LA Confidential

Greetings from LA, on my last day in the US. It actually rained today, the first rain I've seen since I've been here, though I'm not expecting any sympathy!

After the cancellation of the Grand Canyon helicopter ride (I'll just have to come back one day to do it!), the next day my flight from Vegas to LA was a bit of a shambles too. My America Airlines plane developed a fault, and the flight was eventually cancelled. My luggage went on the next American flight, but there was no room for me, I went on another airline, flying to a different terminal! However, we were all soon reunited, so no problem.

I've been staying in Santa Monica, a nice coastal suburb - you don't want to stay in the rough parts of LA! Long sandy beach with a pier, and a short walk to Venice, with it's few remaining canals (which are very attractive) and it's exciting beach life (every form of activity going on). There are a few homeless people here, but fewer of the crackheads and general weirdos that litter the rest of the city.

Downtown (I took an express bus along the freeway) was nothing very exciting, though the atmosphere of the Latino shops added some excitement, and it's not safe at night.

Yesterday, I used the local buses to explore Hollywood, and some of the other districts. I saw the walk of fame, and the famous hand and foot prints (I'm still waiting for my star, if Michael Bolton and KC and the Sunshine Band can get one, then mine can't be far off!), then via another long bus ride visited a car museum, where I saw the original 60s Batmobile and Arnie's Hummer! The local buses are a good way of mingling with the locals, one of the ones I took yesterday had flexible plastic windows, I presume that was to prevent broken glass...

Mike

http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mfconway@btinternet.com/my_photos

P.S. For those of you interested, or bored at work, I've uploaded some of my photos to the net. This is more for my benefit (to keep them secure in case the memory card is full or damaged) than because they are wonderful works of art, that demand to be shown to the world, but they're there for you to look at anyway!