Day 1 - Arrive in LA

Thought I'd try a quick update to let people know that we made it to LA okay and we're at our first hotel which is the Magic Castle Hotel in Hollywood.

We boarded okay this morning despite Jess packing half the house in her suitcase. She was about 0.5kg under the limit. After a little delay we were airborne and to be honest the 10.5 hour flight went quite quickly and was very smooth. We flew over Greenland and Northern Canada before coming in over Seattle and down the Pacific Coast. Pretty cool.

Taking off in London

Greenland

Downtown LA with Hollywood sign in background

We landed, went through Customs and got the shuttle to the car rental place (Dollar). This was the worst part of the day. By far. We waited nearly 2 hours in line to sort out the paperwork to pick the car up. Then we waited over an hour to actually get the car. Dollar were terrible. We didn't get in the car until about 19.00 by which time I was crashing and it had gotten dark. Great. First drive in LA. In the dark. It was a bit tetchy to start with especially, when it looked like we were driving in the wrong part of Inglewood looking for the main route whilst praying for the Sat Nav to kick in. Eventually it did and 30 minutes later (which seemed an eternity) we were parked up at the hotel without even so much as an incident. Driving was tricky and I was very nervous, but we made it. The car seems pretty cool. It's a red Ford Mustang convertible. Pictures to follow tomorrow when it's light.

The staff at the hotel are super friendly and we were greeted with some sort of sparkling apple type drink. We have a heated pool outside which can use too.

We went for a quick stroll to get something to eat at California Pizza Kitchen. It's been such a long day. It's 22.00 local time but the body thinks it's 6.00 the next morning. We're both feeling very tired. It's time for sleep and it feels like I could sleep for a few days straight. It's a shame the alarm is set for morning because we got sights to see. That means more driving!!!!! Fingers crossed for Day 2.

Jess has proof read the blog entry and ripped it to pieces and mocked numerous times :)

 

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