Journey to Australia: Phase One - Visiting Matt in L.A.

This is Matt Grace. Matt likes long walks on the beach, friends, exploring abandoned mines, petting four-legged furry friends, adventure, smiling and climbing public art. He's always a blast to hang around so I keep coming around to do just that whenever I get the chance.

On Christine and my first leg of the trip to Australia we stopped by to see our friend Matt at his home in Winnetka, CA, just outside L.A. While there we, saw the menagerie he calls home(between he and his roommates I think there's two cats, one dog, two turtles, a large iguana and some fishies(spelt like that on purpose)), met some of the roommates, took a drive up the Pacific Coat Highway, saw Rodeo Drive and the La Brea Tar Pits (the later not being much to see really), visited Santa Monica Pier walked along Santa Monica and Venice beaches(the later being, a.k.a. - Muscle Beach) at sunset, wondered what the black stuff along the surf was, found out later that it's a tar based substance that stuck to our bare feet, didn't want to come off, got all over Matt's bathtub and stained our feet for a few days, drove a rental convertible and ate out at a couple of really good breakfast establishments. Matt also let me take his motorcycle out for a spin or two. All this while soaking in the ever-present California sun. All-in-all it was a great start to a long journey. We miss Matt and hope he can come to Australia to visit us during out one year stay.