3rd November - Another lazy morning spent catching up with my friend Jenny and my sister Kariss on the computer while Ralph got the latest news from his dad about his mum who is still in hospital.At lunchtime we drove around an hour to a place called Pasadena to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory where NASA build deep space exploration satellites and track them to Saturn, Pluto or wherever.They deal mainly in robotics and build things like the Mars rovers.We took a free tour which lasted 2.5 hours and took in a video about the role of the Laboratory, full scale models of the Mars rovers and the Voyager 1 spacecraft (much bigger than you would imagine), a small museum relating to all the work they carry out and how they started out, a view into the Laboratory itself, where technicians in the cleanest environment you have ever seen poured over blue prints for the Mars laboratory covered in white decontamination suits, booties and face masks.The environment has to be kept so clean so that when the equipment is put into space it operates correctly and the data they receive from it is not altered by dirt from Earth.The workers have to go through an air shower before entering the room, and it is obvious that cleanliness is top priority here.Finally we looked at mission control which receives data from the many deep space spacecraft.We left there and drove back to Santa Monica where we tried to find a movie theater that was showing the film W but, unsuccessful, we just went back and crashed at the apartment for the evening where Ralph made spaghetti bolognaise - yummy!

4th - Today was a day we have been waiting for for a very long time, election day in America.There was no way Ralph was going to be persuaded to leave the television for the day so I left him glued to the U.S. news channel CNN and went out to rent the rollerblades once again.I bladed about a mile up to the commercial centre where all the shops are, and then bladed back towards the apartment, past our nearest polling station (which was, fantastically, a lifeguard station on the beach!) and on for around a 6 mile round trip to beautiful Santa Monica Pier.There was something in the air today, everyone seemed happy and talking to one another and I got asked for my phone number three times, twice by Obama supporters and once by a McCain supporter, I was truly crossing party lines!!After a really beautiful day rollerblading in the sunshine I got back to the apartment and was thrilled to be able to webcam my mum and dad for the first time in months due to problems we were having with our laptop, so I could see and hear them which was brilliant.We then settled down to watch the election results come in.We have realised that being on the west coast on election night has a distinct advantage to being on the east coast because when the polls start to close on the east coast at 8 p.m. their time (eastern time) it was still only 5 p.m. our time (pacific time) and so we started to get results by 5 p.m. and by 9 p.m. our time it was all over and decided.It was such an historic night and as our favourite candidate won major swing states such as Pennslyvania, Ohio and Florida we knew he was going to be the choice of the American people.Ralph and I had major celebrations when the announcement was made that Barack Obama was now President Elect Obama.We waited and watched John McCain give a really heartfelt and humble concession speech, and then waited and watched as Obama gave an amazing acceptance speech in front of hundreds of thousands of supporters in Grant Park, Chicago, which brought us both to tears - Yes we can!

5th - We got up and, as we are staying right on the beach, we decided it was hight time we actually went on it, rather than just the promenade and cycle path at the side, and took a duvet down to the beach to spend some time reading and listening to the waves while people around us exercised and did yoga (they LOVE exercising here!).I then left Ralph to CNN in the apartment and drove into Santa Monica for a last minute spot of shopping while I had the exchange rate advantage.The shops in Santa Monica are wonderful, a real mix of chain stores such as Gap, United Colors of Benneton etc and unique boutique shops.I came away with nothing but I couldn't really complain as I have bought quite a lot (for me) on this American trip and the cases are definitely heavier and we have had to buy an additional (huge!) holdall.We then drove over to our friend Hazel and Regis' house where we were treated to a wonderful dinner cooked by them both of the most amazing t-bone steaks we have EVER tasted (better than some $100 steaks in top restaurants), baked potatoes with all the toppings including fresh chives from the garden (nice one Regis!) and bacon bits (I didn't forget all the effort you put in to the bacon bits Hazel and they were gorgeous) and broccoli.If that wasn't enough Hazel had baked a pumpkin pie which we had for the very first time and loved, and Regis had made a bread pudding which was equally as good, of course we had to try both!After great conversation and very full tummies we headed back to the apartment to sleep it all off.

6th - A really busy day today as its our last day in Los Angeles.We first went to collect my numerous pairs of new trousers which I had dropped off to be taken up (a bargain at only $54.00 for all of them including a really tricky pair of new jeans).We then hotfooted it over to Walmart (U.S. equivalent of ASDA) to look for some bits and pieces for my mum for Christmas and, having no luck, we went and cleaned the car inside and out ready for dropping it off really early in the morning.We then went to a movie theater to see the movie W, about the current President of the United States, George W Bush, which was actually a really interesting portrayal, but more interesting was the movie screening itself which was held in quite a small room filled only with two and three seater brown leather settees!They were so comfortable and its really the movie experience that we should always be having in this day and age.It was so lovely to be able to stretch out, curl up etc. on the sofa and watch the movie in complete comfort, with no other movie goer anywhere near you.We left there just in time to head over to the Hollywood area to watch the pre-recording of a U.S. tv show called Real Time with Bill Maher.Bill Maher is a popular political and religious satirist here in the US, and he is one of those comedians who make you think as well we laugh.Ralph is a big fan of his and so it was really good to here his jokes (Bill's, not Ralph's!) about the recent election (he is a big supporter of Barack Obama).As the recording was really just a test for the jokes they are going to use the following day when the show is put out live (they test loads of jokes and only actually use a small proportion on the live show) it only lasted around 30 minutes and so we had time for our last American meal at a cute 50's style diner called Johnny Rockets, where of course I had to have my last chocolate malt!We headed back to the apartment where we cleaned and tidied up and then went out on the street and picked one of the homeless guys to give our hardly used duvet to (the guy we chose was really sweet and, although he was sleeping in a cardboard box, said he had no use for it but he could certainly give it to someone who would be able to use it) and then, at 10.30 p.m. we went to bed, ready for our early start in the morning.

7th - We were up at 5.30 a.m. and filled the car with our luggage and drove around 30 minutes to the place where we had to drop our hire car off.Of course the place was closed and we had been told to leave the car on the street outside the business and leave the key inside a plastic bag inside the petrol cap - unorthodox!We then took a taxi to Los Angeles Airport (LAX) where we prepared for our 12 hour flight, plus a two hour stop at Chicago, and the time zones we would have to travel through to get to Manchester Airport.The flights went without much incident and at.....8th - ……8 a.m. we landed in Manchester Airport and were extremely lucky in that our luggage was already waiting for us at the carousel and Kirsty's mum had offered to come and collect us.It was wonderful to see her and we caught up all the way to Nottingham where Kirsty's mum dropped us off at Ralph's parents (and came in with us for a chat and a coffee) so that we could see how Ralph's mum was, as she was only discharged from hospital a few days ago after 4 weeks and we have obviously been worried about her, though it was a relief to see her so much better than we were expecting.It was great to catch up with Ralph's parents and my mum (although the talk of boils and carbuncles could have been given a miss!) and we settled into a day of not doing too much but trying to stay awake to combat the jet lag which didn't work as we were asleep just after 8 p.m. and fully awake at 3.50 a.m. - nice!

Well, quite possibly, this signs off our round the world trip. America, France, Glastonbury, Norway and America again is as far as we got but we decided that America was the place to have the most fun for the least amount of money and we're now returning with a bit of money left in the bank with which to stave off the financial crisis/credit crunch/recession/depression.

At least the repo man can't repossess our house - we don't have one!We have had a wonderful time, fallen head over heels in love with the United States, and felt like one of them for a good while now - we just wish they felt the same about us!

As we have to return to normality, at least we are doing it in the run up to Christmas when we can share in the festivities with friends and families.

We have put two videos on the blog this week to catch up. So long, and thanks for joining us on Kirsty and Ralph's Big Adventure.