So we intended this trip to be a flying journey to Go to San Jose and visit family, then drive down to SoCal and visit more family. A Southwest systems meltdown during the holiday travel rush nixed that shutting down all flights the day we were supposed to fly out (26th). We made a snap decision after 2 hours at the airport with no confirmation that flights would be taking off that we would jump in the car and drive it. Cut the visit back to just SoCal and save Northern California for another day. We drove all day into AZ and stayed at a hotel, and then proceeded to get to Lee and Karen's on the 27th and spend 4 days sightseeing with them. We then jumped back in the car and headed home. Not the travel plans we intended but it worked - had a good trip.

We made the decision around 8:30am at Love Field that based on what we were seeing (long lines and nothing moving) that it was unlikely we'd get on a Southwest anytime soon. we headed back to the parking spot and picked our car up and headed west on Interstate 30 to Interstate 20. We ended up stopping in Abilene TX so Melody could do some day after Christmas shopping for wrapping paper which of course, the Abilene Walmart had plenty to spare. We got quite a haul of paper. We then continued driving the rest of the day and stopped when we got across the Arizona border for the night.

We got up the next morning and continued, but stopped off for a break in Tombstone AZ to see the OK Corral and where Wyatt Earp made a name for himself and his brothers. We saw a re-enactment of the events of the day, and got to see the area where the gun fight actually took place. The actors were real nice and we got our picture with them. We then strollled the streets and checked out some stores, returning to the car and continuing driving to California.

We arrived in Beaumont in the late afternoon and found Lee and Karen's house fairly easily. Karen had dinner aleady going so we settled in and started catching up. After dinner, Karen had a little cake and some ice cream so we got to celebrate Melody's birthday after all as it should be.

Early morning we starte driving towards Los Angeles to go to the California Science Center at Exposition Park to see the Space Shuttle and all the other things on display there. This was the first time I've been this close to an actual shuttle although I've seen one on a 747 at Edwards AFB many years ago. Its an impressive piece of work and to get this close to be able to see the serial numbers on the tiles - is pretty cool. Took quite a few pictures of course. The Museum has some big plans coming up for this display, they have an external tank and plan to build a full launch stack (vertical) with boosters, the tank and the shuttle stood up and then build a building around the shuttle to house it. This will be the only one that will be in a launch configuration. Not sure about all the details to the building and what kind of access there may be to the display (ie. can you walk through any of the shuttle or not) but I look forward to seeing what they do with it. Should be exciting.

There are lots of other cool things at the museum as well, other airplanes, a Apollo capsule, a Gemini capsule, a SR 71, a F-20 Tigershark, and others. Plus a huge fishtank with some really big fish in there. Best part of the visit, was getting in a wind machine and seeing Lee kinda play along with it. He's not big on pictures but time has wore him down - he'll play along now :-). There's a video with Lee's special message about what he thinks...

For dinner, we met Lindsey and Ethan in Redlands at The Royal Falconer for dinner. They had some good pub food - it was great to spend time with everyone and catch up more.

Again, we got an early start and headed south towards San Diego. We went into the zoo and started exploring, getting on the tram to travel around the park and see some of the highlights. We then set out on foot and saw several of the animals that were out - the Lions and gorrillas in particular were impressive. After seeing many of the animals, it was time for lunch and we went to Albert's Resteraunt - named after a famous Gorilla from the zoo I believe. It was some good food. we then went and saw more animals and wrapped up the day with some pictures outside at the front. I love to go to zoos and the sabn Diego Zoo is one of my favorites.

We then headed for home and decided to stop and eat at a hot dog place called Portillo's. I'd never heard of it before but they serve some good food - not just hot dogs, you can get all kinds of things there. Highly reccomend it if you come across one.

We headed to Palm Springs for lunch at a good resteraunt that Karen and Lee know about, Sherman's Deli and Bakery. Must be good because there was a line outside waiting to get in. Palm Springs is sort of in the desert, so there's lots of palm trees and scrub brush around the city. In all the years I lived in Calfornia, I don't recall visiting there before and if I did, it didn't leave an impression. After lunch we walked around the main drag and went in some shops and checked things out. History says that some of the hollywood crowd used to hang out down here - Bob Hope and others. Their images appear all over the place. In the wafternoon we headed back to Lee and Karen's for a while, Lee showed me more about his train setup in the backyard. Its pretty impressive, he's built several of the buildingings he has in the dioramas. It runs through most of the backyard but he doesn't really run it this time of the year due to weather. In the afternoon we went over to Mentone to Lindsey and Ethan's house for dinner. Ethan cooked up some really good steaks on the BBQ and we had a very enjoyable evening. They still had their Christmas display out in the yard which was pretty cool. It was really nice to get to spend some time with everyone.

We got up early in the morning and said our goodbyes, I had Lee hold up one of his train engines for scale to show just how big these things are (HOv\ scale I think?) before we left. I like their new house - open concept with plenty of rooom for them and a nice back yard. The move down here seems like a really good one for them, getting closer to Lindsey and Ethan. Plus the community seems nice.

We headed out on the road and made a stop at the General Patton Memorial Museum at Chiraco Pass. This is the area (California deser) that Patton used to train the tank and ground forces for the invasion in Europe for WWII. There were some really cool relics on display and Patton's history was quite interesting (at least to me). He had quite the career and his untimely death was unfortunate. Interstingly, he chose not to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery, but over in Europe with his troops. A very interesting person. We also saw several tanks and equipment from the war which was interesting - the driving mechanism for these things was cool - not much space for shells and crew - but they made it work.

Once we finished here, we just drove for home - about 15 hours of driving. Trip didn't go the way originally planned, but was a good break and got to spend time with family.