Bucket List Checked

I finally made my maiden voyage down under after reading about it for months/years. For those that want brief reviews, I will simply say -- if you have never been -- go!!! It is an experience unique unto itself.

This is going to read a bit like a travel log. Even with all the advance reading and all the research, I still made a number of nube mistakes -- which kind of pissed me off and depressed me, frankly.

First off, I drove down from LA. I couldn't miss the chance to make this journey -- even though I had to drive back to LA later the same evening. I departed around 3:00 pm, thinking I would avoid traffic. Wrong! I hit a considerable amount of LA traffic. By arriving near San Diego around 5:00, I encountered even more traffic on the back end, too. In all, the journey down took over 3 hours, perhaps 3.5. As an aside, the journey back at 12:30 am took only 2.25 hours.