April 10 - United States: Los Angeles, CA 

Ketron is still sick, and we decided that she needed to spend the day home where we could keep an eye on her.  No work for her today.  So we all slept in and then spent the day hanging out and alternately running errands.  Jon washed the car, which had accumulated a great deal of dust and bug guts on his cross-country trip.

Jon Washing Our New Old Car

Note the coffin on top.  This is our scuba gear carrier.

Later in the afternoon, I took Ketron to the pharmacist to get some medicine and a few other things.  We also stopped to get Jon a sandwich at Subway.  Not long later, the three of us headed to the airport so we could return the rental car and go to Santa Monica for dinner.

I Cugini

After returning the car, we drove into Santa Monica to go to I Cugini, an Italian restaurant on the beach.  Dinner was delicious, and Jon and I had completely forgotten what it was like to eat in a nice restaurant.  I had ordered the scallops which ended up being terribly overdone.  So Jon motioned to the waiter, who - as soon as he discovered what was wrong - whisked the scallops away to have another dish made.  A few minutes later, the manager came over and profusely apologized and was so very nice we were almost shocked.  It's so nice to be back in a place where service is actually a priority.

Walk On the Pier

Jon had decided that he wanted to walk on the pier with the cheesy Ferris wheel and roller coaster.  It looked as though everything was closed down, but there were still plenty of people milling around.  So we wandered down the dock and had a good time.  Jon and Ketron were thoroughly entertained by the "hat man" who was selling some of the cheesiest hats on the face of the earth.  So Ketron picked out a silly hat for Jon, and Jon picked one out for us.  Here's a picture of us, courtesy of the Hat Man:

Ketron in the "Cleopatra Hat", Jon in a sparkly gold all cap, and me in a horrid orange cowboy hat.

There was a man on the pier who called himself "The Bubble Man".  We got the impression that he was a regular on the pier, because he had all sort of signs and fliers.  But he was just sitting there with his generator-powered fan which was automatically blowing little bubbles over the ocean.  He also had a few large bubble blowers that he used to entertain the kids that came around.  For whatever reason, we sat there and watched the hundreds of bubbles for a while.

Bubbles by the Bubble Man 

And to finish up the evening, Jon took one last picture of me and Ketron:

Ketron and Heidi in front of the Ferris Wheel