Laguna Beach

Post Photo: Beach View | © Bettina Kümmerle

My second favorite beach is Laguna Beach. This place now has a good 25 inhabitants but more than 000 million visitors a year. I particularly like the local efforts to give nature back to the coastline. Unfortunately, like the entire Southern California coast, the hills around the city are slowly but surely becoming purely residential.

The city has cultivated its tourist status while trying to maintain its traditional galleries and artist shops. Unfortunately, this is very difficult when the original artists or gallery owners who gave the city its special charm at the end of the 20th century die.

But it is still a lot of fun to rummage through the various galleries and shops and to always discover something new; this time I particularly liked a coat made of soda can tops.

By the way, the song "Lagoon sunrise' by Black Sabbath from 1972 is still best heard there on the beach — which isn't difficult at all if you're playing the song straight into your hearing aids.

My recent visit brought not only a very relaxing stroll along the beach, but also a whole new dining experience. In addition, we had space in an older but probably recently expanded restaurant called Driftwood Kitchen Seated.

I continue to believe that whoever posts their food has lost control of their life, but yesterday's food is worth mentioning. Especially the starter, grilled Brussels sprouts with cranberries, was a pure taste experience. And because I've had a Monster Burger before but never a Hangover Burger, I treated myself to one and wasn't disappointed either.

Interestingly, the oysters were particularly popular at the neighboring tables.

You don't have to look at the Pacific Ocean all the time, you can also curl up by the fireplace in the Driftwood Kitchen, which was originally a beach house.