Philynda's Travels: We Found an Olive Garden

First things first, today a year ago, our Son Jonathon married a beautiful girl called Lynsey, on the island of Aegina, in Greece and Lynda and I were so proud of them both on what was a fantastic day so happy 1st of many more anniversaries.

What a brilliant day. We love you both loads---have a great day.

Right back up to date and to yesterday-------

There is a restaurant chain called the Olive Garden-- and when we were considering what to do for dinner we found that there was one of these in desert springs--a few miles from the hotel so we drove there last night.

There are some great ideas that have been borne from the original concept and there are some great stories that come from reading their history , especially the teaching in Tuscany and the students and charity work as well.

Lynda and I first tried the food at an Olive Garden in McKinney, Texas and thought it was great with good settings, ambience, and the food was great at a reasonable price for a meal.

The chain is owned by a company called the Darden Group who have over 1900 restaurants and employs over 190,000 staff. www.darden.com

The one from last night we weren't mad about the ambience and décor--however the food was still to a high standard and the service was great. For us the lighting was too bright and the idea of these little eating areas is strange and leaves people eating on there own at times---the one in McKinney was far more open plan and with booths in, with darker colours and a great modern feel.

A big thanks to Joleen Watson the manager--the food was great as was the service-- and a special thanks to our server , Monique Ortiz, who was so good, a tentative and nothing was too much trouble.

Just remember one thing Monique--everything starts with a plan, so when you are dreaming of travelling in the future to Europe or wherever , start by writing down a plan and working out the details from there---put a pro's and con's chart down so that you can focus on getting rid of the negatives you can work things out to the point where the travelling becomes possible--Lynda and I wish you great luck for the future.

So that was last night but it was a day of ironing, unpacking and re-packing suitcases--did I tell you that we went from 2 to 4 cases and now the hand luggage is growing -- well that was what Lynda was doing and before anyone jumps on the equality band wagon , I get a right earful if I try to get involved in anything to do with either.

I lazed around ,writing the Blog, booked the hotel for LA and generally lounged around until we went to the pool only to find that we again had it to ourselves-----

So not much else happened yesterday so we are really just trying to plot out the days as to what we are doing when---like today--its England footy today so I have to make sure that I get to the sports bar that we know to watch the game---and to see Frank Lampard get his 100th cap--well done Frankie--

Legend.

In order to make this a little more interesting than ---pool, dinner, pool , dinner etc how about a bit of being provocative about clean energy and the like and when the do-gooders start to shout about how bad the wind turbines look, have a little think about how the americans do things-----

In every direction you look in the west of Palm Springs, you can see these ugly windmills but they don't care over here when it provides some of the power that they need to make the valleys work.

Granted they have huge areas of land---a good bit of it so inhospitable, that there is little else that can be done with it but they are none the less not hung up by it.

On this trip alone we have seen good evidence of the USA generating power from waste to energy plants, solar panels all over, using massive hydro-electrics, and with recycling effluent for power and for energy.

They also do not get hung up about living right next door to Motorways (Interstates), or power stations or chemical plants--these things bring jobs and economic growth to the area and the people.

See Corpus Christi from the Gulf coast in texas as a good example----Here is a picture of the shoreline at night time---