This morning we have a 200 mile drive back to Palo Alto. It’s another scorcher, so we decide to start earlyish and drive straight through. First, we walk to the bakery recommend by the hotel receptionist; Splash and I buy some really tasty croissants stuffed with cheese, spinach and mushrooms.

Then we start on the first leg of our journey home, this time by the less scenic but much faster US101. We manage the whole trip in 3 hours.

Once back, we walk to Stanford campus to meet daughter No 2 for lunch and a mini guided tour. Much as it’s nice to see where she works, it’s boiling hot, so after after a whistle stop tour of the Quad, Memorial Church, Hoover Tower and a new art installation; ‘Hello’ which is designed to be half column, half snake, we retire to the pool at daughter No 2’s apartment.

For our final evening in California, we decide to go healthy and buy salads from Trader Joes for dinner. Not so healthy, we also go to Gott’s Diner for milkshakes. Once again, there is a communication breakdown. The others order milkshakes, I ask for an ice cream. We are given a buzzer to inform us when the order is ready. I am told I can collect my ice cream straight away. So I do. When the remainder of the order is collected, it comes with another ice cream. So much ice cream! Back at the apartment, the salads go into the fridge, where they stay. We spend the remainder of the evening chatting with daughter No 2’s flatmate and drinking wine.