California Adventure, Day 5 – Sunday, January 25
At 7 am I went downstairs to check out the continental breakfast – and true to pattern, the hotel served scrambled eggs and pork sausage patties. I got some scrambled eggs – and also got a mini lemon Danish. I took the bowl back to my room. I didn’t spend much time reading news, though; I was on a schedule.

I had time after breakfast for a quick walk through the neighborhood. Then I gathered my bags. It was 8:00 am when I checked out at the front desk. At 8:15 am I dropped off the rental car and was on the shuttle bus to the airport by 8:20 am.

At the airport I discovered that I had neglected to do homework, because the shuttle bus began stopping at various places, and I didn’t know what the terminal/gate/airline situation was. My ticket said my flight was departing at Gate 61. Was that in Terminal 6? I couldn’t be sure. I knew that I didn’t want to be stuck on the bus if it began heading back to the rental car place – so I got off right away. That was at Terminal 3. Turns out my flight was indeed at Terminal 6. I looked at maps – and then walked all the way from Terminal 3 to Terminal 6. I told my watch I was doing an outdoor walk for exercise. Turned out to be a 14 minute walk. By the time I had gotten to the front of the security line, it was 9:00 am. I still had lots of time as my flight was scheduled to depart at 11:06, and boarding would start at 10:26 am.

Security scanned my bags but didn’t like that my iPad was in my bag, so they took it out of my bag and sent the tablet and bag back through the scanner. Fine. (This wasn’t a problem in Portland.) I still had plenty of time to kill.

Boarding started on time. The flight departed on time. Nothing of consequence happened on the flight, and we touched down early - at 1:22 pm, while scheduled arrival was 1:39 pm. I was inside the terminal by 1:30 pm. After texting friends and doing a restroom stop, I made my way to the Economy Parking shuttle bus, which departed at 2 pm.

When i got to Shizu, I did a battery check to see how much had drained outside in the cold. (While I was away, temperatures in Portland had dropped into the teens °F.) I had taken before and after photos of the dashboard – and after five days, the battery charge remained unchanged at 73%. This is nice to know.

I got home about 3:10 pm. EV efficiency is really poor in the cold (and also with my new tires), so charge was down to 61%, and I plugged Shizu into the charger – to take advantage of cheap weekend rates.

I think my main travel learning is that when I have to pack that light – and leave my MacBook at home – that I need to have a keyboard for my iPad. I would have like to have worked on journal entries while I was on the road, but I need a real keyboard for that. I don’t compose well on a touch screen keyboard. But who knows when I have to fly again. It’s usually years between flights.

At any rate, I was finally home! I hate being away from my home and was so glad to be back – looking forward to being in my own bed – with Mr. Bear (who did not come on the trip). And I was back on Belldandy, my Mac Studio, which had been shut down while I was away. Being in my home with my computer and my bed and my bear is the best.

Getty Center: West Pavilion Nikon Z6 • NIKKOR Z 24-120mm f/4 S f/5.6 @ 28mm • 1/350s • ISO 1600

California Adventure, Day 4 – Saturday, January 24
I had planned this extra day in California so that I could revisit the Getty Center. I hadn’t been there since I went with my friend Mike back in 2013 (during a heat wave, of all things).

( California Museum Day, Below This Cut )

California Adventure, Day 3 – Friday, January 23
This would be the simple day of the trip.

I checked out the hotel’s complimentary breakfast, figuring I’d pass if the egg omelet were still the offering. However, the hotel changed the menu and provided (reconstituted) scrambled eggs and sausage patties (instead of links). I got some eggs – and a mini cinnamon roll. I took the breakfast back to my room and ate while I read news on my iPad.

After breakfast, I did my daily walk – along the same neighborhood street that I did yesterday. I got my steps in.

Back in my room I relaxed and read more news. At 10:00 am my brother picked me up in the hotel garage. We drove to Orange, CA for an 11:00 am meetup with my sister. I hadn’t seen her since my parents’ memorial service almost three years previously. My brother and sister meet up for lunch on Fridays, and I was crashing their routine.

My brother knew I like Yoshinoya, and that’s where we met up. Both of our cars arrived within moments of each other, at 10:50 am. Pretty good timing.

As I often do, I had checked out the Menu online and had a good idea of what I wanted. I usually get the original gyudon beef – but I always wanted to try some of the other proteins. So I decided to get a Combo meal, which allowed me to choose an additional protein. I wanted to try the teriyaki grilled ribeye. And from previous experience, I declined to get vegetables.

Service was quick; the restaurant wasn’t busy at all – there were lots of empty booths and tables. I was rather disappointed in the teriyaki as it was not subtle but instead was slathered with a strong teriyaki sauce. It was too much. If I ordered it again, I’d request no sauce on top. The gyudon beef was perfectly fine, as always. (It’s not like I go to Yoshinoya very often – but generally at least once every time I’m in southern California.)

Most importantly, I got to spend time chatting with my siblings. We spent five and a half hours (11:00 am - 4:30 pm) talking about all sorts of things. We had fun reminiscing about the past and bringing each other up-to-date on the present. Good times! Yoshinoya was handy as we could camp there for the duration without bothering anyone. The restaurant never got busy at all.

It was a weekday, so there was rush hour traffic when we went our own ways at 4:30 pm. For my brother and me, we were going against the flow of traffic, so it wasn’t too bad. My sister, on the other hand, had to head south with many others. My brother dropped me off at my hotel at at 5:20 pm. It had been a good day.

(Regretfully, I forgot to get a photo of the three of us. 😔)