30 hours in LA

After a frantic, intense four weeks of planning and booking (13 flights thanks to Rob, and 92 nights of accommodation in 7 countries) we landed in Los Angeles for our first night of the trip.
Short Version:
- Pool closed 😫
- Santa Monica Pier
- Great night sleep in a bed (not an upright plane seat 💺)
- Hollywood sign and Hollywood Walk of Fame
- Lunch in Beverly Hills catching up with Elizabeth
- Walk down Rodeo Drive and to the Beverly Hills park
- Driving the mansion filled streets
- Venice Beach

…continued below for long version

We made the most of our short time in LA ticking off all the sites Sophia and Olivia had preselected if we were up for hiring a car.
We started by heading to Santa Monica where we walked down to the pier as the sun set - watching all the families winding up their Sunday at the beach. We enjoyed sharing huge slices of pizza at an outdoor Italian on 3rd St promenade. Everyone did really well considering none of us had really slept on the plane. Staying up did mean we all then slept through until 8am and were up for a full day exploring before our evening flight to Colombia.
We drove to Hollywood to kick the day off with a Shake Shack milkshake and a walk spotting celebs on the Walk of Fame. My favourite was Courtney Cox and Jennifer Aniston right next to each other.
Next stop was meeting for lunch with Elizabeth my cousins’ cousin who we had last seen 6 years ago in NZ. Thankfully she told us how close we were to Rodeo Drive (about 50 meters) or I would have missed it! We walked up to the park for some obligatory tourist photos and then down to the corner and into Dolce & Gabbana to admire the one off handbags and view from the balcony.
After lunch we drove slowly back towards the airport through the lower hills filled with mega mansions with a final beach walk along Venice Beach.