Hello dear readers, well I hope you do read because -except for Peter- nobody is giving any reaction... Anyway, after a cool night (temperature dropped to 12°C) and a heavy breakfast, we were on our way to Capitol Reef. We first had a look at Gooseneck viewpoint and got almost dizzy by the steepness of the rocks, we passed Chimney Rock, the Castle and then went for a small hike in the very narrow Capitol Gorge. Just the mere thought that one of those rocks could collapse ran shivers down our spine ! We passed the Pioneer Register, where courageous pioneers who passed the canyon with their horses and chariots wrote down their names and the date they passed the canyon...very interesting ! We saw dates going back as far as 1881 and even earlier, they were written high up on the side of the rock, proving also how the water had again deepened the canyon in a bit more than 100 years. We drove past the Egyptian temple (stunning!), we visited an old Mormon house and then drove up the Highway again to have a look on the trail of the Hickman Bridge. That required again some steep walk (at a temperature of 38°C!) but it was worth it! First we thought we found it, but it appeared to be a kind of mini slot-canyon, the real work was a few hundreds of meters further (uphill of course!!!). After seeing all this beauty of nature (see picture), we drove further, this time we were heading for Moab, which was quite a drive along long, long, loooooong roads !But again the views were fantastic and fascinating, just to see how in a few kilometers the entire landscape can change from red rocks into chalkstone into grey into brown into red again... When we arrived in Moab, we went on a queeste to find a hotelroom. Ahum! Not thàt easy ! I even barked at a poor receptionist for leaving the "vacancy" sign on when it should have been "NO vacancy", but hey! Don't fool around with moi when I'm tired ànd hungry! Anyway...we found a nice room with kingsize bed (I just love it, so much space!!) in the Riverside Inn, and the - totally bored- receptionist even reduced the rate with 5$ after I gave him a smile and some eyelash flapping (LOL) We decided to make it a bit easier for ourselves and booked also for tomorrow night, which will give us some more space tomorrow. We did some windowshopping in Moab city, I love the indian jewelry but Marc thinks it all looks quite fake (so K & D, if you want something indian style, try to convince your dad !!) And we had a nice dinner at the local brewery, where Marc tasted a "Belgian Wit", which it is not exactly like our Hoegaerden or Brugs tarwebier, but it has a good taste, even though they serve it with a slice of orange (!!!) Our Inn is located quite near the entrance of both Canyonlands and Arches National Park, so that is on the agenda for tomorrow. Guess we better hit the sack now... bye all ! Have a nice day !
good morning everybody !!! After a fantàstic sleep (boy, the beds are good in this country!!) we had a healthy breakfast at the Mean Bean in Springdale and did a quick small hike of about 1 hr in Zion on our way out of the park. Then we headed for Bryce Canyon, where we arrived shortly after noon.First we drove the scenic drive through the park to the most southern point and then we returned slowly, stopping at each scenic view. This park is stunning ! It reminded me a bit of Cappadocia in Turkey but then red coloured ! Of course, the visit wouldn't have been real without a hike IN the canyon! So we went down, down, deeper and down from Sunset Point via the Navajo Trail to Queens garden and (vèry steep!!) up again ! We now are a bit of a zoo: I am a mountain goat, Marc is a mule (carrying the heavy backpack with lots and lots of bottels of water and cereal bars) and we both are camels (drinking a lot of water )!! After every curve in the trails there was another breathtaking view, the rocks look as if they were painted and carved and you can find various features: ET, a sheep, an old man,... our imagination went wild ! There were also a few "strange" creatures: a very tiny, chubby, lizzardlike-but-not-really animal, a very small lizzard, a blue bird, and some very cute chipmunks. After this hike of about 3,5 hours (our muscles are becoming athletic! watch us when we are back !! ) we left the park and drove the long way to Torrey (a bit further than foreseen, but is was really worth it !) Highway 12 is sooooo beautiful ! We almost got a heartattack when a junior deer jumped out of nowhere in front of our car! Fortunately our Mazda has good brakes and Marc is very alert behind the wheel ! Then there were some (many!!!) cows at the side of the road, we encountered at dusk (so visibility was not optimal) some more deer-families and also managed to avoid a few suicidal rabbits ! That was quite some excitement for the end of the day and now we are in Capitol Reef Inn at Torrey for the night. Tomorrow we will visit Capitol Reef and then... well...keep on reading folks !! big hugs from us here and a ray of sunshine, XXX
good morning all ! After a very pleasant evening with Ines, Christophe, Annelies and Didier and no profit at gambling, we ended up too late in our bed again! So this morning, it was a bit of a struggle again, but at 9:30 we were driving out of Las Vegas, away from the glitter, glamour and money. The landscape soon changed from desert-like into beautiful rockformations in very different shades of brownish red, lovely ! And around 13:00 hrs we arrived at Springdale, a cute little town with quite some restaurants and motels/inns and a few little shops... where I would like to go and have a peek! But that will be for tomorrow. This afternoon we were a bit too early to check in our room at the Canyon Ranch Motel, so we decided to take the shuttle to Zion National Park. The shuttle stops in front of our motel and is free, so that was great! We first took the small hike to Weeping Rock, which was lovely: the water that has been absorbed for many, many years by the sandstone is there released again, causing a very gentle dripping and a lot of green...such a calm, beautiful spot!! We saw two very special butterflies too, but they were too hasty to have their picture taken. Then we decided to go on the Hidden Canyon trail, which was a steep climb against the red mountain.My calfs had just stopped hurting, they were just now back to normal...what do we do? We climb and make them all painful again!! Duuuuhhhh! At the highest part of the path, we had to hold on to chains which were fixed into the rocks, to prevent us from falling down into the canyon. And we safely reached the hidden canyon, but then....as if the steep climbing wasn't enough, we decided to go into the canyon hoping for an awesome view at the end...ahum! My chinese horoscope sign is a goat, and I might sometimes behave like one, I definitely am NOT a mountain goat !!! àààààrrrggghhh! We really had to climb over rocks, mount very steep and slippery specimen and I can tell you: I HAVE NOT BEEN DESIGNED FOR ROCKCLIMBING !!! and the climbing up is still quite alright, but we had to take the same way back ! For those of you who understand Dutch: mijn olleke ging open en dicht in sneltempo, godmiljaar zeg !!!! In the end we realised that we were climbing our way up to nothing really, but we did see a nice arche midway the canyon and some catfaeces, so maybe a lynx has passed the same path previously? Anyway, we arrived at the bottom of the trail safe and sound and had a wonderful time admiring the sunset against the red rocks. We ran into Didier and Annelies again, so we had dinner with them and now....we'll drop dead in our beds again, hopefully I will be able to walk properly tomorrow !! Goodnight everybody! Tomorrow we will be heading for Bryce Canyon !
hello everybody! We have to take something back: we don't think Las Vegas is as awful as we thought it to be yesterday ! The crowds yesterday were most probably due to the long weekend of Labour Day, which brought plenty of people to Vegas and made it as crowded as the Meir in Antwerp on a supersale day !!! Anyway, as we were in bed very late yesterday, we took it easy today, and had a nice breakfast in the Pharao's Thombe (or something) and then went to look around in Mandalay Bay. It is amazing how huuuuuge these hotels are and how spotless they are too! We visited Shark's Reef, an underwater world with quite an amount of sharks, exotic fish, waterturtles,yellyfish and even a real octopus ! Afterwards we went to MGM, Paris (with a beautiful casino and shopping street, it looks as if you are really in Paris, below the Eiffeltower,with a painted sky on the ceiling...amazing and yet very cosy too) Ceasar's Palace, went to an Oldtimer Exposition at the Imperial Palace, watched again the fountain show in front of the Bellaggio's... and arrived deadtired again in our room. Tonight we first wanted to go and see downtown Las Vegas, but as the people we met in Lone Pine invited us to go for some gambling, we will do that. Let's hope we will have a bit of luck on our side Tomorrow we have again a busy day: we will leave Las Vegas for Zion National Park, so away from the lights, the people, the noise, the fakeness,...and back to nature ! It will for sure do us some good ! Bye for now !
hello all ! While your breakfast is already over, it is about ten past one in Vegas now. This is an absolute record: since we are in America, we went to bed not later than 10 pm, except for today... We don't know what it is with us and deserts, but everytime we arrive in one, they get pooring rain ! Yesterday we had a strong wind (which was lovely, a very hot wind, we are not used to that) and a beautiful rainbow above the sand dunes. Right before we went to our room, there was a bit of rain, but apparently there was a lot a few miles further in the Valley, because this morning, some people reported quite some water at a few deep points. Very surreal, water in the desert... We left Stove pipe Wells at 7:45 hrs and temperature was already 40°C ! Zabriskie point was still on our wishlist and after we had seen this beautiful creation of nature, we headed for Sin City... And OH MY GOD !!! What is this? It looks like Disneyland for adults ! Amazing, stunning, overwhelming and really not our thing ! First we spend about 45 minutes on checking in in The Luxor hotel where an asian desk officer tried to upgrade our room...not needed!(thank you Peter) We got a room on the 25th floor, overlooking the desert (not really, but more an overview of the housing south of The Strip), quite relaxing as there are not blinking neons !After we dropped our bags, we went for prospection...it is amazing ! I cannot compare this better than Disneyworld with a huge concentration of overweight people. Tonight at 7 pm we went to see Stomp Out Loud which was super and even funny. Amazing what these people can do with some ordinary things. After the show Marc wanted to go to the "old" part, downtown Las Vegas, but our killing feet have kept us from doing so. We both have the same feeling: too many people, too fake, too crowdy. And at night all the lolita's come out, which is a treat to the eye and to the "laugh"-muscles ! anyway dears, time for us to hit the sack, tomorrow is another day in Never Neverland and Peter Pan and Tinkerbell are tired...goodnight!
hello all, after again a good night's rest and a delicious breakfast (I tried the pancakes today...mmm!) we headed for Sequoia National Park, which was quite a drive, but before we were there, we calculated our route to Lone Pine and we were in for a surprise: there is no road through Sequoia, so we had to drive all the way back and all the way down and then up again, which would take us about 5:30 hrs !!! Well, ok, so be it. the area of the Sequoia park is again beautiful though different from Yosemite-area. We drove on a terribly curved road very highly up to the parking lot to see the General Sherman Sequoia tree... man! beautiful ! Unfortunately he is dead in the top, but as he is not completely dead, he keeps on expanding...it is amazing! The entire woods around the General are very fairy tale-like, with the huge sequoia's, which grow very straight and look like they just stand ON the ground instead of having roots. very weird ! they also feel strange, not like a normal bark, but more dry, more "furry" if you like, strange. After the stroll to the General, we drove all the way back, admiring the views of Moro rock and all the other rocks, some of them reminded us of a Lord of the Rings-scenery. And then we set off for Lone Pine, which is a huge tour, because there are no roads crossing Sequoia National Park. We stopped for dinner a bit before Mojave, and had a Whopper at a Burger King, our very first hamburger since we have arrived in America. Blègh! that was not our thing. Either we ran into a wrong Burger King or we just aren't hamburger-lovers... Anyway. At about 20:30 hrs we arrived at The Portal and saw that there was no vacancy anymore, so thank God we made the reservation by phone this morning, because driving on these pitch dark ways is not really my favourite !! Oh yes, temperature today raise to 104°F, being about 40°C !! Not bad huh?! Tomorrow we will be heading for Death Valley, and as it is in the middle of nowhere, it might be that we will not have internet access, so it might be that we will not be able to update our blog. Everybody, it is 9:30 pm now, our bedtime Goodnight !
Hey all, sorry for the delay in reporting, but yesterday evening the Bloggen-server must have been out of order or so because we could not enter any messages... The breakfast at The Bug, is perfectly fit for an "adventurer", for less than 10$ we could have scrambled eggs, bacon, baked potatoes, fresh fruit (strawberries, pineable, melon,grapefruit,..), youghurt, pancakes with maple syrup, muesli, orange juice,... delicious ! After we kind of stuffed ourselves, we headed for a hike in Yosemite. We first passed Bridal Veil Falls, which really look like a veil, surely in this time of the year, when the rivers are close to being dry, still, it was lovely to see. We went further in the park to Glacier point (about 40' drive - this park is HUGE!!) where we arrived about 10:30 hrs. After a look at the stunning view of Half Dome, we started the hike which a ranger at the Visitor's Center had suggested us. (if I éver see this guy again!!!) After we packed some water and some muesli bars, we left the parking lot. (and after an experience with the park's toilets, which are nothing more than a huge bucket with a lid, turned upside down on top of a large hole, no flushing possible of course, need I say more?! ) So we went down on the 7,4 km trail, curving down steeply towards Yosemite Valley, with breathtaking views along the way, with small blue lizzards crossing your path and squirrels having a look at you, we even saw a deer with her cubs !! No bears though...We arrived about 2,5 hours later in the valley, and were looking forward to a cool drink and maybe a sandwich...NOTHING there ! I wanted to take the bus back up, but my dear husband thought it was not "real", not a real challenge if we would not go up again... OH MY GOD!! this was a hike that was definitely not to be underestimated ! we started off again in the Valley where it was extremely warm ( 30°C or even more) and no wind at all, after 100 m, I was sweating like a horse which ran a full race !! Anyway, grabbed our courage and went on. Nowhere on the entire hike there is a flat part, it keeps on going up, in two curves you easily go up 20 m! Never mind the breathtaking views, this hike made the Samaria Canyon look like a walk in the park! Fortunately there was some wind and we packed enough water, after 3 hours we were back where we started (abt 7000 ft above sealevel and abt 3000ft higher than the valley), kind of crawled into the store for something to drink and I even had the courage to climb up a bit further to look at Glacier Point and the stunning view of all the rockformations and peaks! What a day! We were back in the hotel at 7:15pm and the shower was one of the best we ever had! We had a light meal and went to bed. Today we are heading for Sequoia National Park...further reporting tonight !
hello all, after a night under a starry, starry sky, we woke up too early, but could see all the stars of our milky way and could see the sunrise above the mountains and breathe in the crisp, pure air of Nevada. We had a copious breakfast in our B&B - www.bstreethouse.com- consisting of sparkling pommegranate juice, orange juice, coffee, tea, scones, muffins (homemade !!), strawberries, honeydew, melon, youghurt, eggs with herbs, turkey-apple sausage and baked potatoes with dill, which actually was our breakfast, snack and lunch-in-one! The chat with the most charming owners kept us a bit too long, but finally we headed for Yosemite National Park, a drive of 4,5 hours. And what a drive ! Wow! Beautiful scenery (Pocahontas-like) enrolled before our eyes with deep blue lakes, steep mountains, rocks, huge trees, ... it made us feel very humble. In the park we left our car at a parking lot and took a hike to the sequoia-trees at Tuolumn-Grove.Amazing those trees which are about 2500 years old, makes you very quiet (again!) Then we passed The Dome and El Capitan in the centre of Yosemite Valley. If you look at El Capitan you can hardly believe that people actually climb it as a HOBBY !!!! (cfr Mark Herremans) In the evening, we drove further to Midpine, to our room at Yosemite Bug Lodge and Hostel (www.yosemitebug.com) which is a lovely space in the middle of the woods, our room is in a kind of chalet, but when you enter it is like a luxurious hotelroom!! I love it ! The only thing is: it is very, very hot here and inside the rooms too. We are having a -very Far West- fan, but in spite of all its efforts, the rooms feels like a sauna on high speed!!!! Tomorrow, we will go back to the park for a hike of about 6 to 8 hours, don't know whether I'll have the energy to write tomorrow night, but let's see then !! :o)
hello everybody ! it was with pain in our hearts that we left San Francisco this morning. This is an awesome city (to use an american word) and we are vèry fond of it. We like the atmosphere, the people, the way of living,... the only thing that we lack is ...money !! Housing is extremely expensive in SF!!! Anyway, we took the 45-bus this morning to Union Square and observed the people on their morning journey to work (interesting!) and went to the Hertz office to pick up our car. We were helped (??) by a big asian woman, got our car and took off. Now the steep, vèry steep hills of SF were for us to be conquered! But Marc managed well and after a short while we passed the Golden Gate again (which was now completely hidden in fog, very dark, very wet, very bad weather-like, but that is just not the case because at the same time the city centre was already sunbathing, very weird! you get up, look at the sky, decide that it is autumn, dress warmly, take the buss and look like a lunatic when you arrive at the center where it is full sunshine...!!) We drove to Muir Woods and had our lucky day because today the 10$ p.p.didn't have to be paid (because is was 100 years Muir Wood or something)It is a very small park, but so lovely, so peaceful, so quiet....After that we drove to Napa City and were very surprised of how "cultivated" it looked. But that was nothing in comparison with Sacramento!!! This is the capital city of California and the old town comes straight from a Western movie ! It is amazing, it feels like getting into Disneyland !!! And still all the shops are open, restaurants are, but it is so surreal... We had a nice dinner at the side of the river, with a glass of champagne to celebrate that we made it to America (after the bad take off, remember?) and some nice Chardonnay of the region. We made a stop in a candy shop (no 50-Cent around, sorry !!!) and bought a few candies for on our way. Ah yes, we also found a Wallmart where we bought a cooler and some drinks and some cereal bars, now our journey can begin!
Tomorrow we are heading for Lake Tahoe and Virginia City, but now we will try to get some sleep in our beds next to the highway... sleep tight, till tomorrow!!!
After a good night's rest, we could "collect" our breakfast at the hotel's reception: juice, coffee, pastry and muffins. All so sweet...for us this is no real breakfast, but it for sure provides you with all the sugars you need for the entire day! And then we took off for a stroll to the Golden Gate bridge, which was unfortunately covered in fog (due to the cold water of the Pacific and the warm land temperature) When we took the bus 45 to go downtown, we realised what a hùùùge walk we have done yesterday! Completely nuts that we didn't take any bus !!! We drove to Union Square and passed China Town, of which half the population wanted to be on our bus, we immediatly thought we were somewhere in Asia! Anyway, got of at Union Square, took a look at Macy's, Bloomingdale's, bought some fruitjuice and took the hop-on, hop-off sightseeingbus, which brought us past the most interesting places to see in San Francisco: Chinatown, financial district with the Transam pyramid, Fishermans Wharf and then via Lombard street to the Golden Gate bridge where we almost froze and were blown away ! it is frigging cold out there on the bridge. We stopped on the other side for some pictures of the skyline of SF. Beautiful ! It is such a lovely city, not too many too high buildings, lovely with the steep streets and the old cable trams, we could easily live here ! We feel so at ease, so comfortable, no problem whatsoever. We took the tour again to get off at Fisherman's Wharf, we walked to pier 39 where we watched the sea lions who made Fisherman's Wharf their home. The area is also known for delicious seafood, so of course we had to taste that: shrimp salad for Marc and half a crab for me, washed down with a glass of wine...there are worse things in life !! This city is so big and so lovely and there's so much to see and the houses are magnificent, what an experience !We both love it here and feel sorry that we have to leave tomorrow.Unfortunately the SF night life will be for another time, we are both nackered again and will hit the sack....
If you're going to San Francisco...be sure to wear some flowers in your hair...
On special request of some friends, we will write this blog in English... This morning a bit after five, Joris picked us up and brought us to the airport. How convenient it is, to have your seats already picked and your boarding pass printed at home! No queueing, no waiting,...easy! The flight to London was smooth and after some tours above London (too much traffic on Heathrow) we arrived in Terminal 5. Wow !! This is a brand new terminal and cannot be compared whatsoever with the gloomy, crowded, dirty, awful other terminal (was it 4 via which we went to India last year?) Ok, we had to stand in line for a very long time for checking, had to take off our shoes, kind of "run" to catch our belongings (the trays kept on rolling!!) and then we spend some nice hours walking around, exploring Terminal 5. They also have a Starbucks, where our order was taken from a gorgeous italian-ish guy: a small cappuccino and a "Naked", this is an extremely healthy drink, stuffed with lots of fruits and even ginger, grass, brocoli, sea-algues...looked blègh, was yummie !! Anyway, we also left well in time for San Francisco, but then...this was the very worst take-off ever !!!I really thought that this was it, that we'd never make it, blimey!!! The guy next to me..I thought he would jump onto my lap, he was a bit in panic too, fortunately the rest of the flight went smoothly and we arrived at 14:15hrs (local time) in San Francisco, where we had the superbrilliant idea to take the BART (train) from the airport to the city center (Powell Station) We'd walk quickly to our hotel....yes!!! San Francisco has steep, vèèèèry steep streets, very lóng streets too !! We walked about 1;45 hrs with our heavy backpack to Lombard street n° 2702 (far end of the street of course!!) and are now about to die... that is, I'm kind of dead now, don't forget we are up for almost 24 hrs... It is 03:32 hrs in Belgium and 18:30 hrs over here. We took a quick shower, will have a pizza and then go to bed. The sightseeing is for tomorrow, but while dying on the stairs in Lombard Street, I caught a glimpse of Alcatraz and of the Golden Gate bridge. So cool !!! So dears, we made it to San Francisco, now we just have to look for some flowers to put in our hair :o)
Woensdagavond...nog één dagje werken en dan begint onze vakantie, ons Groot Avontuur in de States ! Yiehàà! Nu is het nog even checken of we alles klaarhebben, of onze rugzak nog trek-klaar is, of we de nodige pillen en prullen bijhebben en de hele santenboetiek...Nu nog rustig en nog "tijd genoeg", maar dat zal morgenavond al héél anders klinken!! Zaterdagmorgen à krieken du jour is het dan zover... stilaan beginnen de zenuwen toch te komen ...
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Lake Tahoe and a trip back in time in Virginia City
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Italië 2024
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good morning all ! After a very pleasant evening with Ines, Christophe, Annelies and Didier and no profit at gambling, we ended up too late in our bed again! So this morning, it was a bit of a struggle again, but at 9:30 we were driving out of Las Vegas, away from the glitter, glamour and money. "Wink"){kind=icon}
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hello all ! While your breakfast is already over, it is about ten past one in Vegas now. This is an absolute record: since we are in America, we went to bed not later than 10 pm, except for today...
hello all, after again a good night's rest and a delicious breakfast (I tried the pancakes today...mmm!) we headed for Sequoia National Park, which was quite a drive, but before we were there, we calculated our route to Lone Pine and we were in for a surprise: there is no road through Sequoia, so we had to drive all the way back and all the way down and then up again, which would take us about 5:30 hrs !!! Well, ok, so be it. 
hello everybody ! it was with pain in our hearts that we left San Francisco this morning. This is an awesome city (to use an american word) and we are vèry fond of it. We like the atmosphere, the people, the way of living,... the only thing that we lack is ...money !! Housing is extremely expensive in SF!!! "Confused"){kind=icon}
