Back home....

So here it is....my final blog.....firstly I have to say that I've had the most fantastic time. Driving right across the US has been a dream of mine since I first visited in 1976 so this is another box officially ticked !! (Of course other dreams included playing for England at the World Cup and dating Debbie Harry of Blondie so there's still a way to go...) Elizabeth and the boys gave the trip anything from a 6 out of 10 (Brandon); to a 9 out of 10 (Elizabeth). But who cares - I'd have to give it a 10 !!

These are some of the other interesting (and not so interesting numbers):-

No. of miles driven - 4,563
No. of days travelling - 25

No. of hotels stayed at - 14
No. of dollars raised for charity - 1,227

No. of pounds raised for charity - 1,820
No. of speeding tickets earned - 0
No. of times Tahoe dented - 1

No. of days without lunch - 14
No. of packs of Trail Mix eaten - 58
No. of blog entries posted - 24
No. of colleges visited - 11
No. of states visited - 14
No. of major cities visited - 5
No. of monuments visited - 7
No. of museums visited - 6
No. of boat trips taken - 5
No. of rodeos attended - 1

Stanford · San Francisco · Tutankhamen · California Academy of Sciences · Golden Gate Bridge · Alcatraz · Reno · Twin Falls · Jackson Hole · Snake River · Old Faithful · Yellowstone Park · Cody · Buffalo Bill Heritage Center · Deadwood · Days of ’76 Rodeo · Mount Rushmore · Sioux Falls · Des Moines · Chicago · Oak Street Beach · Chicago River · Northwestern · University of Chicago · Cleveland · Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame · Niagara Falls · Springfield · Amherst College · Boston · MIT · Harvard · Wesleyan · Yale · Greenwich · New York · NYU · Columbia · Princeton · Hudson River · Statue of Liberty · Ellis Island · Ground Zero · Manhattan ·

Finally, a few "thank you's".....to Bob, Louis and Robert for all of their emails of encouragement - you helped keep us going !! To everyone who made a donation to either of our charities - they're both great causes so thanks again ! And finally to the people of the United States we've met along the way who have always gone out of their to make us feel welcome !!

Cody's comment about mum's drinking had not gone down well...."

New York City - a new beginning ?

We've finished with the college visit part of our road trip and today saw the end of our sightseeing in the Big Apple with visits to the two sites which have touched me the most....Ellis Island and Ground Zero. We caught the ferry from Battery Park after breakast and after stopping briefly at Liberty Island, we were let off at Ellis Island which closed for business in 1954. We took the "audio" tour which included interviews from immigrants who had been through the Ellis Island immigration process and it was extremely moving to hear how their lives had been transformed by the move to America.

The Ellis Island kids were united - yes, they wanted to come to America....but not if it meant joining Gary & Elizabeth on one of their roadtrips....

I last visited Ground Zero just three months after 9/11 and wanted give the boys an insight as to the scale of the disaster and why it has such a crucially important place in history. A memorial museum opened next to the site in 2006 and it currently houses large steel pieces of the structure as well as many artefacts from the people that died that day. The tribute video that plays at the exhibition is particularly difficult to watch.

However, after all this serious stuff, the day ended on a high... Elizabeth's first cousin Jeremy, his wife Tara and their beautiful, identical twin boys - Jonathan and Jacob - moved from London to Connecticut about a year after our own move to California. We don't get together as much as we'd like and so it was fantastic to meet up for English-style tea at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Manhattan.

As promised, tonight's blog is to include an insight from my fellow travellers - we had a long chat over dinner this evening to review everything we've seen and done - so here goes :-

What has been the coolest thing you've seen on this trip ?

Elizabeth - Definitely, "Old Faithful"....(or "Old Reliable" as Cody insisted on calling it). It was like being in one large chemistry lesson with the biggest experiment in the world going on...and when the geyser erupted, it was awesome !

What was your least favourite part of the trip ?

Harley - Listening to Dad's music....I mean, don't get me wrong, I love Elvis Costello, Eminem and Pink Floyd as much as the next guy but listening to the same tracks over and over in the car for six hours is stretching it (especially if it's interfering with the sound on my "Pirates of the Carribean" DVD).

Which was your favourite building ?

Brandon - Probably the Rockefeller Center in New York. It is the tallest one I have ever been in and the views from the top were brilliant ! It also has a special AI (Artificial Intelligence) room which detects when you enter the room and assigns you a colour which follows you wherever you go. It was extremely cool !

Which was your favourite day ?

Cody - August 1st happened to be my birthday and it was also the day we got to visit the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. Apparently they hadn't heard of me....yet....but it won't be long until my brother's are queueing up to see some of my famous concert costumes (and no one will care if they've been washed or not...)

Which hotel did you enjoy the most ?

Elizabeth - It has to be the Four Seasons in Chicago - after several Sheratons and the Mineral Palace in Deadwood, pretty much anywhere with towels bigger than a first class stamp, and with no cowboys or bikers in the lobby, worked for me...plus the view of Lake Michigan and the city's unbelievable architecture from the window seat in our room was the best ever !

Which was your favourite city ?

Harley - Definitely New York - I can't think of any city I have been to where you are stuck in a perpetual rush hour and where the taxis seem to outnumber the people !

And the highpoint for me ?? I would have to say that it's a tie between Mount Rushmore and Ellis Island........because I feel that both show America at its best....

Last day tomorrow....what am I going to do every morning at 2:00am after that ??

New York City - skyscrapers and everything !

The hardest thing for Elizabeth and I on this part of the trip was what were the most important things to show the boys on their first visit to New York City....and what we would have to leave for another time. We both wanted them to have the full New York experience - but faced a real dilemma. Should we take them to the huge Abercrombie and Ralph Lauren stores ? or stick to Prada and Gucci ? Bergdorf Goodman or Barney's - you can see the problem....

In the end, we thought that we may as well do some sightseeing so we started with the three hour Circle Line boat trip which travels all the way around Manhattan. Elizabeth and I last did this on our first wedding anniversary xx years ago - the weather was a lot better this time !

The views from the boat are amazing but not as amazing as the views from the deck on the roof of the Rockefeller Center which are spectacular !! There are two videos below - my favourite is the one showing Central Park.

Restaurant-wise, we've done pretty well so far. We've eaten at the Union Square Cafe (American), Marea (very new, mainly fish), and lunch at Blue Smoke (great ribs...). Tonight Elizabeth and I went to see "Mary Stuart" on Broadway which was excellent and ate at Baboo restaurant just off Washington Square which is one of those "book six months in advance" restaurants. I have to say the food was very good - worth a try if you can be bothered to fight for a table...

Only a couple of days (and blogs) to go....tomorrow evening I'm going to hand over to my fellow travellers for their take on the whole road trip......however, in the morning we're taking the Liberty Island cruise - we're doing our best to blend in and not look like a bunch of tourists...

New York City - the final college visits

It was great staying with Louis & Fran but we still had three more college visits planned and were moving onto our final hotel - the Four Seasons in NYC. We had planned to stay elsewhere but Elizabeth's cousin Jeremy very kindly arranged for us to be given a special family rate, and as the Four Seasons is probably the best hotel in New York, this was an opportunity not to be missed !!

After unloading the Tahoe of luggage for the last time, we caught a cab to New York University (NYU) which is downtown in Greenwich Village. The routine is exactly the same on all of these college tours.....first comes the "Information Session" which lasts for an hour and runs through the usual stuff - make up of the university, heritage, admissions, financial aid packages, etc, etc, blah, blah....even Brandon knows the stuff off by heart.....occasionally the pitch is interspersed with a few jokes - the speaker at Yale told us about a candidate who obviously had spell-checked but not proof-read their "personal statement" essay....which told of how he loved to torture children. He was happy torturing kids in 5th & 6th grades and had been torturing them for years. The student had obviously meant to write "tutor".....however, we were then told exactly the same story in another info session at a different school the following day...

Then follows the tour....NYU is unusual in that its campus occupies several buildings across various streets in the same area - so some student residences are above Starbucks for example. The whole university is integrated into the city itself giving it a real urban feel

Next we went to see Columbia which is uptown Manhatten and is one of the eight Ivy League colleges. A very different experience ! Here, there is an identifiable campus although it is still very much part of the city. Elizabeth and I liked it much more than we expected - the buildings are beautiful and the tour was pretty cool - although the info session was still extremely dull (the only highpoint came when the speaker asked which name might be missing from the list of notable writers and philosophers whose names are engraved around the top of the library building. Who should come after - Virgil, Socrates, Plato, Homer.....and Cody whispered "how about "Marge"...)

This morning we drove across the border from New York into the 14th and final US state on our road trip - New Jersey - to visit another Ivy League college....Princeton. The campus here is absolutely breathtaking - by far the prettiest that we have seen (and that's really saying something). Another very competitive college as far as admissions are concerned but Harley liked it so it'll probably be on "the list".

Once again, it's impossible to go into too much detail here about every university that we've visited on this trip - all eleven of them. So if anyone reading this wants (or knows anyone else who might want) to speak to Elizabeth or I direct - just email us on elizabeth@hub-media.net or gary@hub-media.net We'll be pleased to hear from you.

Tomorrow we start to explore NYC but before that, we had one final stop.....Hertz car rental in Manhatten.......to drop off the Chevy Tahoe - 4,563 miles later. As you can see, the boys were really sorry to see her go.....

Greenwich - a night at Hotel Berrick

It was a scary 6:30am when we left Boston and hit the freeway for Middletown, Connecticut - home to Wesleyan University. We had intended to drive by Brown College in Providence, Rhode Island but that would have involved a 5:00am start and......although Harley's education is important.....it's not that important !!

Wesleyan has a great campus which is home to 2,700 undergraduate students. It has buildings scattered either side of Wyllys Avenue in Middletown (which in itself is a dump) and the facilities (especially sports) are very impressive. Also, Wesleyan has a 20% acceptance rate which is far higher than some of the Ivy leagues which are closer to 7%.

Having once again skipped lunch, we arrived at 1:00pm in New Haven to visit Yale College which couldn't be more different to any of the others. Yale is much closer to the Oxford University experience since all students are divided into "residential colleges" - similar to the Oxford / Cambridge college system but Yale's colleges only relate to living quarters rather than course / subject work.

It's is difficult not to be impressed by Yale as a university - the facilities and heritage are second to none - and it was started by Elihu Yale - an Englishman (okay, so he was actually Welsh..) Apparently, the Yale alumni are relieved to be known as Yalies since one of the other main initial donors was Jeremiah Dummer and the college came close to being called "Dummer" in which case the alumni would have been known as "Dummies"...anyway, it'll definitely be on Harley's list...

This evening we drove further south to stay with our close friends Louis & Fran Berrick who used to live next door to us in London and now live in a beautiful house in Greenwich, Connecticut. It was very strange to see them after such a long journey; it was also strange after almost three weeks on the road, and after staying in thirteen different hotels, to sleep in a bedroom without numbers on the door...

Tomorrow, we're off to our final stop on the roadtrip - New York City - the boys can't wait !!

L / R - Brandon, Cody, Elizabeth, Fran, Hannah, Louis, me & Harley

Boston (Pt 2) - colleges

We're staying at XV Beacon which is a boutique hotel in downtown Boston and I have to say is definitely the coolest place we've stayed on the trip so far. We have two connecting "studio" rooms - very Ian Schrager decor. Boston itself looks and feels very European - I guess there's a good reason that the whole region is known as "New England" ! Last night we checked out the shops on Newbury (which is next to Exeter, Gloucester, Hereford etc - all English placenames) and it feels just like Knightsbridge in London. We ate at a great sushi restaurant - Uni - recommended by friends Maddie & Peter from Santa Barbara - excellent sashemi.

This morning we visited MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) which is nearby - very much for students who want to major in math, engineering or science - they wouldn't know "liberal arts" here if it jumped up and bit 'em. Cody is convinced that this will be the college for him in three years time....not because of the demanding applied math program....nor because of the opportunities to study advanced nano technology....Cody was extremely impressed by the fact that MIT has it's own, on-campus branch, of Dunkin' Donuts.

Having said that, the MIT students do apparently have a fun side to them - a few years ago they installed a police car on top of the 150 foot high Great Dome - which turned out to be a life-size model.....

.....those crazy mathematicians !!!

Later we visited the acknowledged Mecca of US colleges - Harvard....it was very impressive and Harley will almost certainly apply but they apparently receive over 30,000 applications every year and only accept approx 2,000 !!

While the odds are not great, Cody reckons that Harley's chances have been greatly improved by the fact that his name begins in "H", just like Harvard. It doesn't sound very scientific to me, but who knows ??

Tonight we had dinner at Stephanie's - another Peter & Maddie recommendation - also very good !! Tomorrow we have an early start as we have three colleges to look at....and tomorrow evening we're staying with our close friends Louis & Fran in Greenwich, Connecticut....I'm not sure they realise what they're letting themselves in for !!!

Boston - we've arrived on the east coast !!!

We made it.....just over 4,000 miles and here we are being photographed in front of the Atlantic Ocean when, just over two weeks ago, we drove off leaving behind the Pacific....

Our day started at the "Sheraton Ghost Hotel" in Springfield - the 350 room hotel with no guests (except us). In fact, when we left our room this morning, we found that someone had mysteriously removed all the carpeting on our floor and strange carpet rolls had appeared in the corridor - very weird !! Having eaten one of the worst breakfasts so far, we set off for Amherst College, just north of Springfield, Massachusetts. It's a very small university (only 1,7000 students which is very small) and classifies itself as a "liberal arts college" which means that a strong emphasis is placed on alternative academics such as humanities and philosophy - it's quite common amongst private schools in the US.

The campus is beautiful and Amherst itself is very nice - it may not be quite right for Harley but we still have a lot of other campuses to see.

From there, we drove the final 100 miles to Boston and the east coast proper (with "Born in the USA" by Bruce Springsteen playing on the car radio). There's a definite difference between driving in the east coast states - other drivers (and the traffic cops) are much more intense and aggressive....we'll wait and see how everything else measures up...

Niagara Falls (Pt 2)

Big day tomorrow.....forget the fact that this morning we visited Niagara Falls - one of the seven wonders of the world....tomorrow morning (and I have had this officially confirmed) Harley, Cody & Brandon are all to be given clean clothes to wear (okay - Cody is keeping the same pair of shorts because we're worried that if we gave him an entire set of new clothes in one go, his body may physically go into shock). I managed to convince Elizabeth that if we didn't change their clothes, rumours might start that this whole trip was a hoax and we're just photographing the boys in front of different backdrops in a studio or something...

Top photo - at Niagara Falls; middle photo - at the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame; bottom photo - dinner at Carmelo's restaurant

Anyway, the town of Niagara is a bit of a dump but the Falls were spectacular and the rapids which lead up to them are seriously strong - even more powerful than those we rode in Utah during a certain white water rafting trip...

That's Toronto in the background and check out the rainbow at the end of the video...

After our visit to Niagara Falls, we drove another 380 miles to Springfield (the boys were all excited because they were hoping to spot Homer Simpson), Massachusetts - tomorrow morning we have scheduled a tour of Amherst College. If you take a look at the map above, you'll see that we've now driven six short of 4,000 miles; and we're less than 100 miles from the east coast - finally!!

Niagara Falls - Happy Birthday Cody !!

Today is August 1st and Cody has just turned 14 !! This morning we visited the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland which I thought was brilliant ! The building itself is extremely similar to the Louvre Pyramid in Paris only a lot bigger. It houses 4,000 or so exhibits - mostly costumes, guitars and documents from a real cross section of musicians from Hendrix to Led Zeppelin to the Temptations to Aerosmith to Michael Jackson (inc the red jacket he wore in the Thriller video) etc, etc...Cody seemed to enjoy himself - the only problem being that we spent a lot longer there than we expected.

As a result, we left late and didn't set off for Niagara until tea time. We caught our old friend, the Interstate 90, to Erie in Pennsylvania - the 10th state we have visited on our road trip so far - and eventually crossed the border into New York state....we're getting close to the east coast now....and we arrived in Lewiston - a small town approx 10 miles from Niagara Falls about 8:00pm. We went straight out for Cody's birthday dinner. We are staying at the Barton Hill Hotel which is on the bank of Lake Erie so we can literally see Canada from our hotel room !!

On the drive to Niagara, the boys amused themselves in the usual way...

Canada - apparently

Cody thoroughly enjoyed his humungeous birthday dessert - maybe he could do this for a living - think of what it would save in college fees !!

Cleveland - home of Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame

Back to another long drive day again and I took it upon myself to undergo the 370 miles or so from Chicago to Cleveland which took just over six hours including a 15 minute stopover and a 30 minute unplanned detour. The journey took us through fields, across the border from Illinois into Indiana and eastwards through more fields
until we changed time zones for the last time
and entered Ohio. Now the boys all think that visiting the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland was an integral part of the road trip and I haven’t had the heart to tell them that Cleveland is actually mid-way between Chicago and Niagara Falls so we were going to stop off there anyway. It actually works out pretty well as tomorrow is Cody’s 14th birthday so he’ll get to visit the Hall of Fame in the morning and one of the seven wonders of the world in the afternoon !!

We were all sorry to leave Chicago – it really is a great city !! We stayed at the Four Seasons while we were there, partly because it’s one of the best hotels in the city, but mainly because they have a “stay two nights and the third night is free” offer (I guess that no one is immune from the recession…) Now, some might say that this isn’t a tough, gritty road trip across the United States at all, but just some glorified, luxury vacation…but of course, that just isn’t true !! One morning for example, the New York Times was delivered to our suite when we had specifically requested USA Today; and yesterday, Elizabeth’s eggs were over-cooked which almost ruined her breakfast ! But we survived….and hopefully the Ritz Carlton in Cleveland won’t make the same mistakes !! I have to sign off now…or I’ll miss my 8:30 Reiki massage and facial…..

Chicago (Pt 2) - beach & skyscrapers

In case you didn't know, Chicago is situated at the edge of Lake Michigan (yes, of course I knew that !!), but you probably didn't realise that there is a beach (Oak Street Beach), right at the end of Michigan Avenue (Chicago's Rodeo Drive / Bond Street) which is very weird as it is totally overlooked by skyscrapers (the first ever skyscraper was built in Chicago...). We had a day off yesterday (no driving 400 miles, no unpacking or re-packing) and spent the afternoon in the sun. Today, we took a river boat tour to check out the city and I have to say that we love it here !! Both Elizabeth and I agree that Chicago is probably the nicest city we've visited in the US (and one of the nicest in the world) - it has a great vibe - not too fast; everything is together, it's not too big or spread out - it's not too big; however, I know the winters can brutal and so I'd have to visit in December / January before I would really know how good the quality of life is here.

We also visited two colleges today - Northwestern and the University of Chicago (which is where Obama taught after he left Harvard Law School). Northwestern is acknowledged to be the better of the two schools. It has two campuses - the larger in a suburb called Evanston which seemed great. Harley liked it and would definitely put it down as a possible - it's main strengths are in Engineering, Journalism & Theatre - it's buildings a mix of old and modern. University of Chicago has more of an urban feel to it and it didn't have as strong an appeal although it is still definitely a good school. It was built in the 1800's by John D Rockefeller who loved everything English so the buildings look a little mock-Oxford in style.

Northwestern University - a mix of traditional & modern

University of Chicago

Once again, if you want any feedback from us on these colleges (or know anyone else who may be considering them for their offspring), don't hesitate to get in touch. Tomorrow we leave for Cleveland, Ohio and the highlight of the trip for the boys - The Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame (as if you didn't know that was in Cleveland ??!!).

Chicago (Pt 1)

So we're now deep in the mid-West as we finally reach a proper city - Chicago.

We were actually a little sad to leave Des Moines - Elizabeth & the boys really enjoyed their seafood meal last night at a restaurant called Splash (I only agreed to go because I thought Darryl Hannah might walk in...); and I really enjoyed paying the bill at the Sheraton Hotel this morning - $ 139 for a suite for the five of us - now that's what I call a good hotel !!!

The 350 miles or so to Chicago was extremely dull. The Iowa landscape becomes flatter and quickly loses its charm and about lunchtime we crossed the Mississippi River into the state of Illinois. While Iowa has an abundance of corn, the one thing Illinois seems to have an abundance of is State Troopers. They're everywhere, stalking traffic in their inconspicuous little white Town cars. We saw more traffic cops here than we have in the rest of the 3,000 miles put together. After an irritating 20+ mile detour for roadworks (that's something else we've found an abundance of in all states...), we finally reached some....wait for it...traffic !! Funny how you can miss other cars sometimes...

Anyway, we have a day off tomorrow to see some sights, maybe shop for some more boxer shorts, before we re-start the college tour thing on Thursday. In the meantime, we have been getting some strange looks since we've been in Chicago. Maybe, the Old West style has left its mark - admittedly, our dress sense has changed over the past 10 days - judge for yourself...

Elizabeth had decided that drinking straight from the bottle was the way to go - it really saved on the washing up !!

Des Moines - where ??

Des Moines is in Iowa (of course I knew that...); it is the state capital, has a population of approximately half a million people and is very close to where John Wayne was born. I wouldn't want to offend any Iowans reading this by saying that we would never have stopped there in a million years if it wasn't for the fact that it is on the way to Chicago, but of course it's true !!

We are staying at a Sheraton for the second night in a row (last night it was Sioux Falls) and the two hotels are so similar, it feels like we just drove in a 450 mile circle. Everything is exactly the same...from the plastic hamburger that they serve in the restaurant, to the air-conditioning which is so cold that it literally takes your breath away. Thankfully, one difference is that the Des Moines Sheraton doesn't supply the same large unqualified stain to the bed sheets as is thoughtfully supplied by the Sioux Falls Sheraton; but SDM does offer guests their exclusive room wireless "so frustratingly intermittent that you'll throw your laptop out the bedroom window" service; together with their unique "wakeup (if we can be bothered) call" which avoids annoying guests by telephoning them first thing in the morning when they may be asleep...

Iowa itself is more interesting than we had thought it would be. In fact it resembles the English countryside - rolling green hills and fields. Having said that, it does lose its charm after 200 miles or so and it did leave me a little short on stuff to write. And so tonight, I thought I should pass it over to some of my fellow travellers (the under-18's who live on the Tahoe's back seat - you know - the one's who start complaining every time the Ritalin wears off). So here goes - age before beauty....Harley first :-

Harley

Dear Blog Readers - as one of the casualties of this road trip, I feel that it is my duty to warn you all of the dangers of blogging. Nothing on our 10 days on the road has sucked up as much time as the accursed http://sugarmanroadtrip.blogspot.com/ (including the driving) !! From pulling a sharp (and illegal) U-turn in order to photograph the Idaho state border sign...to posing as Presidents in front of Mount Rushmore and drawing a crowd of sniggering onlookers, the blog has unofficially taken over our lives. If any other families feel the urge to pack and drive 4,000 miles in a cramped SUV, I have only one thing to say - "keep it to yourselves !!"

Cody

Dear Blog Readers - don't take any notice of what Harley says - I'm really enjoying this trip. I get to wear my favourite T-shirt every single day (I sleep in it most nights too !) I finally visited my home town of Cody and bought another T-shirt with my name all over it - so that's my wardrobe sorted for the next six months. The only thing bothering me on this "vacation" is what is happening for my birthday on August 1st. I was hoping to celebrate it with more than just a bottle of coke and a bag of Trail Mix !!

Brandon

Dear Blog Readers- during this trip I have learned many things - some are quite useful and others would only come in handy if you're a crazy, British family who have decided to drive across America. If you are planning on driving for six hours straight, always bring Trail Mix (a mix of nuts, pretzels, raisins and M & M's). Don't lose your camera the week before you leave (like Cody did). And never, ever volunteer to sit in the middle seat.

Sioux Falls - visit to Mount Rushmore

In case you haven't seen them, there are now two posts from Deadwood...scroll down to read.

This morning we continued deep into South Dakota in order to visit Mount Rushmore situated in the Black Hills. It was an incredible project started in 1927 and not completed until 1941 (I've been involved in building projects like that myself...). It's pretty surreal as you drive up this hill and round a bend to catch a glimpse of such an iconic monument. There is now a national park dedicated to it and we took the audio tour which was also very interesting.

We left Mount Rushmore and began the long drive to Sioux Falls which is at the far eastern end of South Dakota. We drove out of the Black Hills and into the Badlands - and across mile after mile of fields. It's amazing to think that, in a country of 300 million people, there is so much land inhabited only by the odd cow.... We've already covered 2,300 miles (and crossed two time zones) with a further 600 to go in the next two days. That'll make 3,000 miles in 9 days of driving. Poor Brandon said that he'll never complain about driving from Santa Barbara to LA again !!