CALIFORNIA
4/2002
A few days after New Years Day 2002 - at a Post-New Years Eve meeting - we had the idea of visiting our friend Joelle in L.A. (see also Egypt/Red Sea) and to fulfil me a "small" dream. I always wanted to see a NBA-Game live. Joelle supported us in our search for tickets, but it was very hard to get some. Finally we bought them via www.ticketsnow.com for three times the price of a regular ticket, of course. We choose the game Sacramento Kings - L.A. Lakers. The Kings are the best team of the regular season and the Lakers are the defending champions of the last two seasons. So we expected a great game.
The Sunshine-State California welcomed us with overcasted skies for four days. This was very unusal and all the L.A. citizens got a bit "kribbelig" because they aren't used being without the sun for such a looooong time (they should come to Munich in the November/December!!!!)
The first less-sleep days we spent with our friends Joelle and Carey, who showed us their view of L.A. (Flowers Market, Hollywood, Walk of Stars, Mann's Chinese Theatre, Kodak Theatre - the new home of the Oscars, Griffith Park, Art Brewers Photo Exhibition, Venice Beach, Santa Monica.and last but not least some of Joelles most favourite restaurants...) For more infos about the city take a look at www.losangeles.com or www.latourist.com
On Monday we left L.A. to drive up Pacific Coast Highway to Santa Barbara, where we met Bassam for a wonderful lunch. In the late afternoon we reached a small village, close to the famous Hearst Castle, which we couldn't see because of all the clouds/fog (I think that this happens very seldom). Next morning we drove north along one of the most beautiful parts of Highway No.1 to Monterey. It was still cloudy!!! And on Wednesday morning we reached Yosemite Nat. Park. Thanks God, now the sun came back again! We spent three wonderful days in the park, hiked until our feets burned, freezed in our tent at night, but enjoyed all the awesome views of Half Dome, El Capitan, the huge Yosemite falls and Mirror Lake. We left the park at Mariposa Grove, where you can see 2000 year old Sequoias. Glacier Point with his great view of the valley and Half Dome was unfortunately still closed.
Now we were heading to Fresno, to meet Eva, who we met the first time at New Years Eve 2001 in Munich. We spent some lazy and sunny days there and enjoyed the warm wheather, Chris' swimming pool, the Barbecue, some bottles of Californian red wine, the very tasty Oranges, which grow in the garden, the talks until the early morning on the porch, shopping and a short trip back to wintertime in the Sierra. At the first evening we joined her to visit her Flamenco rehearsal for an entrance at Fresnos theatre.
Back to L.A. we drove to the Staples Center to see the Basketball game. The Show and everything around the game was impressive, the tall players were it too. Shaq's height is 2,15 m and his weight is "only" 135 kg. The game itself was good but not very good because it was the last game of the regular season and both teams had their playoff classification. So they took it easy and let the bench players do their job.
Our last two days we spent with Joelle, went jogging on Santa Monica beach, did some shopping again (it's one of Beate's most loved hobbies) and visited the highly recommended Long Beach Aquarium and the Getty Museum.
Some of our impressions are shown in the slideshows, you can start with the links below. If you want some more infos about the places we visited, click on the links in the text. Enjoy it!!!!
