Los Angeles

A whistle-stop tour of LA, starting at Muscle Beach Venice. Not many on the gym yet. So many surfers on the water at this end of the beach.  No one was using the teqball tables.

A stroll along the boulevard to Santa Monica, past the numerous and popular volleyball nets. We saw just two skaters, plenty of bikes, and so many joggers you had to look round before you attempted moving to the other side. What an amazing beach!

A couple of bikes had large hooks to the side carrying their surf board. What a great idea!

The end of Route 66 is on the pier.

Next stop, Hollywood.

The Dolby Theatre, where they host the Academy Awards. The boards on the side showing best film for each year since the start. Interestingly, they have the empty boards set up for quite some years to come.

Original Grauman’s Chinese Theater and the Hollywood footprints. Never realised that Eddie Murphy had such small feet!

The walk of fame covers 1.3 miles.

Beverly Hills had an art fair on. Very high end, though I don’t think the people browsing were local.

A little stroll down Rodeo Drive and the neighbourhood. Very impressive. A great place for people watching.

Beverly Hills City Hall, an iconic building featured in many films.

Heading back to the hotel to get the car, past the airport. Donald Trump’s plane is parked up. He is local for the Camp Pendleton event.

It turns out we just missed one of the ‘No Kings’ protests in Venice Beach. Lucky not to have been caught up in that!

A great teriyaki beef at P.F. Chang’s in the airport and then up to the gate. Wow, biometric boarding gates. No need for a boarding pass!

Mark always has special dietary meals on the plane, which normally means he is finished eating when mine arrives. This time, so that we could eat together, I put in for one, but a different choice – kosher, meaning everything came well sealed and very hard to get into!

As discovered on the way out, Mark’s was similar to the normal meals, meaning all three of them, and I expect the whole plane, but not me  had………. key lime pie! Thankfully, Richard loves me enough to trade!

It was really nice! The last place we would have expected to find it! Well done BA! That just leaves a Joshua Tree magnetic bottle opener to find for Richard and a real wild bear for Jo, hopefully not on the plane!