Genealogy Trip to California

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Out to dinner on Monday evening with Leslie and her mother (Leslie and her Mom in American speak!)

Leslie (LAscotswoman on xmarks) dressed for dinner. One very elegant lady!

My final day in California was showery. Perhaps the Scottish weather had followed me to California. Leslie took me to the Los Angeles beaches where she had prescribed a brisk aerobic walk all the way from Santa Monica to Venice and back which would tire me out so that I could get a reasonable sleep on the overnight flight home. This is the view from Santa Monica pier looking in the direction of Venice.

We met this poet, Funwi E Numfor, selling his works on the Venice boardwalk. He was particularly pleased when I bought a copy of his booklet and said I would take his book to Scotland and mention his name on the web.

Further along the coast, the lighthouse at Marina del Rey.
Leslie and I had a meal together at the Cheesecake Factory in Marina del Rey and then she dropped me off at LAX airport on Tuesday evening.
I had never been to USA before yet I really felt I was among friends and family. I had met again with people with whom I shared Irish and Scottish roots and whom I had met earlier in the year in other parts of the world, Gord in Canada in August, Madelyn in Scotland in May, and Leslie in Scotland in July. I had met cousin Diane for the first time, I had met x-markers Sydnie7, BigDad1, SoCalFerg, BraveAndrew and OldSarge for the first time, I had met Dorothy from Flickr for the first time, already we are up to ten people there whom I knew already through direct contact or through the internet. I also met lots of new people at the Cunningham tent, including a Cunningham family from Glasgow, Scotland.
Diane and Leslie both made me feel very welcome in their homes and put in a lot of time and effort to make me feel at home and to give me guided tours of their localities, and my very special thanks are due to both of them.
Thankyou all my American friends for giving me such a wonderful experience.
To quote from Robert Burns:-
And I will come again, my love
Tho' 'twere ten thousand mile.
Actually California is an eleven thousand mile round trip from Scotland, I wonder if Burns could ever have foreseen that people in Scotland and America, bonded by their Scottish roots, would one day travel by aeroplane, when he penned his words.