Day 18. West Coast again ;-) Laurel Canyon, Calabasas, Manhattan Beach , Going home

[daytonababe]

Well today started far better than it ended !

Got up about 8am got sorted, had breakfast and finished packing.

Then it was time to check out

Chloe wasn't feeling too good today, she had a cold and a nasty cough which she still has.. Regardless we had a full day ahead as we didn't fly home till 9.30pm (so we thought ! )

Having done OLCI the night before we knew the flight was on time etc.

Chloe is a big Kardashian fan and has always wanted to see Calabasas so with no real plans we decided to take her there.
We decided to go via Melrose Avenue and see the DASH store, blink and you'll miss it.

Then drove up through Laurel Canyon which is really nice, but the road so windy, I can see why there are stars that live up here, totally different to the nearby slum of Hollywood.

Eventually we got to Calabasas, think its about 25 miles from Hollywood.. Lots of gated communities, a old town which looked a bit like something from a Western and then a place called the Commons, which is a shopping area with a cinema etc.. One of the places the Kardashians are pictured at a lot.
Stopped off in here as there was a chemist and I wanted some painkillers for Chloe, had a wander around, very upmarket. You can tell there's a lot of money around here.. A little further along from the Commons is the Oaks gated community where Khloe and Kourtney live.

Didn't see any stars but we'd had a lovely morning. It was now around 1pm and we had loads of time left.

Thought about driving to Long Beach but decided not too.. must have been fate ! Instead we headed to Manhattan Beach getting there around 2.45pm. Very windy but warm again.. Parked up and wandered around calling in a lovely bakery/ice cream shop. Decided to go eat and come back later.

Then it all went downhill :angry:

For some reason Chloe checked her emails and found one from BA.. She shouted mum the flights cancelled ! What ! I had checked my emails about an hour before and not got anything.. checked mine there and then and boom the same email.

I read it and it said we were now on the AA flight leaving at 5.55 ..

We rushed back to the car and drove off.. needing to get petrol etc.. I couldn't get a signal on my phone so couldn't confirm we wanted the flight etc.. it was a nightmare.

Fortunately LAX was only about 4 miles away.. but its LA traffic... found a petrol station filled up and got to the Avis depot at 4pm.. They were quick to check the car in and we got straight on the bus... I didn't really know where we were supposed to be going but guessed terminal 3 for AA..

Got there about 4.15pm panicking and went to the AA desk.. We were called over by the most surly faced woman!.. I explained I didn't really know what was happening and were we on a flight.. She snapped at me "I'll sort it".. Ok then .

Next then she asked for the bags.. One was 1/2lb over another 2 lb over and she made us repack.. She could see we were stressed, all hungry still in shorts etc and she was so bloody rude ! Finally she accepted the bags told us we were seated together and off we went..

Security queue was so slow, Connor for some reason had TSA approval on his boarding card but obviously he needed to stay with us. Finally got through at just gone 5 except they wanted to swab Barry's phone which took forever.

Kids were hungry so we looked for some food.. not much to choose from but found a shop thinking we had loads of time, only at 5.10pm they called final boarding so we ran to the gate and were last on board. Then we sat on the plane till 6pm.

As for the flight well...the food was disgusting, Supposedly chicken and rice but it was awful and we all left it and so it seems did most around us.. and the flight was so cold, even when I changed into jeans I was freezing.. I don't know why but lots of the seats wouldn't recline either. We also had a lady infront who had headphones on most of the flight but continued to talk to the lady next to her.. well I say talk it was actually shouting

Landed at heathrow around 12.30pm to be greeted by a flat tyre on the car, which my wannabe mechanic Connor sorted..

As to why our flight was cancelled.. BA say there were issues landing at LAX and it never took off from London.. I wonder if flights were quiet and they consolidated the flights rather than fly them half empty, specially as it was the A380.

I don't understand why though when they knew it wasn't coming to LAX, which is a 11 hr flight we weren't notified earlier? And why didn't they ring or text, they had all our Three sim card numbers and they admit this..
If we hadn't of got those sim cards we wouldn't have got the email..

Never mind its done now.

Sad to be home as always ..and we have a week in Charlotte planned for October, Tenerife for August and the West Coast for March..