Day 1ish – Sunday 30 May 2010 -Main Street Santa Monica (LA)

Nothing opens until 11 on a Sunday (except the farmers market across the way – which despite having recycling bins etc in place still hand you food in a plastic bag…. Getting there but still some work required).

Found some astero turf apparently you get a rebate back from the government if you install astro turf… great! But was really cool as some real grass was pushing through – go nature!

Lewis ordered a pirate chai which turned out to be a GREEN spiced coffee… apparently tasted nice until he hit the green gritty bits at the bottom – funny. Nice lavender and kangaroo paws at the café.

Did some shopping at Patagonia and REI (adventure equipment stores) cool stuff but not really needed right now. Then checked out the beach from top of the cliff (overlooking the pier) Pollution was insane, could hardly see Marina Del Ray which was about 5km away. Planes would appear out of the smog towing signs, water looked brown lots of people at the beach one or two people in the water… not sure why water brown??? Cool plants on the cliff top (cool old twisty tree that looked like flossy) and statue of a saint.

Headed to whole foods which is a food shop – massive choice in lots of great things, eg huge range of fruit and veg, massive selection of bulk rice, grains, flour, nuts etc can buy wine (section included wine bar) out of all the cheese lewis managed to pick Sheeps cheese (because it was in a orange mould) roasting coffee in store (cool) sushi chefs, grill area with fresh meals prepared, full pizza oven, soups, salad bar INSANITY but cool. Car in carpark for compact car… was filled with a 4 wheel drive dodge ram… compact????? Only in America. Lewis doing a great job of navigating, he somehow knows his way around… crazy.