27 and 28 December 2018
Simon took me to the best Vietnamese restaurant ever in Adelaide, simply named The Vietnam Restaurant.
Next morning Simon showed me where to find koalas in the wild. The Belair National Park has the most koalas I have ever seen in one place. It was so exciting to find them in the trees in their natural habitat.Koala video
The park has a section of 700 cherry trees to commemorate the Allied victory of World War I.
I think I have found where I want to live outside of Australia. I wonder how many times I will say this on my trip?
Today (3 March 2018) I walked down the main shopping strip of Long Beach to Naples Island.
I walked across the bridge over the Rivo Alto Canal into an area of beautiful homes which are built on canals similar to the canals of Venice and Venice Beach.
I went into 2 open homes. A 3 bedroom home off the canal area for $USD1.5M and a 3 bedroom apartment for $USD800,000 with no canal views.
Cute gardens and a house with a USA/Italian flag.
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I enjoyed an afternoon at Manny and Leo’s friends’ housewarming at Westmont.
Then authentic Mexican food from Tacos El Gallazo diner. Did you know what we have as tacos in Australia are American? Tacos are actuaĺly more like our tortillas but thicker and much more delicious.
Long Beach has a high population of Mexicans. Many of the people I have met are teachers or work in the education system. The majority of the children they work with are from very low socio economic areas (projects in USA – housing commission in Australia). The children in these areas are lucky to have the support of these committed teachers who work in very difficult situations. Not to mention the real threat they all have with gun violence in schools. The schools all have drills they carry out in case of these situations. This includes preschool aged children. The solution the government has to arm teachers does not appear to have much support amongst the people I have met.
It is only Day 2 (2 March 2018) and Manny and Leo have set the bar so high that its scary.
The day commenced a bit dreary and cold. I thought “it never rains in California” but today was not so. I went for a walk in the rain and got saturated while looking for somewhere to have my fringe trimmed. I found a barber shop which was open at 9:00am (this is quite early for the area). I was so desperate to have the trim that I allowed the Guatemalan wife of the barber to do the job. She hardly spoke English but with my “pocito”Spanglish she did the $5USD job. Manny and Leo laughed so much when they saw how bad it was that Manny needed to tidy it up for me. I really should have done it myself.
Then I went to the school Leo works at “Broad Avenue Elementary” at Wilmington. I met children at their Book Fair and had a chat with the Principal who is keen to communicate with my School Principal friends in Australia.
Some children are fed 3 meals a day at this school
Book fair and they have this koala story.
Manny then took me to the Sunken City of San Pedro, where several exclusive cliffside houses were lost in 1929 in a natural landslide. We then went to the Korean Friendship Bell at Angel ‘s Gate Park on top of a beautiul lookout.
Next stop was the Point Fermin Lighthouse and Park, after which we enjoyed a beer (I had “The Dog Ate My Homework”) at Brouwerij West where I met the Assistant Principal of Broad Avenue Elementary.
We finished off the day being entertained at Hamburger Marys with a fun night of drag shows and dancing.
Over 50 Aussie female solo traveller USA road trip and beyond 