So we reached the US mainland last Sunday and spent the first night just in a hotel near to LAX. We then picked up our car on Monday - a lovely Hyundai for those interested and headed down to Orange County. We spent the day on the beach and exploring Newport and Laguna Beach. Ele was massively excited when she saw a house of a star from the Laguna Beach T.V. program - don't ask me!!!

No Penfold trip would be complete without a trip to Disney, so having apparently skipped a visit to Tokyo Disney earlier in the trip we made our way to Disneyland in Anaheim on Tuesday. We were there all day and went all around both parks. Favourite rides were California Screamin, Tower of Terror, Spacemountain and Indiana Jones. Feet were completely knackered at the end of the day but at least we got to say hi to Mickey!!!

Wednesday we headed south down to San Diego where we explored the world famous zoo. Saw some pretty cool animals - the polar bear was a highlight and the ant eater! Ele's fav's were the baby meercats. We then headed over to Mission Bay where we strolled along the beach and grabbed some dinner in front of the setting sun.

Thursday we headed over the Mexican border to Tijuana. We took a walk up and down Avenue Revolucion where we were accosted by all the shop keepers trying to sell us all sorts of tacky stuff. Ele had a marriage proposal from one man and we were invited into countless strip clubs. Pretty tacky place but we got our sombrero!!! We tried to walk back to the border but took a wrong turn and were stopped by the police - think we were heading into a drug hot spot or something!!! As we crossed back over a Mexican guy was stopped at U.S. customs trying to smuggle Marijuana across the border - wouldn't like to be him right now!!! We then headed to La Jolla, quite an up market suberb of San Diego. Had a walk around but not that much to see there.

Today we drove out into the desert and found our way to Palm Springs. Quite a weird place in the middle of a bone dry valley. There are palm trees everywhere and loads of green golf courses which is really weird considering where we are. Off to Vegas on Sunday - looking forward to the casinos!!!