Day 4
I realised yet again that the secret of getting over jet lag is to completely wear yourself out. After two very intense days, I actually managed to sleep until 9:00 AM. I had briefly woken up around 4:00 AM and gone to the bathroom, but then fallen asleep again and had only woken up when I heard some movement. Graham also woke up around the same time and we got up and ready. Our friends were also up and about. It was decided that we would make a coffee run to Starbucks while one of our friends sorted out breakfast. That is what we did. I got a Cinnamon Dolce Latte and Graham had an Americano. We then feasted on waffles, chicken sausages, strawberries and raspberries. We had a nice leisurely morning. We did not have a great deal planned and were only going to head to the beach.
I had one other thing to take care of though. I regularly have manicures done with a product that is a hybrid between a nail polish and a gel. This gets applied like a normal nail polish, but gets cured under UV light. It adds strength to the nail and last two to three weeks without chipping. Well, that is the theory anyway and normally this is how it works out, too. I had my nails done the Saturday before we left. I have had the same colour many times before and never had any problems. This time round it already caused problems when it was applied as it did not cure properly and needed to go underneath the UV lamp for some extra time. The next day I already detected a couple of tiny chips, but they were not that obvious and I doubt anybody but me would even have noticed. As I did not have time to go back to have this sorted anyway before I left, I just had to run with it. Once I got to California, it chipped more and more and that morning, half of it had flaked off a couple of nails. So this needed sorting. I Googled for nail salons in Seal Beach doing this, but the only ones I could find were closed on Sundays. My friend mentioned that there are a lot of nail salons near the beach. She had not had her nails done for a while and decided to come with me. This was settled then. We all got ready for the beach and then left.
The original plan had been that the men would drop us off near the nail studio and we would join them once we were done. However, this left us with the problem that we then would not have known where they were and the beach covers quite a big area. So we decided that we would drive down to beach, park the car and then agree on a rough area where they would be. We would then walk up to the nail studio. The walk was very pleasant. We were not sure if the nail salon we were heading for was offering gel manicures, but there were a number of other nail salons in the vicinity so if this one could not do it, we were reasonably convinced that we would find another one that could. Well, we were in luck. Not only were they able to do this, but they also used the same brand that I use at home. I was given a huge box with colour swatches and various colour combinations. I was in heaven. I had never had such a big choice. I went for a graduated pink colour scheme with plenty of glitter. I was thoroughly pampered and after all this, I paid the same amount in Dollars that I would pay in Pounds at home. My friend just had a standard French manicure, but also really liked it. We decided that the next time we are visiting, we will do this again as we had so much fun.
We slowly walked down to the beach and looked out for the men in the area where we agreed they would be. It did not take us long to spot them and we went to join them. They were both relaxing. Apparently Graham had been in the sea for most of the time since we had left them to their own devices. I asked him how the water was. He described it as refreshing. Well, what he calls refreshing is way too cold for my liking without a wetsuit. So I made myself comfortable on one of the chairs that we had brought and enjoyed the view. After about 45 minutes, our men started to get a bit chilly so it was agreed that our friends would take everything back to the car and Graham and I would take a walk on the pier and they would catch up with us. This is what we did. There is not a great deal there apart from a few benches that were all occupied by people fishing. There were some facilities at the end of the pier originally, but that area was fenced off and by the looks of things in dire need to refurbishment. We slowly walked up and then back again and by the time our friends caught up with us, we were almost back to beach.
We decided to have a walk along Main Street. This is all very quaint and we never knew that this is there. At the bottom of Main Street near the beach was a branch of Cold Stone Creamery, but they had a huge line. So we decided that we would walk up Main Street first and then reassess the situation on the way back. Seal Beach is actually surprisingly touristy and has some rather quirky shops. Quite a few shops sell things made from shells, sea glass and items with a beach or nautical theme and we browsed in a few of those. There was also a shop that sold all kinds of every day items that had been “blinged up” with crystals. I was in my element. After we had played tourist for long enough, we headed back. Nobody really fancied an ice cream so we went back to car and headed back to our friends’ house.
We had a lazy afternoon and just watched some TV. Our friends had made sure that they had some of the Orange Cream Soda for me that they introduced me to last year so I enjoyed a bottle of this. Once the program was over, Graham went and stretched out on our bed and within seconds, he was fast asleep. We decided to let him nap and go for a walk. Very close to our friends’ house is a park that turns into woodland. I was a little nervous about what wildlife may be hiding there, but agreed to this once I was assured that they had never seen any snakes or anything like this. This was a very pleasant walk and the only animals we saw where various birds and a rabbit. There were also some plaques in the area with some information about the history of that area. I did not find all of them and this definitely deserves another look in the future.
(Photos borrowed from the internet)
When we got back from our walk. We were definitely ready for our dinner. We had been talking about Souplantation the day before, which is better know as Sweet Tomatoes as this is what the chain is called in most of the USA. I had not seen a Souplantation on our last few trips to California and I wondered if they were still around. Well, they are and there just so happened one to be quite close. I was asked if I fancied this for dinner and I happily agreed. We have always loved Sweet Tomatoes/ Souplantation, but I have not been for years. So that was settled. The menu for the month of May had a Great American Roadtrip theme. We each got a plate of salad and paid. I was amused the price had finally gone above the magical $10, but only just and it is still an absolute bargain. I had some of the Caesar Salad and some beans, sweetcorn, chickpeas, black olives and croutons with Ranch dressing. Graham had all kinds of fresh raw vegetables. We all went for the fountain drinks. I had my one and only Fruit Punch this trip, but it was in need of more concentrate and tasted really watered down. Graham went with ice tea. I had to try the New Orleans Jambalaya, the Chesapeake Corn Chowder with Bacon and the Deep Kettle House Chilli. I also had some cornbread and tried the spaghetti with garden vegetables and meatballs. This was very nice even though I could not find any meatballs in it. For Dessert I had a bowl of chocolate and vanilla swirl soft serve ice cream. Graham had been picking on his salad with not a great deal of enthusiasm. He did not feel very well. I think it was a combination of getting chilled to the core by staying in the sea to long, a touch of sunstroke and dehydration. We had been talking about the New Orleans Jambalaya and that it had a bit of a kick. He asked if it was the sort of kick that makes you sweat. I did not think it was that spicy, but he asked me to get him a bowl anyway. I spotted a bottle of Tabasco Sauce near the soup so decided to spice it up a little. Well, he proclaimed that this came straight from the kitchen of the devil, but it seemed to do the trick. As it was so spicy, he also ended up drinking huge amounts so this dealt with the dehydration issue as well. He even fancied a bit of vanilla ice cream for dessert.
Pretty much right across from Souplantation is a Walgreens. Graham was teasing me about this when we arrived. On my first visit to the USA, I developed a bit of an obsession with Walgreens and have fed this particular addiction on a regular basis. I has been years since I last had been inside a Walgreens and probably it was on the same trip that I last went to Sweet Tomatoes. As we were leaving, our friends asked if I wanted to go and who was I to turn this offer down. I had a quick look around, but there was nothing that really caught my eye. Maybe my tastes have turned more sophisticated over the years. I did however get a bottle of Moscato to take on the ship.
When we got back, Graham headed straight to bed. I did a load of laundry and the three of us just chilled out in front of the TV and playing with our respective gadgets. Once the washing machine was finished, I put our laundry in the dryer and headed to bed. The first part of our amazing trip had come to an end, but there was so much to look forward to.
