Days 1 and 2: Home- Los Angeles, California

Days 1 and 2      7/6/06-7/7/06       Home-Los Angeles, California

We arrived at the airport at 8:00 a.m. in preparation of our 10:05 a.m. flight to Los Angeles via Minneapolis. Members going were: (from left to right)

• Sam Patton  
• Alex Bukoski
• Tim Van Prooyen
• Kayla Sherwood
• Chelsea Wiles
• Stephanie Cahool  

We arrived in Minnesota with no problems and frittered away our 2 hours plus lay over eating and exploring the airport. We boarded at 1:09 p.m. and took the four hour plus flight to Los Angeles.

I was bummed because there was no meal served and all they had was $3.00 snack packs. At least the drinks were free.

We arrived at LAX at 3:30 p.m. local time. We collected our bags and prepared to pass our 8 hour lay over before going to Nadi on the Fiji Islands.

Luckily, Sam's uncle Steve Breyer showed up with his family. We stowed our bags in his van and took a public bus to Santa Monica to pass the time. We saw the Santa Monica Pier, glimpsed at Santa Monica Blvd. and went up and down the Third Street Promenade to shop and eat.

 The gang at Santa Monica  

 Sam and the Breyers posing at the pier

Enjoying the street performers

 

Personally, I got a seat outside at a bistro and people watched. I had a hot Romanian pastrami sandwich and salad. It was a nice day out. The students saw street performers and saw the sites of southern California. It's quite different than Saranac. Steve mentioned that Santa Monica might be the place where the most languages were spoken in the world.

At 7:15 p.m., we went back to the bus and got to the airport. We said good bye to the Breyers and thanked them for their assistance. We got in line for a long time and finally got on the plane to Nadi, Fiji.