LA is one of my favourite cities. I love the grit and glamour and everything in between. Taking 1.5hrs to get somewhere that the GPS told us was 10 minutes away due to traffic doesn’t even bother me – this may be helped by the fact that we don’t really have to be anywhere!

We made our way down from Van, upgrading to business class with our frequent flyer points. Unfortunately there was no lounge access to enjoy and a car waiting at the other end of the flight, so not much indulging to be had. We picked up our Toyota Yaris, tuned the radio to KROQ and headed out to Santa Monica where we had arranged to stay at a friend’s place while he was out of town (thanks Dave!). His landlord turned out to be a little unhappy with the arrangement (and also a little crazy) so we only stayed a couple of nights but got to spend the next day walking around Santa Monica in the beautiful spring weather, chasing chipmunks with the camera, window shopping and eating frozen yoghurt. In the late afternoon we headed to check out the Getty centre but due to the traffic mentioned above, got there just after closing time. We drove into the hills and walked up Runyon Canyon just in time to watch the sunset. Jaymin had researched the best taco trucks in town and after a few missed freeway turnoffs we managed to get ourselves some delicious dinner for a few bucks.

The following day we checked out of Santa Monica and drove down to Newport Beach, OC to have lunch with my friend Lorraine and her gorgeous 14mth old son Ryland. That night we shacked up in a hotel in little Japan and went out for Sapporo and ramen in an area that seriously had us questioning whether we were in fact not in Torrance but Japan! We spent hours walking the aisles of the Daiso discount store and the Mitsuwa marketplace where we returned the following morning to procure various Japanese treats for our roadtrip to Phoenix.

T & J