January San Diego Visit

On December 15, I added the name of Allied Modular Building Systems, Inc. to my Line Card. On January 15, 2002, Mary and I traveled to Anaheim so that I could go through the three days orientation at the factory. We stayed at the Fairfield Inn in Anaheim Hills. I spent the days of the 16th and 17th in Orientation while Mary relaxed and got some shopping done (upcoming birthdays!). The evening of the 16th we spent with the National Sales Manager and the other new Reps at dinner.

On the evening of the 17th, Mary and I shuttled back to John Wayne airport to rent a car and drove over to Temecula to visit with Robin and Mary. Thank Goodness for cell phones, because going south on I-15, we took the first Highway 79 exit (we should have taken the second one). All of a sudden, nothing looked right. I called Robin on the phone and he figured out where we were (about 4 miles north or where we should have been).

Erin seemed glad to see us, but I think the excitement was too much for Kate (it was about 9:00 p.m.). That all changed the following day. Robin had to work, of course and we got to sleep in. We spent the day playing with grand kids. I think Mary played too hard. She was tired at the end of the day. Mary, Mary, the kids and I went to one of the neighborhood parks. There are a number of small playgrounds in the development within a few blocks of anywhere, but this was a large playground with all kinds of playground equipment, skateboard park, a couple of baseball diamonds, and other areas . . . huge.

Robin and Mary's neighborhood is great. At night, there was no traffic sounds and there aren't a lot of streetlights to interfere with the starts. It felt like we were out in the country. The area is quite hilly. They have a nice fenced in back yard that goes up steeply at the back. The steep part of the backyard is covered in ground cover and there is a tree there as well. Of course, there is a lot of play equipment there. If it had been a little warmer (it was in the low 60s), we would probably spent even more time in the back yard.

It was great fun getting reacquainted with Erin and Kate . . . they are such great little kids (prejudiced grandpa)! Erin had thousands of things to tell us and she wanted us to read books to her and play games with her. Robin managed to get away from work a little early on Friday evening, so it was great to spend more time visiting with him.

Saturday morning, we all got to sleep in. We slept in the future baby's room (well, not yet!) that now doubles as a guest/play room. After breakfast, Mary and I watched the kids (mostly Mary) while Robin and Mary got some shopping done. We had great fun getting to know the kids better. After Robin and Mary returned home, Mary and I explored the area near where they live. There is a huge shopping center within about 3 miles of there. That evening we watched a movie and visited some more.

Sunday morning, we slept in again! Wow! We had breakfast and settled in for a day of Super Bowl semi-finals. Between games, Mary and I walked Erin down to the local playground (about 4 blocks away). What a great neighborhood! After going back to Robin and Mary's place, we watched the rest of the game and had dinner. At about 5:00 p.m. it was time to drive back to Orange County Airport. Going up I-15 was easy, but from Corona over to Anaheim was a mess . . . a lot of stop and go. We had allowed plenty of time, however, so made it to the airport 2 hours before our flight back to Portland as prescribed.