May 27, Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles

Tirades about US Customs and Border Protection Officers have been a staple of earlier blogs on the good old US of A. We have been ignored, pushed about, treated with supreme indifference and, most annoyingly, kept waiting in never-ending queues. All of this applies mostly to New York it must be said, with officers we have dealt with in LA being slightly more accommodating. This time it was almost as though it was a different country. Airport staff welcomed us at every turn on the long walk to the customs check point, which was processed by efficient and pleasant staff. On to the luggage carousels. It was same old same old here, except that airport staff were in attendance helping to stack luggage as it tumbled out on to the carousel. They even helped the odd passenger retrieve heavy cases! No surliness, none of the practised indifference, just good service, yes service, from US airport staff and Customs officials. And it didn't end there. The shuttle bus to the hire car depot took some time to arrive, but nobody complained when the more than helpful driver leapt from his seat and helped load bags onto the bus.

Nothing like a sharp recession and high unemployment to put some focus back on service.

May 29, Motel 6, Seattle, Washington.

“On the road again...”

Had a wonderful time over the past few days with Anne-Marie and Ed (Paul's sister and brother-in-law) and their twin boys in LA.

Los Angeles is not everybody's cup of tea, but we have always had a great time here and even the traffic and the complete madness of the freeways, for us, is just what this city is all about. It is vibrant, creative, eccentric, enormously ugly, yet enthralling. A couple of days ago, the last day of the Memorial Day weekend, Anne-Marie and Ed took us for a drive up the coast from Pacific Palisades to Malibu and the fabulous Getty Museum, to get a feel for how the other half lives. Seemed like a great idea at the time, but we had grossly under-estimated the excitement of the first day of summer in this beach-mad city. Cars, cars, more cars and the people who emerged from them, crawled, lined up and strolled the 30 or so mile stretch between Malibu and Santa Monica. We sat in a restaurant at Sunset Beach and watched while people patiently waited at a full car park entry for up to an hour for the chance to get in. All went well until, after seeing many, many cars exiting the carpark and the Full sign remaining in place, things got a bit heated. The Beach Police intervened and calmed the situation. Made our lunch a whole lot more interesting. Later, in Santa Monica, we watched, from a distance as thousands of people streamed onto the already packed Pier.

Yesterday, our last in LA, we hit the Interstate to Palm Springs. Well, more correctly, to the enormous Outlet Mall situated 20 minutes west of the city. Luckily for us, Palm Springs was a city that we were happy to 'do' in a couple of hours, because most of our day was spent on the road and in the Mall. Bargain city! What was impressive, in a kitsch sort of way, was the 70 ft high statue of Marilyn Monroe that was moved to Palm Springs from Chicago just a few weeks before our visit.

Tonight, after our flight to Seattle, we are in a Motel 6, setting up our travelling kitchen purchased from Walmart. All the necessities, cooking plate, frypan, saucepan, plates, cutlery, esky and all the other bits and bobs are now neatly packed into our two roller-bags, ready to provide us with home-cooked meals for the next two months. We are “On the road again.”

May 31, Bellingham, Washington.

More time in the Outlet Malls today to capitalise on the extremely cheap clothing prices in the US. But enough is enough! Time to stop shopping and start to enjoy the sights. Tomorrow we have one last grocery shop to do before we jump the ferry to Alaska.