3RD - 7TH AUGUST

The drive to LA wasn't too great. The 6 lane highway that we came in on was jammed and we were crawling along approximately 15 miles an hour. Still we knew we had plenty of time so weren't too bothered. We had booked in The Venice Beach Cotel at Venice beach, as we had been advised that the best way to deal with LA was to stay near the coast. We were already booked into the Seashore Motel for our wedding anniversary and the day before we met the family.

We finally arrived in Venice beach and the traffic was equally as horrendous as it had been on the freeway, it was chaos. The road down to the cotel had police directing the traffic and not letting any people through - great we thought! We waited our turn then got directed past the cotel and were unable to stop anywhere near it! Great! It turns out that they were filming something, hence all of the chaos, and

unfortunately for us the scene they were filming was right outside our cotel. We drove around the block and weren't allowed to stop anywhere, other than in a car-park which charged a flat $10. The area looked particularly dodgy and not really what we had expected, it was also overcast which didn't help the look of the place. After another wait and a trip round the block we found a parking space, so we grabbed what we could from the car and battled through the crowds and film crew to our cotel. We didn't have a clue what they were filming but there were people everywhere which made it fairly difficult to navigate through them, rucksacks and all! It was a far cry from the piece and tranquility of Cachuma lake which was fading fast from our memories.

We eventually made it into the cotel, a cotel is a cross between a hotel and hostel apparently, but on climbing the stairs and having to drag your feet off