a different view and a different path. Dennis said that he knew where he was going but we personally think he was blagging somewhat as he kept running off then coming back and changing direction! It reminded Laura and I of the sponsored walk at school on Woodbury Common, the dustiness and gorseyness. We then headed down to the beach so that we could have an unavoidable paddle as the tide was coming in. Unfortunately there wasnt time to take our shoes off either but hey ho. We clung onto rocks until Dennis shouted “now now now run for your lives” then jumping for another rock until he shouted again! As we got to a wider stretch of beach a policeman approached us and asked us if we had seen any naked people…we answered “sadly no”. Apparently that is an offence…i wouldnt have been offended…unfortunately the end of the walk meant we had to climb a long windy road in the blistering heat but best foot forward and we made it. We decided to treat ourselves for the good effort so went to Bullys for a bottle of wine and some food. Once we got that sip we didnt want it to stop so went to a lovely bar right on the waters edge. You couldnt see the water as it was dark but the ambience was there. There had been a baseball game in San Diego and Dennis knew a bar that overlooked the arena (or whatever a baseball pitch is called) so off we went. The game had finished by the time we got there but we had a good view of inside the arena from about 20 floors up so that was nice. The bar had a pool and great music so we were happy there. There was an after party at a guy called Cameron’s house so we tootled off there until about 6am! Ouch
Friday 6th June
Was a total right off! Woke up feeling absolutely rubbish and just wanted to sleep more but Betsy was going away for the weekend and said we could stay at her house. Dennis took us over there. We basked in the garden for a bit, took the dog for a walk until i remembered that I left the kettle boiling on the stove and whistling away so I had to go back pretty pronto. Went shopping, had baths and an early night!
Saturday 7th June
Again we just lazed around and caught up on emails and washing and basking and hot tubbing and defuzzing. Laura made some tremendous garlic bread..there was no way any vampire was coming near us that day or night or next day.
Sunday 8th June
Captain Mick picked us up and took us to the Fiesta del Sol, they have live music and market stalls with arty stuff. A Salsa band came on to which a very aged man got up and boogied his little heart out. He was riding the pony and all sorts. There was definitely alot of life left in the old dog yet. Very fun to watch. Mick then took us off to a Hells Angels bar called The Kracken. We were a bit scared to be entering in our bermuda shorts at first, especially as there were cowboys doing line dancing and were probably carrying pistols but after a couple of Sierra Nevadas we were happy as larry. Chatting away to the locals. Out the back they were having a bbq where they were smoking all kinds of fish and just handing it out. The fish was fresh from the sea so it was beautiful and perfectly cooked. We hung out with the guys and checked out there bikes and leathers then went home for an early night as we were off to LA the next day.
Thats me for this week….
Lots of love
Amanda “Charlies Angel” Oakley xxxxx
Amanda's Big Trip 
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