Pictures of after my move to Santa Monica, CA in October 2000

This picture is looking through Palisades park onto Santa Monica pier at night. At the bottom of the picture you can see the cars on Pacific Highway, and behind that is the parking lot for the pier. So, here you see my motto: it's paradise with too many cars...

Venice Beach on the other hand, has a beautiful bike path along the beach. This picture was taken while I was still in my temporary home in Marina del Rey when that bike path was my way to got to work. My bicycle had just arrived and I was proud to picture this classic Dutch piece parked to the palm tree.

A bit further along Venice beach there is a little area called 'Muscle Beach'. Muscle Beach used to be in Santa Monica during the days of the onset of the real body culture.

This is hardcore downtown LA. 'The Alley' is the epicentre of the fashion district of the city, that is the clothes manufacturing center because there is not much of 'high fashion' around here.

Close by downtown is Chinatown where even the Bank of America has changed its appearance to give it that Chinese touch.

Here we have left LA for a short vacation trip around christmas and entered Las Vegas. The Excalibur hotel and casino.

We, however, stayed in the Luxor hotel, so I could take the time to photograph the interior. I was not allowed to picture gamblers.

Another hotel/casino is the Venetian. They have a real life-sized model of part of the San Marco square, but then without the dirt. I am sure lots of visitors to Las Vegas will be disappointed when they see the real Venice. We look upon the Venetian from the Mirage with statue-dolphins jumping out of the water.

This is where is all started: the Flamingo. It has been rebuilt and extended dramatically since that start though...

The huge fountain ballet at the Bellagio hotel and casino.

After all that wordly entertainment we needed a more natural environment, the Grand Canyon.

But this is at least as awesome as Las Vegas. We arrived at night and hadn't seen the change from desert to woods. During the night it had even snowed so that we woke up on christmas day in order to have a walk in a winter wonderland.

The Grand Canyon is assumed to be cut out by the Colorado River, but if you see the modest stream through that huge canyon, that is hard to believe.

We stayed at the Canyon until sunset that gives a warm color to the canyon's walls.

The way back to Santa Monica goes through lots of desert.

But when entering the city again, the Ontario Mills outlet mall provides for a Rainforest Cafe.