We didn’t sleep much on Sat­ur­day night and get­ting up at 4:30 a.m. on Sun­day was bru­tal. I can barely remem­ber what we did at the Ottawa air­port, but we must have got it right because we landed in Toronto at 8 a.m., trans­ferred to another flight and landed in Los Ange­les six hours later.

Okay, allow me my two min­utes rant about air­port secu­rity: it’s so bloody stu­pid and annoy­ing! In Ottawa, we had to go thought the full body scan­ner. In Toronto, we had to claim our lug­gage, go through secu­rity a sec­ond time and check in again, even though we didn’t leave the air­port. I took my shoes and belt three times in total, and emp­tied the con­tent of my bag twice. But on the other side, immi­gra­tion con­trol was pretty lax and our pass­ports weren’t even stamped. Go fig­ure. In LAX, the lug­gage claim area is two meters from the air­port door and peo­ple can come and go as they please. Weird.

Oh, one small rant about Air Canada too: on the flight from Ottawa to Toronto, we had drinks and cook­ies, but on the flight from Toronto to Los Ange­les we had to buy food on-board! I had never seen that before. Seri­ously, it was a 6-hours flight, food should have been free…
I stepped out­side at LAX and imme­di­ately noticed three things: 1) So many cars! 2) So warm! 3) It felt and smelled like in Latin Amer­ica, prob­a­bly because of the ocean. I loved it.

Once in L.A, we rented a car and drove up to Hol­ly­wood. This was high on my to-do list and after all, we only had 24 hours in L.A.

Here are a few shots… More about Los Ange­les later, but for now we have to head to Sydney!

Above the Grand Canyon

Approach­ing Los Angeles

Above L.A

Eth­i­cal Drugs in Korea Town	Hol­ly­wood Blvd Neighborhood
Air­port Blvd at LAX	On Top of Hol­ly­wood Hill

The Obser­va­tory

On Top of L.A

Los Ange­les

The Iconic Hol­ly­wood Sign

Related arti­cles:

1. Hol­ly­wood Boulevard
2. Home, Home Again
3. G’Day, Syd­ney
4. Of a Flight Back Home
5. On The Way To France
6. Above Ground