Raj: Boy oh boy. What an awesome and fun day we had at Universal Studios today. I wasn't really sure what to expect but enjoyed every moment. From the thrill of the real and virtual theme park rides, to the live shows (such as Kevin Costner's Waterworld), learning about different types of special effects, a tour through many of the Universal Studios sets, and finishing up with a stroll along City Walk. I was definitely a kid today, and didn't let a dodgy bac...

Vikki: After a final day in New York which saw us visiting the Intrepid Museum (Sea, Air and Space) and our last visit to Times Square, we took a fairly boring 6 hour plane ride, and have hit the west coast of America and are now back amongst the blue sky and golden sand beaches. Our first stop is Santa Monica, our base for the next 5 days while we do the obligatory LA site seeing and theme park visits. We've picked up a car to make getting around easier, a good...

Vikki: As the title suggests we've been busy in New York, so much to see and do in such a big city. However at the same time, it has seen Raj laid up flat out in bed with back problems, a huge frustration which we could all have done without. We are staying with family about an hour out of the city, which has been a godsend, in terms of getting Raj back on his feet. Kalpesh has been with us, first driving us up from New Jersey, and then staying and sight seeing ...

Vikki: The last 3 days in New Jersey have been great. We've met more family, eaten great food (again) and seen much of the local sites. It's a lovely area, very green with many small farms and huge houses. Where we are staying backs onto one of the local golf courses (or Country Clubs) so a lovely view out, especially as the fall leaves start to turn. A visit to the local outlet mall gave us our first view of shopping, and though we made a couple of small purcha...

Harley: Today dad, Anouk and I visited the International Spy Museum. The museum has lots of spy gadgets like hidden cameras, poison darts, small guns and much more. There were also lots of activities and challenges that we could do. We did code breaking where we had to figure out mystery numbers, deactivating a fake bomb (I did it in 10 seconds better than dad) and a strength test to see how long we could hang onto a pipe while wind was blown on you. You had to s...