Day 16: Las Vegas, NV to Los Angeles, CA

We cut the time in Vegas from four days to three, which would give us an extra day in LA. After visiting the Stratosphere (see last blog entry) we headed to Los Angeles, leaving the rest of the crew for another day in Vegas. Jared had left a day before us. Hopefully our trip to LA would be a little easier than him as he had taken over 6 hours due to accidents and traffic jams.

From 2007 USA Elises

From 2007 USA Elises

It was a relatively short drive and quite uneventful, but offers some nice scenery before entering Los Angeles. There is a really dramatic point when approaching the crest of one hill where the weather changes within a few seconds from sunny and warm to completely overcast and cold. It's caused by something to do with the ocean and hills, and perhaps the famous LA pollution, and butterflies, I don't know.

A big mistake to make when passing that point and entering the outskirts of LA is to assume you have arrived at your destination. Ohhh no. It's a huge place. At one point we wondered what town those big buildings on the horizon belonged to, and it then dawned on us that they were downtown LA. We drove on I10 westerly across the city towards the ocean. This road is nice as the traffic moves quickly but it's in a disastrous physical state. The washboard effect is so bad we pulled off the highway at one point to check that my suspension hadn't failed and was causing the bouncing.

Once we hit the ocean front all was forgiven. Other than getting to an amazing looking area, we had finally reached the Pacific. On one journey we had been at the Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific. Lots more pics and stories of the area to come over the next couple of days.

We found a hotel in Venice right on the beach with a pretty nice view:

From 2007 USA Elises