We're in quasi-sunny California en route to Argentina. We were amused to see this notice plastered in the back of our taxi from the airport:
DRIVERS CARRY
ONLY $5.00
IN CHANEGE
Because "change" is such a hard word to spell...
We logged several miles walking around the Santa Monica boardwalk (which was only four blocks from our hotel) and pedestrian promenade (a car-free shopping and restaurant district). We swear we saw chef Gordon Ramsey (of "Hell's Kitchen" and "Kitchen Nighmares" fame) on the boardwalk. A little Google search revealed that he does have a restaurant in Santa Monica and, in a January 2009 interview with the Arizona Republic, said that the first thing he and his kids do when they hit Santa Monica is go to In-and-Out Burger. So, we don't think our eyes were deceiving us.
We toured the small amusement park on the boardwalk, which had an intriguing aroma that we attributed to a mix of sand, surf, cotton candy and fish guts (lots of people were fishing on the pier). We ate dinner at P.F. Chang's, which, yes, we could have done in Seattle, but I (C) had not enjoyed Chang's Spicy Chicken since I was in the hospital awaiting surgery for a broken ankle more than two years ago, so sue me!
We leave LAX tomorrow for Buenos Aires by way of Toronto. That's a LOT of time on an airplane, but the end result will be worth it.
