Anaheim, California, 2010

Kaipaki School asked if Travelling Ted might accompany Edwin on his voyages. We were delighted for him to accompany us. Here he is checking in for the flight.

He even had his own passport, and here is presenting it at passport control. We speculated that the US equivalents would not be so accommodating.

Good thing he only needed an arm rest instead of a whole seat.

Here is TT after we checked into the hotel in sunny SoCal.

We pretty much instantly touched base with The Thommassoniae who had voyaged down to do Disneyland with us.

Kids really get the scale of things in CA. Here you can see a Lego Giraffe at the Lego shop in Disneyland, and down by his hooves Merinda and June look up at his chin.

Merinda and Edwin exhausted themselves that week, sort of partying night and day.

We spent a day at Universal Studios. I liked the tour bus part the best.

Kay found a place from one of our favourite movies, where they made that magnificant scene of the seasons passing as our protagonist walks down his favourite street.

We had various fiery experiences and shows...

...but I was taken by a caricature studio. Here we look at Edwin being drawn. He took some convincing!

It would be hard to summarise how good Disneyland was. I went in the 1980s and thought it a bit tacky. Not tacky at all now... an army of staff falling over themselves to help you enjoy yourself... rides of great technical prowess... huge amounts of energy thrown at you... enormous attention to detail... breathtaking design and beauty. Each of us found what we wanted.

Oh yes, I did get to IMS for a few days. I saw some of my ideas on the booth floor, and caught up with a lot of people.

We also managed to catch up with Big Dan and Karen and their kids Luke and Nathan (who is dangerously cute).