After the long day yesterday and a really lovely catch up with Adam and Aleks the 11 hours sleep were very welcomed. I woke up still feeling tired but much better. Seeing Adam and Aleks was such a great way to start America, I so enjoyed seeing them but made me sad that they won't be in England when we get home. 
I can't believe they've moved out here, although in some ways they have similar culture to the UK, I have had a real culture shock and I imagine it takes a while to adjust if you move here.
We started the day by driving through LA to visit muscle beach. I drove, Edd navigated, map reading in such a spaghetti city isn't my strong point! It's hard work getting your head around the roads and the traffic rules here but slowly we both got more confident and competent!!
I don't know what happened but I had a really culture shock when we got out the car. I don't think I had put any mental effort into what America would be like so for starters it was far, far hotter than I imagined. It's actually perfect temperature, dry heat, low 20s but I was expecting to be in jeans and maybe a jumper. 
I also just didn't like muscle beach at all! Edd felt that it wasn't too different from some bits of England but I felt it was run down and a bit dodgy. We walked along the beach all the way up to Santa Monica and had brunch in a lovely restaurant just off the beach front.
I settled into it a bit more in the afternoon and felt a bit more relaxed. We continued walking around the main shopping street and then back via the Google LA office. The Google office was a big disappointment, it's just an office, it doesn't even have google on it! I'm glad we didn't go out of our way too much!! In total we walked for a good few hours so by the time we got back to Venice and muscle beach we were ready to get back in the car.
Muscle beach is interesting to see, all these men with huge muscles working out publicly on the beach, at almost feels like a spectators sport. Some guys we saw where massive.
From the beaches we drove to the Griffith observatory, Edd chose us a route through Beverley Hills, Holly wood and passed the walk of fame with the celebrity stars. We had toyed with the idea of doing a tour on a minibus but decided we would save money and drive it ourselves which I'm glad we did because I'm not sure I care about which celeb lives where enough to have enjoyed the tour.
We got to the top of the hill and got a few good shots of the 'Hollywood' sign. It's further away than you'd expect so having Edd's proper camera came in use. We walked around the roof of the observatory but couldn't stay long as we still had a 3hr drive to Palm Springs. The city was so covered in fog that we couldn't see a huge amount anyway, we're not sure if the fog is pollution or weather.
We then jumped back in the car and Edd had a turn at right hand, motorway and night driving all at once none of which he's done much of. The motorways here are crazy, they are often 7 lanes wide with all sorts of roads joining and leaving and the cars seem to have no problem with under taking as well as over taking and zipping between all sorts of tiny gaps.
We arrived at Palm Springs at about 8pm in the dark and had to rush back out as most places take final orders by 9pm. We went for Italian which was recommended on trip advisor. Dinner was fine but not up to standards we are used to! We're going to try and save money and maybe eat in a bit through the trip. I've bought home more than half a pizza so that will be lunch tomorrow!!
We are both exhausted, I think a mixture of warm weather, hard concentration driving and a long walk means that I'll sleep very well tonight! No jet lag so far luckily!
Tomorrow we're heading to the Joshua Tree National Park and onto the Grand Canyon!
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