Life's a beach... and now we're home

It's true what they say about the traffic in and around LA - nightmare! All of Iain's carefully honed Dubai skills were required to navigate the impossible junctions and unforgiving local drivers. But it was soooo worth it! Our hotel was thankfully a very short hop and a skip from the Walk of Fame, so we managed to squeeze in a visit there and to Graumans theatre ON FOOT to see all the names and handprints of the superstars. Was great fun spotting our favourites. George Clooney's hands are big and Marilyn Monroe's feet are small, but hey we hardly expected it to be the other way round! My avid Harry Potter fan Rosie loved the Daniel / Emma / Rupert handprints and wandprints, Ted just thought it was hot and boring! We ventured out on the metro later to check out Chinatown - there was a fun summer festival going on with a stage, the customary dragon and some live music, but it meant the place was packed and actually finding somewhere to eat was challenging (but we managed of course!)

The next day - our last full one - we took a drive around Beverley Hills to admire the swanky houses before heading off to be grockles on the beach which was just fabulous and relaxing after all our rushing about. We sunbathed and splashed in the waves (well I didn't - too spoilt by Dubai hot sea to venture into the fresh Pacific - Lord help me next summer in Cornwall!!) and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Wandered up the Venice Boardwalk with all the skaters, artists, musicians, weirdos (think we may have stood out for looking so ordinary, but that was probably a good thing). Watched the locals playing basketball, paddle tennis, working out on muscle beach and generally chilling out on a sunday afternoon. With shoulders already smarting from too much sun, we then headed off to Santa Monica, end-point of the famous Route 66, for some different beach vibes. The pier and beach were very familiar to the children through the Disney Channel and we couldn't get that close and not go on the Pacific Wheel for a view of it all from up on high! Were fortunate enough to be at the top of the big wheel as the sun set over the hills towards Malibu and we toasted our last US sunset from up high with a big cheer and then rounded it off with some popcorn afterwards.

Wouldn't dream of boring you with the rest as it involves a long flight where the children only managed to doze off for an hour and a half before we landed and Iain and I didn't manage to sleep a wink at all - which feels just great on top of the jet lag! We arrived back for a late lunch at Billingshurst today and very pleased to be finally arrived, though still can't bear to tackle the suitcases - manana. We're all desperately trying to stay awake until a semblance of proper bed-time (7 is ok right?!) so that we can try and get quickly back to UK time.

Look forward to catching up with everyone properly now we're back - normal facebook activity resumes shortly, and more pics to come too I promise.

Love y'all xxxx