Back in Värnamo again - Oh no!!

This is how it looked like when we came back to Värnamo again - Oh no!!

10000 m above Oklahoma but no membership in 10000 m Club :-)

A visit inside and a pair of earrings left the boutique

À LOT of sun today - a LOT of snow tomorrow...

Breakfast at the patio and a lemontree overlooking us

IKEA in San Diego

If you visit IKEA in the United States you won't be surprised as far as names and stores layouts are concerned. IKEA A6 and IKEA San Diego no major difference except for Hot Dog pricing (10 SEK vs 1 $)

You'll be reminded of the IKEA origin (Ingvar and I are both proud "Smålänningar")

What will concern you is the problems for an american to pronounce product names like Pjätteryd, Förnuft and other words containing the letter a and o with one or two circles/dots above it. Peggy tried and she was feeling like having pebbles or mini candy in the mouth while pronouncing those words... :-)

Picnic in the Winery surroundings

After wine testing we continued with a picnic prepared by my cousin Peggy. The weather was pretty much the same as yesterday (75F/24C) and the American/Swedish reunion party turned out to be really sucessful.

Wine testing at Orfila Vineyard and Winery

A visit to Orfila Vineyard and testing both white and red wines produced only one hour's ride from San Diego was the first activity today.
We met some of my other cousins and also their mother, 92 year old Minnie whose father emigrated from Gydingstorp in Småland more than 100 years ago. We started to test several grapes including Chardonnay, Riesling, Muscat and Merlot, Syrah and Zinfandel and finished with a Port. Excellent quality was the unanimous verdict.

It seems that the young boy with the cap hasn't got enough :-)

Visit to Fort Rosecrans National Cemetary

We also visited the National Cemetary. For my cousin Peggy this place has got a new meaning after she lost her beloved husband and lifepartner only six months ago.

Botanical Garden in Balboa Park

There are more than eight gardens in the Park and we vistited one of them today.

The Sweden House in Balboa Park

Today we went to Balboa Park in San Diego and came across the House of Sweden.

Inside the little cottage we met members, some of them "Immigrants" from Sweden, who had not yet forgotten their native language.

The House of Sweden are promoting swedish social and educational programs and are proud of having secret recipes of swedish meatball gravy and Glögg. They are hosting Midsummer celebration in the park complete with Maypole, dancing, music and authentic Swedish cuisine.

Four pair of shoes for Palle

Buying shoes in US has almost become a habit for us. Today we found 4 pairs of skeechers for the price of one in Sweden - there is only one problem - 50 lbs per person in one trunk is the maximun allowed baggage weight - but knowing that Anita, as usual, does not buy anything :-) gives me hope that we will make it in the end...

Brunch at Tamara & Steve's - Peggy's daughter and son-in-law

Coffee on the patio

Peggy and Palle

Finally reaching our destination

Anita and Peggy (My lovely cousin) outside the terminal in San Diego.
After a long day - 3:00am wakeup - waiting at the check-in counters - no etickets but manually printed papertickets both in Copenhagen, Amsterdam and LA and tight security check-ups in these places and an Immigration control in LA with fourfingerprint plus the thumb and photos taken. Being two travellers among all passengers from a crowded 747 Jumbo - that took some time and time was so short for us. Picking up our trunks and running from terminal 2 to terminal 5 (Faster than power-walking!) to get new manually printed tickets written and passing the new security check (Belts and shoes off) and finally reaching the aircraft which took off two minutes after our boarding (Puh! I think we consumed the same number of calories as an ordinary power-walk(!) :-).
Now we are happy to wear summer dresses and enjoying 20-22 centigrades :-)

Snowstorm in Atlanta

What a surprise when arriving at the Kastrup Airpost!
Flight Cancelled to Atlanda due to severe snowstorm in Atlanta - what to do?

Lining up and waiting to be served by Delta Airlines staff - after two hours of waiting we got the following message:
You'll be leaving from Kastrup tomorrow morning at 06:45 am and the check-in counter opens at 04:30 so you may stay in the capitol of Copenhagen, preferably at Hilton hotel but that will not be provided by Delta Airlines due to extraordinary circumstances...

So we checked in at the Hilton and thanks to my old Hilton Diamond card we were upgraded to an Executive room with complimentary access to Internet and Executive Lounge.

So far so good :-)
Tomorrow morning a wake-up call at 03:00AM - Just wonderful

The changed itenerary says:
CPH-AMS 06:45AM
AMS-LAX 10:25AM
LAX-SAN 03:00PM
Arrival in San Diego Sunday 03:47PM

Flight cancelled due to snowstorm in Atlanta -

What à wonderful start of our US-trip :-)

Departure from Svalbovägen in Värnamo

Packing the suitcases in progress...