Our second day of the GSE was actually still the same day. The work of the quirky date line again! We arrived in LA and survived customs. It was actually a lot less painful than I had expected. The finger printing is done with a little laser reader, so no messy ink! Now my finger prints and 8” by 10” digital photograph are enshrined somewhere in Washington with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining why we were in the country and why all 5 of us were wearing matching pink shirts…
Sarah and Mascot Errol in LA
We made it to our first port in Modesto pretty smoothly. Our trip though LA Airport was a little terse, but (unlike Sydney) we made it in plenty of time. The was despite the fact that we had to stop to chat with two other GSE teams! One was returning from Australia, and one Aussie team was on their way to Las Vegas. Our pink shirts make us very recognisable!
Possibly because their baggage conveyors seemed to be broken, United left our luggage at LAX. It was brought up on a later flight and delivered to our hotel. (Interesting note: SYD to LAX, plane is 11 seats wide. LAX-MOD, plane is 3 seats wide. Definitely a record maximum single day plane size variance record for me!)
Now might be a good time to introduce our new best friend Terri Amerio-Bell. Terri is the local GSE Coordinator. I have a feeling we will be seeing and hearing quite a bit of Terri and her husband Howard over the next few weeks! Fortunately, they are as lovely as can be and treated us very well. They gave us gift packs containing snacks, put us up in a flash hotel for the night, and took us out to dinner at a local Mexican restaurant. We couldn’t ask for a better beginning. Thank you!
Terri even took Michelle, Sarah, Chris and I on a walking tour of Modesto (Glen had a lie down to recover from his pre birthday). It strikes me as being very spacious and well organised. Modesto is a city of 200,000 but this was lateish on Saturday arvo and the CBD was almost empty. It was interesting, but it actually felt much smaller than Hobart. There are no tall buildings, and nothing that looks terribly imposing. Perhaps because there was plenty of open space for the town to grow into a city gracefully? It is very, very flat by Tasmanian standards. Not a hill in site…
Team at McHenry Mansion
In Modesto we saw the McHenry Mansion, and had a great tour through a bank that has been converted into a restaurant. It was very fancy. It’s owned by a member of the Gallo family who are Terri’s employer. Impressive place. (Don’t tell anyone, but I think the Gallos are a big deal in Modesto. They run the country’s biggest winery).
Team out for Mexican with Howie
I'd tell you what we were doing, but I have no idea!
I'd tell you what we were doing, but I have no idea!
Dinner at a Mexican restaurant that evening was memorable because it was Glen’s first taste of Mexican food. Impressive? Not as impressive of the photo the waitress took of him wearing a sombrero and being ordered to drink a birthday shot of Kahlua and something that we couldn’t name from the smell. The photo will join many others on there wall. Notice that this is the second time we’ve celebrated the birthday, and it still doesn’t actually happen until tomorrow…
Glen's birthday take 2
Feel free to point out the photo and tell the staff at the restaurant that you know Glen if you ever eat there. I reckon it will get you approximately nowhere…
Dinner was also memorable because I decided to use the toilet that was labelled senora. My Spanish should have been good enough to avoid that blunder! The girl who ran the bar came in as I was heading out and was very perturbed. Fortunately, she laughed it off with the waitress later…
Tomorrow we meet our hosts!
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