Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., Santa Monica Pier

You all know the famous movie "Forrest Gump" with Tom Hanks. After that movie people made that shrimp restaurant at Santa Monica pier. The whole restaurant is full of pictures and anecdotes from the movie. There was a great atmosphere, nice music and the food was delicious...so I declared it to my favorite shrimp restaurant :-)


in front of the restaurant there is a bank with the shoes to sneak in and a suitcase to make a Forrest Gump pic! Of course I also had to make one and aks some other tourists. :-)


Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.













Bubba Gump Shrimp Co

Beach and sunset

sunset at the beach.....how wonderful that was!

Santa Monica Beach

Santa Monica Beach was very nice and I enjoyed it as much as possible. Luckily it has not been too crowded. The first day I stayed at the beach till sunset and it was really nice. I took a lot pictures and it is hard to choose the ones for adding here.










Santa Monica pier is seen in the background

Santa Monica

Malibu Beach




After a great time in Santa Barbara I drove back to Los Angeles via Camarillo Outlet Center where I spent several hours for shopping! :-) People I have met in Santa Barbara advised me to drive into Santa Monica before 4 pm because after that traffic will get more and more horrible and they were right. When I left my hotel to do the first sightseeing I only saw packed highways and streets. Fortunately my hotel was located very nice in downtown Santa Monica with all important places in walking distance. It took me just 8 min to get to 3rd street promenade, the main shopping and eating area and about 12 min to get to the beach. That was really nice since I had to bring back my rental car the next morning.

Pacific Coast Highway

Some of you probably know the book "1000 places to see before you die". Among other wonderful places the Pacific Coast Highway is also listed in this book and I can confirm that it is definitly a place you must see. It is gorgeous and some day I want to do the whole ride from San Diego to San Francisco.

some weeks later....

since a month I have been back to Germany and back to work again. I am still thinking back to my time in California, the sun, the beaches and all the great experiences I had. Hopefully I can go back soon.
Meanwhile the first part of my move to Kiel is done. The boxes for Kiel are packed and stored in the lab. On Tuesday the handover of my old appartment took place and finally everything worked out fine. Now I am spending the weekend with my family at home and on Monday the trip to Kiel will start.
Before I continue to add some more pictures of my California trip I would like to mentioned a very sad occurance. At the age of 28 I had to put down my mare on Aug 20th. It was finally time for her to go and I had to let her go to sleep. Will miss her a lot but I am also glad that I was able to be there, that was very important for me.

I hope you will enjoy the rest of the pictures and wish you a nice weekend!!

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!!!