Day 1 - 13 hour flight after a 4hr delay

We arrived at Sydney airport for our 6.30pm flight at 3.30 only to find that our flight had been delayed for four hours due to a lightning strike on the plane when it had arrived in Sydney earlier that day. Luckily we had Jem, Rose and the kids to while away the hours with! We boarded at 9.45pm with Jeremy heading towards business class and the rest of in cattle class. For the next 13 hours it was Qantas Entertainment, trying to sleep, trying to stretch and lining up for the toilets. A relatively smooth flight overall. However when we arrived in LA, where it was earlier than we left Sydney (4.30pm) we had to queue for hours for customs and then queue again for our Avis rent a car and when we finally got to the front of the queue they said our reservation had been cancelled and it would cost 3 times as much to get another car! So after trudging out of Avis and along various roads around LA airport with our luggage we finally got an Uber and two taxis to take us to our hotel in Santa Monica where we arrived at 8.30pm and found Dad and Ruth waiting.

We left our bags and walked to the Santa Monica Pier where we had dinner at Baba Gumps (featured in Forrest Gump) which turned into a birthday dinner for me with the waiters singing and clapping a birthday song! Lots of shrimp were consumed. Then a walk along the pier to check out the roller coaster and other attractions. Darren managed to fit in a plate of funnel cake. Then back to the hotel to try and get a reasonable nights sleep.Read more