8 May 2016
We’ve given pretty short shrift to breakfasts this holiday. A lot of it is due to mammal watching – when you go out super-early in the morning, you generally miss the opportunity for breakfast at your lodgings. So a lot of our breakfasts have been odd things out of the snack bag. How about tortilla chips and salsa? Or a chunk of salmon jerky and a sliced avocado?
One nice breakfast we found was a bakery in Monterey, which opened at 6am (like a proper bakery!) and did good almond croissants that were huge and also warm out of the oven because we came by so early.
Anyway, today in Ventura we finally had a proper sit-down American breakfast at the Busy Bee cafe around the corner. Pancakes, syrup, bacon, eggs, hash browns, corned beef hash. Fuel for a whole day. Pity it’s our heading-for-home day!
We stuck on Highway 1 along the coast to get back to LA, and got lucky with another great sighting of grey whales – two pairs of mother and child, travelling together, and at one point surely no more than fifty metres from the shore where we were watching. We didn’t even need an expert whale watcher to help us, just good ol’ sharp eyes and alertness from Maureen.
Now we’re heading home. But just to end on a bum note: why are American airports home to such an uptight miserable bunch of petty officials? Last time we got it was in Miami. One official took pity on us (running late, huge queue through security) and sent us down a shortcut… straight into the hands of another guy. “HEY! WHY ARE YOU HERE? YOU. SHOULD NOT. BE HERE!” “The guy back there told us we…” “OH? THE GUY BACK THERE? WHAT GUY?” “Back…” “I THINK YOU’D BETTER SHOW ME THIS GUY. COME ON.” So we took him back, like naughty school kids, to show him the guy who had allowed us to go that way. And it was fine. Fuckhead.
This time, Maureen got invited into the special all-around security booth thingy at the security gate. And apparently she stood facing the wrong way. “ARE YOU STUPID? CAN’T YOU SEE THE FOOT SYMBOLS ON THE FLOOR?” Well, while we’re asking questions, were you born a jerk or did you have training? Or are you just a bitter and twisted cow who couldn’t make the grade for the military and needs to take out your frustrated dreams on civilians who have never stepped into one of your fucking stupid machines before? And, by the way, your entire fucking airport could do with a few SIGNS to explain the security procedures to people. You know, like normal airports in modern countries do. Yeah, maybe Donald Trump is about your level. Good luck with him.
Why do we never get this in any other country we visit? Hey ho.
Update: maybe they don’t have signs explaining what’s going on because they don’t want the average tourist to be aware that those booths are x-ray machines and that airport staff routinely have an ogle and a giggle at the body shapes of travellers? Classy.
Farewell grey whales, our last mammals
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