The Final Chapter

After landing in LAX after a long flight from Fiji we tried to change our flights back to London but without much success. Air New Zealnad couldn't help us and with the time difference we couldn't get hold of STA travel in London until the middle of the night LA time. We decided to stay close to the airport incase we could get a flight out the next day. Without realising we ended up saying in Inglewood! Luckily we didn't know this when we walked a couple of blocks to get some sushi! However Lauren spent a restless night ater finding out the address! After establishing that we couldn't get on a flight for another four days we decided to hire a car. We explored the big houses in the hills and drove the Pacific Coast highway as far as Malibu. As our few days in LA weren't planned we decided to ring Si on the off chance that Walter, a guy Simon used to work with who we had also met and lives in San Diego would be around. Walter, the keen skier that he is, told us he was having a weekend in Colorado. Being such a top bloke, he said we must get in contact with his brother Andrew who lives in an apartment on Manhattan Beach with three other lads. Having not met Andrew and feeling like we would be intruding, we weren't entirely sure about how they might feel with two strangers staying with them for a couple of days. Andrew insisted doing it anyway. It turned out that it was the best thing we could of done. Andrew unsurprising was as good a bloke as we could have hoped for and his flatmates, Sean, Brett and Albert were just as cool. Andrew, along with his lovely girlfriend Melissa, took us to their favourite Mexican, Ponchos, walking distance from the house (like everything else was). It was delicious and made us think how fortunate they were to have authentic Mexican food on their doorstep. When we found out Andrew lived on Manhattan Beach, Ben mentioned this was the coolest place he had visited when he had been in LA a few years ago. Having experienced it, it was definitely a place we would have loved to have lived ourselves. They lived in a three floor terraced house over looking the beach and downstairs in a store room the had at least 15 surfboards to suit ever wave. As it happened, when we were there, they were experiencing the best swell they'd had for a while and the break outside their house was getting the best of it. The few days that we were there, we were fortunate enough to have temperatures in the 80's, as high as 85-their winter! We invited Mark and Gina, the couple from Stoke, to the beach where we kicked a ball around and soaked up the sun. After our dissappointment in Fiji, the Manhattan Beach experience, short as it was, made up for it. It won't be long before we see Andrew's flatmate Albert again as he'll be staying with us in a week or so for work. Leaving for home was a strange feeling and being back now makes us realise how lucky we were even more to experience all we had done. All we want to do now is do it all over again!