If you have an inventor as a friend you may have experienced a night like ours.

However, it’s unlikely as Dan Garr or Dannnnnn as he known to his swim trek friends is one big, beautiful, infectious creative being. With his beautiful wife Isabelle or Izzy as he calls her they are a great team and make all guests feel welcome. They have a big house and big hearts to go with it.

Last night he cooked on his amazing fondue pot/ bbq and it was so much fun.

This is the ginormous pot he invented and built. Check out the food in little trays around the outside, the little oven pans on the plates. They look like pizza slices. You assemble your meat with a sauce and a few other things and pop it in the oven! Easy. Tasty.

Then there are the prawns lobster and tempura batter to pop into the boiling oil. Delicious.

But that was last night and today was a ‘Day with a Difference ‘

We hovered in bed till the house was quite and Dan & Izzy gone off to work and only Max 16 was at home as school was off for him. They have ‘student free days’ here just like home.

Then we got up and met the Maria the Mexican house keeper. She was lovely and offered to do our laundry.

We had a plan so headed off on highway 405 south to Seal Beach where another swim friend, my ‘wing woman’ Betty was waiting with her husband Craig. We were so excited to see her that we forgot photos!

We sat over a yummy seafood lunch with our super friendly waitress hovering to help. I had a fish taco. Delicious.

After a few hours talking we said our goodbyes until we meet up again with Betty and our other Galapagos swim trek friends for a NY reunion in 3 weeks time.

We decided to drive further south along highway 1 past the beach areas of Long Beach, Newport Beach, Huntington and Laguna Beaches. Miles of coastline. Some pretty places and lots of Spanish sounding place names, being so close to Mexico. And believe it or not the Trump wall isn’t up yet!

We even saw a little red corvette with a blond driver zipping along. I find myself breaking into well known songs about the places and things we see.

We ended up in SAN Clemente another beachside town. Very pretty with the beach on one side of the town and a huge outlet centre on the other side. Natural we stopped in for a look. Steve did a little shopping at Calvin Kevin and I managed to find very comfortable shoes at Cole Haan.

Back onto the 405 north we zipped along the ride share lane going past 3 other lanes choking with cars.

We arrived home to Dan and Izzy’s house around 6.30 …… to find…..

Dan, the chef, in his amazing kitchen cooking crepes for dinner. He loves to cook and has such a great set up. Huge ovens, a grill and hot plate – everything!

The crepes were divine. Both savoury and sweet with fruits. The Napa Valley wine also hit the spot and helped us sit and plan our next swimming adventure together.

Dan was one of the ‘famous five’ swimmers from the Gibraltar Straits and Corsica to Sardinia swims, the Croatia swim and the Hong Kong harbour swim last Oct. So lots of shared memories.

Feeling a little tired we fell into bed dreaming of the wedding adventures to come.

We’re looking forward to seeing Rob & Jordan – but in Sunshine- no snow! It’s been a year since we saw them.