Rollerblading on Venice Beach

Actually, maybe I've built it up too much, but it was pretty amusing. I often have trouble standing upright at the best of times, so try to imagine, if you will, me on rollerblades.

Needless to say I was dreadful. As Katherine zoomed off into the sunset I spun in circles and fell over twice. At one point I found a bit of pavement that sloped downhill, and so got up quite a speed - until I skewed off into the grass and sank into the mud.

Well, I didn't break anything, and I guess I got marginally better (over the course of an hour), but it's clear that rollerblading is not one of my fortes.

Apart from my rollerblading humiliation, Venice Beach has lots to offer. There're lots of stalls selling trendy clothes, CDs, books and jewelry. There's also the famous "Muscle Beach" - an outdoor gym where the vain come to flex their muscles.

All the Motel 6 valet parking clearly took its toll on our poor Hyundai, which decided not to start the next day. We found a handy man across the street and got the battery going again with one of those big power pack things. After that we were too scared to go anywhere so we drove to a car wash to clean the Navajo dust off the car and a gas station to fill it up, then returned it to Rex Car Rental, and got a lift to LAX.

After a long wait in LAX we got our overnight TACA plane to San Jose, Costa Rica, then changed planes to fly into Caracas, Venezuela.