Today, we slept a little late for us, lounging around in our PJs until a little after 9. After showers, we fired up both GPS units and headed to the other side of the park to find a place called Art of Sewing. Alas, it was gone. There was a Bernina sign on the door and lots of boxes within, but no Art of Sewing.
But wonders be, we found we were at the entrance to a huge Westfield Mall. Westfield began in Australia in 1959 and is listed on the Sydney Stock Exchange. Here's the Wikipedia entry for it:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group
We thought it might be foreign, but we had no idea it was Australian. Every major shopping center in San Diego is owned by Westfield.
We noticed the P120 signs right away, and having recently learned what that meant, we parked our car, made a mental note of the time, got my chair out and enjoyed a couple hours window shopping. The mall was full! It's Saturday here, and everyone was out. We enjoyed the experience. It seems to be a series of malls joined together (at least three of them) by a covered driveway.
We then headed to Northlands Shopping Center, recommended by our landlord. We didn't notice any parking limit signs, and we didn't see a Westfield sign anywhere. We had a sliced roasted lamb sandwich and potatoes (shared between the two of us) for lunch, and we explored the electronics stores, a big box store (so-so), and Kmart, and window shopped the other stores. We were just killing time on our last day here.
We visited a yarn shop before we came home. It was large but didn't inspire me.
We spent the afternoon getting our bags somewhat organized and sorting maps and papers into "keep" and "toss" piles. We will have plenty of time tomorrow to finish arranging our suitcase and backpacks.
We brought one 26" case with us and three backpacks. We are taking home more unused clothes than dirty laundry. I try to make sure we have ample underwear and shirts, but we carry only a couple pairs of slacks. We shower often, but we don't change clothes often unless it is hot. We travel light, but we could travel even lighter. I even bring some foodstuffs with us so we have things to eat along the way and also food to tide us over when we arrive before we get to the store. We ate out this time more frequently than we ever have. This will most likely be our last big trip, so we were somewhat less frugal than we usually are.
We think we would come back here, if we were to do this type of travel again (unescorted, totally on our own), but at this stage of our lives, health is more unpredictable than when we were younger.
We have traveled for our pleasure, to become informed, to explore, to have an adventure of discovery. We try to do a little of what makes us uncomfortable, to learn how to live fuller lives, to see how others live.
This trip was easy by our standards. The language is the same as ours, the standard of living is very similar, the country is small, the roads are good, and the GPS maps were spectacular.
We learn about others, we learn about how others see the US, and we learn about ourselves.
This trip, in our later years, we have come to terms with the knowledge that we are different from each other. We have come, even, to appreciate and respect those differences. We don't even like the same music. We have had a few testy moments, but very few, and we now know those moments come from stress or frustration. They are easily de-escalated with an equal measure of compassion and understanding from the other. How wonderful to live long enough and to be married long enough to see this come into play. Who would have thought this many years ago when I, more than once, threatened to get out of the car or RV and find my own way home (or wherever I wanted to go), no matter the country we were in or the continent we were on. We've come a long way, both figuratively and literally. This was a fitting finale if this is to be the last of our on-our-own travels.
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