I know Plus One... I met their Op's guy who is good friends with the manager of a school at KSEE... Nice aeroplanes and people by all accounts.
I realise it's easy to say this, but don't be too scared by the US flying. You have the same hours as me before I went and enough I imagine to cope with most of the situations you'll encounter. It's so incredibly vast that you will have a lot of time to prepare for what you will be doing next. Plus they have very strong VOR's that you can pick up from miles and miles away!
After the bi-annual check that you will most likely have to do with an instructor (Obviously I don't know your circumstances) I would personally recommend a fairly local flight as one of your first trips to get used to the airspace.
I flew from San Diego and headed inland to a field called Thermal (Or Jacquelin Cochran as it is in the airfield guide - which you will need to buy too!) It's a nice short trip over some nicely changing terrain and also has a bloody big visual in the form of the Salton Sea that you can aim for! After that you can make the short hop to Palm Springs which will test your class C radio or head eastwards as I did to Phoenix - but there are numerous small airfields en-route to anywhere that you can stop off at if you don't feel comfortable entering the big fields at first... But I urge you to do them at some point. The experience you gain from this is very worthwhile (Or I thought so at least!)
I'll try and add a pic of L.A now - fingers crossed!
