It was a bleak and dreary Washington we awoke to this morning. How incredibly fortunate we have been!! Checked the departure time of our American Airlines flight and looks like slight delay - tried not to be concerned as much negative AA publicity regarding grounding of flights, staff walking off job and faulty aircraft equipment! Booked Super Shuttle to Dulles last night for 10am which arrived a little late due to heavy rain, but after two other pick ups were still at airport at 1130 am for 1pm departure. Very modern airport and facilities but with very slow security process and train ride across to departure gate we had minimal time to spare. Grabbed some lunch then flight ended up departing on time. Met a delightful Australian stewardess (from Qld) who looked after us with drinks and snacks and later showed us a series of Aussie picture books she and her sister had written and had illustrated - about Australian animals surviving flood, brushfire, drought etc. Really cute. Arrived at the ever chaotic LAX just after 3pm and was an hour before we were on our Super Shuttle to West Hollywood and another hour before we arrived at the Ramada Plaza hotel. Was interesting really as previous couple of drop offs were at private homes, the last one in Beverly Hills - the sort of property a limo should have been arriving at, not a shuttle. Checked in then went for a wander even though our body clocks on Washington time were thinking it was 9pm. Found a massive supermarket for some breakfast stuff as not included but more importantly got an immediate feel for the area. Without a doubt looks at this stage like we are in the midst of the gay centre of LA! Interesting! Ate at the restaurant adjoining our hotel which wasn't too bad, got some washing done and got to bed .