(5.18.07)
Left the house at 8am, got to the airport and read for about 4 hrs during the flight while plugging out children crying with earphones. It was bliss. Noise reduction earphones are fantastic for plane rides. So is a good book (for the moment Freakonomics).
Got into LAX around noon, then waited 2 hrs for Greg at the airport. Went both went to the Marriott hotel and slept for an hour before Greg's family met us here. They have been in the area for the last week, that is his mom, his aunt, brother and brothers g-friend. As soon as we met all met up, well, then it got interesting. I spent a while just smiling and looking back and forth because I didn't understand a damn thing being said. Even Gary's girlfriend spoke Chinese, so I really felt silly just sitting there smiling. Actually one can understand the gist of more than you would thing from body language, hand gestures, and the occasional English word thrown in.
We ended up deciding to go to a Chinese buffet for dinner! And so it begins. 6 of us crammed into an economy 4 seater car, to make the drive down. A picture couldn't really capture the butt to thigh touching ratio. Now I am back at the hotel and after dinner settles a bit I am looking forward to soaking into a hot tub for a while, maybe going for a swim, but the weather here is rather cool. Feels about 65 F. The hot tub will feel nice at least.
....
Edit made later: I did end up swimming for about an hour in the pool, i kind of made made myself ill. I guess you really should wait 2 hrs before swimming after eating! The nice thing is it really tired me out, so I fell right to sleep.