(Gabi) Los Angeles has always intrigued me. After all, it’s Hollywood and has been on my TV screen for as long as I can remember. Then there are the people saying L.A. isn’t even worth a brief visit and just all around terrible. So I was interested to see what the fuss is all about.

It certainly helped that we  approached Los Angeles from one of its prettiest angles: Malibu (or is that even L.A.? I never know when it is a different city). A stunning community on the beach and the hills above it, with houses and mansions that make you want to win the lottery asap.

Absolutely picture, perfect. And the beaches are just as amazing as in Baywatch!

Next, we drove down to Santa Monica to do some shopping. This is quite evidently another very wealthy area of the city.

Shopping doesn’t get much better than Third Street promenade. Essentially a rather posh open air shopping mall with all the big chain stores, restaurants and a generous pedestrian area. And the weather was just as you’d expect it to be in Southern California.

Lunch wasn’t super sophisticated or adventurous but sometimes a quick burrito at Chipotle just hits the spot.

Thomie was very taken with the big Tesla showroom where he could finally get up close to a Model X. The car’s a lot roomier than I anticipated.

The mall has a cool Converse store where you can customize your own sneakers. If only we had taken some decent chicken graphics on this trip…

Converse art.

Thomie will never not be fascinated by huge motorways.

Another day, another beige hotel room. This time in Anaheim.

For dinner we ventured over to Downtown Disney to get into the Disney mood. We haven’t been to any Disney parks in years, so this was really lovely.

Dinner was a portion of Jambalaya…

and a couple of yummy beignets each (beignets originate in New Orleans and are simple little donuts dusted in powdered sugar).

Now Disney owns Star Wars, the merchandise can be found everywhere in the parks. Not that I am complaining, lol. I think Star Wars is an excellent addition to the Disney family.

Last but not least, we popped into the Lego store. Sadly, they didn’t have anything new or super exciting. Lucky escape for our credit cards!!