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 dramatics on our part on the plane, someone took pity and volunteered to swap places. Several movies later and after Virgin's finest cuisine, we landed in sunny California. However, it took us quite a while to get over the fact they had cut the enterntainment system with 10 minutes of the epic 'House Bunny' still to run.

Pausing briefly to pick up some Las Vegas travel tips from the immigration officer, we headed straight to the car pound - 20 deg C = roof down on the Mustang and off we cruised south on the Freeway, oblivious to the fact that we were getting some strange looks for having the roof down in the middle of the winter.

Arrived in San Diego and experienced our first cultural encounter: a homestay with a real life UK family living the American dream....Ronan and Lindi.

After a lovely dinner and some local brew, Ronan got the Wii out so the boys could ride a few slopes before bedtime. Ronan showing his prowess at doing the flying squirrel. His competitive streak taking advantage of Nige's jet lag.

Turned in early in the promise of a kayaking trip the following morning...