You hear stories of this sort of thing but never think it'll happen to you!

Sjane and I have found that it is NOT POSSIBLE (as in, it can't be done) to hire RipStiks in Santa Monica, LA. Un-fricken-believable. Many equipment hire places don't even know what they are!!! Can you imagine?!

For our Suitcase Of Dreams, Brandan and Kate elected to put some money towards ripstiking along the pier at Santa Monica. Because these backwards ignoramus-es (I'm certain that's not a word... oh well) don't know what ripstiks are or how unbelievably cool they make the rider look, we were unable to fulfil this activity as intended. But never fear! Down in nearby Venice Beach, they do hire out these old vintage things called skateboards, and Sjane and I made a day of hiring some and putting our coordination skills to the test. Needless to say we weren't as impressive-looking on 4 wheels, but we got a lot less strange looks from passers-by than what we're used to. We took them for a spin up to Santa Monica, and did ride them on the pier. FYI, the pier looks a lot smoother, and less rutted in pictures than in real life. Put our new skater skills to the test a bit. Nevertheless it was a great experience and we're really grateful for the activity Brandan and Kate.

The rest of our stay in LA has been both busy and relaxing. Staying in Santa Monica was a great pick as it's right near the beaches and the iconic pier. Naturally we made the most of the water frontage, running almost everyday (Sjane perhaps a little more regularly than Marc).

The tour company we booked our activities through screwed up our Universal Studio transport so we ended up on a free bus trip around LA hitting up Hollywood, the big sign, Rodeo Drive and Bel Air (MJ and Elvis' old houses, Paris Hilton and Hugh Hefner's love mansions etc.) prior to arriving at Universal Studios. It worked out quite nicely getting to do the "must-do; hate yourself for loving it" stuff for free! Once actually at Universal studios it was incredible to see the special effects, studio tour and the animal actors (who were all refuge animals). A good day out if you're ever in LA.

Then came Disneyland! Marc had read up on blogs to work out how to get the most out of your day. Let me say this is serious business. Researching fast passes, rides to go on at certain times, knowing your Disneyland map, collecting fast passes, making fast passes work for you: one would think that we don't like waiting in lines - this is true. We ensured all tips were adhered to, to a laughable extent. We were both excited like kids at Christmas just to be there.

And finally, we witnessed the great woman herself in action - one of Sjane's all time favourite actresses - Betty White. She is everything you could ever imagine and more, and most of all still rockin' the stage at 93 years of age. Such a star! For this opportunity we managed to get some tickets to be among the audience during the filming of Hot in Cleveland at CBS Studio Centre. It was a fantastic night with heaps of entertainment and a wonderful experience to see how all of the sitcoms are produced, directed and filmed. The MC was hilarious and constantly interacting with the crowd. Marc decided that we should put our hand up for some recognition of some kind, however what he still didn't realise was that Sjane is as awkward in front of a crowd as in front of a filming camera - and for those who have witnessed this - it's pretty bad! So after being dragged up in front of everybody, having a chat with the host about our travels and generally talking smack, we got a couple of free shirts... so I'd say it was worth it! The episode airs on April 8th, if you want to see the episode we contributed to.

The remainder of our stay was spent having a bit of down time either on the beach or around the Santa Monica area. We're off to Mexico now and will probably find ourselves on a beach again somewhere. It's a hard life!