We had a few hours to kill before our flight ot NZ so after staying the night in LA we headed down to Venice Beach and Santa Monica Pier.

Venice Beach was weird, lots of old hippies and bums on the beach. Santa Monica was a lot nicer and we stayed on the pier for a bit watching some Latinos fishing.

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Staying in Hollywood is a bit mad. On the main strip, people can be very pushy trying to sell you things or asking for money. But it is very cool seeing things you really only see on TV; the types of cars, fire hydrants, the Hollywood sign. The Hollywood Walk of Fame is cool too, but gawking at it immediatley marks you out as a tourist. Seeing the famous (and not so famous) names is great, but my favourite was the stars at the intersection of Hollywood and Vine, celebrating the Apoll XI moon landing.
That Michael Collins lad got around, didn't he?

Here's the first of a a section about people we've met on our travels. This guy is Tom LaBonge, the Councilman for District 4 in LA.

I think me and Elaine had found the area around Hollywood Blvd. a little too in-your-face, but after taking a stroll up towards the Hollywood sign we found it completely different. First off we got directions to the sign from a nice guy driving to work, then we met Tom LaBonge who gave us more directions then ran after us from his car and gave us a free map and calendar! Nice…

After the torture of a 12 hour flight from London to LA we finally got a decent sleep in a creepy hotel just down from the airport. It must have been the reverse jet-lag, but I was up kind of early and I got this nice shot of the sun coming up over the LA hills. We haven't seen Spencer or Heidi yet though…