Hilton Woodland Hills & Towers Los Angeles

All packed and ready, it seriously hasn't hit me yet. My flight leaves LAX at 11:20pm and i highly doubt I'll be able to sleep... nerves man. i hope there aren't too many suburban soccer moms out in Queensland. because I'm pretty much fed up with that **** ha ha. Hervey Bay, i am ready for my bicycle and part time job with lousy benefits but great scenery! WOOHOO!!!!!! let the adventures begin..... is Oz ready?

trapped, no more, i am.

... to the usual California weather which meant that we could take a walk along the beach and check out the sites. Plenty of Baywatch style Lifeguard huts dotted along the beach although being October not many people were braving the water. Our aim was to talk along the beach until we got the the pier we could see up ahead, the Santa Monica pier as we found out, but Helen was unlucky enough to step on a bee that must have been buried ...

4 gros avions arrivent presque en meme temps, dans le meme terminal.. donc, beaucoup d'attente aux douanes, ensuite j'attend mon bagage enregistre et puis la je dois encore attendre pour pouvoir sortir avec mes bagage. puis je change de terminal, pour me faire dire que le check in est ferme, ils ont vendu mon siege a un passager en attente. je suis donc placer sur le vol de 22h30 heure de los angeles. je reviendrai a montreal vers 9h15am au lieu de 1h30 am

... better stop moaning might just end up stuck on a 16 hour bus journey with someone from S.L.C who's read the blog.

We arrived at our accommodation and were given a free upgrade to a private bathroom instead of a shared if we would be willing to put up with the noise of the bin lorry picking up the empty bottles from the local pubs every morning and night. We accepted and the ear plugs came in handy! The hotel was right in the middle of ...

... saw heaps of
famous peoples houses - saw Jim Morrison's old place, the house The
Ozbourne's had when they had their show (Christina Aguilera lives there
now) and Dr Phil's place, Paris Hilton's old place, Michael Jackson's
new place (it had xmas decorations?!!?), Courney Cox's place, Posh and
Becks and Jennifer Aniston's the Playboy mansion to name a few. There
are so many MASSIVE houses, we weren't ...

... Columbia, Canada, then ferry our way up to Alaska. Aili has a conference in Anchorage in late July, after that, it's a return trip through the Canadian Rockies and south through the American West back to L.A. We only have a loose itinerary and are sure we'll run into the unexpected (for good or bad!). Hope you'll join us along the way!

... ergh) of customs (but who cares?!?!) was driven to Loyola Marymount University. I'm not going to say much about it now as it deserves its own post except WOOOOOOOOOOW. Beautiful campus and amazing facilities. And everyone (staff and students) were so incredibly friendly and helpful. I had about 6 different students who went out of their way to help me out, and other randoms just to chat to. Fab place with incredibly courses ...

... spinning from it. We then visited Dor'e mum who lives on the Rolling Hills in Torrance and saw where Dor'e grew up and saw the most amazing view from her mum's house overlooking the Santa Monica Bay, Hollywood and Beverly Hills. We then met yet another friend of Dor'e, by now I have been introduced to almost most of Dor'e friends and they have all been amazingly kind to me. This time Wendy took Pilar and I for a ride in her brand new convertible Jag. We went for a ...

... of the trip. The whole area has scattered cabaņas where mostly Germans, US, and Spanish spend their vacations, fishing and whatever. I'm not one to understand what people do while staying in little houses in the middle of a grassy field. Anyway the residents of Bellavista can feed the llamas, rappel on the rappel line set up across the back, and pet the puma named Chiquita. The puma was in a cage, but the owner led some tourists ...