Myth #1: Immigration people in the USA are miserable and have no sense of humour.
Maybe it's just me, or maybe it's Los Angeles Airport (oh, I'm supposed to say LAX now), or maybe it's changed recently, but in the two times I've been through it, they were smiley and made jokes. You can't tell people this:

Them: "Immigration in the USA, dreadful. No sense of humour."
Me: "Well, when I've been there, they've been nice and friendly."
Them: "Oh no, don't make jokes at immigration."

When we went through this time, they made jokes, they let A & D sit on the counter (on a lower bit) and look at what they were doing.

Myth #2: Everything's cheaper in the USA
Maybe this is true of some things, but with the stuff in the shops, it doesn't seem to be true of a lot of things. It’s quite hard to make comparisons, because a lot of things are different (you wouldn’t expect fruit and veg to cost the same) and I can’t remember the price of a lot of things. I've just been shopping to Ralph's, a large-ish chain of supermarkets, and I've got the receipt.

I bought the cheapest apple juice I could find, which came in a 1 gallon container. Gallons are smaller here, and it cost $3.79. It happens that a gallon here is about 3.78 litres, so that’s a dollar a litre (just about). Today, a dollar is 53p, so that’s 53p a litre. I don’t know for sure, but I think that Tesco value apple juice is less than that.

Orange juice, 1 gallon, is $5.69. Quite a bit of maths later (or searching on Google) gives 80p a litre, which is a lot more than Tesco Value range. A loaf of wholemeal bread (made by Sara Lee - who knew they made stuff other than chocolate cakes) was $2 - that's 1.o6 GBP - I didn't concentrate on whether I was buying the cheapest there or not. One and a half pounds of Sun Maid raisins was $4.59, which is 2.44 GBP. I don't remember how much they cost in the UK, but they are from California, which you'd think would reduce things.

Maybe there are cheaper shops, but if there are, I ain't found them. (And I've tried, and I've found more expensive.)

Of course, the petrol gasoline is cheaper.