It was about 7.30am before I struggled out of bed this morning, feeling refreshed after a 12 hour sleep! Had a bit of a struggle to make a cup of tea, using the standard coffee machine to heat up some water and then resorting to bunging it into the microwave to make it hot enough to enjoy. After getting organised Jase and I walked about half a kilometre up to Sepulveda Boulevarde and found a Starbucks for a coffee and a muffin and then came back and got the car and braved the LA freeway system to drive to Hawthorne to find a Home Depot store to buy a cordless drill and some electrical fittings. We'll need the drill to unpack the crate full of stuff for the Expo.
Home Depot is like a Bunnings on steroids - you can buy just about anything from nails to a complete kitchen! Great place!
We also took the chance to have a look at several other big stores in the complex - Best Buys (a big The Good Guys) and Office Depot - before the hunger pangs got us and we found an IHop place, which stands for International House of Pancakes, to have some amazingly good pancakes!
After the late lunch we got onto I-405, which is the major north/south freeway and headed about 20 kilometres to Santa Monica. Found a multi-story car pack, then headed down to to the beachfront to see the beautiful, wide beach and the famous pier, before wandering back into the city area and the all the shops!
In one mall area we saw the live filming of the US Today Show, complete with fawning fans and Botox filled stars! What a crock!
We wandered the shops for a while and bought some things for the family at home, and then as it was getting close to 4pm we decided to head back to our hotel.
The traffic on the freeway was in gridlock and the GPS (fitted with traffic alerts) sent us on another route, which although slow, was at least moving and eventually we got back to El Segundo.
After a few beers we walked down to shop shops and had a rather ordinary meal at Poco Pollo - bad choice - and then it was back to the hotel for a shower and bed!
Thoroughly enjoyed our day at Santa Monica - a very nice place and one I will be keen to return to.