In the USA at last

The drive to the US border was very quick and easy, and in fact Jimmy, being a long-term US resident, managed to get through in about 15 minutes, since he has a Sentri pass that allows pretty much automatic passage. We, on the other hand, had to queue up with the Mexicans to go through proper immigration. This turned out to involve waiting in line for about 2.5 hours. Luckily the weather was great (there had been a lot of heavy rain recently), and eventually we managed to get through, where poor Jimmy was patiently waiting for us on the other side.

Once through the border we flew up the American highways back to Jimmy's home in Huntington beach, where his family very kindly put up with us for the next 3 days. Jimmy works in construction, specialising in remodelling, the new buzzword in Southern California at the moment it seems, and he'd finished adding a whole new story to their house about a year ago. He did an amazing job, and the house really is a great example of the 'American Dream'. So it was here we met the whole family, Jimmy's wife Pat, and the three kids, Colin, Sean and Brenna.

Jimmy and Pat seem to be something of a focal point for much of the local community, and on our very first evening we were taken along to two Christmas parties at the neighbours. The following evening we were taken to a third, and all three houses had been recently remodeled and all were fabulous (including one house with an amazing 'data room' that controlled all the CAT-5 wiring). Of course we got to meet lots and lots of people, and naturally we had we relate our 19-month travel odyssey repeatedly, but it was all great fun and gave me a great insight into local American culture (interestingly America has been the only place where people asked if I was 'independently wealthy' to be able to travel so long - answer, 'No, it just a lot cheaper than everyone imagines').

One of the days Jimmy took us up to Newport Beach, a district famous for it's concentration of celebrities over the years, and we did a 45-minute harbour cruise seeing all the amazing houses and moored yachts, many decked out in extravagant Christmas lighting. Another day we accompanied Jimmy and Pat for a bit of Christmas shopping - all of which seemed ridiculously easy and hassle-free, with no crowds or queues of people, not even any traffic to talk about - literally an entire world away from Grafton Street in Dublin!

We even got to go to Church with the whole Parker family, which was interesting. Although it was a Catholic mass, it differed from home in a few small ways, with both myself and Sarah just a tad uncomfortable with all the hand-holding and clapping along to the songs...

On our last night Jimmy and Pat took us out to one of their favorite restaurants, Thai Dishes. Brenna, Sean and a friend of Sean's came out with us, so we got to order and share lots of different dishes. I reckoned this was probably the best Thai meal I've had outside Thailand, and luckily it gave me a chance to repay some of Pat and Jimmy's great kindness to us over our stay in Mexico and California (although of course given Jimmy's nature and generosity I had to be a tad sneaky about it!).

Next morning Jimmy drove us up to the Greyhound station in Long Beach, and next thing we know we're on a bus up to Indio to catch up with my Mum who is over with her sister Eithne to visit my other Aunt, Una, who lives in Indian Wells.