West Coast USA Day 1

---

---

The trip begins,it's Monday morning 3am, the bags are packed and were waiting for the taxi to take us to the airport,we've been up since 2am after deliberately only having a couple of hours sleep. We have sleeping pills and hope to catch some sleep on the flight. I'm feeling a little light in the stomach,that feeling most people get on this sort of trip.......leaving the family,your house,the cat( sorry saffy) and a long flight ahead.

Our cab driver is slightly amused that we booked a cab so early as its only a 15 min trip to the airport for a flight that is scheduled for departure at 6am,we're leaving nothing to chance, as you can imagine, We wait a while before check in, a quick bite to eat and then off to the boarding gate to wait some more,we board our 2 hr fight to Brisbane,we're lucky enough to have exit row seats, so after a comfortable flight we arrive at Brisbane, Steve and I have not been to Brisbane airport before and find it a bit daunting, international is not under the same roof as domestic, so we are following a map that was given to us in Melbourne, I'm in a panic that we will miss the flight, as we have to get a train to international, It looked simple on the map! What if its the wrong train? Have we still got our passports? Have we got or tickets? My head is just swimming. Finally we arrive at the international Terminal, make our way to the Virgin section. Standing in the line (like a flock of sheep waiting to be dipped) I again go into panic mode, wondering if we are in the right queue and ask the virgin line attendant( a small stature women ,with a very direct attitude) if were in the correct queue, she says "yes", that's a relief ("or,is it").We get the check in counter, Surprise, Surprise we're at the wrong booking gate, thanks Lady! Now we have to go to another queue, now I'm really in panic mode, do I need to get a brown bag and start breathing into it?? We are lucky, this nice lady puts us into exits seats, (I think I scared her with my, I'm about to have a melt down face) we then toodle off to Duty Free for some noise cancelling earphones, we can see that there are a few kiddies on our flight, you must always be prepared.

It's now 10am and we board our metal winged friend (a Boeing 777) that will cocoon us for the next 12 ½ hours. Thank god for the exist seats, 12 ½ hours is just to long to be on a plane, my back was playing up, Steve and I didn't take the sleeping pills (we should have). The fight was smooth, the meals were good and we arrive at Los Angeles airport (L.A.X) at 6:30am, 19 September, that's right, we started our flights 6:00 am 19 September, we've both had not much sleep and it's going to be a long day

Ok, we've just come through customs and we've busted our first American Myth. The Myth....that the American custom officers are hard arse and you won't get a smile out of them, well the lass we had was fantastic, great sense of humour and very friendly indeed. We catch a shuttle bus to the Dollar car hire park which is some kilometres away from the airport (they all are) to pick up our hire car, Steve does the paper work and is then told to just pick a vehicle from S section from the lot, we make our way to S section and there's a varied mix of vehicles to choose from, we wanted a biggish sort of vehicle but some are huge (no good for parking), the first vehicle we open up, stinks of cigarette smoke, not just a hint, it reeks ,we try a few more and settle on a Jeep Grand Cherokee.

So,we have our Jeep, pre loaded G.P.S we bought with us, we've had no sleep, will be driving (to us) on the wrong side of the road, can't book into the motel until 2.00 pm and it's peak hour, this is going to be an interesting day.
We decide to pick up some stores and drive around L.A and check out areas. Wer'e not sure exactly where we're going , just typing Walmart into the gps and following directions. Driving around we find L.A looks tired and worn, we were told not to expect to much of L.A and are beginning to see why. The first Walmart is a shocker, the complex it is in includes a Sears and it's all under renovation and the Walmart's not what we expected, it was so run down. We left to try another Walmart because the carpark at this one was super suss and we have all our gear in car. We stop in at Venise beach on the way,weather was overcast and not many people around but looking at the width of the beach and the surrounding area you could appreciate it's activity during summer.
We stop at a second Walmart, also rundown, I really don't know what we expected??,We pick up a cheap prepaid mobile phone and were told we had to go to a hardware store for a Esky (ice chest) and Radio shack for usb stick for wireless internet. It's about 11.30 and we decide to head to the motel and see if we can get an early check-in, we need the sleep, on the way we come across a Radio shack and purchase the dongle. There's a subway next to the Radio shack so we get some lunch,we encounter our first bum at the subway ,muttering something about if we won't give him any money could we at least buy him a 6 inch meatball roll. Mmmmm, it's a little hard with the tipping, then giving money to beggars, it could soon be us doing the begging. Well, we finally arrive at our first destination, we both have a shower & then bed.... not long before both are done and we are in noddy land. Steve wakes me around 6.30 pm, we go for a walk down the walk of fame, such an array of people from different walks of life, night clubs start early, there are people everywhere, we have some dinner, and stroll back to our room, man this has to be the longest day of my life. Can't wait to hit the pillow........ mmmmmm, sleep time. Good Nite all.



Accommodation:
Hollywood Downtowner Inn
5601 Hollywood Blvd
Los Angeles

Thoughts: Value for money, Clean,We had a rear room,I'd imagine the front rooms would be noisy due to the Boulevard.
Would stay again

---

Photos

The Downtowner Inn
Our Motel for our stay in Los Angeles,for the price,this place is a gem

The Downtowner Inn
Booked this motel because of the neon lights,worked out good choice,

The Downtowner Inn
Comes with a pool and it's in great location

Comments

[barb]

Hi you two well it seem like your having fun. Hope usa is good. We are having fun cant wait to see more pictures