Santa Monica

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Steve - Before heading to Fiji we had to head back up to LA for a couple of nights before getting our connecting flight on. This meant a really long day of travel and we did not get into LA until late. We had decided to stay in Santa Monica as it was one place we hadn't really seen well the first time around and we also figured it would be nice to stay by the beach. We had booked a cheap motel online the day before as we didn't get in until 11pm but we had no idea what it would be really like. It was pretty horrible! Within a few momentsw of moving in some sort of animal sprang through a gap in the wall! We went to complain but he had no other rooms and it was midnight so we were stuck with it! We tried to put it out of minds but at about 3.30 in the morning i could hear at least 2 mice/rats in the room. That was it we were out of there! So we headed to a fast food place across the road and waited for daylight!

Come daylight we got a refund for the next night and money off that night and moved into a motel right on the beach which was much nicer. Santa Monica is really nice, it has a really nice pier like Weston but there are a lot less chavs! There is also a really nice shopping area which Kate loved and went a bit crazy buying beach stuff - shame its going to be winter in New Zealand! It was also nice to have some American food - a great change from rice! I particularly loved Bubba Gumps shrimp place on the pier. I also managed to eat a Chilli dog, a chilli burger and have chilli and eggs for lunch all in one day! It don't get any better than that!

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Photos

It was a sunday and fathers day so the beach was really busy
But it is long and wide so it never felt too packed

Kate went shopping
I watched Indiana Jones at the cinema

Comments

[Lizi]

Bubba Gump
And I thought he was a fictional character - who knew he was alive and kicking serving up shrimp to big old Stevo in Santa Monica. Wowzers. We're off to Glasto this weekend - the amount of preparation and effort that's gone into it makes me think we should have done our own travel blog on it! Have a feeling I'll be home by Friday if it's raining! Can't wait until you go to Fiji and meet a load of Archies living together - I'm surprised anyone's still in that place. Keep 'em coming - this one took a long time!!! xxx