Last night we walked back up to Sunset Boulevard and ate dinner at an Italian restaurant. All of the eateries in the area were bustling, with people waiting for tables. It's perfect weather for outdoor dining in LA.
This morning we set off via Laurel Canyon Boulevard to cross the hills into North Hollywood. I love driving through these canyons, smelling the flowers and trees and admiring the houses. The architecture ranges from 1950's square, brown buildings to Swiss chalet inspired mansions. They are all cleverly engineered into the hillside, as the canyons are quite narrow - sometimes there is only room for one house.
The sky is blue again, and there's been no smog.
Over 37 million people live in this city. Apart from Downtown, most buildings are not higher than four or five stories, giving the city it's sprawling reputation.
The weekend is definitely not the smartest time to go to the beach or the shops - it's very crowded and the traffic is bumper to bumper on the highways (and that's six or seven lanes each way).
We arrived in Santa Monica around 10am, and wandered the 3rd Street Promenade before it became too busy.
The flights back to Australia generally depart late at night. Sometimes we are lucky enough to get a checkout as late as 4pm, but today we've elected to get a room at one of the airport hotels so that we can reorganize our luggage, have a rest and a shower.
The Four Points by Sheraton was adequate, but extremely busy. Parking was limited. It served the purpose of a place to rest, but next time we'll try something less frantic, I think.
Dom dropped me off at Tom Bradley with our gear, then returned the hire car. It's only about a 15-20 minute wait, all going well. There's a fast line for Qantas Club members both at check in and security (money well spent!), but the Qantas Club is under renovation. We were given $100 in vouchers, and luckily there are some nice establishments to spend them in. We thought we still had to depart via Terminal 4, so we're pretty excited to be here in the new one.
We've had a great holiday, and all went well. Flights, hire car, accommodation, weather. We were very lucky. We're happy to be going home, but more excited that we'll be coming back.
Thanks for reading.
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