Rayleen and Rob - The nicest people you’ll ever meet

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Now I should probably explain, way back at the beginning of our travel when we were in the Washington DC hostel I bumped into Rayleen in the bathroom one morning. I was getting ready to go out after a shower and Rayleen was at the sinks and had been one of the first people to actually make a conversation with me (maybe I’m not giving off the right signal?? Or maybe I’m just a bit too weird for people to take the chance) anyway we got chatting with the usual pleasantries and I mentioned about our trip and where we were going next and Rayleen , living in California, said we should come stay with her. I’m not used to people being that nice so soon, so at first assumed she was joking and just being polite (Sorry Rayleen if you were and assumed I would say no) but she took me to her room to meet Rob her husband and gave me a business card to contact her with nearer the time. Wow what a nice offer……so anyway our arrival was arranged via email and thus we catch up with the current blog……

On arriving at Rayleen and Rob’s we drove into a typical suburban housing estate with lots of different shaped houses and nicely tended gardens, so we were thinking oh goody this place should be much nicer than the hostels we’ve been staying in and boy was it!! The porch had a welcome mat (and no fridge or old sofa in the front garden so we knew that was a good sign), and a big shiny door handle and bell. Rayleen came to the door with her apron on from preparing our dinner, which we were a little late for, and welcomed us like family members. Their house is beautiful, open plan, wooden floors with colourful rugs, high ceilings and a great BBQ deck area out the back where we relaxed with a glass of lemonade whilst Rayleen continued with dinner. We were staying in their son Ryan’s room (who is away at uni) with a really comfy double bed and ensuite bathroom, it was heaven!! I was most excited to see they had a ginger tabby female called Bailey but unusually she wasn’t keen on me and actually Nath got more contact with her over our time there than I did (boohoo)

That night we got to know Rayleen and Rob a bit better, chatting about the usual, what our plans were, what we did at home etc. Turns out they’d travelled round the US and South America for 6 years in a yacht with their son who was only 1 when they started their great adventure. Visiting little old Britain may not be such a draw now but we offered them a place to stay should they ever make it to England (once we get back, get jobs and save up for a house!). We were wined and dined that night with candles and everything (which was just for this special occasion!), and after swigging back a good few glasses of wine and probably looking like a complete lush (me not Nath) we went to bed.

The next morning we were meant to get up early (as always) and head out but as usual we enjoyed the lay in too much and also a leisurely breakfast with Rayleen and Rob. We’d decided we would head into central LA to see the typical tourist areas etc and that the park and ride (on the metro train) was the best option. Rayleen told us where it was and what line to get it etc so we headed off into town, however Nath left it to me to make sure we had the directions for the train station in the sat nav- big mistake - I put in the address I thought I had found on the net but by the time we got there there was no train station in sight. Needing fuel anyway Nath asked at the “gas station” only to be greeted (I use the term loosely) by a Mexican vendor who struggled to understand the term “pump 5” let alone give us directions. Nb I had no idea how Mexican the whole of southern California is, I guess I’d always know it was the nearest state to the boarder and with all the place names having “san” in them but still we felt like we were in Mexico it self at times.

With me panicking about getting shot at any minute, even though the area looked fine, we decided, as we had no idea where the station was, we would head straight into LA down town and get the tour bus from there. We parked in what seemed like “little Mexico” to find a plaza full of stalls selling all sorts, old men sitting around in the shade and some kind of wedding ceremony going on - it was VERY HOT that day and I was melting in the small amount I had on, I don’t how the people in the wedding didn’t have sweaty arm pit marks!!. Anyway trying to find where the hell we were meant to get the tour bus from was more difficult than I’m sure it should have been. Everyone we asked seemed to give a vague answer so in the end after walking around in the sweltering heat we finally found someone who spoke some sense and told us to wait on the main road - simple that’s all we needed to know (we have noticed a serious lack of bus stop signs through out America). The bus picked us up and unlike the others we had been on it had lovely posh looking leather type seats - no bloody good in this heat we thought. I was so hot in the end I had to sit with just my underwear on - hey no one else could see that high!!

The tours of LA was…. well average I guess, I don’t know what I was expecting really, I was never that bothered about coming here but after being in “the area” it seemed silly not to come have a look. True to form it was false and predictable and being un-interested in both shopping and celebrity worshipping it didn’t really hold any interest for me. Nath also found it a bit disappointing but at least we didn’t miss it out and wonder whether we should ever go back another time. I would say unless you are some kind of WAG I wouldn’t bother seeing central LA stick with the surrounding area. Thank god we were staying with Rayleen otherwise I would have felt LA was a big waste of time. The weather was so hot that a lot of the buses kept breaking down (not ours luckily) and the traffic was terrible, but we did get to see the Beverly hills sign and some posh houses not to mention the gorgeous looking Malibu beach, which brought back great memories of watching Baywatch as a kid. The tour split into 3 routes, 1 being downtown which we had come from, and another being central LA and all the shops etc and the third being Santa Monica. We did all three which in total took about 6 hours and we had to wait a fair amount of time between transfers but yet again felt we might be missing out on something spectacular if we didn’t go (Thankfully we got another 10% off with previous tickets from Washington). By the time we got back to central LA to get the tube back to our car it was dark and the whole place was now full of even more “interesting people”!! we knew we would have to walk through Downtown at, well not the best of times, so we legged it straight to the car with me whispering “shit shit shit shit” as we walked through some dark areas filled with weirdoes and homeless people. We jumped in the car and legged it out of there. (Don’t worry parents I’m sure it wasn’t actually that bad).

Back at Rayleens much later than planned, again, we had our dinner (which was lush) and had a leisurely night in front of the TV. I decided to watch a film as it started at 11pm but forgot from before in Denver that the adverts are so often that a usual length film actually took 3 hours!! So super tired we decided that tmr would be a lay in with maybe a trip to the local beach. Whilst we had been out in LA Rayleen had been shopping and after chatting the day before about missing Cadburys chocolate, we got to bed to find a massive bar each on our pillows - this is like the best place to stay in the world!!!

The next morning we had slept soooo well we didn’t get up till gone 11am. Rayleen and Rob had headed out for a bike ride so we sorted our breakfast and soon after decided that we would go to the shops to get Nath some new jeans, seeing as he could now get his feet through the rips in the knees (Rob was pleased he didn’t have to accompany us so that Rayleen could drive in the car pool lane - “I’m not being your car pool dummy”). With the shopping over surprisingly quickly we headed back to the house to collect all our stuff for the beach to go bogie boarding. But time was getting on so I wasn’t sure after getting up late whether we would have the time to get to a beach now but we packed everything up none the less. Rayleen and Rob drove us around the rest of Orange County past the miles of beaches and condos and rich people. Not quite like the OC on TV but close. We ended up at an area of rock pools and spent ages searching around for sea life. It was so much better than the crappie little cold pools we get back home, there were no over turned shopping trolleys or used condoms littering the area. These pools had sea cucumbers and slugs, millions of crabs and fish and a couple of huge star fish, it was great and I think we could have easily left Nath there.

The cloud had covered most of the bay by 4pm and I was actually getting cold so the idea of then driving to another beach for bogie boarding was out. Instead we were taken on another tour of the area - Long Beach and saw the Queen Mary ship docked (it’s now a hotel) so stopped to get some pictures. I looked into staying there one night but it was $200 at the cheapest!! Sod that!!

That night we enjoyed another delicious dinner and pudding (home made rice pudding!!) and did all the usual laundry and emailing etc. Turns out we’ve spent a lot more than anticipated so I think we’ll be sleeping in our car where possible!! So now, the next morning, after waving goodbye to Rayleen, Rob and Bailey we picked up Sonja (who we’d met at San Fran) and Anna who we’d dropped off in Santa Monica before for our next stop .……Vegas baby!!!

PS. Thank you so much Rayleen and Rob, you are the true super stars of LA.

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Photos

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It was so hot on the bus we thought we would melt

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Some of the locals taking a stroll on a Saturday afternoon

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Wiv de Stains massive aiiiii

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apparently pammy dosent work the week ends, Nath was gutted