Thursday, 13th October

I didn’t sleep that well; I was too excited for the beach and LA the coming day!

We woke up at 5am and jumped in the car. It was refreshingly cold outside.

The countryside transitioned back to endless plains and sharp mountain ranges that protruded from the flat. It was quite a sight. I captured most of the scenery on the goPro.

We stopped off at Dairyqueen 4 hours west of flagstaff, near Barsow and Blueberry Springs for breakfast and I ate the best fast food burger I’d ever had. All the ingredients were fresh.

The roads were smooth and well maintained in New Mexico and Arizona, but once we crossed the boarder into California the roads disintegrated.

We drove through Death Valley. It was a desert with sand and not much else.

It was going to be 87F in LA, all I could think about was getting to the beach and swimming in the cool water.

As we neared closer to LA the highways that you hear and see in the movies started to form. I wide spread of concrete that spanned 100m wide made the drive easy. We were getting close and the music changed from a chill out genre to faster, upbeat songs.

Driving in the LA region was hectic to say the least. We finally made it to the Longbeach area, where we were staying for the next few nights.

The house was a typical Californian bungalow; shutters, wooden cabinets; art deco furnishings and complete with ikea furnishings. It was in a great location and very comfortable.

We changed and headed off to Huntington Beach. It was similar to home but the water was full of silt (and pollution). The waves were great for bodyboarding and we had a great time swimming and playing in the sun. It was so nice to be in the salty water and be thrown around by the waves. It was slightly warmer than the waters off perth in summer.

We watched the sun set, and I had one last quick swim while it went down.

We drove back feeling on top of the world. We cooked a pasta dish with a big baby spinach salad and ate it with Sara (Bens mum who had one last night in LA before she flew home for the weekend).

We watched the movies I took from the day and slipped into bed around 10.30pm. It was going to be a great sleep as I was seriously exhausted from the days events.

I took so many pictures with the goPro- its now just a matter of sorting through all of them and making a movie of the trip!