On today's agenda was a true American cultural experience: a trip to a theme park. 20 minutes down Freeway 5 and we were at Sea World. Blue sky, 20C: a nice winter's day. First up was the dolphin show - made sure we sat out of the "soak zone". Tricks were amazing, especially surfing the pilot whale. (go to youtube and search San Diego Sea World ). Walked around all the other exhibits: highlights were hundreds of moray eels, cute sea otters, sharks and t...

Woke to a typical southern California winter morning: not a cloud in the sky and a bit nippy. After breakfast drove down to the beach and rented kayaks at La Jolla. The bay is a nature reserve and apparently there was a good chance of seeing some sea lions and sharks. On dipping her toe in the water, Annelise tried to back out, but Ronan wouldn't have any of it. Risking our marriage, we set out in a double kayak, Mrs W promptly getting soaked as we burst through ...

Awoke at dawn in the freezing depths of rural Surrey, crammed everything in our bags and headed for the airport. Stopped for a coffee at Jason and Michelle's en route where Jason demonstrated his integrated coffee machine. (coffee was ready by the time we reached Heathrow). Stu and Anna gave us a great breakfast and packed us off to the airport. Disaster! In all the hurry, we forgot to check in online and could not get seats together. However, after good dramati...