Santa Monica Place & Third Street Promenade, Santa Monica, California
One of the places that Jim and I went on our anniversary was
Santa Monica, California, where we enjoyed Third Street Promenade, Santa Monica Place, and the Santa Monica Pier.
Third Street Promenade is an outdoor pedestrian mall and ranks #2 on my all-time list of neatest malls, behind #1 Mall of America in Minneapolis.
At the south end of the Promenade is Santa Monica Place, an upscale shopping center designed by Frank Gehry, who also designed the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain; Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, Canada; and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. Santa Monica Place is an open-air mall featuring Bloomingdale’s and Nordstrom, both very unlike your typical Bloomingdale’s and Nordstrom stores. Stores at Santa Monica Place specialize in “Southern California beach luxury.”
At the west end of Third Street Promenade is the Santa Monica Pier, opened in 1909 and currently featuring Pacific Park, a family amusement park with a large Ferris Wheel, a carousel built in 1922, an aquarium, entertainers (similar to what you would find in the French Quarter in New Orleans), an arcade, a roller coaster, and restaurants. The pier also has one of the best setups for fisherpeople that I’ve ever seen.
Santa Monica Pier has been featured in many TV programs and movies, including “The Sting,” “Titanic,” “Forrest Gump” (there is a Bubba Gump Shrimp Company Restaurant on the Pier), “Not Another Teen Movie,” “2012,” and “Star Trek: Voyager,” among others.
Following are some of my pictures taken on October 30, 2012, of Santa Monica Place and Third Street Promenade. Santa Monica Pier will be in my next post.
Santa Monica Place
Nordstrom window, Santa Monica Place
Bloomingdale’s, Santa Monica Place
Santa Monica Place
Shoe store window, Santa Monica Place
Third Street Promenade
Third Street Promenade
Third Street Promenade
Public art, Third Street Promenade
Public art, Third Street Promenade
Entertainer, Third Street Promenade
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Posted on November 1, 2012, in Out & About, Photos and tagged santa monica place, third street promenade in santa monica. Bookmark the permalink. 19 Comments.
Love the photos! Nordstrom’s window display is so interesting!!
Sounds like a fascinating place, wish I could take a stroll down those streets! beebee
Congratulation on your anniversary – and great post. Nice variation of subjects that helped me experience being there.
Thanks for stopping by my blog and camping out for a bit. I so enjoy your photos. I am originally a So. Cal person who migrated north many years ago. Many family members still live in So. Cal. Enjoy your evening Russel
Maybe sometime you’ll come down to visit the family and I’ll get to meet you!
That would be great, my sister lives in Newport and my son and daughter-in-law are in Fullerton right now attending school. The rest of my family lives in Upland and Apple Valley. Happy 1st of November to you (can you believe it is here already?)
I was in Newport and Fullerton on October 30!
I will keep in touch and let you know when I am in the area, how fun to meet you seem to be a very interesting person with a love for life and the beauty it holds each day.
Wish it was closer to San Diego, but I love the window displays, very clever
Lovely trip and visit you two had… you can see it in your photos…
All of Your photos are like art pieces. Your presentation of Santa Monica was very interesting to me.
What a beautiful place!
Love the Nordstrom window!
Very cool! So did you get any of the free people? Or were they already gone?
They were all gone. I’m sure that when free people are involved, they all get snapped up by noon. We were there at 1:00……..lol
Gotta get up earlier, man! You don’t wanna miss that! I notice they’re STILL trying to give away Tibet, though. I’d take it if it weren’t so far away.
Oh, we got up early. 4:30 a.m. to be exact! However, if you ever go to Los Angeles, stay away from downtown, the I5, I10, and 101 area, regardless of what time of day it is. It takes about an hour to go two miles. It’s worthwhile to drive 20 miles out of the way and save a couple of hours.
Not to worry, my plan is to stay away from Los Angeles in general. That’s why I moved to Maine. I’ll want to go visit my mother eventually, but thank heavens she lives about an hour from L.A.
Very nice photos!Cosy!