Our last day & Cats, Dogs and Whipps are reunited

We have arrived home SAFE AND SOUND! We came home to a couple loving cats and an excited puppy who has grown!!! We also came home to a BEAUTIFUL COMPLETED THEATRE ROOM!!! Thanks to the McCallum family for doing that in our absence!!! The 7 of us (Lars didn't participate) watched Jurassic Park II together while sipping our free champagne (from the resort at Knotts Berry Farm) and eating popcorn.

Let's back track to our last day in California. The day can be summed up in one word: TRAFFIC!!! We had terrible traffic getting back into San Francisco Friday morning to catch our ferry to Alcatraz, but we made it! The tour was really good. We have gone on a few walking/audio tours in the past and both agree this was one of the best tours! The narrators were 4 former guards and 4 former prisoners. The sound effects made it sound real and the directions were clear: even to the point of seeing the pock marks from when hand grenades were used during the Battle of Alcatraz. We also watched a movie about the history of Alcatraz and learned that it was first used for military purposes, as a prison, and the American-Indians tried to take control of the island to use it as a university for Indians until the National Park Service took it over in the '60s. We really enjoyed ourselves, even in the rain. Mouse got a lovely parka as a result of the rain (pictures later).

Once again we found ourselves in San Francisco traffic, but were enjoying each other's company and getting further in our book on CD. Once we got moving we were enjoying some beautiful rolling hills and great weather. Until ... Los Angeles traffic. LA rarely gets rain and when it does, the drivers don't have a clue how to drive in it. Our houseguests heard about the I-5 accident on the news here in Colorado Springs, so you may have heard about it as well. There were 15 trucks that collided in a tunnel going southbound on I-5 on the north side of LA. 5 trucks caught on fire. (The picture on the left is from latimes.com taken by Mike Meadows / Associated Press on October 13, 2007.) One person is still missing. 10 were taken to the hospital, and now 3 are dead. (The picture on the right is from latimes.com with a caption: The driver of the mangled truck on the right was able to walk away from his vehicle with minor injuries before it was engulfed in flames, according to CHP officers on the scene. Picture taken by Stephen Osman / Los Angeles Times on October 13, 2007) The interstate is still closed in both directions and won't be opened until Tuesday at the earliest for the southbound lane. The northbound lane may not open for a while longer until inspectors can determine if the tunnel/bridge is usable. The trucks were burning in a truck only lane which happened to be in a tunnel that truckers say is hard to see in good weather.

The chain reaction began when two trucks collided on the I-5 late Friday.
(Mike Meadows / Associated Press)
October 13, 2007 (from latimes.com)

So back to our version of the story. We saw a sign stating there was a truck accident up ahead of us, so when we were at a dead stop on the interstate, we had an idea of why. We were able to pick up a station on our Sirius radio that gave us updates on LA traffic and quickly found out there were burning trucks in our way. We realized we'd be sitting there for a while, so we shut the lights off and continued listening to the repeated message on the radio. Fletch wanted to take a nap, so we switched seats. While he was trying to sleep (a little hard with the excitement around us), we noticed a Saturn going in reverse on the shoulder. I instantly said, "What an idiot! The cops will be getting him!" Then we saw a car driving forwards, north, in the southbound shoulder! Then we saw another car, and another, and people out starting to walk around questioning what was going on. It was raining at this time and we were enjoying our warm dry car, we decided to stay inside. Then we saw cars going north on the shoulder on the other side of us. Once a car beside us starting going, making a way for us, we decided to become what Melissa said "an idiot" and break a few laws as well. We were probably one of the first 50 cars to do this, so we thought the cops in front must be giving the cars the go ahead to do this. We had to do some curb jumping at one point because a trucker was on the shoulder and not able to move. Thanks to Fletch for getting out to see if we could jump the shoulder! I didn't think we could do it!!! There were a few sport cars that were stuck on that shoulder. Poor people! They thought they were free!!! We spent the next 3 hours following a truck (that didn't get past the stop point, so he wasn't stuck on the freeway with the other big rigs) hoping he would lead us to a passable point southbound on I-5. Again, that was my husband's street smart idea! We finally made it through. Our first time of arrival was set by Mandy (without breaks) for 10:33 pm. After the San Francisco traffic it was moved to 2:10 am. Now after this accident, it was going to be 5:30 am. We still saw a few more accidents on the way, but nothing as major as that 15 truck collision accident!!!


The lady at the hotel in San Diego was quite suprised to see us show up at 5:30 in the morning. As we were checking in, others were eating breakfast. Now that was a sad sight to see! After sleeping for 3 hours, we started our journey home. It was amazing that we stayed up as late as we did watching the movie last night! We made up for it in the morning, though ... we slept 10-11 hours (Fletch got up earlier than I did).


It was an awesome vacation, but we are so thankful to be home!!! I need to unpack, so some laundry, and upload more pictures. Keep checking the blogs for updated pictures!!!

Wednesday: Driving up north

We started our trip to San Francisco with no plans other than visiting a few places. Our drive was uneventful. We started up the Pacific Coast Highway from South/Central LA up through Malibu and the beach cities for about 2 hours before we went inland for a faster route. Once we got to San Jose, we decided to call it a night and asked Mandy to show us the closest hotel to our first destination: Winchester House. She took us to a fantastic shopping area with Gucci and other pricey shops. We ended up asking her for another hotel because we thought that area would be a little too pricey for some travelers looking for a bed!

The next morning we took a tour through the Winchester Mystery House. It is believed to have been cursed because the owners' baby died within 6 weeks due to ill health and Mr. Winchester died a few years later of tuberculosis. Mrs. Winchester believed the house was haunted by the ghosts of the men that died from the rifles the family made during the Civil War. To distract the evil spirits, Mrs. Winchester installed doors that led to walls and stairs that went up to the ceiling. The tour went through the entire house of 1 mile. It was ... interesting ... to say the least. I'll have pictures posted later once we get home (we are waiting for our return flight to Colorado Springs right now as I type).

The last part of the day was our business portion for the San Francisco area. Fletch is a huge fan of Mesa Boogie amps, so we took a tour of the factory in Petaluma (south of San Fran). Fletch was in amp heaven!!! He was able to find a good deal on a Mesa Boogie thingamajingy on Craig's List the night before, so we picked up the item on our way back to San Fran after the tour. Our last two business stops were Guitar Center stores in San Francisco (where we scored great street parking right in front of the store!) and San Jose. Of course we ended our business trip with a business dinner ... at Chevy's.

We enjoyed the previous night's stay at the hotel so much, we decided to stay another night to make it easier on ourselves (packing our stuff and the car to finding another hotel in San Fran ... more expensive ... and unpacking/packing all over again was getting annoying).

Our plane is about ready to load. I will blog our tour of Alcatraz and our VERY eventful drive back to San Diego once we get home. All I have to say about our trip home is check out the latimes.com today to see front page of a 15 truck pile-up that caused 5 to catch on fire causing us a 3 hour delay in arriving in San Diego!!! Pictures tomorrow after I rest up (I slept 3 hours last night!!!)

Wineries (Sunday)

Oops! I forgot to blog about Sunday!!! We spent a few hours in Temecula (just north of San Diego). We have a favorite restaurant there and had lunch ... Sweet Lumpy's. Melissa tasted wine at 2 wineries, but we only did 2 because she could taste the wine as well with her cold. :( We then checked into our hotel in Hollywood and visited a Guitar Center. This is the business part of our trip ... guitar shopping!

Leaving LA

Carson Daly: we watched last night's episode. Melissa saw Fletch's head banging to the music and Fletch saw Melissa shake her hair around. Yeah! We were on t.v.! Isn't that what Hollywood is all about???

It's official. We are both sick with the flu. Day 6 for Melissa: I am starting to see the end of the tunnel!!! Day 2 for Fletch: PLEASE PRAY HE DOESN'T HAVE IT AS LONG AS MELISSA DID!!! I have learned my lesson and have promised Fletch that when I get sick I WILL take a day off of school to get better! I feel bad that I didn't during my 1st cold this season (back in September) and now we are both paying for it. This is the 3rd time I have gotten sick in 6 weeks ... and have given it to Fletch twice!

Enough of that ... yesterday we went to Knott's Berry Farm. Fletch found his smell (and was able to still smell) that he remembered 27 years ago. Unfortunately Melissa wasn't smelling anything. :( The park employees were expecting about 2000 visitors! We think it was below that count. We had to wait in line for 2 rides ... and that was only about 3 minutes to wait in! We were able to ride all of the rides ... some of them 4 times!!! We heard that Disneyland was crowded over the weekend, so we can probably say that if you want to visit themeparks ... GO AFTER COLUMBUS DAY!!! It was sweet. :)

After the park closed we came back to the hotel for a little rest and drugs then headed out to Beverly Hills to see the stars homes. It was getting a little late, so we only saw Sylvester Stallone's home, Bill Cosby's former home and Tom Cruise/Katie Holmes mansion.

Our room at Knott's Berry Farm resort is FANTASTIC! They gave us a room with 2 queen size beds (just perfect for 2 sicklies), a bottle of Champagne (which we'll enjoy after we're finished taking our meds), a parking voucher, 2 tickets to the park, $30 dinner voucher and 2 breakfast buffet vouchers for under $200! We figured it's costing us $14 to stay in this lovely room!

Today we're off for the Pacific Coast Highway. There are no more hotel reservations and we're going to take it easy. We'll be visiting Hearst Castle, Winchester Mystery House, Mesa Boogie factory, Alcatraz, and possibly the Avenue of the Giants (depending on how we feel). We're not sure about internet connection because we don't know where we're staying for the rest of the trip. If we can find free hookup at Starbucks, we'll update the blog!

Thanks for reading. We need to go enjoy our FREE breakfast BUFFET and start heading out.

Love,

Fletch and Mouse

P.S. Note from home: Zack was bothering Simba at the beginning of the week (enough to make us wonder if we had to take him back) but they are now best friends! Lars is being Lars ... hanging out by himself. Simba was crying a lot the first part of our absence, he's calming down a little. Zack has learned how to lay down! Thanks Phil, Leslie and Levi!!!

LA

Okay ... I sent the last post with only 60 seconds to type it because we were flying out of the door to get to the NBC studios on time. We thought we didn't make it, but they welcomed us in ... into the 1st row!!! We were at the taping of NBC's Carson Daly show for Tuesday and Wednesday night. We were able to see Brian Welsh's interview which was someone we had prayed for in the past! Brian used to be a guitar player for the secular band Korn until he became a Christian a few years ago. We prayed for him a few times after his transformation into Christianity. What an awesome opportunity to be in the audience while he was being interviewed!!! We also got to see Leslie Bibb (an actress from Talagada Nights) being interviewed. The musical guests we saw were Hurricane Chris and Ryan Shaw. We never heard who any of these people (besides Brian Welsh) before tonight, but you may be able to see us in the front row of the musicians!!! Fletch and I were right up front screaming and yelling ... like we were HUGE fans of these guys! ;) It was really fun!!!

We are having a great time in our Mustang driving around LA with Mandy. Fletch is quite the LA driver now!!! It's so much easier when you have someone navigating who knows the area!

We didn't get a chance to catch up with our friend Dave yet ... we hope to tomorrow after Knott's Berry Farm closes.

Please be praying for Melissa's health. She has been battling a cold ever since we left Colorado and it is still lingering on ... especially at night time. We are still able to go about our day as tourists, but night time is not the best time for Melissa. Thanks!!! Tomorrow we're off to Knott's Berry Farm, hopefully to catch up with Dave, and possibly touring around Beverly Hills and Bel Air (again) ... but this time with a map of the stars' homes!

Carson Daly

Watch it tonight! We're in the live audience!

More later.

Saturday: San Diego

Wow. What a first day! It's hard to imagine we still have 7 more days to go! The first thing we did today was go to the San Diego Zoo. Melissa had fond memories of going there with her older brother in 1997; the last time she went there was with her friends in 2002, but it was raining and most of the animals weren't out because of the rain. This was the first time for Fletch to go. We had a great time. The pandas were sleeping the first time we saw them, but one was awake and eating the 2nd time through. The weather was perfect and we had a great time!

In the evening we drove downtown to the waterfront marina area to board the ship we would be having our dinner cruise on. After a 3 course meal Fletch and Mouse retreated downstairs to the dancefloor! It was hilarious seeing much older couples raisning their blood pressure to old Michael Jackson and Salt N' Pepper tunes....

San Diego is a beautiful, clean city, several charactoristics reninded Fletch of Brisbane. Navigating is very easy. Largest highway to date was 12 lanes!

Sunday's activities: wineries, drive to LA, hanging out with Mouse's college friend (who just got of tour with Hilary Duff).

Friday: Travels and San Diego

We started the day off with Melissa going to work and Fletch getting ready. Usually it's the other way around;Fletch enjoyed a nice relaxing morning before traveling!!! Our house guests were able to take us to the airport. They received a nice surprise ... they thought we were flying out of Denver! :) There was only one exciting (or annoying) thing at the airport: a lady with a child was cutting in front of the security line (no one said anything to her) and was quite upset when the officers had to examine her bags. She had a lot of liquids for the baby in there, but didn't tell the officers before putting her bags on the belt. She was causing a little scene telling them if she was late they better pay for her to get the next flight out. Obviously she doesn't fly often. Hopefully she has learned that if traveling with a child, don't be late! We saw her at the gate, but no one was sitting there. Either she missed her flight, was able to get on the next one, or was carrying a fuss lying to the officers so she could get through security faster. I hope she had a better afternoon than her morning!

We flew JetExpress. Lovely plane ride. They surprised us by not only offering drinks, but a lunch (sandwich or pasta with peanuts and cookies), snack (peanuts or cookies) and a mint at the end of our flight! The ladies at lunch were just talking about how planes don't offer just snacks anymore ... well it's changing! :) Our flight was only 2 hours and 20 minutes, but the plane hit a bird before landing in Colorado Springs. We had about 30-45 minutes to wait on the plane while maintenance checked out everything.

Karen was our assistant at Hertz rental car. She was so sweet. She asked us if we wanted to upgrade to a Ford Mustang, but we said no and asked about 5 different cars to upgrade to. What a patient woman! After about 30 minutes we decided on a Mustang. I apologized to her, but she was quite professional and was a lovely lady! We are riding around California in a silver Ford Mustang (not a convertible ... there weren't any available).

Our first stop was the Carvin guitar factory. We have been there before (June 2006) but didn't have time to look around. Fletch brought one of his many Carvin guitars to get some items put in it (don't ask me what he's doing to it ... let's call it an upgrade) and had a blast looking around at all the Carvin guitars. Fletch is definitely a Carvin guy! Visitors to our home can tell he enjoys Carvin guitars. :)

After the factory we went to a popular fast food joint ... In and Out. Under $5 for a meal ... like the old days. If you are ever in California or Las Vegas, you must stop and eat at an In and Out place. It's tradition! Up to this point our newest member of the family, Mandy, got us to each location without hassles. She had a little problem communicating to us how to get to our hotel. We had to turn around about 3 times. Hopefully she'll do better today. She'll be navigating us to San Diego Zoo and the location where we will catch our dinner cruise at. Can you guess what Mandy is? Comment below if you think you know!!!

Fletch, Mouse & Mandy

California, Here We Come!

We will be leaving today for a much needed vacation! Stay tuned for pictures and blogs daily while we are in California! Here is a brief list of our itinerary:

10/5-7 SAN DIEGO (Carvin guitar factory, San Diego Zoo, dinner cruise)

10/7-10/10 LOS ANGELES AREA (guitar shops, trolley tour, Hollywood Walk of Fame, Knott's Berry Farm)

10/10-10/12 SAN FRANCISCO area (Mesa Boogie factory, Alcatraz, possibly Avenue of the Giants)

10/12-10/13 make our way back to San Diego

10/13 fly home

Thank you in advance, McCallum family, for taking care of our pets and our home! You are a HUGE blessing!!!