Grand Finale at Disneyland

After showing great patience, the boys FINALLY got to visit Disneyland on the final day of our 300-day North American odyssey.

The Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters were a huge hit, with Dash taking on the evil emperor Zurg about 12 times.

Indy tried Space Mountain and nearly needed the change of clothes I brought along for him.

Nath and I took turns with Indy on Star Tours (Dash was under the height limit) and it was by far our favourite attraction.

In fact on my voyage, Darth Vader identified me as the rebel spy he was hunting, fulfilling my lifelong dream of running away to join the Alliance.

We adults also got to go on the Indiana Jones ride (as single riders), making good on a promise we had made to ourselves when we'd visited 15 years ago and had missed out on riding it then.

A wonderful part of the day was when Indy enrolled as a padawan at the Jedi Training Academy and took on seriously scary Darth Maul in a light saber duel.

The padawans refused to turn to the dark side and Darth Maul and Darth Vader departed without any new apprentices (though I believe Indy would be quite capable of summoning the powers of the dark side).

All of the attractions and street fun in toon town delighted the kids and here Dash got to try his first roller coaster - so proud of being a big boy!

A new and incredibly cool attraction is the Iron Man 'Suit Up' area where the boys got to see themselves wearing Iron Man's armour and to fly and practice using his weaponry.

The light and sound spectacular parade wrapped up the day nicely with a cherry on top and we departed with memories that, for the price tag, you would hope will last a lifetime!!

More photos of our adventures at Disneyland can be found here.

While in LA we also took in the views stretching from the Hollywood sign to downtown from Griffith Observatory.

Then we took a drive down Hollywood Boulevard, Rodeo Drive, Sunset Drive and through Beverly Hills.

The Venice canals were shrouded in west coast sea mist as we strolled through them.

Then we bid farewell to North America and to our epic trip - feeling incredibly lucky that we have had the chance to be together for all of this time doing what we love best.