Santa Monica

To be honest, Santa Monica is a bit of a yawn.
Sure, the pier is a great place, but that's your bleeding lot, mate.

The neighbourhood is very South LA, so we didn't venture far. The famous 3rd Street Promenade is not as interesting as New Regent Street. Sure, it's longer, and it does have an Apple store (no not a greengrocer).
And what exactly IS a promenade, anyway. Just another street. Nothing exciting by any stretch. Very ho hum.

I would recommend doing the pier from one of those hop-on hop-off buses, but I cannot in good conscience advise anybody to stay there. Especially on the last day before a flight to New Zealand.

Check out at 1100.
Store luggage at hotel (thank goodness)
Walk one block to Sears.Yawn. A small Farmers store.
Across the road to Bloomingdales in the new Santa Monica Place mall just opened. Whatever.
Head off with anticipation to the famous Promenade. Slowly up one side then down the other. That's barely an hour gone. Now what?
Back to have a better look at the new mall. Another hour.

It's now 1300, and the flight goes at 2130.
OK so it's back to the pier to see the goings on.
Watch some street entertainers. One tried to take my phone as a donation while I was filming him. Good value.
Bought a couple of souvenir things. Watched the world go by.
1440 we head back to the hotel and order a cab. Mentioned earlier.

Get to the airport in about 15 minutes. Originally planned to leave around 1700, amid warnings of a 60-minute drive. Don't believe it for a moment. See previous post.

Luckily, the staff will let us check-in for our flight. Relief.
Drop the bags with TSA. That organisation deserves a blog of it's own, many of which I am sure exist already. I have a new respect for AvSec.

Head on through the scanners. Know what to take off now. Seasoned travellers.

Find our way to the Koru Lounge. Rather nice.
Being run by 2 nice people with strong French accents. Odd.

Sarah suddenly realises that we didn't go through Customs. Very advanced. Don't know if it's just this terminal, or all at LAX.

Checked on upgrade status, and told they are pushing upgrade specials to the EY pax downstairs. Crash and burn. Or to be more precise "*^%$^*)**%*&)&*"

Again, time will tell.