Southern California

We had three days in California and despite being a whirlwind tour (3 houses in 3 days) it was great. Special thanks to Jody who drove down to pick up at LAX, hosted us the first night, loaned us her new car for our first "right" driving in 6 months and was tour guide on the best Disneyland trip we've ever had.

After spending the last months feeling like it was our little family in an outpost far away exploring the hinterlands, it was an intimidating return to life in a bigger family in the heart of the American culture we saw only on TV. Except for the one evening with Barry at Jody's house, the trip was a chance for me to find out how many different combinations of the nine local Lee women I could surround myself with at any one time. Men sometimes seem like a way to accessorize life in this family. We're handy in many ways, sometimes provide a nice constrast, but we're not really essential for much of anything. Seeing the southern California landscape was interesting too. Though is was drier and more desert than anything we saw in New Zealand, it was also more natural. Despite a population bigger than New Zealands, a lot of the landscape hasn't been changed much (ignoring smog), whereas part of New Zealand's beauty comes from denuding the landscape to grow sheep. It leads to beautiful but unnatural vistas. I'm sure it's because the California scrub wouldn't sustain much of anything (e.g. sheep), nevertheless it was an interesting contrast.

After relaxing for a day at Mom Lee's house we joined Jody's Disneyland tour on Friday. Jody knows Disneyland. She had platoons out seeking fastpasses to the appointed rides at the appointed hour. We did Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, the Matterhorn, the Tea Cups, Autopia all on a beautiful day without waiting more that 20 minutes in line. She knew which restaraunts had hamburgers and which ones had lines. Some interesting theme updates - Swiss Family Robinson's treehouse has been rented to Tarzan, Autotopia is run by the Cars from the movie of the same name, Pirates of the Carribean features Johnny Depp clones, etc. I learned that a lot of my past anxiety and stress about theme parks is tied to the decisions about what to do when and the frustration of finding that everyone else has the same plan. Your left wondering if this ride is worth the 45 minute wait and if the whole day could have been spent more productively, like maybe giving the money to charity and staying home. Jody had a plan, people were happy, we were part of a bigger family, and Disneyland is a good thing about America. Abby did all the big rollercoaster rides and had a blast. Four AM Saturday and Jody gives us a ride to the airport for the trip home. Thanks Jody - Cheers Bob