I love America! From the first day my plane touched down in June 2005 in Pittsburgh I fell in love. I love so much about it, it is so big, there is so much space and land and nothing feels squashed! The food is amazing, eating out in a restaurant is a wonderful experience as the service is delightful, drinking in bars is equally as good as people look like they enjoy their jobs. Service in general is like no where I have been on Earth! Nothing is too much trouble for the American in the service industry.
Originally when Chris (who booked our flights) had explained we would be going via LA to get to Sydney I was unbelievably excited at the prospect of seeing Will and Jane as it had been about 5 years since I last saw them and suddenly an amazing unexpected plan came together.
Don't get me wrong South America was amazing but when I was standing in Panama airport looking at the screen saying Los Angeles my heart started beating I couldn't believe I was getting 6 days in my favourite place on Earth (America is my favourite place after London). When we exited the plane I looked around and I could read adverts, signs and understand everything it was awesome, my eyes were busy darting around at everything. I'd become so used to not being able to read advertisements in South America that I realised I had actually stopped looking at them. Yes yes yes yes we have landed!!!!
Will and Jane picked us up from outside departures and we drove straight to their place in Hermosa Beach. It was so lovely seeing them and after about 10 minutes it was like I had only seen them yesterday, I love how that happens with good friends.
After a catch up over some wine and beers we headed out to the bar that Will used to work in and had some bottles of red wine and slowly became more and more tipsy until we decided to finish the night next door at Project Taco.
Monday morning started with Nathan, Will and I going to breakfast at Good Stuff on the Strand! In my opinion breakfast is one of the best things you can do in America. I looked at the extensive menu and finally made a choice. When placing my order the waiter asked me what type of bread I would like and then listed several for me to choose from! It's the little things like this that I love!
Breakfast was delicious afterwards we walked along the pier.
Hermosa Beach is an absolutely beautiful spot and I can only imagine how gorgeous it is in the summer months.
We visited Will's work in the afternoon and Nathan loved it. Will trains footballers and manages the other trainers. He has all sorts of people come in from little kids to LA Galaxy players! He had a great machine that fires out footballs and is controlled with an app you can download on to your iPhone or iPad.
Monday evening was one of my favourite nights of the trip as we went shopping for Will and Janes first Christmas tree.
We also went to a decoration shop and purchased lots of decorations for the tree. It was the first time it really felt like Christmas.
We went home, decorated the tree and made a delicious dinner. A flank steak sandwich with cheese and a gorgeous salad.
On Tuesday the weather was really rainy but eventually it stopped and Nathan and I went on a bike ride along the coast.
The houses along the beach front are beautiful and each one unique, we ended up cycling for miles, it was really fun. The cycle ride definitely made us hungry and when Will & Jane got home we all went to Thai top which was yummy.
Wednesday morning we got up really early and got the bus to downtown LA. Jane had been amazing and given Nathan and I a map and marked places of interest. We had a fab day.
We started of in Olvera street which is beautiful. It is a narrow cobbled street lined with Mexican restaurants and shops.
Near by was Union Station so we popped in to see it.
Then we headed to the arts district and stopped at a place called The Pie Hole. As you can imagine it specialised in pies and coffees. I ordered a macaroni cheese pie and Nathan a veggie curry pie and we split them. It's really unusual to find savoury pies in the US so this was a real treat.
We carried on walking through downtown and through little Tokyo until we reached the Grand Central Market!
Wow what a place, it was stunning with so much atmosphere. People cooking and eating everywhere you looked.
Then we headed up to the Walt Disney concert hall which was a crazy building but architecturally stunning in my opinion. The silver walls jutted out and glistened in the sunlight. Next time we come to LA we will definitely try to get tickets for a concert as the schedule looked great.
We jumped on a bus to Hollywood and walked along the Hall of fame, which I really enjoyed seeing.
We then hoped on another bus to the Original Farmers Market. Not only did Jane recommend this but so did Laura from when she went on her honeymoon last year so I was excited to get there.
It is beautiful, it has a food court area with lots of different things to buy from cakes to pizzas, from fudge to big American sandwiches. I loved this shop that was full of hot chilli sauces!
There is also a shopping centre next to it which was beautifully decorated for Christmas.
The evening was great fun we went to a bar called the 6th Street Tavern! Jane was there having work drinks so Nathan, Will and I had some drinks together.
We then headed to Perch which was an amazing bar on the 16 floor of a building in the middle of the financial district and it had fabulous views of the city.
Wednesday evening continued with us all then going to watch Will play football and score two great goals taking his team through to the finals.
The final activity of the day was to try the famous In & Out burger. I had the Double-Double and shared the animal fries with Nathan it was awesome!
The end of the week was great as we chilled out, went for walks around Hermosa Beach, cooked dinner and went out to eat at La playita, a fabulous Mexican place and went for drinks.
Friday evening Will invited one of his friends James Riley out with us. He was such a nice guy and he plays for LA Galaxy which was really cool.
Saturday Mike, Katie and Norah were driving up to LA to see family so we all met for lunch which was a great bonus and lovely to see them.
Nathan loved it as he had a cookie dough milkshake for breakfast!
We had an amazing time in LA with Will & Jane, they were wonderful hosts. It's weeks like this that make me so thankful I went to camp as there is something special about the friends you make there, it doesn't matter how many years pass by since you last saw each other within 2 minutes of being reunited it is like you were with each other yesterday lining up outside the dining hall for dinner, getting ready for a hike to Eagles nest, making plans for your days off or singing songs around the camp fire on a Saturday night. I'm so grateful for the 3 wonderful summers I had but the lifetime of friendships it gave me!
Thank you Will and Jane the whole week with you guys was wonderful!