Back to work
So this is the scene here at Schloss Zed, now that our lovely week-and-a-bit of family visits is over. Sunny but sad!First to arrive last week, from Australia, were David's brother and sister, Jeff and Heather, and Heather's husband, Peter.Then Lily flew in on Saturday night, so for the first time in a while, most of the Zeds were all together, for brekkie at the Hotel Del Coronado, above and below ... ... dinner at the Bondi (of course!), walks along the Mission Beach boardwalk ... ... and with the dogs on the beach at Del Mar ...... cricket at the park (hard to believe they're brothers, isn't it?)... and lots of family yarning.
Then, just a couple of hours before Lily left, my cousin, Duncan, and his partner Amy — below — arrived from British Columbia on their way to New Mexico. Here they are in the weird and wonderful desert garden at Balboa Park in San Diego yesterday.
It was only the second time we'd ever met — and the first time was over sixteen years ago — so it was great to meet this branch of my family and discover such similar interests in music, art, books and lots more. They were such easy, enthusiastic guests, and needed just time and sunshine to thaw out after their Canadian winter, and a chance to unwind after busy jobs and the stress of packing up and driving south down the interstate-5 for a couple of days to get to us.
Now Lily's back at college in Olympia up north, Jeff's back in Perth, Heather and Peter are in New York on their way to Hong Kong, and Duncan and Amy are on the interstate-8 heading east for Arizona.
But it was so wonderful to see so much of our family!

Brekkie at the Del

We all went here for breakfast this morning. Isn't she beautiful? She's the Hotel del Coronado, and we have heard (though haven't verified) that she is the biggest wooden building in the world. She looked truly splendid this morning, with her flags fluttering in the breeze and everything spruce and ship-shape.

The Del, as she is known, is right on the beach on Coronado Island — a peninsula, really — just a short drive from downtown. You can see the island in the background in this pic I took from one of the highest hotels downtown, looking almost directly south.

The pic also shows the famous Coronado Bridge, which swings across the San Diego Bay in a wide arc. Apparently, if the bridge was a certain length, the city could attract federal funds to help pay for it, so the designer put a big bend in it to be sure it qualified! It is also incredibly high — so aircraft carriers can pass beneath it — and you can see south into Mexico from up there. It's only a few minutes to the border from downtown.

The Del is one of our favourite places to take visitors to San Diego, as much for the excellence of the $20 all-you-can-eat buffet brekkie as for its spectacular look. At this time of the year, there's an ice-skating rink out on the beach in front of the hotel. Imagine! You can skate on ice in the bright Southern Californian sunshine while the waves crash on to the sandy shore right in front of you.

This is a picture I took here last year, with Max and Halina, who were here with their parents, Dace and Konrad, for most of December. I thought of you guys this morning, as I crunched on my bacon!
:: In between sightseeing, parties, dinners at the Bondi (above), and reading and snoozing in this blissful post-Christmas week, Lily has been playing lots with Devon's double-screen mini-Nintendo.
When they were kids, living next door to each other, they'd spend days in the holidays playing Zelda on the big Nintendo, plugged into the telly. I think Lily has been reliving this all week, playing another Zelda game and calling Dev over to help her when she needs a new heart, or a new sword, or to beat someone ...

:: Yesterday and today, we've been cooking up a storm, getting ready for our sojourn in the snow, at Big Bear. We're making big helpings of meals and freezing them to take with us, so we have as little to do as possible while we are on holiday. Yesterday, I made chili con carne for twenty, and a sticky-date pudding. David made a massive double serving of bolognese sauce for spaghetti — one half of which we had for dinner. Today, Lily has added a pot full of very spicy mulligatawny, and a wonderful chickpea curry, which is so delicious that I have persuaded her to let us have half for tonight's dinner, with roast chicken and couscous.

:: Tomorrow, the last day of the year, is Lily's last day at home. She'll drive back to Olympia with James and Dev from Big Bear. I'm already sorry at the thought of her return to college. I so love having her home with us and it's all gone so quickly.

Washington bound

Lauren, who was at school with Lily in Perth and is still one of her closest friends, arrived from Sydney on Saturday. Lauren is studying international relations at Sydney uni, and is going to the University of Washington, in Seattle, to study Chinese politics for three months. She chose 'U-Dub' as much for its academic prestige as for the chance to be close to Lily, who is thrilled to bits!
It's been great fun having the two of them here. We've been showing Lauren as much of San Diego as we can, at the same time running around helping Lily get organised for another year at college. Today we went to breakfast at the Bondi, and then to the beautiful Coronado Hotel ...



... it's the world's biggest wooden structure and was built in 1888, right on the broadest, whitest beach in this part of the world. Coronado beach is regularly voted the best in Southern California, and it's not hard to see why.

:: After the Coronado we took the scenic coastal route back to our neck of the woods. It was such a perfect day - warm and windy, with clear blue skies. The girls are loving this summer interval after so recently being in Australia's winter, and before they head north to Washington state, where it rains a great deal (lucky them!)

:: Yesterday, we went to the vast outlet shopping centre at San Ysidro, right on the Mexican border. The shopping is unbelievably cheap, and we rounded off the day by swanning into the shoe department at the Neiman Marcus outlet, where there is the most extraordinary array of discounted designer shoes.

We had a laugh and a half trying on Manolo Blahniks (below, $700 down to $300, with further reductions), Prada, Taryn Ross, Gucci, Marc Jacobs, Michael Kors and a heap of others.

There was everything from strappy bejewelled sandals to winter boots, including one pair of genuine Scottish wellies reduced from $450 to $125. But Lily was particularly taken with these sparkly blue Armani heels ...

Many of the shoes were actually hideous, which I guess is why they've ended up here, like these weird Pradas (below) that looked like orthopaedic granny shoes - with an incredibly high heel - and had very strange flesh-coloured knee-high stockings attached. Their original price had been $1300.
:: Lily, Lauren and I begin our drive up the coast tomorrow. It'll take us a couple of days to get to Seattle, where we'll leave Lauren at her orientation day for international students. Then Lily and I will head for Olympia, where she and two of her college mates have rented a house - I think Lily's year in the freshman dorm was enough. She's well and truly over her earlier expressed desire to experience the full US college phenomenon and is looking forward to having a house with a kitchen and laundry. So we'll be hunting down some furniture on craigslist and getting all her stuff out of storage.
If there's time, we're going to visit our relatives on Vancouver Island.

:: No more blogging until I get back to San Diego and the boys, in about 10 days. Bye-ee!