Days 15-17 - California

Our first morning (where we were all up by 4am!) in San Diego we met up with most of Rich's immediate family. We had breakfast at this amazing restaurant called Swami's.

From there, we stopped to get Rich the new iphone since it was Black Friday, and he was able to walk into a store without a line and get one. Then we were back on the road and off to visit our friends the Ks. Ry was generously allowed to pick the activity of the evening, so instead of ice skating (which he'd done in NYC at the beginning of the trip), he chose a mini-theme park/mini golf  to hit with the K's kids. They had a ball, despite Ryan getting very sleepy about 6pm! :-D They let choose our dinner locale too, which was Chipotle, followed by froyo.

We spent that night at the Ks, and the next mid-morning, we were off to visit Ryan's godmother, Kathy. Per Ryan's request, we visited a trampoline park, and then per my request/demand, we went to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch at Victoria Gardens.

After hanging out at Kathy's place for a bit, we headed back to LA in the early evening for our third and final night in CA. We still had to hit up Trader Joe's and fill up on goodies to haul back home for friends and family. Our hotel there was awesome!!! I wish we could have stayed there longer, and I would definitely stay there again- Renaissance Los Angeles. Highly recommended. It's a medium-sized boutique hotel (even though it's owned by Marriott), with contemporary rooms at very reasonable prices.

Our flight the next morning back to the island was thankfully, on time, without incident and direct to K-town! Ry and I flew solo, as Rich had taken an earlier flight on another airline we had to use miles on. Because it had been such a tiring trip with my cough (which ended up lasting nearly 7 weeks, believe it or not), chest injury (which was nearly gone in 2-3 weeks) and flight drama in Istanbul...I was quite happy to be home so we could relax. I know it's not supposed to be that way,  but 'travel' is a very different beast from 'vacation'...and we usually return home pretty tired, but happy.

This was definitely the case on this trip, but I have to say, it was well worth the journey, as Malta makes my Top Five list for physical beauty, along with Fes, Morrocco and Venice, Italy. Very few places have scenery as memorable as those cities, in my opinion.

Our next trip is already booked, for early 2019, to Scandinavia- Copenhagen, Denmark and Stockholm, Sweden. Ryan has said he thinks he'll come along (you know, if Fortnight doesn't release a new season around then), and my parents will be joining us too.

Hope you'll come along too!

Home sweet home, the view from up above...