I left my hotel in Santa Rosa and drove my hire car back to Sacramento to catch my flight down to Long Beach, California. I had chosen once more to spend the extra money on a one hour flight rather than suffer the nine hour bus ride. The lady who checked me in spotted I was from England and told me she was going to London soon and asked my advice. There was no-one behind me in the queue so I stood there for several minutes trying to recommend places to go. When I boarded the flight she was also at the gate checking boarding passes and wished me a good flight. What a nice lady.

When I got down to Long Beach my cousin Adam picked me up from the airport and took me back to his nearby house where he was going to put me up for as long as I needed. His wife Kim was waiting to greet me and, once I was in, I was told their kids - Aiden, Kade and Solenne - were waiting to meet me but since they were in bed and couldn't come out I had to go to the door and say hello so that they could calm down and go to sleep.

For the main part I found myself lazing around a lot during my time here. It's partly because I'm at the end of my trip and I'm able to stop and relax, and partly because it's so nice and warm here that it's easy to do nothing. I spent some of my days being dragged around by Kim (voluntarily) on school runs and the like. I also got the opportunity to babysit some or all of the kids for short periods of time. I was glad to be able to help out to pay them back for the free accommodation and food, even if sometimes the food served was stale nachos. The kids really liked me, and I liked them too so long as none of them was crying. (At that point they're handed back to the closest parent if my basic calming technique fails.)

Now I've seen at first-hand what it's like to have three young kids to look after and it's hard work. As they say, rather them than me. But it wasn't all hard work for me. Several times I got to play on their Nintendo Wii with them. Lego Star Wars was my favourite and I started working my way through all six episodes on my own when they were in bed.

One evening early on I went out with Adam and my other cousin Mark for a game of pitch 'n' putt. It was a 'simple' 9 holes of par 3 distance. It's the first time I've played golf, apart from several visits to the driving range and mini golf (which is super fun but doesn't really count). I was pretty bad there but not as bad as I expected so I was pleased. I blame the beer we took on the course for my decreasing performance.

Kim has a column in a LA newspaper which I won't name to save her embarassment at everybody looking it up. One day she was going up to Los Angeles proper to visit a couture florist and interview the owner for her column. I tagged along and got a free ride through Hollywood to the place. I had to politely sit there and flick through books of photos of their work as Kim did the interview in front of me. It was a very high class place and they have a hugely impressive array of A-list celebrities that they serve, but since that was all off the record I can't say... but ask me in person and I'll spill a few.

After the florist we went to the Farmers Market for lunch. I was surprised that something so nice and old fashioned existed in LA. There were a huge range of food options available and I picked up some New Orleans jambalaya which was delicious.

On a less exciting day I went out with Kim and the kids to a state park to see some rock pools. We timed it perfectly and got there just after low tide so we could see the hundreds of hermit crabs and anomones. I scared Kim by accompanying Aidem on some rock scrambling, but it was perfectly safe - I more or less had the ability to catch him at any given moment.

Kim's parents flew into town while I was still there and I got to meet them. They were very nice and it was a nice break for me for the kids to be hassling them all the time instead of me. We were in an area called Seal Beach, which has a very pretty Main Street with shops and restaurants on it. I'm glad I'm seeing places like this because I'm learning that there are genuinely nice parts to greater Los Angeles and I'm seeing people actually walking around for a change.

One day when I'd had enough of sitting around I got a morning lift into Long Beach downtown and had a walk around and down the beach for a couple of miles to Belmont Shore, where I tried to enjoy a buffalo chicken pizza but it's the hottest buffalo chicken I've had so the pain on my tongue somewhat spoilt the taste enjoyment.

The weather has been fantastic every single day. It is always sunny and it's definitely shorts and T-shirt weather. On my penultimate day it rained big drops for about 20 minutes. That was a gentle reminder of what I've got waiting for me at home. The evenings were very pleasant, only sometimes requiring a sweater late at night. So I found myself often sitting out in the garage out back watching the TV. One evening I was extremely lucky because I saw my first live car chase on the news. It was pretty dull though because it was late at night, after 10pm, and the freeways were light with traffic (they never empty in LA!). I was excited to follow the action on my little map of LA that I brought with me. The driver came from the north, did a big loop around central LA, then headed out west before driving into a dead end and giving up. There were no crashes and it didn't end in a shoot out.

On my very first night I was out in the garage and catching up with Kim after Adam had gone to bed and before we knew it the time was 3:40am. It was no problem for me because I'm on vacation but Kim had to get up the next day to get the kids to school. All I'll say about that is that it's a good job the plumber turned up at 8am to ring the doorbell and wake everyone up.

One later night I was helping Kim with the florist article that was having a difficult labour on its way to birth as the perfect article. I could see why she asked for me - obviously she has read my blog and realised that she should consult the master writer for help and guidance. So I played the Mr. Miyagi to her Karate Kim and we were up until 5:30am working on it. Still it didn't get finished. There's no helping some people.

Between playing Lego Star Wars, being challenged by Kim to play Smarty Pants on the Wii (as she valiantly but vainly tried to prove she was smarter than me), taking advantage of the cable TV, staying up late some nights talking and then being woken up early each day by the kids getting ready for school I never really caught up on my sleep like I should have.

I definitely started feeling here that my time was running out. I came down on September 11th (and yes it did occur to me that I was flying on 9/11 but it didn't worry me) so I had 19 days until my flight out but somehow that time just disappeared into the ether. I think it's partly because this was always my final destination. From day one I always had my eye on Long Beach as the final stop, providing I didn't run out of money en route. I think it's also because starting in August I dropped the pace a lot. I took a week out to go to Alaska, then two weeks in Hawaii, then after short stays in Seattle and Portland I took four days in Santa Rosa. That's a slowness that is unprecedented in any other stop on my travels around this country. It's like when you work really hard at something for a long time and then take a break it's hard to get back into it. And finally it's because I've got nothing to look forward to. By that I mean there are no more stops on my itinerary.

I'd like to thank Adam and Kim for their kind and generous hospitality and say that any time they need a babysitter... stick with the one across the street! I should probably thank the kids to for letting me play their Lego Star Wars and for entertaining me and tiring me out making me play American football in the front garden.

The next time you hear from me will be my final goodbye post as I get ready to go back home.