Blogs from Santa Monica, Los Angeles, California, United States, North America - page 2

Breakfast in the hotel, all you can eat $10.95 each - includes unlimited soda! So of course we took advantage of this. All normal rules are out the window...when in Rome and all that. Packed up and headed off towards Mariposa grove. Took the 41, quick stop at Tunnel Point for some more 'wow' photos. On arriving at Mariposa Grove, the top car park was already full, so we (luckily) got one of about 20 spots by the park entrance. People arriving after us had to strive 10 minutes back along the road to Wawona and catch the free shuttle. On getting to the top, we made a unanimous decision to get tram tour instead of walking for hours after yesterday's hike (thanks Gary). This tour was really good. Lew (Gary's dad) would have LOVED it, ... read more

Geo: 34.0113, -118.492This was it. The last day of our grand adventure. Its been over six months since we flew out of Melbourne bound for Singapore. On Saturday morning, we will arrive back in Melbourne, having completely circum-navigated the planet. With our flight not until 11.30pm this evening, we still had a day ahead of us. We packed our things, and grabbed another omelette for breakfast. We met Brent and Emily at checkout at 11, and left our luggage in their room. Today, we had a relaxing day planned, touring the beaches on the West Coast of Los Angeles. First stop, Venice Beach. Getting there by public transport took us around 90 minutes. Being spoiled with the quality of Australian beaches, we've often found ourselves disappointed at over hyped beaches around the world. We were relieved ... read more

We left The Eagle fairly early for the drive to Santa Monica and stopped off at a mall to look for some Hollister clothes for Joe. Lucky boy has a couple of bags full....It was another stonking hot day and the last full day with Mustangs, The road was slightly more scenic than the freeways as we we drove along the coast and saw the signs for the Malibu Tennis club and riding club and some maybe military base?.. called Seebees. The thing about driving in a convoy is that you are often separated but we managed to hold it together most of the time, we had a few hairy moments one in particular when we were in traffic queueing when Martin in I found ourselves sat right across a railway track..!! Bloody hell Buzz to ... read more

Still can't handle this jetlag, awake at 4am is not good! But the advantages are we can get out early, so off to Santa Monica Beach we went, via Paramount to take a photo, tried to get on the tour but all booked up. Traffic in LA is a law unto itself, scary beyond belief when it is actually moving, which thankfully isn't very often! Santa Monica is a very nice seaside town. So we did some shopping, walked along the pier, saw the end of Route 66 & had brunch, then decided we would walk to Venice Beach to see the muscle men working out - Bugger me ( I would have sworn a lot more but my Mum is reading this blog) Hubby says' It is only a little way up the beach, we ... read more

On this trip you will notice that I have a travel companion. I met Sophie, from Australia, while on Phi Phi Island, Thailand. (http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Ko-Phi-Phi-Don/blog-446522.html) After two years apart Sophie and I agreed that it was time to meet up on another adventure. The plan back in December was to head to Egypt, see the pyramids, take a cruise up the Nile, stay nights in Giza, Aswan, Luxor and Cairo. In December the elections were going to be held in March, in March the elections were pushed back to May. May 23rd and 24th to be exact. Our plans were to arrive in Cairo on May 24th. The beginning of May there were violent protests surrounding the elections, 12 killed and over 200 injured. I decided that Egypt was not the optimal travel destination. So we worked ... read more