San Diego 2019

On Friday night, I fell into bed with such exhaustion, chills and fever that Pam started looking into a hospital emerg where she could take me and was examining our health insurance coverage.  What a difference a night can make:  I woke up Saturday morning with a new lease on life and was rarin' to go. We had a great breakfast at a sports grill next to our hotel in National City, then checked out and drove a bit south to our hotel for the next three nights, at Imperial Beach, which is itself south of the famous Coronado Island.  Our hotel is a small Marriott property, directly on the beach and next to Imperial Beach Pier, the southernmost pier on the US West Coast.  Imperial Beach is a quaint little community with a definite surfing culture. We started our day with a walk around Imperial Beach, including the Pier, and then headed up to Coronado Island, which is renowned for its iconic Hotel del Coronado.  The Hotel Del was built in 1888 and has hosted celebr...

We woke to a sunny but cold Friday in Halifax.  After the bad widweek weather we'd had, it was a relief to see good flying conditions for our Nova Scotia Heritage Day getaway weekend.  We both worked the morning, and then I picked up Pam at her school as soon as morning classes were done.  We sped off to the airport for our 1:40pm United Airlines departure to Newark.  Upon check-in at the United counter, we realized how weak the Nova Scotia educational system is -- at least when it comes to geography.  There were two mid-20s women working the desk, and the one who checked us in asked, "Your final destination today?"  "San Diego," said I.  "Which state is that in?" asked she.  When I filled her in on the answer, her co-worker piped up, "I found out yesterday that Chicago is a city in Illinois.  I thought it was a state."  As we walked away from the counter, we realized that Canadians should pro...