recap: monterey, carmel, san francisco

April, 06. Waking up in Monterey, we decided to travel a little bit back to drive along the 17-Mile-Drive. It's a scenice road, where you have to pay a toll to see scenic attractions like the Lone Cypress Tree. After strolling thrue the charming town of Carmel we drove to our next destination: San Francisco.

recap: santa barbara, highway #1

April, 05. We only spent a few hours in Santa Barbara. After a delicious breakfast we took two bikes, that our motel provided for free and drove thrue the pretty neighbourhoods to the Old Mission and to the Court House. Afterwards we had to go back to the motel where we said goodbye to my parents. Before we left Santa Barbara, to drive along the pacific coast to Monterey, we made a brief stop at the pier.

 

 

 

recap: los angeles and the stahl house

April, 04. Our day started with breakfast at Venice Beach, that we bought from a very cool place (check out the open structure of the walls in the photos). We then drove downtown, to visit Walt Disney Concert Hall. Next stop was Hollywood Blvd to see the Walk of Fame. After that, I wanted to take a picture of the Hollywood sign - a must see in Los Angeles. Somehow it was not so easy for us to find it. I tried to find directions with the help of the Lonely Planet, but I lost track of all the small streets. So we just drove up some hills until we catched a glimpse of it, but it was impossible to stop on this street. We parked the car a bit further and started to climb a very steep hill. When we got to the top we finally had a good view over the sign and we could also see the spot where you are supposed to take the pictures - you can get there by car and there is no need to climb anything :) After that we hurried to the Grove - a huge shopping centre, where we bought the sunglasses Joe wanted to buy since we landed in the US. We only had about twenty minutes to find the store, look for the glasses, buy them and run back to the car. The reason was our next visit: Stahl House (Case Study House #22). It was our highlight in LA and we had to be there at a specific time to get in. It is the most impressive house I have ever seen. Set high in the hills, it has a breath-taking view over the city. We spent there about two hours, admiring the house and its view, taking pictures while it got dark and the lights of Los Angeles started to shimmer. So amazing. Straight after the visit, we left Los Angeles and drove to Santa Barbara, where we met my parents. It was already late and we went straight to bed - probably dreaming of the Stahl House.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

recap: santa monica, malibu and beverly hills

April, 3. When we were booking our hotel for Los Angeles we didn't really know where to stay because this city is just huge. We decided to stay somewhere close to Santa Monica, so we could go to the beaches in the morning. That's what we did today! We went to Santa Monica Pier, walked on the beach and looked at cute houses around the area. For lunch we drove to Malibu where we found Malibu Kitchen, a little sandwich place. Then we wanted to see some nice villas, so we hit the beach in Malibu. One of the houses we saw, was the famous Segel House by John Lautner, but we didn't know it when I took the picture, we found out some days later. Next, we visited the J. Paul Getty Museum. We weren't really interested in its collection, but enjoyed the spectacular view over Los Angeles. When it closed, we still had enough daylight to go to Beverly Hills and drive thrue this pretty neighbourhood and maybe see the villas of some Hollywood stars (the only one we found was the one of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes). It is unbelievable how much money lays on these hills: we saw so many pretty houses hiding behind their huge fences and flawless hedges. Before returning to our hotel we went to Abbot's Pizza in Venice, where they have delicious slices with a bagel crust!