17. Last day

And so I wake on my last day.  I think about this hotel, there really is somehting odd going on.  A room for two people with 1 each of two different types of tea bag, 1 pack of decaf coffee and two of regular coffee.  No in room safe and the only place I have been where everyone is rude and half of them can't understand me!!!

I finish packing and grab a shuttle to the train station where I travel to Santa Ana Depot.  The reason for Santa Ana is that they have a baggage check there and I can leave my bag for the day.  My intention was to leave the bag and catch a bus (I had it all checked out on line) to the area that Varia told me about and from there go to a shopping center to catch the bus back to the station.

Santa Ana Depot was gorgeous.
A very Mexican looking building with all signs in Spanish and some of the people didn't speak English.

There was no info desk and it took me some time to figure out where the bus was to leave from.  I wait and I wait for a bus and eventually find the timetable which tells me the busses only run prior to 10am (and return in the afternoon).

OK change of plan - I wait in the cab queue and eventually a can comes along, complete with non English speaking turban headed Sikh who didn't know where the major shopping center of the region was.  Eventually we arrive and I realise quickly that to get to where Varia told me it was going to be a hard task so I just hang out in yet another sterile center where I wander in and out of dozens of shops looking for that special something in the form of a simple pair of black wedge heeled sandals in leather.  No way, not even in designer stores (of which there were many).

what did I buy.  A grilled cheese sandwich at Boudins, an ice cream at Haagen daas and a horrible cookie from Mrs Fields.  I well at least I didn't spend a fortune.

Bored I check the timetable for the return bus and determine from the diagram where the bus stop is.  Well I find the exact location shown on the map and not a bus stop to be seen.  I search and I ask to no avail and end up ringing for a cab.  It took ages and I feared by this stage that I would miss my train. Evenutally, a lovely driver comes complete with cab and spirits me off through the back blocks to get me to the station in time to collect my bag, cross the tracks and catch my train to LA Union Station.

From there I transfer to the LAX shuttle and am soon safely deposited in front of Terminal 2 where I check in and go airside to the dumpiest airport lounge I have ever been in.  Food was rubbish so I go to the concourse where I had the amazing choice of eating at Burger King's Us\S equivalent, a bakery, a burger joint or Wolfgang Pucks Bistro for a pizza.  the burger seemed the lesser of two evils and as I still had the hankering for a piece of meat I dined, again, on a crappy burger.

Yay soon we board and i'm on my way. Home ward bound on my first ever cattle class flight on Air New Zealand.  Fortunately there were only two of us in a bank of three seats so it want anywhere near as bad as I expected and after an uneventful flight I land in good old NZ.

I'm glad I went, enjoyed San Diego and Monterey, loved spending time with the cousins but the highlights were the wedding and meeting the two little adorable girls Abby and Dorothy.  Dorothy's smile will stay with me for a long time.