Well today sees the end of the land content of our amazing trip. We are currently in Santa Monica just one street from the beach, and tomorrow we board the Sea Princess to sail home.
The beach here is a beige coloured sand and it is very fine. The beach is quite long and the surf is rather flattish. This is probably due to the reef that is not far off shore. The California surf scene is certainly not here.
We walked down to the Pier yesterday and hustled and bustled with all the holiday makers and enjoyed fish and chips at one of the restaurants along the pier. There were many eating stalls along with the fun park on the pier with a roller coaster and ferris wheel and bumper cars. Slightly different to dodgem cars as these have a large rubber tube around them hence 'bumper' cars. The weather continues to be sunny but quite mild for summer as the temps are only in the low 70's or low 20's in celsius. I see on the news this morning that it is warmer in Brisbane in winter than it is here in summer!
Venice beach is a couple of miles south of here and we have not ventured too far using public transport. There are name brand stores here as well eg Versace, Tiffanys so the expectation must be that there is money down here.
Our hotel room has a view out across the beach and is quite sumptious however despite the stacked mini bar there is no way to make a cuppa so luxury has its downfalls!
The sea fog rolls in here also just like San Diego and then clears later to be clear and sunny. There are also grass fires to the east of LA so the smoke from that mixed with fog helps to contribute to the overcast scenario. There have been homes lost in the fires and after seeing the dryness during our travels it is easy to understand the rapid spread of the fires.
We are due back into Sydney on 2nd Sept so the next 3 weeks will be at sea with 7 ports of call along the way and unless I can find free wifi ashore there will be no additions to this blog as the wifi aboard ship costs an arm and a leg and I need both!
As we sail west from here across the Pacific we will complete our journey around the world as it has mostly been westward travel since we flew out of Brisbane back on 7th May. What a great time it has been and a real true adventure for us. Thanks to Candice at Flight Centre in Kenmore who helped us put it all together and was our reassuring backstop.
The only disapointment along the way has been seeing the folk begging in the streets of just about every city we have visited, both here in the USA, UK and even in Canada. This has to be an indicator of the breakdown in community services across the board. Not a pleasant sight. What is the answer? I guess there is not a single one but a multitude of issues to be addressed.
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