Redondo Stripes

I began my stay at a place just south of the international airport called Redondo Beach.

Redondo is one of the 59 cities that make up Los Angeles County, which taken as a whole is itself the largest city by size on Earth.

I found booking a hotel in LA quite challenging. Due to it's size, I just had no idea where to stay. With no rapid mass transit system, you can't even locate yourself conveniently near a well connected station. I aimed for Redondo for the simple fact that it is in the middle of the city, and I thought that would be good enough.

It was very quiet, very clean and had pretty good access to other parts of LA County that I wanted to explore. The water in the Ocean was clean enough for seals to have made their home in the harbour outside the hotel too. It was cute watching them sun themselves by raising a flipper out of the water or basking on the buoys. Their infernal all night long barking was not conducive to the best nights sleep. A night's sleep sorely needed after my night with Air New Zealand.

I spent my first day in LA gently orienting myself. This involved visiting a mall and equipping myself for the US. I needed a plug adaptor, and a new shirt. Only having three changes of clothes is all well and good when it comes to mobility, but sometimes it gets so boring wearing the same things over and over.

I was excited about getting a shirt in particular as it meant I got to go to an Abercrombie and Fitch store for the first time. They had a great range of clothes, which is more than can be said for Banana Republic. The latter place was another all American clothes store I was looking forward to, but sadly they have gone for a big stripey look this season. I'm not a deck chair.

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