Well...I suppose the trip had to come to an end at some stage. Today was our last day in the USA. We had a bit of a sleep in and then did an extensive amount of repacking ( petitioning it to become an Olympic sport). We then checked our massive mountain of luggage into storage for the day and ummed and ahhed about the best way to get to Santa Monica. In a flash of brilliance and pure luck the hop on hop off bus just drove by and we decided to get to the pier by learning a bit about LA on the way. Well this was an adventure. The combination of old buses, squeaky brakes, badly maintained roads and slightly crazy drivers meant that the trips ( had to swap buses) were definitely not dull. Our first driver was rather special, he had no regard for traffic and would just stop in the middle of the road for the perfect photo opportunity. The second trip was slightly more calming noted by the fact that we could loosen our grip on support structures ( ever so slightly!) the weather was glorious for our last day and we strolled down to the pier for a look and a bite to eat. This is obviously a very popular spot as it was very very crowded. Lunch was pretty good and after this we went for a walk (and yes a tad more shopping) down the promenade at Santa Monica...great variety of shops. We have noticed that owning a dog is huge over here and they are pampered beyond belief. The trips back were just as interesting and adventurous. We got back to our hotel to have a quick dessert and grab our luggage before our shuttle van arrived. We felt rather sorry for our driver as he had to jam nine people and their excessive luggage into his mini van...he ended up ripping off part of his air conditioning while trying to force the luggage in. The trip to the airport was fun as Betty and Ron from the tour were on board as was a Melbourne couple on their honeymoon who had also needed to buy more luggage. As we walked up to the check in counter the lady behind it burst into hysterical laughter because she couldn't believe the amount of luggage we had. One of Hannah's bags nearly tipped the scales at 40kgs!!!!! The service we received was fantastic...basically she virtually ignored most of our excess weight ( except for the big green bag that was breaking up as we watched), told us to check in more hand luggage and organized our seats so we had a spare one in the middle....I think she spoilt us there. We then waited for a small amount of time and then boarded our flight at 11.30pm homeward bound.