During the months of September and October, John was back on the road, traveling on business all over the world.  In September, he spent ten days in Montego Bay and Atlanta, to work with his staff; then, at the end of September, he was sent to Akron, OH for three days to meet with his new client.  That trip came as a surprise to him, and he had to spend a good part of his birthday (September 30) flying home.

But not all of John's business travels were for work; four of those twenty-seven travel days were for play, when John earned another chance to attend the ACS President's Club.  (He earned his first trip last year, and the two of us spent five lovely days on Marco Island, Florida!)  This year's trip would take place October 1-4, in Dana Point, CA, at the Ritz-Carlton on Laguna Niguel - immediately following his return from Akron, OH.  Once again, we would have to "adapt" to five-star living...and John was worried that I was going to pull a muscle doing it.

John returned home from Akron at 5:00 p.m. on his birthday. As he walked in the door, Mary and I greeted him warmly and wished him "Happy Birthday".  Then, while I cooked him a special birthday dinner, he unpacked his suitcase so that he could repack it for the President's Club trip.  In his wildest dreams, John never imagined that he would ever have to do that!  Of course, he also never imagined that he would be waking up on his birthday morning in a hotel room - alone - either!

We spent the evening celebrating John's birthday with John's parents, who would be watching Mary during the weekend, while we were gone.  I made a delicious meal of fried pork chops (one of John's favorites), potatoes, rice, fresh vegetables, and French bread.  There was even a mini-cheesecake for desert.  We stuffed ourselves silly, drank lots of wine, and had a great time.  Then, Bill and Erika went home, and the three of us went to bed...

The next morning, John and I were both up at 4:30 a.m.  For me, that was quite early - I'm usually up at 5:00 - but we still had work to do before we could fly to Orange County, CA; John had to get caught up on his e-mails, and I had month-end reports to pull.  The way I saw it was, the earlier I got it done, the earlier I could actually start my vacation!

Our flight didn't depart until 10:20 a.m., so John and I were able to take our time getting ready that morning;  we finished packing, ate breakfast, and got Mary off to school - all before leaving for the airport.  Shortly after 8:00, we loaded up the car and drove to Sky Harbor, to catch our flight.

While standing in line at Security, we met up with one of John's co-workers - one of his peers - and her husband; it turned out that she was one of several ACS employees on the same flight as us, but we wouldn't see them until after we landed in Orange County.  We chatted briefly in line but ended our conversation when it came to be our turn in line...

Soon after receiving his invitation to President's Club, John Googled the location of the Dana Point and discovered that it was only about an hour from Lake Elsinore - and Skydive Elsinore.  Conveniently, there was also a boogie going on that weekend: the Chicks Rock Boogie '09.  John thought that this would be a great opportunity to get some air time, so he brought along his skydiving gear in hopes of making at least two jumps. 

Of course, that meant that he would have to bring his gear through Security - and in this post-9/11 world, it's hard to tell how the TSA is going to react to a sport parachute with a Cypres as it rolls through the X-ray machine.  In the past, his parachute has either set off all sorts of bells and whistles with the TSA agent on duty, or it has skated through the checkpoint without fanfare.  This time, it was bells and whistles again; as soon as the TSA agent took a look at the parachute on her monitor, she called out for a supervisor, thus holding up the line for everyone else.  She wouldn't let anything through the machine until a supervisor showed up to inspect the device.

The TSA Supervisor who inspected John's rig did not read him the riot act - not like the last time.  The supervisor had, in fact, made several jumps himself and was familiar with skydiving gear, so he didn't insist on popping open the reserve or unpacking the main canopy.  Instead, he merely ran a wand over the gear to make sure that there weren't any explosives inside of it.  He explained that the wand he was using performed in much the same way as a bomb-sniffing dog but that they didn't have to feed it.  John chuckled, grateful for the humor and the understanding from the TSA.

The rest of the morning passed without incident.  Our flight departed on time; and after a short, smooth flight, we landed in Orange County, at John Wayne International Airport in Santa Ana.  Once we landed, we made our way towards baggage claim, where we waited for what seemed like an eternity for our bags.  That was where we met up with all of the others who were on the same flight as us.  John introduced me to the ones I didn't know, and they all started talking shop until the baggage carousel began to turn.

With our bags in tow, we made our way over to the ground transportation exit, where we were met by a man carrying an "ACS President's Club" sign.  We followed him outside and boarded the shuttle that took us to the Ritz-Carlton in Dana Point - a thirty-minute drive.  Along the way, we were treated to a video about the President's Club and the festivities that awaited us as soon as we arrived.

As soon as the shuttle arrived at the Ritz-Carlton at Laguna Niguel, the driver and the bellmen began unloading our bags, while we were ushered inside to the ACS welcome area, inside one of the ballrooms.  There, we received our goody bag, containing an AMEX gift card, the agenda for the weekend and name badges, a large red beach towel, and an ACS T-shirt and ball cap.  We also got checked into our room - surprisingly, we didn't have to wait until 3:00, the normal check-in time.  Our room was all ready for us, and our bags were being delivered.  Now that was service!

Although I was on vacation, John was technically "working" (if you want to call that "work").  Upon his arrival, he learned that he would have to attend a mandatory meeting at 4:00 p.m. - probably to discuss the upcoming merger with Xerox, which had just been announced on Monday.  "I'll be at the bar," I said jokingly.  "I'm on vacation!"

I didn't go to the bar, though.  I had been reading Dan Brown's new novel - The Lost Symbol - and couldn't put it down; so I took advantage of the quiet time and indulged in a little intrigue for an hour.

That evening, after John returned from the meeting, he and I went to the ACS welcome reception, that was held on the lawn overlooking Laguna Niguel.  There, we spent the evening socializing with several of John's colleagues, next to one of the fire pits.  (By the end of the evening, our clothes smelled like campfire.)  It was the first of many late nights...

Even though we were up late that night, we were still awake bright and early the next morning. I blame my darned internal alarm clock.  No matter how late I stay up the night before, I'm still going to wake up between 5:00 and 6:00 the next morning.  Even in the soft, king-sized bed, under a plush, down comforter, I couldn't force myself to go back to sleep.

After enjoying a delicious breakfast, provided to us by ACS, John and I went for a walk on the beach, to watch the surfers riding the waves and to dip our feet in the water.  We walked through Salt Creek Beach Park, through which Salt Creek runs from the hills - filled with multi-million dollar homes - to the ocean.  All along the beach and the creek were water fowl of every kind, including seagulls, which made us think of the Pixar flick Finding Nemo ("Mine!"). 

The beach ended at a rocky point, where waves were crashing over the breakers; there, we turned around and headed back to the Ritz-Carlton.  Just as we arrived at the hotel, we noticed that there were several men setting up tents on the beach.  Apparently, there was a Billabong-sponsored event going on - probably some sort of surfing competition.  Had we not had other things to do that afternoon, we probably would have sat on the beach and watched the event.

Our afternoon consisted of lunch at Restaurant 162' - one of the elegant restaurants at the Ritz-Carlton - followed by a sixty-minute massage at the spa.  It was very relaxing; by the time it was over, John and I felt like a couple of bowls of Jell-O.  All I could think was, "I could get used to this five-star living thing..."

That evening, we met up with several of John's colleagues for dinner and drinks.  First, we all went to Eno, a wine bar at the Ritz-Carlton, to do some wine-tasting.  They had a magnificent collection of wines and offered a great selection of wine flights.  After that, the nine of us crammed ourselves into an SUV and drove into Laguna to have dinner at Restaurant 5', a trendy, upscale restaurant that offered Asian cuisine.  The restaurant itself wasn't much to look at - it had that modern industrial look to it - but the food was excellent and the service, quick and friendly. 

We were all having such a great time that we didn't leave until about just before 1:00 a.m., at which point the nine of us - plus two more, who had met us at the restaurant, so eleven total - crammed ourselves into that same SUV and headed back to the Ritz-Carlton.  Don't ask us how we all managed to fit into that vehicle; it's amazing what you can do when you've been drinking!

Despite the late night, John and I were up bright and early the next morning; but this time, it was planned, because John was going skydiving at Skydive Elsinore.

In order to get to Skydive Elsinore, we had to rent a car for the day, and we did so from the Concierge desk.  On the day that we checked in, we stopped by there to ask if we could rent a car from them, and the agent replied, "Certainly, sir, would you like a Bentley or a Jaguar?"

"No," John chuckled, "I was looking for something a little more...pedestrian.  Like a Corolla."

While the agent made the reservation for us, John asked her, out of curiosity, how much it would be to rent a Bentley for the day.  Naturally, she looked it up for us and reported that it would be $1,600!  Really?  For a rental?  Wow!

Naturally, we stayed with our "pedestrian" choice and ended up with a Mitsubishi, which we picked up shortly after 7:00 a.m. on Saturday morning.  As soon as the doorman brought the car around to the front door, we piled John's gear inside drove away.

To get to Skydive Elsinore, we took I-5 north to San Juan Capistrano, where we connected with CA 74.  This winding-twisting scenic highway took us through the mountains of the Cleveland National Forest.  While it was the most direct route, it wasn't the fastest, as the highway switchbacked its way through the hills; it took us a little more than an hour to get to the town of Lake Elsinore.

In the center of the town is Lake Elsinore, a large lake on which there is always an aquatic plane.  (I thought at first that it was a float plane, but John explained that it wasn't.) The plane was clearly visible from the highway, as we switchbacked down the mountain towards the town; it appeared to be getting ready for take off.

At the eastern end of Lake Elsinore is Skydive Elsinore, one of two major drop zones in Southern California - the other being Perris Valley Skydiving (which we had visited earlier this year, for Perris Power Play).  John had been to Skydive Elsinore several times before - most recently, two years ago, to do the Wine Country Invitational, where he had the chance to jump into the Wilson Creek Winery in Temecula.  (I didn't go with him; I was working the Breast Cancer 3-Day.) 

When we arrived at Skydive Elsinore, shortly before 9:00 a.m., the drop zone was already packed with jumpers.  John recognized several people; many of them were visiting from Arizona, including Paul Hadzellis, who was on a skydiving team with John.  Seeing Paul there was a pleasant surprise; John had no idea that he was going to the Chicks Rock Boogie and was happy that he had someone good with whom to jump.

John and Paul got together with one of the organizers for the day - Brianne, who is on the skydiving team Blue. First, Brianne organized a four-way with John, Paul, and one of the locals.  Next, she put together a ten-way star that turned out to be nine guys chasing Brianne through the sky.  John kindly referred to it as a "sausage-fest". 

After two jumps, John and I decided that it was time to leave. It was already 11:30 a.m., and if we didn't leave soon, we weren't going to be able to get a nap in before the Awards Gala that night.  (And we had just learned that the cocktail reception had been pushed up by a half an hour, which meant that our nap would be cut short.)  With that, John said good-bye to Brianne and Paul, and he and I left the drop zone.

As we left Skydive Elsinore, we merged onto I-15 south and drove into the town of Temecula, Southern California's wine country.  We exited the freeway at Rancho California Road and followed that out of town, through the rolling brown hills where all of the wineries are. 

Although we certainly could have stopped at several wineries and spent an entire afternoon tasting wine, we decided to stop at one winery only - mainly because we were strapped for time.  After doing some research on-line, John chose the Ponte Winery, as it had received the best reviews.

Indeed the reviews were true!  The Ponte Winery had an excellent wine tasting that included six pours of your choice.  They had three whites, six reds, and two dessert wines to choose from, and most of them were delightful.  The best one was their Barbera; it was so wonderful that we bought a bottle to take home with us.

What really made our wine-tasting experience was our server, who was a wealth of knowledge about the wines.  He introduced us to a device called a vinturi, a special kind of decanter that aerates red wine as it is poured out of the bottle; he explained that it was the same as letting your reds sit in a decanter for forty-five minutes.  He demonstrated its effects by pouring John a glass of the Meritage without using the vinturi, then decanted one with the device.  The wine that had not been decanted was very dry, with strong tannins; the decanted wine was much smoother, with rich flavors.  We were convinced that we needed to buy one, but the server recommended that we go to Total Wines or BevMo instead, as the ones sold there were overpriced.

After our wine-tasting was over, we were hungry, so we wandered over to the restaurant for lunch.  It just wasn't meant to be, though; the wait for a table was forty-five minutes, and we weren't going to last that long.  Instead, we left Ponte and drove back into Temecula, where we ate lunch at Chili's. 

Following lunch, it was time to return to Dana Point, to take a short nap before the Awards Gala that night.  Rather than return the way we came, we took I-15 south to CA 76; CA 76 took us west, back to I-5, just south of Camp Pendleton.  We also passed by the Miramar Air Base, in time to see several Black Hawk helicopters hovering low over the freeway.  They were probably part of the Miramar Air Show, which was going on that weekend. 

As soon as we arrived at the hotel, we turned in the rental car and returned to our room, to take a nap.  Based on last year's Awards Gala and after-party, we knew that it was going to be a late night, so we needed to get plenty of rest ahead of time.  And the nap helped; we got a full ninety minutes and awoke refreshed and ready for a night of festivities. 

And what a night it was!  Dressed in cocktail attire, John and I went downstairs at 6:00 p.m. to the cocktail reception, where we socialized with a number of John's co-workers.  Later, we were ushered into the grand ballroom for the awards dinner and presentation.  John knew that he would be receiving at least one award - hence, the invitation to the event - but he was surprised when he received two!  The second award was the 20/20 Award, which signified that he had exceeded both of his goals by 20%, not just 10%.  He was not expecting that at all!

Immediately following the awards presentation, we were then directed across the property to another ballroom, for the after-party, which ended at midnight.  There, we danced to retro 70's and 80's music, drank heavily, and partied with John's colleagues - the same group from the night before.  Once the party ended, we all made our way up to the hotel bar and continued the party there until closing time.  The party got pretty wild, too - lots of boisterous laughter and tongue-in-cheek jokes, and lots of booze.  Just as the bartender announced last call, one of the guys in our group bought a round of Kamikazes for everyone - and they weren't cheap either!  We took our shots and raised them in the air, toasting to the end of a fun-filled evening.

After the bar closed and we all said our good-nights, John and I made our way up to our room and turned in for the night - or should I say morning?  It was 1:30 a.m., after all...

The next morning, I was once again up bright and early - 6:30 a.m.  John, on the other hand, slept in until 8:00 - perhaps the latest I had ever seen him sleep!  I guess it was understandable, what with the late nights that we had spent there in California; it's not often that we actually see two one o'clocks in one day!

After we had our free breakfast on the terrace, we returned to our room to finish packing, so that we could be ready to check out by noon.  Even as tired as we were - and despite the fact that we took a break to "play naked" - we were ready to go by 10:00 a.m.  With nearly four and a half hours to kill before we had to catch the shuttle to the airport, we had no idea what to do...and then, John had an idea...

We took our bags down to the bell desk and asked the bellman to lock up our bags for us.  As we did so, we were greeted by one of the ACS President's Club organizers, who asked if we were ready to leave for the airport.

"Um, no," John explained.  "Our shuttle isn't until 2:15.  We're just going to catch a cab into town to kill some time."

His explanation apparently confused her, and we had to explain to her several times that we were going to be back before 2:15 to catch the shuttle; in the meantime, we were just going to spend some time in Dana Point, since our flight wasn't departing until 4:30.  Thinking that we had her straightened out, we then asked the doorman to call us a cab, while the bellman loaded our bags onto a cart so that he could lock them up for us.

John and I rode into town in the back of a cab, driven by a very friendly cab driver who was fascinated by the fact that we were from Arizona (he had visited Mesa himself).  We told him that we weren't really sure where we wanted to go, so we let him guide us.  He knew of just the right place, too, and took us to the Ocean Institute, at the end of Dana Point Harbor Drive.  As we paid our fare and exited his cab, he gave us his business card, so that we could call him personally when we were ready to return to the Ritz.

Although the Ocean Institute sounded interesting, we ended up doing a short tour of the SS Pilgrim instead, which sits in the harbor outside of the museum.  The Pilgrim is a replica of the ship in the novel Two Years Before the Mast, penned by Richard Henry Dana, Jr., for whom Dana Point was named.  This replica was built in 1945 and is open to the public on most Sundays - including this one!

We spent only about ten minutes touring the Pilgrim, checking out the crew quarters, the galley, and, of course, the ship's wheel.  We could have stayed for a guided, detailed tour, but instead, we decided to skip it and take a walk along the harbor instead.

Our walk along the harbor was an interesting one.  Seeing all of the beautiful sailboats and yachts got John dreaming again, of one day owning a sailboat of his own.  Not a Hobie cat, like the one we had rented last year in Florida; he wanted a twenty-four footer, with a motor - one that we could take on a multiple-day trip.  I'm sure that someday, we'll have that boat; for now, we'll just be paddling out on the lakes in Arizona and dreaming about sails.

We stopped for lunch at a pizza place down by the harbor; then, at 1:30, we called our cab driver to pick us up, to take us back to the Ritz...

...And that was when things got interesting...

Since we still had a half an hour to kill when we arrived at the Ritz, John decided that it would be worth our while to check-in on-line at one of the computer kiosks at the hotel; he also used an outlet there to charge his phone.  Although the kiosk had a link to US Airways, he soon discovered that the terminal didn't speak to the US Airways website; he would have to see the Concierge to check in.

While he worked with the Concierge to print our boarding passes, I collected our bags from the bellman and waited outside for our shuttle.  Around 2:10, John exited the hotel to report that he was able to get his boarding pass printed, but there was a problem with mine; I would have to check in at the airport.

John noticed that there were two more ACS President's Club organizers standing nearby, so he stopped one of them to inquire about the shuttle.  It was already 2:10; we thought for sure that it would already be there.

"I'm sorry, but that shuttle just left," she reported.  "You aren't John Verley, are you?"

"Um, yes," John replied. 

"We were told that you cancelled your shuttle!"

"Um...no!" we both said.

Apparently, the first organizer we had spoken to that morning had scratched our name off of the shuttle list, thinking that we were taking a cab to the airport...even though we had explained to her three times what our intentions were!  When we weren't there at 2:00, when the shuttle arrived, John's peer - the one who was on our flight to Orange - overheard the ladies say that we had "cancelled the shuttle", so she told them that we had rented a car; we must have decided to take it to the airport. 

Talk about mass confusion!

Nonetheless, in order to make things right, the ladies called the shuttle driver and had him return to the Ritz to come and pick us up.  Ten minutes later, the shuttle returned, and we were soon on our way to the airport.

Upon our arrival at the John Wayne Airport, we check our bags, and I was finally able to get my boarding pass printed.  We then stood in an incredibly slow-moving line to get through Security.  We had less than an hour before our flight departed by the time we made it through that line!  And, although John's parachute skated through the X-ray machine without question, John managed to walk through the metal detector with his metal sunglasses around his neck again!

"Just like in Calgary!" I laughed.  "You did it again!"

"You'd think I'd know better," John said, "as often as I travel!"

Despite all of that, we made it to our gate on time and even had time to shop in the terminal before our flight departed.  Directly across from our gate was a Celebrate Life shop, which carried a nice collection of Life is Good shirts; we bought one of those for Mary, as a souvenir of our trip.

Our flight home was short and sweet and, once again, uneventful.  Upon our arrival, we were surprised to find that our bags were already spinning on the baggage carousel - this is something that almost never happens!  To make up for the fast service, though, we were delayed at the shuttle stop. It took nearly fifteen minutes for the Roadrunner bus to arrive; and when it did, there was barely room for us.  One very rude man muscled his way past us to get the last possible place behind the yellow line; he stated that he wanted to get on the bus with his family, but he was clearly traveling alone.  I guess our trip wouldn't be complete without one rude jerk...

Once we were in our car, we called Janice to let her know that we were coming to get Mary; as a result, we got an invitation to dinner, too.  John's Aunt Lotte was in town briefly, staying at Janice's house, and wanted to spend at least a little bit of time with us.  We appreciated the offer and decided to stay for dinner, despite the fact that we were tired beyond words.

After a nice dinner and short visit, John and I - and Mary - all went home...and for the first time in three nights, John and I were in bed before 10:00 p.m...

Return to Naked in the Woods.