The best laid plans ...

Well, we're home at last ... although our journey did not proceed the way we thought it would, we're here, and happy.

On Friday we left Bill and Anni Harnois at Avila Beach, and drove northwards, past San Luis Obispo to Morro Bay, rather than south to Los Angeles, so as to visit a couple we had met on the ship, Bill and Toni Pisor. After a delicious lunch, and much reminiscing, we acceded to their suggestion that we should stay the night with them, rather than staying in a motel closer to LA. So what for plans? This would be much more fun. We'd been to Morro Bay 11 years ago, when 5 metre (16 foot) waves were crashing over the breakwater, but this time the sun was shining and the ocean was truly Pacific - it's a really delightful seaside tourist town, with wonderful shops and art galleries.

The Pisors have a 2 year-old grand-daughter, who loves an afternoon trip to the Morro - a huge lump of rock situated in the bay, joined to the shore by a sandbar and breakwater. We joined them, to feed lettuce and cabbage leaves to a colony of about 50 cute squirrels, and to watch a number of sea otters lazily swimming 4 or 5 metres offshore. We're used to seeing little Asian otters in local zoos, but these were much bigger - at least a metre long - and instead of running around near a stream they floated on their backs, soaking up the sunshine. Some carried a baby, resting on their chest, as though they were furry boats. Skylar's outing then took us a couple of hundred metres away, to see a pod of sea lions which hang out near the fish shops. They were huge! Some 3 metres long, and very round, they would slide effortlessly up onto a pontoon almost within arm's reach of us, then slide back into the water, around a fishing boat, and back again. One delighted in swimming under the jetty, barking loudly so that the concrete jetty magnified the sound. It was really impressive!

Throughout our driving journey we endeavoured to avoid the Interstate freeways wherever possible, driving on local roads in the same direction, and so it was as we headed for Los Angeles, travelling on Route 101. After a pleasant journey through farmland for the first 100 miles, the road followed the shoreline almost all the way for the last 120 miles, with rugged mountains including the Santa Barbara range, covered with Joshua trees and cactus, directly beside the road on the other side. We stopped at a farmer's market at Ventura and bought bread, spicy sausage, cheese, strawberries and California oranges for lunch, which we ate beside the sea, then travelled past renowned surf beaches such as Malibu and Santa Monica, goggling at the way all the homes were built over the sand of the beach - how they must fear high seas!

After a six-hour journey we arrived at the airport, where we were informed that we had driven 3670 miles (5872 kilometres) since we had collected the car in Minneapolis-St Paul - a really enjoyable and worthwhile journey. We gathered our bulging bags and headed for the Qantas counter, expecting a boring 8-hour wait before we caught the plane to Brisbane at 11.20 pm ... but once again our plans were to alter!

"We're sorry", we were told, "but that plane is not leaving tonight"!!! It was suggested that "maybe" we might like to fly to Melbourne instead - and we would only have a wait of "two or three hours" before we could fly to Brisbane, another three hours away. Our startled faces must have shown our opinion of that suggestion, because the next words were "Or perhaps you might like to stay here tonight and fly tomorrow - we'll put you up at the Hilton, and of course all meals are included". As you can guess, the Hilton won, so, after some frantic phone calls to stop Rochelle arriving at the airport at 6 am, we slept in very-un-aircraft-like comfort.

A great flight, the sight of Rochelle waiting for us at 5 pm, a comfortable ride home, and a baked dinner left for us by Stephanie and Jim - what a wonderful ending to a fantastic trip. It's great to be home, and we plan to stay put for some time ... but it's good to dream, isn't it? Thanks for being with us along the way.

Frances and John