Our gamble paid off.

We arrived in LA at midnight. The child had slept on the red-eye, and miraculously he went right back to sleep when we got to our LAX hotel.

And at our hotel there were ponga trees.

Check out my review over at TripAdvisor.

We felt right at home.

I am an amateur.

My Schmap photo

My photo was chosen for the newly released seventh edition of the Schmap Wellington Guide.

Dozens of other photos by more talented photographers were also published.

HUSBAND: Did they pay you?

ME: Um, no. But I might need to upgrade my Flickr to a pro account.

HUSBAND: (sigh)

The Schmap is a cool little guide. You can check it out here.

Pre-trip

So we are international passengers and as such we can afford to bring some bags.

We are not packed.

Our hotel in LA is too posh for The Lonely Planet. I bought the book, and our hotel is not in it.

I'm worried about falling behind on Project Runway and Flight of the Conchords. We don't have the technology to record episodes.

I need to ask a neighbour to collect our newspapers and water our plants. I seem to be leaving it to the last minute. Which is tomorrow.

It is tempting to ask my doctor for a pill to help with my anxiety.