Long Beach

As much as we like our room and hotel, we didn’t sleep so well due to the door leading to the street which would slam every time someone entered or left! Otherwise we slept quite well considering the earlier jet lag we had. After having breakfast, we dressed more cooly than we had yesterday (thongs instead of joggers) before heading out for the day.

Ted had suggested I go to the nearby Comic Con but since it didn’t start until 11am and crowd numbers were so low, decided to go to the Aquarium instead. I did have a peek inside the venue as we passed it though and felt a bit sad I wasn’t going! Today was unbelievably hot again, which we found out later was quite unusual for LA.

When we arrived at the Aquarium, we found out they had special times you needed to reserve to enter so, since we couldn’t enter until midday, went to a nearby Bubba Gump Shrimp Company to get a beer and food, and savour the air conditioning. The Aquarium ended up being worth it - even though it wasn’t an economical choice due to the exchange rate, the place is listed as a non profit organisation, so we didn’t mind.

I ended up taking a lot of photos, as the marine life displayed was amazing. It’s hard to pick a favourite, but we loved the tropical fish, jellyfish and seals the most. When we left, the temperature had dropped considerably due to a cool change. We decided to take an UBER back to the accommodation though - not because of the heat, but because our feet were killing us!

We relaxed in our room during the afternoon to beat the heat, before getting dressed and heading out to dinner. Ted was keen to try a restaurant called Hamburger Mary’s which the FA’s we’d met last night had recommended. After walking through an interesting neighbourhood, we arrived at Mary’s and sat outside, which proved less appealing due to some screaming queens sitting nearby!

The meals ended up being basically hamburgers, chips and drinks but the final bill blew us away, as it was over $70. We decided to consider that our welcome meal, and make sure we were more careful next time! Since dessert was too expensive at the restaurant, we stopped at a supermarket and bought an apple pie and Cool Whip to enjoy in the room. Tomorrow we continue our travels as we head to Toronto, Canada 🇨🇦Read more