Wednesday 3 June 2009
Highlights: Venice Beach, Citadel Shopping

An overcast day for my last full day in America. We headed off for Venice Beach hoping to scout a way to the airport for tomorrow, which by accident I found (US Freeways are weird; you consistently get pushed off them if you don’t pay attention).

We got to the beach at 10 am and only stayed about 2 hours, the crowd was light and the weather on the cold side. Mum thought there were some very poor people in the area and that it had been run down a little bit for her last visit. I personally thought it looked similar to the last time, the run down bits were just more obvious because of the lack of a crowd it’s still worth a visit.

We then headed back to the Citadel Shopping Centre and this time my mum knew what she wanted. I however surprised her and got her a jacket I could see she really wanted.

Back at the hotel a kind of buyer’s remorse settled in as it dawned of my mum that she had to keep her checkin luggage below 23 kgs, this will be interesting.

The other achievement was getting rid of most of the coins we both had. This is harder than is sounds since the advertised price never includes sales tax which I’m guessing is 8.5%. Anyway I worked out within 2 pennies the final price on a McDonalds meal (I know) and handed over 29 coins, probably would have worried about what people would think back in Melbourne.

BREAKING NEWS
Lana found out for me that my airport transfer hadn’t been booked and I’m short one night’s accommodation in Cairo. Given I’m landing at 0.40 am in the morning I wasn’t impressed to find this out and it will need to be resolved before arrival.