The reason we weren’t totally devastated to leave Hawaii was because we were heading to one of our favourite places in the world - Santa Monica, LA! We were meeting up with Rachel (Rhi’s sister) and Mike (Rachels fiancé), who had been travelling around California since arriving in San Francisco about a week earlier. They picked us up from the airport and took to the awesome apartment we rented for our stay. Having been to LA a couple of years ago, we decided the nicest area was Santa Monica and so stayed around there for the 3 days we were in LA.

The apartment was right on the beach and really close to all of Santa Monica’s attractions and landmarks. After settling in and relaxing a bit we decided to go for a walk down to Santa Monica Pier, which is like a big amusement arcade along with a few restaurants and fair rides like the big wheel and loads of arcade games. The next day we decided to do a bit of shopping in the morning on Third Street Promenade, a pedestrian only precinct in the centre of Santa Monica, and took a walk in Palisades Park right next to the beach. After lunch we headed down to the beach for some sunbathing and a game of Frisbee. Phil, Mike and Rachel braved the sea which was very cold and full of seaweed! On our final day we rented some bikes and rode down to Venice, the neighbouring suburb to Santa Monica. There is a bike path that goes the whole way along the beach taking you directly to Venice.

We were only in Santa Monica for the weekend and time just flew! We had a really good time though and still love it as much as the first time we were there.