Day 1

We woke up at 7am after a lovely night’s sleep at the Sheraton Skyline hotel at Heathrow. We’d driven down to London after work on Wednesday and after checking in, had a lovely meal in the poolside restaurant.  Laura had lamb with sweet potato puree and I had lobster pasta. We drank cocktails and definitely felt like we were in holiday mode :) We knew the hotel would be nice as we stayed there last year when we saw Lady Gaga at Twickenham. The hotel felt very sumptuous and comfortable.

After a lovely sleep we checked out and got the Heathrow Hoppa to Terminal 3 and dropped off our bags. After going through security we treated ourselves to some perfume and had breakfast in Rhubarb. I ate a berry granola sundae with greek yoghurt. Laura had scrambled egg with smoked salmon.

Boarding the plane was an exciting experience as we had seat reservations in the upstairs of the 747 and there were only 6 rows of economy seats, so it kinda felt like we were on a small private jet. Between my seat and the window was a big shelf due to the slope of the wall – which turned out to be very useful for storing all sorts of things. I had various cameras on there, my phone, iPad, magazines,  headphones, snacks, drinks, blanket, binoculars…. It made the space seem much bigger than it was and a few times I stretched out and put my legs up – which is good when you’re tall like me.

On the 747 (upstairs!)

I love the view from up there

The amazingly useful little shelf

The Virgin experience was really good. I liked the way a menu was handed out before the food was served and the complimentary cocktail was tasty. After dinner a=one of the cabin crew handed out ice creams to everyone.

On the flight we watched This Is 40, Wreck It Ralph and Les Miserables. I also spent a lot of time gazing out of the window at the world passing by. Near the end of the flight we flew over Las Vegas and I could see the strip and the Hoover dam. We sat next to a really nice old lady (Laura reckons she said she was in her 70s) who was off to LA to visit her son and family.

Hoover Dam

After clearing customs we got a shuttle bus to the Custom Hotel, which was just as funky as it seemed in the website photos. Our room was on the top floor with a view over LA towards the ocean.

Laura had a little nap and then we headed down to Deck 33 at the foot of the hotel for some drinks and food – although as Laura pointed out, we’d already been awake for 21 hours at this point and we were eating our 4^th meal of the day. Ah well, got to beat the jag lag somehow!

After eating lots of little plates of food, we retired to bed, looking forward to Day 2 where the holiday would start properly.