Day 1 L.A. bound!

We had a taxi booked to take us to Heathrow for our 11.30 flight.  He was prompt, arrived 10 mins early.  The journey to Terminal 5 was painless, reasonably quick with not too much traffic.  We had to queue for the check-in desk as Keith's boarding pass wouldn't print at home. Think it was because he'd been randomly selected for extra security checks. We'd had a panic about the weight of our cases the last night but we were within the allowances!  Phew!

Quickly through security, no delays, and we headed to Wetherspoons for breakfast.  We had time for a wander round the airport shops, didn't buy anything other than a couple of reading books for me, It wasn't long before our boarding gate appeared on the screens.  Keith got stopped for further security checks at the boarding gate but they seemed to have picked quite a few off our plane today!  I carried on and grabbed the window seat while he was being searched!

The flight was fine although I'm definitely not keen on BAs seat configuration on their dreamliners! 333 is definitely a squeeze, especially when sat next to strangers.  I would personally avoid this in the future.  It's a shame because I do like the dreamliners.

The view on the flight was great, over Greenland and Canada, then down across Missouri and Idaho, on past Utah where I think I could pick out Bryce Canyon and Zion which we will be visiting later in the trip.  Stunning landscapes and I was amazed at the vast desert landscapes dotted with small patches of green along the rivers.

Bryce Canyon in the distance??

 

We arrived at L.A. Airport about 3 and we made amazing time through the terminal, few minutes waiting for security machines for finger prints and photos, then very quickly though the manned desks (we were lucky here as the queues for international were quite long but as we walked up the pointed us down the line for US passports which had no queue, result!!).  Down the stairs to bag pick up where our cases were already coming through.  We were heading out to the car hire bus transport within 35 minutes!

Car hire was from Avis and were given the choice between a Kia Sorrento or a Mitsubishi, we went with the Kia.  We hit the L.A. highways around 4.30! OMG Traffic! Took us 2 hrs to do about 31 miles on the freeways! Patience was definitely needed.

Hotel for the next couple of nights was the Comfort Suites at Stevenson ranch.  Nice Rom with distant views of the mountains surrounding L.A.

After dropping our bags we venture out to see what food we could find.  There was a Dennys and an Outback Steakhouse nearby but tonight we decided on a quick burger from In and Out Burgers.  Bit like Burger King, tasty with nice fresh salad filling and scrummy shakes.

Back to the hotel and time for a rest, it's been a long day!  We were up at 6.30am and it's now 3.45am at home! 21hrs hmmm!  After a quick check of social media!, news and update blog it was time for some sleep.

Off to Six Flags Magic Mountain tomorrow.