After reaching LA, we had a few days sightseeing. We headed out to the John Paul Getty Centre first which is a great museum with some art masterpieces there which was established by the philanthropist himself.

It was a beautful day and we enjoyed wandering around the museum, having a great cappuccino and soaking in the SoCal sun.

We also headed to the main shopping area in LA to pick up a few things and wander around. It was packed but we still found time to hit the Apple Store and grab a pizza and beer.

The following day we also headed to the California Science Museum. This is one of the places that NASA sent one of its surviving shuttles when they were retired from flight. It was great to see it upfront and its dimensions certainly looked different in real life than it does on the screen. It’s not hard to see why it’s called the Flying Brick and it certainly didn’t look aerodynamic.

We also caught an IMAX movie here and saw the original Mercury and Gemini capsules on display.  They also had an exhibition showing the actual Dead Sea Scrolls so we enjoyed fighting our way through the extensive crowds to see everything.

Our final day, I was flying out that evening from LAX whilst Ben was heading down to Anaheim to see Disneyland. In the morning, we headed down to see the USS Iowa battleship which was a fair bit out of LA on Uber. The ship was great and was staffed by volunteers who were veterans and had been on the ship on operational duty. It was like the scene in ‘Battleship’ where they veterans sail the ship off to her last battle. I couldn’t resist the photo in the Captain’s seat on the bridge.

After waiting an age to get an Uber in this part of LA, we got dropped off after a long ride in Hollywood. All I can say it that Hollywood is incredibly tacky and, whilst worth seeing, it is only just worth seeing. We walked the walk of fame and then grabbed lunch and some beers. Finally, we spent our last hours in LA heading back to the hotel and getting ready to head off. Ben caught the cab to Anaheim and I headed off to the Airport.

This was an awesome trip and I know we will be back to finish the final section of the JMT. Watch this space!