time to say goodbye

I have been a little lazy the past days (it is my vacation :-)) and spend as much time as possible at the beach but finally the time has come when I had to pack my suitcase again.
Of course I can´t wait to be back home and see my family & friends again but I also will miss the beaches of sunny California! I absolutely had a wonderful time and I would like to come back here one day. From all the places I have seen Santa Barbara has been my favorite one.
Before I will go to bed a few words to the past days. The first day in Santa Monica I spent mostly at the beach and at 3rd street promenade, the main shopping and eating area in Santa Monica. The next day I walked along the ocean to Venice Beach. The beach is also very nice but the boardwalk I did not like too much. You could hardly do any steps without somebody offering something very special to buy. I hate that and was glad as I finally reached the Santa Monica boardwalk. Late afternoon I again spent at the beach.
Yesterday I took the bus to Hollywood to do some celebrity sightseeing. I walked along the Walk of Fame and compared my hands and feet with those of the stars. By the way my hands have exactly the same size as Sean Connery´s, Tom Hank´s and George Clooney´s!!!!!! Isn´t that something.....??? Unfortunately I will not make any cents out of this. But anyway...it was fun.
After sightseeing in Hollywood I went to Beverly Hills to do some windowshopping at the Rodeo Drive. In front of Valentino I had my first close up encounter with a real Rolls Royce. (will post pictures when I am back home).
Last but not least today: except some gift shopping and writing postcards I have spent almost the whole day at the beach and enjoyed the sun at my favorite spot near lifeguard tower 1550. :-) Will show you later why :-)...but I guess you already can imagine that the blue tower was not the reason for that spot :-)!!
Unfortunately I have not made it to visit the Getty Center with its terrific art expositions.
Since I have to get up at 4:30 tomorrow I will go to bed now. Will go through the pictures when I am at home and post them later.
See you soon!!!

some more photos

funny van at the beach parking
Santa Barbara street view
my roadrunner bike
beach
beach and pier

Santa Barbara

Since I am a couple of days behind I decided to keep the second day in Santa Barbara shorter.


Since the hotel I was staying at was a little outside of town I took a bike to go downtown for some sightseeing. The hotel provided traditional Californian beach cruizers for free to their guests which was really great. I rode downtown along the coast and made walk through the city center. Santa Barbara is a very nice town and the beaches are great. I enjoyed my stay very much and if possible I would love to come back one day. Monday afternoon I spent at the beach and just enjoyed the nice weather.

Flag is up Farms von Monty & Pat Roberts

Back online again! Santa Barbara was very nice but unfortunately the WiFi was very bad and I could hardly do anything with my laptop. Since late afternoon I am now in Santa Monica and fortunately my hotel here has an excellent WiFi. I will try to put the last days into the blog as soon as possible!

So let´s start with the trip to and the first day in Santa Barbara:

Before I could even start I had to go to an AVIS station in Palm Springs because the trunk of my car behave a little strange. It opened although I did not push any button. Very strange I know but that´s how is was. Fortunately AVIS gave me an exchange car right away and I could finally start my trip with a new car.

After a long trip from Palm Springs to Santa Barbara I arrived late in the evening and just fell into my bed.

It was a very nice drive along the coast and also the ride back to the coast was very scenic. I chose a different way as before and drove through the mountains. My first stop was at the old Mission in Oceanside.

mission in Oceanside

After that I took highway 1 or 1o1 and passed Newport Beach, Huntington Beach, drove through Santa Monica and Malibu and finally I arrived in Santa Barbara.
desert view

desert view

drive through mountains

Los Angeles viewocean view from highway No 1

Except the bad WiFi my hotel in Santa Barbara was nice and cosy. It was located a bit outside of town but it took me only about 10 min to walk to the beach. The first day in Santa Barbara I did not spend at the beach but on Monty Robert´s Flag Is Up Farms which is located near Solvang about 40 miles SW of S.B. It is a very huge and nice horse farm and I am very happy that I had the chance to see it. I have also seen the famous mustang SHYBOY. For all those of you don´t know Monty Roberts just go to his webpage http://www.montyroberts.com/ or .de or check wickipedia. To sum up the story in a few words: he is the one and only horse whisperer! On the farm I have also found a new friend. A nice woman from Groningen (NL) was there at the same time and while we are talking about horses and explored the farm together we finally decided to spend the rest of the day together. We first went to the city of Solvang and then made a nice picknick outside of Solvang near a lake. We had a great time together and want to keep contact. Maybe one day we can meet again.

SHYBOY

what a beautiful horse, isn´t it?

Flag is up farms

Begga at our picknick table

To be continued!!

Palm Spings and Joshua Tree National Park

Since yesterday evening I am in Palm Springs.
It was a nice trip with not too much traffic and with the help of my navigation lady I had no problems to find the way. First I took the historic highway 101 to drive to Carlsbad. It was a very nice ride along the coast with some cute little cities. In Carlsbad I made a right and headed straight East to Palms Springs. The landscape changed completely while I was on my way and also the temperature has increased continously.

Palm Spings is like an oasis in the desert. A lot of palm trees, flowers, green grass .... . Thank god I don´t have to pay the bill for the water. It is a very nice little city but very hot. Today we had 40,5 °C. Puuuhhhh!







Due to that hot temperaturs I started the day very early in the morning. I wanted to visit Joshua Tree National Park and with 3 gallons of water and a full tank I started my trip through the park at the west entrance. I made the long tour through the whole park with its two types of deserts. It was about 70 miles to drive and I enjoyed every single mile despite it was incredibly hot. It was indeed an amazing experience. Around late afternoon I arrived back at the hotel and relaxed a little bit.
















After a short nap I went to one of the casinos
to gamble a little bit. Unfortunately I was not lucky and lost 10 $. Finally I dicided to give myself a special treat for dinner. They offered an all-you-can-eat seafood buffet at the casino for 18 $ including drinks and desert. It was really delicious!









Tomorrow morning I will drive back to the coast to take highway 101 to Santa Barbara. I am not sure if I will have internet access in Santa Barbara. Hopefully yes!
See you!

Some more pictures

Ready to leave!

The congress is finally over and now my vacation will start!! I picked up the rental car yesterday and have already survived my first ride on interstate 5 back to the university!! Fortunately I finally got the GPS for the normal price although I will bring the car back in Santa Monica. Now I am more relaxed about traveling since a nice lady will tell me where I have to go. :-)

Regarding the meeting everything was nice. All of us who had an oral presentation did a good job and I think we all can be satisfied with it. The location was really great, our appartments were nice and clean, food was...let´s say interesting. The university of San Diego is really impressive. Very modern and a lot of green spots everywhere. Will upload some pictues later. I think this campus is as big as the village I was born!

Ok, I guess I will stop here now and continue tonight. Hopefully my W-LAN will still work in Palm Spings!

See you!!!

Above are some pictures from San Diego. More will come soon!

San Diego

Hello everybody and welcome to my California Blog!

Last Friday evening I arrived in San Diego, CA where I will spend the first days to take part at the 2008 HBV meeting. The first 2 days I stayed over night in downtown San Diego and had the chance to do some sightseeing. San Diego is a very nice city and I enjoyed it very much. Since Sunday afternoon colleagues and me are at the university of San Diego to take part at the conference.
Actually I wanted to start this blog earlier but I had problems with my laptop (or maybe I was just too stupid to use W-LLAN). Fortunately two nice guys from the university staff finally helped me to solve my W-Lan problem.
I hope it will keep on working and I will try to keep you up to date as good as possible.
Hope you enjoy my blog and of course you are welcome to write any comments and messages!!
Greetings,
Stephanie