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Well, our polar bear and road trip adventure is over. Not without a little adventure at the end. Los Angeles was expecting Santa Ana winds - winds which sweep in from the desert - about midnight the day we were leaving. They arrived with 70 MILES per hour winds at 6.00pm. The wind was coming into our hotel room through the aircon and disloged one of the seals so the wind was whistling in quite loudly. We were on the 10th floor when the power went off. We'd checked our luggage in at QANTAS at 3.00pm and gone back to the hotel so only had carry-on to worry about but I still don't know if everything was packed. Couldn't see - and we had to walk down the stairs. Better than the poor people who were walking up. The whole district, including LAX airport was in darkness. You can imagine the chaos at an airport that size. Our plane was three hours late leaving and was very bumpy on take off. Our first time in an A380 - seats a lot more comfortable in cattle class than in other planes. Had a good flight home once we got airborne - both of us sleeping for about 7 hours. Obviously the people who should have been sitting beside us didn't make it to the airport - poor things probably still stuck in a lift somewhere in the blackout. We had four seats to ourselves. Our friend Judy, her daughter Emily and grandson Jack came to pick us up but arrived at the airport at 9.00 am. We got in at 2.00pm. That's what I call real friends. Now it's back to reality and trying to work out how on earth we managed to spend so much money and why isn't there anything much left in the bank. Well - you only live once so they say and we certainly had a great trip. John researched, planned and booked everything and nothing (besides being bogged in the snow for an hour) went wrong. I love going to the US but I'm also pleased when we leave. Great to hear Australian accents at the airport. Great to get home and see friends. Not a good idea to go away for six weeks when you live on an acre - despite the efforts of our housesitter and friends, LOTS of garden work to do. Better than being bored. Don't know where our next trip will be but we do want to get an AMTRAK pass in the US at some time. Everyone pray for the stockmarket to skyrocket - when that happens, we'll be on our way. Until then....there's the garden.