Landing with Our Feet Running

My last memories of LAX involved very long customs cues and large men with loaded guns; clearly, a lot can change in 18years. I thought there would be more large men with bigger guns and much longer and more scrutinizing customs staff. To my surprise, this was not the case. No large men or guns and zero line-up .... Fingerprint scanning technology and photographs .... that's it. It took longer to wait for our bags than getting through customs. A pleasant entry into LA.

The first exciting trip for the girls was catching the shuttle to our car rental place THEN watching Dad drive on the wrong side of the road in a left-handed driven car while sleep deprived. Makes for interesting photos and even more interesting driving when we enter the highway ..... Dick Johnson did surprisingly well; he only went to the right-hand side of the car once to drive, the wipers only came on three times, and we only went on the left-hand (wrong) side of the road once and that was in a shopping centre so I suppose it doesn't really count.

Having our car by 8.30am meant a long time before check-in; however, thanks to Peter's wonderful 'let's just ask' attitude, he convinced the concierge to allow us to check-in early at 9 am. So with 30mins to spare it was time for a coffee and perhaps a little more brekky, and what safer way to do this .... go to the world's best-known restaurant; McDonald's, surely it's the same everywhere.....

Coffee .... No flat white, so ordered a latte .... Hmmm just frothy milk zero coffee ..... REVOLTING and the girls had a hot chocolate with a hash brown which had black bits in each. The worst Maccas ever!!!! So we decided to get back to the Hilton (our hotel) to sit in the lobby and just wait.

It was so nice to be able to have hot showers and freshen up, then it

was onto the freeway to go to Westfield, and yes every bit the same as Brisbane. We managed to get our phones organised and have an early lunch. Still not game to order a coffee, I had a very large cup of tea. It was difficult to keep walking after being there for 2hrs, we were all failing very quickly.

Thank goodness we came back to the Hotel for a quick 2-hour nap and then up to visit the pool and gym and enjoy a local beer and a local wine while the girls had a real lemonade drink - no bubbles just lemon and ice. Apparently quite yummy.

It is now 6.30pm and Peter is snoring and the girls are sound asleep. A day of sightseeing tomorrow after a comfortable and restful sleep, lying down.