The flight was great. DD has only eve flown with budget airlines before so she was delighted to discover that Virgin Atlantic provide personal TVs , with movies, tv shows and games, and also that all drinks are free, and food and snacks, including ice creams, are provided at regular intervals, very regular, I felt like I gained ten pounds on the flight! There was a good choice of movie too, I watched Twelve Years a Slave, terrible subject but an amazing film with great acting. I also watched Enders Game, I found it actually pretty good, and as I knew the ending I was quite moved by what happened in places. Then I watched Gravity, not my sort of thing at all, I found that of course the special effects were great but the movie just didn't grab me, I felt very "meh" watching it, didn't care if characters survived or not and was bored by the end, very glad I didn't pay money to see it!
We arrived safely in LA and despite me not having filled a form in correctly we were allowed onto US soil. DD enjoyed watching a beagle working at the airport, keenly searching everyone's carry on luggage with his nose.
We picked up our car and I was excited to find we'd been given a Mustang. It's a convertible, silver and very nice. Driving through LA in the dark in an unfamiliar car, chanting "drive on the right" was a fun experience, but we made it safe to the Hollywood Historic Hotel, a gorgeous hotel, full of gilt and wood and red carpets and faded glamour of the Hollywood of yesteryear. We took photos of the Hollywood sign from the street ( a standing joke with DD and I, last time we visited we seemed to never be able to find a spot to see the sign and this year we picked a hotel with views of it for our first night)
On Monday we set off to drive up the coast, the gps that I paid extra for has a dodgy connection and won't charge! There was swearing .... We moved on to our paper map, put the top down on the car, put the driving cd on LOUD and drove with DD map reading and both of us singing at the top of our voices.
After filling up with "gas" we have made it to San Simeon, I've downloaded a free US sat nav to my galaxy tablet and with the power of that and DD's map reading skills we'll be setting off for San Francisco in the morning...well, later in the morning.....
And this time we have head scarves and sun screen at the ready.
Sounds amazing. Have a brilliant time
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