Day 1 part 2! LA!

A bit of the Grand Canyon from 30000 feet!

Look how far we have come! This is the map from the seat back TV which the girls used to follow our progress on our first flight. 

 The LA travelodge room - girls shared a bed and "Tiegan kept kicking me in the night and keeping me awake!" - Rowan. This room is nothing in comparison to the UK travelodge in quality but  I am sure we will stay in a lot worse before we are done!

The first lot of washing! Not very glamorous - but school girl error when packing overnight bags for LA, managed to include swim stuff, flip flops etc but no clean undies for us chicks!

The first thing the girls did when we got to the Travelodge in LA was play in the pool. It was quite chilly but they managed to brave it and splash around for an hour or two. Ended up having an early tea in the next door cafe/restaurant and all in bed by 6.30pm local time ( 2.30 a.m UK time)

The Handley's Big Adventure begins!

 So  here are the finished articles! The packs are packed and ready to go! Everything went in with out an issue and there is still room to spare for the odd last minute bits and bobs.

The girls loaded up and ready to hop into the taxi for the journey to Heathrow. Bizarrely the cheapest option to get to the airport compared to the train and tube or coach from Gatwick.  Managed to all hold it together to say farewells to Granny and the traffic was kind - an uneventful M25 and we arrived at the Travelodge to a welcome committee!

Our first night - possibly the best night of the trip in terms of luxury accommodation - within minutes of arriving we had already snaffled the coffee, teabags and sugar sachets provided for a "rainy day"! An ok meal in the cafe bar and a relatively early night ready for a very long day tomorrow.