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So where do we start blogging about a week in LA? Do you focus on the 16 hour marathon day in Disneyland…

…or the day trip to Santa Barbara, the Malibu beaches, hiking 8 miles to the Hollywood sign or just the magnificent Griffith Observatory for the sunset and a mindblowing film/ presentation in one of those huge domed theatres that showed us how earth is merely a speck of dust in the grand scheme of things in the universe.  Or maybe you just talk about the warmth or the way America and Americans make everything super easy for you? Even when we arrived at LAX airport and were told by the car hire company “just choose any car” we knew it was gonna be a great trip.

No, we’re not gonna bother with any of that here because our stay in LA was made so wonderful by Nana San, AKA Paula Coleman, our friend Rachel’s lovely mum and Dillon and Elliot’s Grandma.

From the moment we arrived we were made to feel like part of the family. She cooked constantly, kept the children well engaged in activities and chores, had family visitors over and welcomed our own friends when they popped by on our last day.

There were birthday cake and presents for Arlo and gifts for Henna too. Both kids were packed off to Disneyland with wise advice, energy bars and nuts and $100 spending money! We tried to repay all this kindness by helping out fixing a few things around the house but this barely equated to the enormous generosity of our fabulous host.

Rachel’s brother Jeff and his wife Ximena also warmed to the kids, they even graciously enjoyed our insistence on making them watch The Greatest Showman.

Jeff is a mad Lego fan and very protective of his creations, locking them away from his nephews (who visited on our first day there). After a few days he was found sat in the lounge with Arlo and Henna as they built creations together like 3 pros! Arlo thanked him by buying him a new Lego kit and a Snickers, his favourite chocolate bar! Ximena was given a pair of earrings Colette had picked up in Buenos Aires. Both loved them. Paula, was made letters, cards and pictures by the kids as what do you get a woman who has everything? It was so comfy there, just like home, we stayed 3 days longer than planned as we figured camping at Joshua Tree NP in 40º heat overnight would be too much. We still did the park but as a whistle stop day tour, hopping out of the car to take piccies in the blazing sun! We tootled down Route 66 to see some local sites.