To kickstart our second week in Irvine, we hit the outlets and left with literally hundreds of bags of bargains! Helen was overjoyed as her new handbags had been reduced by at least 40%...investment for the future right?

The night before Rey's parents, aunt and uncle were due to return to San Jose we headed out to a Brazilian restaurant which was an awesome experience in itself. You get given a card which was red and green on each side - green means keep it coming and red means stop serving. The waiters came around constantly with skewers of meat, obviously not being a meat fan Helen was first to turn over to red and Nick was the last...

Other highlights of the week include Helen and Sarah having a pedicure to get our feet in top shape, going to the gym to try and burn off some of the excessive food we've eaten and doing housework which feels so good after not doing any for over 13 months. There's nothing better than wiping away grime, dust and whatever else you can find!

The weekend was spent exploring Venice Beach and Santa Monica, we headed for the beach which was clean and Nick literally threw himself into the ocean only to find it was freezing! Helen had a little more sense and watched from the beach with Sarah and Rey.

We then walked down the board walk which was full of roller blazers, bikes, idiots walking in front of bikes, preachers, guys selling advice for a dollar, street vendors, beggars, two headed turtles, two headed iguanas, weird people, a wolf man, dancers, performers and lots of tourists.

The main reason for visiting Venice Beach was to see the world famous 'muscle beach' as seen in films, where beefy guys work out topless. We were dismayed to find really obese men and scrawny guys working out. Bleurgh!

There was also a skatepark where guys were practising their skills ready for a competition later that day, we saw some almighty crashes and returned later to see some BMX'ers doing their skills!

Venice Beach is just weird....

Sunday was spent doing the long drive up to Walnut Creek, Northern California via San Jose. Once in San Jose we had a big family get together with the Maninang family which was great and scoffed lots of food.

Lydia and Rey took us on a tour of San Jose which included the Winchester Mystery House - beyond weirdness! The widow of the owner of the Winchester Gun Company built her house to accommodate all of the spirits killed by the Winchester Gun! Weird parts of the house include stairs going up to the ceiling etc. After lunch we went to the Tech Museum which was great as we got to take part in a roller coaster stimulator designed by Nick, an 8.1 earthquake stimulator along with other things.

Two weeks left until we're home....reality is starting to sink in...