Orange County

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So I made it to the states in one piece! However by the time my plane landed in LA my cold was pretty tragic, and I ended up temporarily deaf in one ear so it was crazy trying to talk to airport people, turning my head to the left so I could hear whoever was speaking to me.
Getting through customs at LAX was strangely simple and only took a few minutes. Much shorter than the lines I had to wait in while trying to get out of Auckland airport.
My Uncle Bob was there to pick me up from the airport, and we hit the freeway straight away, heading to the OC BABY!!
We spent that afternoon driving around the streets of Newport Beach, in his PORSHE (which I forgot to get a photo of, but for all you motoring enthusiasts, it was a limited edition something, pretty fancy). It is such a unique area. Each block of land is crowded in on the next, but the houses are massive and worth millions of dollars. We saw Tiger Woods house and the house that Nicolas Cage is building. Also drove past the most expensive house in the USA and checked out the beaches that make the area famous.
That night, I met my American cousins for the first time since I was one year old and they are all great. We had a pretty fancy dinner in an English themed restaurant.
Next day was more sight seeing with Uncle Bob and Jan who were the BEST tour guides anyone could ever want. We had breaky in a little American diner right down on the waters edge that used to be John Wayne’s favourite hang out. Then we headed down to the old mission settlement in Capistrano which was used back in the early days when settlers were traveling between towns on horse and cart. Very interesting, and incredibly picturesque. We then hit the coast and checked out more beaches and more seaside towns heading as far south as San Clemente. Dinner was in Laguna down some stairs in a cool little Belgian restaurant with a live jazz band playing in the background.
The weather was apparently pretty crazy for the time of year. Winds were up to 48 miles per hour (someone else can work out what that is in km’s but it was pretty damn strong!) and it even ended up raining on one of the days - just as we were driving through the original ‘surf city’ - go figure!!

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