It was mid-October 1988 that Connie and took a vacation to California. We went to Los Angeles and to San Diego.

It was on a Friday that we flew into John Wayne airport and rented a car. I have never seen so much traffic in my life so, I cannot imagine how the traffic must be now. If I remember correctly, we got there about midday. The place we stayed in was genuinely nice. It was more like a studio apartment. We had a small refrigerator, a hot plate, and a separate area with a couch and TV. I remember we were on the second floor and it was very enjoyable.

For some reason, I think we ate at Maria Callender’s restaurant that Friday night. I remember that night because Connie was constipated. I had never seen her in such pain. We stopped by a drug store and bought something for the conspiration, and it seemed to work.

The next day we got up a little late and drove by Disney World which was very crowded. We did not stop but headed to Santa Barbara. It took us a couple of hours. It was a wonderful beautiful ride as we went up Hwy 101. We got there a little before noon and spent several hours just walking around. Connie and I were both struck by the beauty of the place. We also went to Thousand Oaks because that was where the Dallas Cowboys had their training camps for many years. We could not get over the beauty of the coast. Just remember how wonderful the weather was that day and how much Connie and I enjoyed exploring new places.

On Sunday we got up late but drove around the LA area for quite a while. I do remember going to Newport Beach. The main thing Connie and I could not get over was how close the houses were to each other and how much they cost. We were used to houses being close to each other in the Dallas area, but these were even closer. Even back in 1988 most of the houses were over a million dollars. We also drove down the coast a little way south of LA. We saw several of the beaches and Pepperdine University. Connie and I feel in love with Pepperdine as it was so close to the coast, it would have been a great place to go to school.

Later in the day we went down to and drove around LA. We went to Beverly Hills, drove by the campuses of UCLA and the University of Southern California. It was getting late and we got completely lost and ended up in some not very nice-looking areas. We were getting scared but found our way out of there and made it back to the hotel after 10 that evening.

The next day we had booked a tour on a bus that left from several of the hotels in the area. They took us by the Hollywood walk of fame, the Chinese theater. We then stopped in Beverly Hills for some shopping. Connie and I enjoyed looking around, but we did not buy anything. It was about a 7-hour tour and we enjoyed it tremendously. One thing we did find out, the area we were in the previous night was east LA and the driver told us we should avoid that area. I am glad we only found that out today because if we had known it last night we would have been scared.

On Tuesday we took a trip to Knott’s Berry Farm. I do not remember much about our visit thee our what else we might have done that day.

The next morning on Wednesday, we headed south to San Diego. We decided to leave late as we wanted to avoid the LA traffic. Even though we left about 9:30 we still hit a lot of traffic. I had never seen so many cars and so much traffic backed up. Dallas could be bad but nowhere as bad as it was on I-5 south. It seemed to take us a lot longer to get there than I thought. We got to the hotel at about 1 pm and checked into a Radisson Hotel right off one of the interstates. It was a beautiful hotel and it was much nicer than the one we stayed at in LA. The weather was gorgeous, and we enjoyed just laying around that day at the pool. We were enjoying ourselves.

I do not remember too much about San Diego but how beautiful it was. On Thursday we just spent time riding around the city and enjoying the beautiful weather. I remember going to a wonderful hotel, I think it was called the Coronado. We went there because EDS was taking their top salesman to that area for a retreat. I think it was that year, but I am not sure if it was before we visited San Diego or afterward.

That evening we drove around and went to some of the most expensive neighborhoods that were located on the shoreline. It is aa beautiful city and if we could have afforded it, we would have moved in a second.

On Friday we went and saw some of the Navy ships that were docked there and took a boat ride around the San Diego harbor. That nice we went out for a nice meal. I am not sure what we did on Saturday, but we probably just relaxed and took it easy.

Our plane Sunday morning was around 9:30 and we were amazed at how nice the airport was, As you know this was pre 911 so you could just walk around, It was one of the cleanest airport Connie and I had ever been in. Afterward, we wished we had spent more time in San Diego and less in Los Angeles.