California / England exchange programme

My sister and her family have gone home and we are missing them already. They left behind many happy memories, some excellent new books for Lady P and some Yorkshire teabags for me and TLOML. And, a legacy for future family guests: the Hermosa Beach I-Spy Book.

As children we took I-Spy books on all our holidays. In case you didn't guess already, we were dorks. But we were happy, busy dorks, perfectly content ticking off things we had seen in our little books. I didn't realise Michelin still publish them, but so they do and my nieces arrived with several ticks already in their I-Spy Airport books.

The I-Spy Hermosa Beach book is a personalised selection of things to look for in Hermosa, from the perspective of a somewhat geeky British family. I include myself (with pride) in that geeky number, since I started it by saying 'look out for people driving golf carts on the road' and 'look at that shower on the outside of the house - you don't see that at home, do you?'. It turns out there's plenty that's foreign, and interesting, and worth looking out for, in this beach town.

Anticipating a visit later in the year from my little sister and her family (including twin 4 year old boys), my sister and nieces documented what they had seen and what they had looked for but not spotted.

I give you, then, I-Spy Hermosa:

I think my particular favourites are the things which have become commonplace to me, but I was glad to be reminded that they don't exist everywhere. Like dutch doors, and people doing yoga on the beach.

So while I'm sad my sister has gone, that feeling is by far outweighed with gratitude that they came out at all, and that there's a little slice of Hermosa that my British nieces and nephews will start to claim as their own.