Out West

So this is a bit late but since I only started the blog today, I feel like playing a little Catch up...

The family were on vacation last week...The Family meaning not only Charlotte, Lucy and I but also Gran and Grandad who were visting from the UK.

The first part of the vacation involved 4 days in Tempe Arizona. I was participating in the Ironman Triathlon and in fact for this leg of the trip we had even more family with us - Charlotte's father Peter and his wife Chris joined the cheering crew for a very long day in the desert. (More about that later...).

So here is a pic from the Desert:

That's me and my mom (aka Gran) - the picture was taken the day after the race which might explain why I am looking a little malnourished. btw, behind us is a Cactus, not Grandad. He is a little less prickly, even when he hasn't shaved for a day or two.

Following on from Arizona we took a drive across the desert in our own version of the Mystery Machine with Grandad at the helm, Charlotte as first officer, Lucy and Gran blowing bubbles and me trying to avoid turning green with my head between my knees. After about 4 hrs of desert we had seen plenty of cacti and plenty of REALLY LOOOOONG freight trains so we decided it would be fun to watch the temperature gauge drop as we Ascended the mountains along Interstate Route 10. Starting temp a sea level was 99F (we did actually hit 100F earlier though - woo hoo!) and as we gained elevation the levels of excitement inside the car reached titanic levels as we watch the temperature drop before our eyes. By the summit at 4,400ft we had dropped 30 degrees of Fahrenheit to an astonishing 69F! Can you believe it? Nor could we. OK, now i am rambling...

Approximately 6hrs post departure we arrived in the beautiful Island of Coronado. This was home for 3 nights staying with the Maden Family (Ken and Joan) who have been family friends for over 20 years. During our stay in San Diego we took in a ball game at Petco Park (my first visit to the relatively new home of my team the Padres) and Lucy made her first trip to Sea World. She was thrilled with all the shows loving Shamu, Dolly the dolphin and the Seals but I think her favorite was seeing the cats and dogs as she's a lot more familiar with them.

The final stage of the trip was spent in Huntington Beach visiting Charlotte's Aunt Cary and her husband Joe. We of course HAD to take in a day at Disney being so Close and below is a picture of Lucy riding the Carousel.


Here is Lucy, Granddad and a cow. (Gran would point out that Grandad is the one in the baseball cap)


The final stop on the tour was to In-n-out burger. Normally it is absolutely my first port of call when landing in California but my stomach hadn't been feeling 100% since the race so I only made it in the nick of time before we left. The usual order of 2 double doubles animal style of course but this time I added an order of Animal Style Fries. During my last visit to Cali, Fries had been on the banned list so this was the first time I'd been able to sample the animal fries. would i recommend them? hmmmm...perhaps without animal style burgers! (just a bit too much animal going on if you ask me...). I'll see if i can find a pic to post later...

EDIT: Here's a pic. Looking more delicious as the memory of in-n-out grows fonder.