It's been an incredibly long day lasting almost 36 hours. But finally JT, May & I had arrived in the infamous land of celebrities, supersizing, and George Bush.

Our flight wasn't quite the forgettable experience we had hoped. The carry-on liquid restrictions and random baggage searches upon departure had caused minor inconveniences. JT was seated almost 20 rows behind us. Mid-air turbulence had me anticipating the thrill rides at Disneyland. Poor May lost her breakfast thanks to unforgiving motion sickness.

We were glad to finally set foot on solid ground 13 hours after departure. US Immigration was not as grueling as we had anticipated. We were photographed and fingerprinted (standard protocol) before being stamp, stapled and ushered through the threshold, 7am in the morning.

Our mode of transport for the next 4 days came in the form of a cute Chevrolet named Tushy. May had a fearful test drive around the Avis car park – driving on the right side of the road was not as easy as we thought. Finally on the road it took us 30 minutes of tense driving to realise we were headed in the wrong direction south of LAX, instead of north towards the intended destination of Santa Monica.

Finally we had found a beach. Unfortunately we found ourselves few miles off at Venice Beach, just south of SM... Renown for the freaky bodybuilding posers, we were disappointed to see the boardwalk deserted. It was however, only 9am - an apparently ungodly time by Venetian standards.

After a spending a good chunk of the morning people watching at a health conscious Venice Beach cafe, we made our way to Santa Monica Pier. How beautiful. Complete with a nostalgic ferris wheel, JT, May and I enjoyed a lazy stroll along the pier. After the monstrous flight the walk was idyllic. The golden sand stretched from either side of the pier as far as the eye could see. The gently crashing surf provided a soothing soundtrack for our meanderings. It just felt wonderful to have the lazy cool sea breeze tousling our hair. Even though it was winter, the sun was deliciously warm and especially welcomed after weeks of inconsistent and disappointing Sydney “summer” weather.

Jetlag soon began to rear it's ugly hear so we headed west, to our downtown LA accommodation. 60 minutes later, we found ourselves stumbling into our hotel room, delirious from fatigue and hunger.

After we refueled on bento boxes and shrimp pop corn, JT rested as May and I explored downtown in search for a local SIM. After encountering non-English speaking attendants and leaving convenience stores empty handed, we found ourselves power walking back to our hotel as the sun quickly set and dusk settled around us in a very unfamiliar city.

One thing I've noticed is that the shows on telly feature food in every other commercial its rediculous. And its making me hungry. It doesn't help when I'm suffering acute jet lag induced psychosis – I've only slept 4 hours in the last 48, and my feet are swollen... So until next time =)