I reluctantly crawled out of bed at 5.30 as we have to head off to the airport early... quick shower and coffee then a half hour drive and we're saying our goodbyes to Dan. It's been so lovely to see all our friends again and we left Dan assuring him we will be back sometime!

When we checked our bags in mine was somehow a little overweight so to avoid a $75 excess fee I had to do a quick repack but we got checked in and bags disposed of pretty fast then onto the security line where once again I managed to have the TSA Pre approval stamp so I managed to get through very fast while poor old Rodd had to line up with the masses. When I got to the agent I commented how my partner wasn't too impressed at me getting the fast lane while he didn't and asked him how it worked.... his response was "I just wanted to listen to you speak so say your alphabet now.. go"!! So I said we don't say zee we say zed and laughed and chatted with him while Rodd stood in line scowling at me! I had to sit and wait for him for about 20 minutes!!

There wasn't too much open so early in Little Rock airport but we managed to find a breakfast roll with egg, not too appetizing but at least it filled the hole in my tummy! This leg from Little Rock to LA has 2 stops, one in Dallas where we had to change planes but as I'd checked in really early online we had A boarding for both legs so managed to get good seats. In Dallas I popped into a shop and bought a shot glass and magnet cos hey.. I've been to Dallas.. well ok maybe not actually been into Dallas but I did step off the plane so technically..... The other stop was El Paso where we didn't have to get off the plane but were allowed to change seats after the people getting off had disembarked and before the others started boarding. As we were in the second row we managed to jump into seats right up the front in the first row, lots of leg room, yay!! We also managed to work out how to change the time on Rodds fancy blingy watch... It's so fancy it's supposed to adjust to the time zone you're in automatically but ever since he bought it and we entered US time Rodds been telling the time by saying "it's 2 hours after 10 past 9" or " it's half an hour before a quarter to 2". When we were at John and Stephanie's it became a bit of a running joke to ask Rodd what the time was, we had many a chuckle about it with them! 

When we got to LAX I rang the hotel to organise the free shuttle and also rang Heather and Tim as they have spent the last week with Tims uncle but are joining us at the hotel for the last night so we're all together for our trip home. I had booked 2 rooms at the Custom Hotel which we found to be a lovely place with a few good restaurants close by. We weren't there long before the kids turned up so we organised to go out for dinner together but first Rodd and I were starving so walked over to Subway for lunch and also picked up a 6 pack of Smirnoffs and Mikes Hard lemonade. Before dinner the kids came to our room where we had a drink and caught up on their adventures for the last week. They had gone for a walk around earlier and found a ten pin bowling alley so we thought that might be fun to do before dinner, it was only around the block so we were there in 5 minutes but when we walked in the place was packed, we felt a little out of place as we were the only caucasians in the there and everyone seemed to stop what they were doing to watch us walk past them.... we did ask about a lane but the first one available wasn't until 8.30 so, so much for that plan... plan B.... go have a drink at the bar/restaurant attached to the motel and work out another plan. Heather and I ordered a Sangria which was the most disgusting concoction I have ever had the misfortune to taste, I did drink most of it though cos for that price I wasn't leaving it all!! So the next plan is find a bar for another drink then pizza for dinner. We looked about for a bar without much luck until Tim asked a bloke on the street and he directed us to a nice mexican place that had amazing Margaritas on tap!! From there we headed to a lovely pizza place where we had a fantastic meal then home for a pretty early night... Tomorrow we're headed to Santa Monica Pier.

We had a pretty lazy start to the day, once we were awake, showered and dressed we headed out to find somewhere for breakfast. Just past the pizza place we found a little cafe so that's where we had breakfast, it wasn't fantastic but wasn't awful either and was very cheap. Back at the motel I rang Heather and Tim and they had just woken up and were heading out for breakfast so they said they'd ring us when they got back. I spent the time packing up all our stuff as tonight we fly home!

Around 10ish we all headed downstairs with our luggage to check out, we left all our bags at reception and headed out for the day. Our flight isn't until 11.20 tonight so we don't really have to be at the airport until around 8.30 which gives us a full day to enjoy LA! I had done a bit of research and worked out we needed to get the big blue bus #3, when we got to the bus stop there was a couple other people waiting and as we were chatting about going to Santa Monica a gentleman told us that we could also take the #3 rapid and the bus stop was just around the corner, we just all had to keep an eye out and if that bus came first race up the block.... of course that is what happened so all of us took off around the corner and jumped on the rapid. Good call cos it doesn't stop as much as the other so we were at Santa Monica Pier within about 20 minutes.

We had a lovely day wandering around Santa Monica pier, we had to wait for a little bit for the rides to start up at 12 noon and the other 3 got wrist bands for unlimited rides but I wasn't really wanting to go on the rides. I did get a ticket for the big wheel that was a great view from the top and also I went on the bumper cars with them once, that of course was heaps of fun and all the others got on for a second ride. At one point I was peckish so bought some "bottlecaps" which were battered jalapenos!! From here we walked to Venice Beach thinking we'd stop along the way for lunch but the few cafes were a big x'y so we kept on walking... by the time we got to Venice Beach Rodds' foot was throbbing and my back was aching! We found a nice little cafe for a reasonably priced lunch and I found a lovely skirt for only $13 while waiting for lunch to arrive! After lunch we wandered along the Venice Beach strip... so many little shops and lots of people watching to be had! Around 3ish we decided to head back for our bags, on the way home on the bus we spotted an ad on the bus saying the only animals allowed to ride the bus are assistance dogs and horses, horses, really? Now that I'd like to see! I had mooted the idea with everyone about getting a room at the Travelodge LAX (Rodd and I used this last time we were in the states).. they do a day rate for $54 which is 8am to 8pm and perfect for our purposes. We managed to find the bus stop and the right bus to get back to the motel with a bit of help from a lady at the bus stop and then got the free shuttle to LAX that is provided by our Hotel then I rang the Travelodge and organised for their free shuttle to pick us up!! Pretty clever I thought!! We could have just paid for a taxi from one hotel to the other but hey... this way it was free even if it did take a little longer!

So we got to the Travelodge around 5.30ish and were planning on getting the shuttle back to LAX at 8pm. We had time to all have a shower, change clothes and refresh ourselves before the long trip home. Rodd and I had some of our 6 packs left so we had a couple drinks each and were all feeling quite good by the time we got to the airport. Thank goodness we did this cos after a big day out we really needed this down time to regroup!

We had a quick and easy check in and trip through security... alas no fast pass for me here!! Next stop was the foodhall for dinner... took me ages to decide what to have but eventually found something to my liking. Before we knew it it was time to head to the gate, we were all starting to feel the last 4 weeks catching up I think! I headed to the vending machine to get a bottle of water, put my money in, pushed the button and out popped not only my water but about $6 extra change... score!! Finally the boarding call came through and Rodd and I waited to be the last onboard, cos really we're going to be sitting in that plane for nearly 14 hours, what's the hurry to board?? Unfortunately no upgrade for this flight.. although Rodd had asked, only to be told "certainly sir, we can upgrade you, that will be $3000 per seat", ummm no thanks, cattle class it is then!!! 

The flight home was long and uneventful, I slept and tried to watch some movies but my earphones were dodgy, ohhh how I wish we were in those nice comfy premium seats with the nice big fancy noise cancelling headphones! I had purposely booked the last row seats so that we would have an aisle and window seat with no one next to us ( you may remember I did the same thing on the Qantas flight 2 years ago and we'd been moved much to my despair! ) and I must say apart from a little noise from the galley I found them to be fantastic seats, there seems to be so much extra room. The only negative of the entire flight was that I had ordered the vegetarian meals but then being worried I'd get mushrooms and pumpkin, which I don't eat, I changed it to to raw veg option.... Big mistake! I envisaged getting a bowlful of yummy fruits and fresh vegetables/salads...dinner wasn't too bad but for breakfast I was served a container full of sliced capsicum!!! Capsicum!!! I mean really not even a rawtarian wants to eat an entire capsicum or two for breakfast.... Really disappointed and I really must get around to writing to Virgin Australia and let them know I wasn't impressed! To tell you the truth I was almost in tears at the time, I was tired and very hungry and that just tipped me over the edge, luckily Heather gave me her muffin so I had something to eat. I don't know what it is but I've noticed they assume you're vegan if you order veg meals and give you yucky puddings, fake milk, fake butter. It's a shame cos there's so many great things they could serve, I think they should have both veg and vegan options. Anyway rant over... Next trip I'll be taking my own food just in case they haven't improved any!