Hello from Los Angeles,

I arrived on Friday afternoon from San Francisco and have been staying in a nice hostel in Santa Monica. Santa Monica itself is great, the beach is beautiful and there are plenty of up-market shops and cafes along '3rd Street Promenade' - the place to be in Santa Monica. I ventured out into the rest of LA yesterday, on a tour of the city - it is amazingly vast, in fact LA is composed of 88 smaller cities so getting from one to another in traffic is a mission! However the tourbus was great and I saw all the sights - Brentwood, Westwood and up into Beverly Hills on a 'Movie Star's Homes' trip - it was so cool, we saw so many mansions of the likes of Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, Steven Spielberg, Silvester Stallone and heaps of others who I can't remember or didn't really know! It was great fun though, plenty of dog-walkers, nannies, posh pooches and flash security people around. I saw the house where Michael Jackson perished as well - apparently it is the home of Shaun Connery - strange... We skirted around Bel Air and stopped at a great Farmers Market, then down Rodeo Drive (nice), the Sunset Strip and onto Hollywood Boulvard - show time! It was so cool, the Walk of Fame is great and you can see the Hollywood sign up in the hills although it's quite far away. It wasn't possible to get a photo next to it with my Saints' shirt so I ended up with me and Spongebob Squarepants on the Walk of Fame instead! Then up into Hollywood Hills for more celeb spotting and down Mullholland Drive - a super tour of LA! I saw a movie too with some girls from the hostel last night too - a real American cinema.

I had a great time in San Francisco too and had plenty of time to get a real feel for the city. Alcatraz was really interesting and there is plenty to see besides the cell rooms - the history of the place and stories of escapees are cool. Fisherman's Wharf was exciting, and the Ferry Building, and I rode plenty more cable cars as well - they are so much fun! I jumped aboard one outside the Fisherman's Wharf all the way to Downtown and was hanging off the side the whole way - doing it in style! Except you have to watch out when you pass a cable car going in the opposite direction or you get squashed! Greg gave me a super tour of China Town and North Beach - I'm not sure I want to go to Beijing now - the local street was pretty amazing - a culture shock! And of course - I walked over the Golden Gate Bridge! I took a ferry over to Sausillito (a nice town over the Bay) and hiked the coastal trail up to the Bridge and over - great views and the 'Blue Angels' - the U.S. version of the Red Arrows were doing a display in the Bay - wow!

I'm flying out to Fiji at 11:30 this evening. It's strange as I fly out on Sunday and arrive on Tuesday morning! I'll try and upload my photos at some point although am having trouble with my memory card so I'll give it another go in Fiji. Hope everyone is good and looking forward to the winter - I will be crossing the equator today so its goodbye to winter for me and hello summer!

Grace xx