LA Exploring ~ The Blonde B

The Blonde B is in LA!

It's my first time on the West Coast of America.

It's day 1 in and I am already in love. I have had such an exciting day I couldn't wait to share it with you all!

It all started on Tuesday morning when we almost very nearly missed our flight from London to LA.

We spent Easter at home in Spain and were catching the last flight out of Malaga on Monday which would get us into London at around 11pm. Then we were on the 9am flight out to LAX.

But storm Kathy hit the South of England. She diverted and cancelled planes flying in to London and threatened to ruin our holiday.

I was a bag of nerves all of Monday waiting to see if your flight would be cancelled or not.

Luckily we were only a couple of hours delayed. We made it home in time to pack a few last minute things and to get a couple of hours sleep before heading to Heathrow.

We made it all in one piece, if not a little sleep deprived, but we had 11 hours to catch up on sleep!

This photo seemed to cause a bit of a stir on social media. So I thought I'd clear it up. All it is one suitcase each and one hand-luggage case each. Most of them are half-empty ready to be filled with shopping from the US!

I have not been known to travel light, but 4 suitcases for myself is a little excessive!

We arrived late in the afternoon and were both wiped out from 2 days of constant travelling. We grabbed a bite to eat down the road and were in bed by 9.

I woke up next morning feeling refreshed and ready to explore LA!

We caught one of the cheesy Hollywood Tours guides which shows you round famous people's houses but it was actually surprisingly fun and very useful!

Everyone tells you how big LA is but nothing can prepare you for the sheer size of it!

Forget about NYC, it's a sheer concrete jungle!

We drove all around LA and I was beginning to see the breath-taking beauty of this place.

I can see why so many want to live here.

Just as cliché as it is, our tour guide was a budding British actor, as is everyone in LA!

Richard has been in the likes of Scandal, How I Met Your Mother, Criminal Minds, the Office USA but he was also a part-time tour guide.

He let us in to a few Hollywood Secrets and truly showed us the hotspots in Hollywood, LA and Beverly Hills.

Ultimate Hollywood Tours is one of the top "Hollywood tour" on Tripadvisor which is how I found it. The great reviews gave me confidence to book it and we weren't disappointed.

The likes of Will Ferrell, Adam Sandler and Michael Bubble have taken this tour. And did you hear about the Kardashians going under cover on a Hollywood Tour? Well they took an Ultimate Hollywood Tour.

LA was surprisingly cold. I was stocked up on shorts and bikinis but found myself wrapped up in blankets.

The open-top bus gave me an excuse to snuggle up to my chap under some cosy blankets.

Richard showed us round all of the Hollywood homes in the hills and Beverly Hills and I couldn't help think we were on a safari tour of famouses.

Pointing out their houses and wondering whether we would get a glimpse of the endangered tiger or the rare species of giraffe.

"Last week I saw Keanu Reeves leaving his Hollywood home and he gave us a wave and came to talk to the bus" Richard told us. "Will Ferrell will always come and say hi if he is town" - as if we were waiting for the monkeys to dance or trying to catch a glimpse of the cheetah.

It all felt a bit wrong but I must admit I was a little disappointed we didn't get invited into the ~~lion's~~ den, I mean Leo's for tea.

Psst - that shiny set of matrix doors belong to a Mr Keanu Reeves.

And Mr Tom Cruise spent a fortune on mirrored-windows above.

I learnt a lot on our 2 hour tour but I am not about to bore you with pictures of all of the houses or let you in on all of the juicy gossip - you will simply have to take the tour yourselves!

The tour was a great introduction to LA & Hollywood and I can't recommend it enough to anybody visiting LA or even people living in LA who might learn something new about their city.

If you fancy it book online here (they will even pick you up from your hotel) - Ultimate Hollywood Tour.

But more importantly, I learnt how to navigate around LA!

Ever since I was a little girl, I've always wanted a red convertible. My first ever car was red and now I drive a mini convertible but I still haven't mastered the red convertible.

Until now...

We got to choose this Ford Mustang from a line of convertibles at the rental garage. As soon as I saw this red soft top I knew exactly what we would be driving away from the airport in!

These ones are for Tom.

Apparently this is how the "car girls" do it.

To be honest most of these car photos are for Tom, as for once he can get excited that his favourite things are included in the blog! That's cars of course... not me!

I believe this is his order of preference:

#1 Cars
#2 Food
#3 Me

We booked her through RentalCars.com and it couldn't have been easier. It's like Skyscanner for Car Rentals!

They compare all of the best deals and prices for you and give you all of the hints and tips of getting the right insurance.

It's worth paying the extra $6/ a day to get RentalCars additional insurance. They will cover you for break-downs and road-side assistance. So don't get conned into purchasing additional insurance when you get to the car rental depot, as their insurance is triple the price and doesn't cover you for road-side assistance!

And believe me you don't want to get stranded paying thousands of dollars in a foreign country.

We whizzed round the streets of LA until our belly's were rumbling signalling time for lunch.

We decided to try the infamous "In-n-Out Burger". The line on the outside was signalled to us that it was pretty epic. The queue was so long, it was quicker to get drive-thru.

And the burgers were!

In-n-Out burger started around the same time as McDonald's, except In-n-Out actually use real meat in their patties...

So we picked up our open box and drove off somewhere quiet to eat.

I can't say that the chips were very appetising, or that this photo looks very appetising.

What a whole load of greasy yucky mess!

The chips were soggy and unseasoned...

But the burgers were delicious!

After our not-so-healthy lunch we carried on driving around LA. You can't really get lost in this city, the roads are so straight and work like a grid-system so if you make a wrong turn, just go round the block again!