Day 25 - San Diego

After our visit to the San Diego Yacht Club 4 years ago we were keen to head back for their Sunday buffet bruch. We made sure that we had plenty of time to work our way through the buffet and managed to roll out of there in the early afternoon. After that we went and visited Catherine and Al Strohlein who we hadn't seen since our first trip to San Diego 4 years ago. It was great to catch up with them again. Their daughters Katherine (who lives in Redondo Beach and helped us with looking after our ski gear while we were in Mexico) and Margaret were also there. That night we cooked lasagna for dinner at Eric's place. It has been nice to get back in the kitchen again after so many meals in restaurants.
Overnight: Eric's San Diego

Day 24 - San Diego

Shane headed off to the pool this morning while Michelle, Alex, Ali and I headed to Fashion Valley where we wandered around the shops (and we managed to leave without any purchases). After we finished at Fashion Valley we picked up Shane from the pool and then headed to Borders at Mission Valley. Georgie enjoyed her day with Eric and the girls. That night Eric, Michelle, Shane and I had dinner with Shane's swimming friend Tom Hecker and his wife Carol at a local Thai restaurant. Tom has many swimming achievements including an English Channel crossing, so it was great to hear about all his and Carol's travels.
Overnight: Eric's San Diego

Day 23 - San Diego

We all packed up this morning and headed down to Sea World for the day. The car park was fully but we were surprised that it didn't seem more crowded inside. We started with the Dolphin show followed by Shamu. The kids were in the slash zone for both shows. After a light sprinkling at Dolphin show they were completely drowned by Shamu. Once you are that wet you might as well keep going and head for the rapids ride. There definitely no dry patches once that was finished. We were lucky that it was a beautiful day but they did start to get really cold as the day went on. We visited most of the shows and exhibits but made sure we left some things for our return trip. After warming up we headed down to Ocean Beach to the OB Noodle House. Overnight: Eric's San Diego

Day 22 - San Diego (Christmas Day)

Santa arrived in San Diego this morning and all the kids opened their pressies before Eric headed off to work. In the early afternoon we headed down to the fire station for lunch - where we enjoyed a huge meal before we went to check out the Hotel Del at Coronado. The hotel was beautifully decorated for the festive season.
Overnight: Eric's San Diego

Day 21 - San Diego (Christmas Eve)

Apart from a few last minute shopping trips we spent a really relaxing day at Eric's place. Georgie was really excited to see Jade and Drue again - they picked up like it was only yesterday that they saw each other. We enjoyed a fantastic meal that night with all the family including Eric's mum Barbara. Unfortunately David was sick so we didn't get to catch up with him. The kids swapped pressies and had a great time playing.
Overnight: Eric's San Diego

Day 20 - Guadalajara to San Diego

This morning we were up early and headed to the airport for our flight to LA. Once we arrived we went to pick up our car for the next 3 weeks. As part of our booking we organised ski racks on the car, but were advised by Avis that they don't have ski racks at the LAX location. This made picking up our skis from Katherine's impossible as the car was already full to the brim with our luggage. We spent the afternoon trying to sort it out the problem but eventually left for San Diego with no resolution. We were very fortunate that Katherine offered to drop down our ski gear down to San Diego on Sunday and the travel agent in Australia was going to try and resolve the problem. We arrived at Eric's place late in the day and spent the evening with Michelle and her daughter Alex as Eric was at work.
Overnight: Eric's San Diego

Day 19 - Guadalajara

Today was our last day in Guadalajara before we headed back to the US. We were all pretty tired so we had a sleep in and then went for a wander around the city. There is so much to see in this beautiful city. We visited Ripley's Believe It or Not and the Wax Museum. The kids had their hands cast in wax. Shane and Georgie ventured back to the market to buy and couple of things and Ali & I hit the jewellery market (4 floors of jewellery in one building). We managed a few purchases but there was so much to buy that it would have been easy to go crazy. Stewart from the hotel in Mismaloya recommended that we try Carne en su jugo which is a dish that comes from Guadalajara, so we found a local restaurant that served the dish - it was delicious. It has been difficult finding food for Ali in Guadalajara as most of the restaurants don't have many vegetarian dishes. After dinner we went for a horse and cart ride around the city. Overnight: Hotel Morales

Day 18 - Guadalajara

We were all really excited about our trip on the Tequila train today. Our tour started at the main train station where we were entertained by a Mariachi group before we boarded the train and headed towards the main tequila region in Mexico. Once on the train the tequila started to flow and the Mariachi music continued. We werent sure that we were ready to start drinking at 11am in the morning but sometimes you just have to go with the flow. The train trip took nearly 2 hrs when we arrived at a small town and headed to the tequila factory. We toured through the modern and old style tequila production areas. Lunch was served at the tequila factory and we were entertained by a traditional show of Mariachi, dancing and something fancy they do with ropes (cant remember what it was called). Lunch was probably one of the best meal that we have had in Mexico as there was such a wide variety of foods to try on the buffet. The show was fabulous and we had a great day. We headed back to the train about 5.30pm for a fun trip back to the city.
Overnight: Hotel Morales

Day 17 - Tlaquepaque to Guadalajara city

It was time to leave Quinta Don Jose today. We relaxed at the hotel this morning and took a last minute shopping trip before heading in to the city. The trip should only take about 15 minutes but with all of the Christmas traffic it took nearly an hour. We settled in to our new hotel (Hotel Morales) which is located in the centre of the city and easy walk to the main tourist areas. In the afternoon we went for a walk around the city and ended up visiting the main market...this is like Vic Market on steroids. We thought that the market in China was big and crowded but this takes the cake by a mile. The kids bought these noise making things (I can think of a way to describe them but they make quite a loud noise). They had heaps of fun wandering through the city making lots of noise. We are in desparate need of a good non Mexican meal. Tried to find something but all we could find was a suspect looking Chinese buffet, so it was more Mexican food for dinner. We are all really looking forward to some Asian food when we get to the US next week.
Overnight: Hotel Morales

Day 16 - Tlaquepaque

Tomorrow we head into the city for 3 nights but we thought that 3 days might not be enough time to explore everything that the city has to offer, so today we thought that we would start of exploration of Guadalajara downtown. We visited many of the building in the historic area, including the cathedral (we found out later that it wasnt the main cathedral but it seemed fairly impressive to us), the museum, the government palace, an orphanage which has an amazing series of paintings in the main hall area (which are all painted on the roof). Late in the day we headed back to Tlaquepaque for dinner with a really lovely couple who we met at the hotel (Cheryl and Rick). They have moved from Oregan and live on the coast of Mexico in the most gorgeous resort. We had a great dinner at a local restaurant called el Patio.
Overnight: Quinta Don Jose