Where Are We Sleeping Tonight: Doubletree LAX We couldn't wait to get off the plane when we got to LAX after our 12 hour flight from New Zealand! It was relatively smooth (the occasional little bump but nothing scary) so we managed to get some sleep. We had plenty of leg room but the back of the seat in front of me was about a foot away from my face! I spent most of the flight watching movies and even the entire series of "Episodes" with Matt LeBlanc - I love having individual screens :)
Touching down in LA, we managed to travel back in time 17 hours! I am amazed at how run down LAX is - it's an old looking airport designed to get people out as quickly as possible - there wasn't even air conditioning! The immigration area was crazy - the queue for non US citizens had 3 large plane loads of arrivals and after stopping at the toilet, Clare and I were on the very end the queue. Slightly ahead of us in the queue was a man carrying a large cake... yes, a large cake. It looked like a chocolate bavarian but where has he come from and where is he going with a large cake?! Clare and I were throwing around possible scenarios (most of which were not good) when an immigration worker came up to us and asked which flight we had just got off. After we mentioned Air New Zealand, the airport employee said we could get on the end of the US citizen queue - which was 2 people! Hows that for luck :) With all the issues with getting to LA, I had the feeling in the back of my head that I was going to be refused entry. Thankfully I was worrying about nothing - the guy at immigration was friendly and welcomed us to his country (after we had our finger prints scanned). We got our bags easily and with one the many free trolleys (are you listening Perth airport?!) and customs was super quick and easy. Everyone here seems very friendly...
Next stop was the hire car company where we had booked their low end Jeep for our 3 month sojourn around The States. The only problem is we hadn't taken into account that the price we were quoted was before tax, which on a 3 month hire was several thousand dollars - seriously, our car hire cost doubled with tax! The only way we could see to save money was to not get insurance - not something that I was looking forward to considering neither of us had driven on the "wrong" side of the road before. Thankfully the car hire company guy worked his magic for us - he set us up as a corporate account which saved us just over a thousand dollars! Plus he gave us a free upgrade to a bigger and better car - a Ford 4x4 Explorer - and it's red! Driving to the hotel, the very first time driving on the "wrong" side of the road, I realised that maybe LA isn't the best place to learn how to drive in America. I kept going to use my left hand to change gears which resulted in me banging the door - fool! Thank God it's an auto!
The hotel is pretty good. Despite being close to the airport, I haven't heard a single plane. It was fantastic to finally have a shower after a couple of days - eww. Next we drove on the freeway (AHHH!) to Santa Monica to visit the pier. We played "Wack A Mole" and went on the roller coaster twice. Although it is a relatively small roller coaster, I found it a little scary, especially as I have never been on a roller coaster before. While we were on the roller coaster, they started up the music on the PA system. The first song - "I Come from A Land Down Under" - Clare and I couldn't believe it! Our next first was Taco Bell for dinner - yum :)
I can't wait for tomorrow. Bring it on!
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