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Published: February 25th 2005
Where's the burdz?
Angus at Venice BeachWelcome to our first journal! We decided to have a stopover in LA on our way to Rarotonga as we only had 1.5 hours between our flight arriving and our next flight leaving - with the new immigration & security procedures in the states we expected a long wait to be allowed in and we didn't want to risk missing our onward flight as the next one was 2 days later!
As it happens, our flight arrived an hour early (can you believe it?!) and we would easily have made the flight. Mind you, we had no regrets about stopping over as we were knackered when we arrived and thought of another 10 hour flight straight away was less than appealing.
We checked into the Raddison Hotel at LAX, showered, had some quick room service and then fell asleep. The jet lag didn't really materialise although we were awake pretty early - like 6:30am!
We had booked ourselves onto a half day bus tour of some of the major sights of LA, or should I say LA County as its actually made up of loads of different cities all bordering each other and merging into each other. In
The Venice Canals
A lot less smelly than the other Venice total, our guide said there's 16.5 million people in the great LA area and, believe it or not, 17 million cars!! The air quality was certainly pretty poor as you'd expect with that many motors!
Anyway, we had a cracking wee tour. Apart from the old bufties from Boston everyone on the bus was either from New Zealand or heading to New Zealand or had just left New Zealand and were on their way home!
Highlights of the tour were seeing Marina del Rey where some friends of ours used to live (you know who you are Mr & Mrs Buttery! Although we doubted his description of MdR as a very exclusive neighborhood....what?!?! Must have gone up in the world since you guys left!), Venice Beach, Santa Monica, Beverly Hills (we drove past the BUDGET car rental there and the parking lot was full of Bentleys, Jags, Beemers, Mercs, Rollers....), catching a glimpse of the Hollywood sign, being outside the Kodak Theatre as they were setting up for the Oscars 4 nights later and a magnificent burger in Johnny Rockets diner at the Farmers' Market.
After giving our cool tour guide and driver a suitably healthy tip
Where's your credit card, Angus?
Jo-Ann threatens a shopping spree on Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills - Angus suggests she does a Winona.. as is customary in these 'ere parts, it was off to the airport to check in for the flight to Rarotonga, Cook Islands - hot and sunny here we come!
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Marina del Rey
Seeing your photos of LA certainly raised the question "Why did we leave?"- A question I have asked myself for 5 long years!!! Enjoying the blog. - Stephen Buttery