hello dears, for the second time in 3 full weeks, the sun has disappointed us. No sun today, it seems that she cannot get past the mountainridge that is near to the sea, because further inland we can see blue sky and sunshine, unfortunately not on our heads. We left Morro Bay, passed by Hearst Castle but did not visit it as the next visit was more than 1,5 hours later and we did not want to wait for such a long time, so we continued our drive along the shore. Lovely views, nice waves, and a viewpoint where we were supposed to see sea elephants...jahàà! If the animals we saw at the end of the beach, all over eachother were sea elephants, I must be Santa !! But it was nice to watch them (from quite a distance!) Back on the road again, we drove up to Carmel, the city where Clint Eastwood has been maire for a while. The guy surely knows how to pick 'em! The shopping street of Carmel Bay is lovely and reminded us of Knokke Le Zoute (for those who don't know where that is, it is a posh neighbourhood at the Belgian coast), the houses were lovely, the shops were cute ànd very expensive and so were the cars parked along the sideway, our poor Mazda was a bit of a misfit.... A very healthy chicken wrap with a cappuccino at a coffee shop was our lunch and it was delicious! But, as we had read in our guide that there was an outlet store close to Monterey , we did not explore Carmel more, which was actually a pity because the "Outlet stores" were a bunch of sad, depressing shops, with not much to be seen ! So no further clothes shopping for us . We have actually done very poorly, so no extra suitcases or bags have been bought, because all fits in our (already slightly heavy!!) backpacks ! And anyway, the money's gone, we will have to work hard to get our piggy out of its half coma again !!! So we made a stroll to Fisherman's Wharf where another bunch of sealions were wellcoming us with their loud barking (ask me when I'm back, I'm a good imitator!!! ), pelicans were cruising the shore and we have seen....drums, drums, theme from Jaws....real live otters frolicking around, one even caught a fish and the flapping of the fish on the water was as if the otter was applauding!! really cool!!! And now...the end is near, we have made the check in for our flights, will have a last night in a super Kingsize bed, and hopefully the sun will accompany us on our last miles towards San Francisco! This will most probably be my last blog on american soil. Dear readers, you all have a nice Saturday, will revert to you soon! big hug
Hello everybody! It is strange, but I think that all the angels are sitting on a thick cloud in their city, because it was the second night we woke up with a "closed" sky. After a refreshing breakfast at Starbucks and a goodbye hug to Christophe (Inès must have been still in their room) we set off towards San Francisco. But on our way we met....an outlet village!!!! No way we would miss the opportunity to shop here ! But my goodness, these outlet villages are huuuuuuge !! As we had a bit of a time pressure, we kind of "ran" through the village, ending in Marc bying a few jeans and myself buying some Nike running shoes. (I really hàve to get started doing some sports after this holiday, so I began with buying running shoes...ahum! let's see where thàt will end... ) Anyway, we drove past Santa Barbara and had a fabidu hamburger at In-N-Out, thank you Peter for the great tip!!! This is really a great hamburgerplace ! you only have 3 choices: hamburger, double burger, cheeseburger with REAL potatoes. All is very clean and vèèèèry good! Ju-hùùùm! Cannot be compared whatsoever with any of the other hamburger chains and is miles away from our nightmare at Burger King! We arrived at Morro Bay around 4 in the afternoon and went to see the Morro Rock. And it is so cute, there are pelicans flying here, sea lions making a LOT of noise (and smell! ) at the pier and the fishing boats are gently lying on the water.. this is a lovely place, nice, cute shops, nice restaurants, and gooooooood sea air, so we have decided to spend the night over here. We found a good Inn for 65$ so we were all happy and went for a walk in the one street this place has. There are very nice little shops with a lot of crap, but still nice to visit, we saw some sealions swimming in the bay and heard from a lady in the shop that there are dolphins to be seen (but you need binoculars, and what didn't we bring???) Oh and we had a superlovely, romantic dinner right next to the water: some really nice fish and a great Merlot, what else can a person want? Aaaahhhh...this is the life ! (Annelies and Didier, we are staying in the Bayview Inn in Harbour Street, www.bayviewinn.net, clean and tidy and cheap and dinner at The Galley, really, really good !) That was about all we did today, tomorrow we are heading further for the North. It is with a lot of pain in our hearts that we see our holiday coming to an end, but we will try to make the most of it still tomorrow ! TTFN and have a great day! xx
hello all, we are staying in West Hollywood, so not really in downtown LA. Just for those of you who would like to situate us a bit... Today we have been searching for an outlet store but so far, nothing found, we did find lots and lots of shops selling wigs, real hair, drag queen attributes like fake eyelashes, amazingly high shoes, strange and special (read: superspecial and kinky clothes/underwear ),... pretty amazing actually. To us Hollywood is more like a ghetto neighbourhood once you go to the sidestreets of Hollywood Boulevard. Of course, Beverly Hills is tidy and neat and very nice and rich, but the rest...not really too appealing for us. Anyway, we have visited Warner Bros today (and not Universal Studios as reported earlier) and it was sùper! We had a really great guide, Brad, who seemed to love what he was doing, who liked our questions and really tried to show us as much as possible. And we were in for a treat: we actually went into Central Perk from Friends !! We sat in the famous sofa! that was só cool! And we went into the museum, on the groundfloor were clothes and attributes of several movies: the Joker-masks worn by Heath Ledger, clothes from the Matrix, dresses, costumes, letters, notes...and the second floor was entirely dedicated to Harry Potter. Marc and I were "chosen" by the Magical Hat, I was Griffindor and Marc was Slytherin !! There were all kinds of attributes: Hagrid's coat, the broomstick, Hermione when she was petrified (and that doll really looked as if it was her !), the Dementors,... anyway, being Harry Potter-fans it was awesome! We also saw the outside of Central Perk, the house of Ross and Monica, when it was Prom-night and Rachel still had her old nose, we saw Jack's bar from the Gilmore Girls and ....tataratààà! we saw a real moviestar: a doctor from ER (don't know his name, but it is the young guy, quite goodlooking and definitely goodlooking in real life!!) WB has the only "jungle" in movieland, the "lagoon" is surprisingly small, yet many scenes have been taken there... it is all quite surreal, it all is so small, yet on TV it looks so real. We went into the hall of ER, there were two vending machines, except...they were just posters, but they looked so real ! And then we were put in front of a green screen and had to make "a move", later on it appeared that the Hogwarts Express was passing us... We really had good fun today ! Late afternoon Marc and I drove to Santa Monica, normally it would have taken about 20 minutes but due to the heavy traffic it took more than one hour. And the Pier really disappointed us, the beach was ok, with very high waves and a cool breeze! Nice ! But the trip back - again with very heavy traffic- made us come back on our earlier promise to have dinner at the beach. Instead we had a very nice dinner with Inès and Christophe, Annelies and Didier in an italian restaurant at the Farmer's Market. The evening went by too fast, but time flies when you're having fun, isn't it? Tomorrow we will be heading for the north again, slowly facing our last days in California. Good night all, have a good day and to be continued....
from a sleepy wild west town to the City of Angels
Gooood morning everybody!! I know, it is almost night again for you guys, but after typing our blog yesterday evening, it was gone ! By no means I could find it back, and I didn't have the courage to write it all over again. Anyway, we had a very early rise and left Williams at about 5:45 hrs for a more than 7 hours long trip to Los Angeles. For the first time on our tour, I also took the wheel. Ahum! A car with an "automatic" gear is a special thing if you are not used to it and it made the trip quite exciting! The closer we came to LA, the more it all looked like we were sticking our heads into an ant's nest ! wohow! Fortunately our "Truus" -> GPS showed us the way and in no time we were at our Best Western hotel close to Hollywood Boulevard and the Hollywood Bowl. After a quick shower we were ready to go. It is only a few minutes' walk to Hollywood Bld, and arriving there it is like a kind of déjà-vu with Las Vegas! We met Spiderman, Captain Jack Sparrow, the Thin man from Wizzard of Oz and I even think that there were two celebrities in front of the Chinese Theatre, two blond women (no, not Paris Hilton) surrounded by cameras, but they did not look familiar to us...Anyway, we had a look at the stars on the pavement, had a walk and then decided to take the hop on, hop off-bus again, who took us for a 2 hours-tour through Hollywood and Beverly Hills. I must say though that except for Beverly Hills, it all looks a bit "neglected", dunno how to explain it, but it cannot really charm us. We liked San Francisco a lot more. Of course, I must admit that sitting on the top of the double deck bus, I DID think that it would be lovely to be just extravagantly rich We had dinner at the Farmer's Market, a big semi covered, fresh vegetables and fruits market and there was also a superlovely Plaza with shops and restaurants and some singing and swinging fountains like at the Bellaggio's in Vegas. When driving back to the hotel we were in for a surprise: the parking ticket was only very cheap if you could prove that you had something at the Farmer's Market which we didn't as we had dinner in the Plaza, so our ticket for 2 hours of parking was 14$ !!!!!!!!! That is a straight rip off !! And we were quite pissed off too, but what could we do?! Anyway, today we will visit Universal Studios, there is so much to see here and we have so little time, but ok, one has to make choices... will report back tonight ! (if I'm not kicked out again!) Bye! xx
Howdy folks ! (we are in the Far West after all...) We found a very nice and cosy coffee house - The Java Circle- on Route 66 where we had a huge coffee and a muffin and we did some windowshopping in the city (ahum) center. Then it was time to leave for our appointment with ....a helicopter !!!! Yiehàà! The Grand Canyon is much to big to be seen from the Rim, so we dug deep into our pockets for an extraordinary experience ! Flying in a heli is one of the things figuring on our wish list and where can it better be done than at the Grand Canyon? Now, when being face to face with one of those machines, I wasn't all that courageous anymore and I almost regretted it, but that feeling was completely gone once we were airborne! Wohow!! Amazing! Fantastic! Fascinating ! The 30 minutes were too quickly over, but all good things come to an end and actually the 30 mins were enough to have an idea of how huge this all is ! After the flight we went again into the park for a stroll at the West Rim, but as Hermits Rest is closed for road construction, our walk came to an early end. And maybe for the best, because in the distance we could see a thunderstorm heading our way with a lot of wind, so we decided not to stay in the park but to go back to Williams. On our way back we have seen some marvellous lightnings! As this country is so spacious, you can really see the lightning going completely down, cool! Anyway, then we were treated for the first showers in our holiday, pooring rain ! And a temperature drop to half of what we are used to: 17°C, I guess that is about the average temperature now in Belgium, so we could get used to that again! The "city center" of Williams really is very cosy, but the junk they sell in some of the shops would in Belgium be sold on flee markets or garage sales ! But it was nice to just stroll around, meanwhile the sun was back which made it of course a lot nicer! As we did not have lunch (again) we decided to go for an early dinner at about 18:00 hrs, and again we went to McGillycuddy's restaurant (same as yesterday) where we had again mexican food and a superdelicious Margarita on the rocks ! And had a good look at the local geeks ! Amazing how some people dress up here, honestly, we saw a real life Buffalo Bill entering, a guy who looked like a doctor in an old Western movie and an entire "rariteitenkabinet" in a row. Hysterically funny sometimes, especially because these people are serious. Anyway, tomorrow morning we will have to get up really early because the trip to Los Angeles will take us about 6,5 hours (450 miles), so we need a good rest. Next time I'll be writing, we'll be in California again! Tatààààà!
PS: due to the WiFi being extrémely slow, we cannot add pictures, sorry...
gooood morning dears ! After a good night's rest and an ok breakfast , we first drove to Horseshoe Bend, to have a look at some beautiful meanders of the Colorado river, at the moment we were there, a speedboat was cruising the river, which made it even more special. After this, we headed for Antelope Canyon, as this is Navajo property and no national park we had to pay some entrance fee: 6$ per person, but on top of that we had to subscribe for the trip (25$ each!!) We had to wait for a while and then our names were called and we were all (14 of us) seated in a pickup truck. Our driver was Leroy, a Navajo and Charles Bronson lookalike! The trip alone was already an adventure as he had to manoever his car through loose sand ! Then we arrived at on of the highlights of our holiday: Upper Antelope Canyon! Waaaauw ! This is a slot canyon, and when the water whooshes through it, it leaves marks which look as if some textile is blowing in the wind, with the light coming from the top of the canyon, it gave some spectacular views ! Our camera's did not stop clicking and the Navajo lady (Charles' wife) was a great teller and sometimes she just took the camera out of our hands and took a wonderful picture herself. After our visit and a bumpy ride back to the parkinglot (temperature was 41°C there!!) we passed via Lake Powell and then we drove to Grand Canyon. We did not really know what to expect of it, we knew it was very touristic but in the end it was ok. The first view was overwhelming: it is soooo huge over here ! It cannot be compared with anything we saw so far. We took pictures here and there and then sought for a "sunset"-spot. Unfortunately the warm reds, pinks and purples are not really represented by our cameras ànd there were some clouds in the sky which ruined the light, but ok, you can't have it all, can you? For the night we found something really cute in Williams: The Canyon Motel, where you can sleep in a trainwagon if you like (and if you make your reservations a bit earlier than we did!) We have a cosy cottage, n° 7. Then we went for dinner in Williams City, which is great ! Time stand still here, and the city has two main streets which form a kind of loop as they are one way, but one of them is part of Route 66!! isn't that great?! What still amazes us is, that the people live in this kind of Disneyworld and that it is real life for them! Back home we would never imagine that something like this still exists in this era.. very strange, but interesting and amusing too! We like it ! Tomorrow we will stroll around in the city when we return from Grand Canyon. So dears, we have to hit the sack now, tomorrow will be a long day again ! TTFN !! (tata for now)
Gooood morning everybody ! Our breakfast at the Riverside Inn was copious as yesterday, so about 10 minutes later we took off for the South, being Monument Valley. On our way down there, a bit after Bluff, we took a small dirtroad, leading us to the Valley of the Gods, which is a mini- Monument Valley area, where hardly any tourists come, but the views are equally beautiful or even more! Still, this was the first time that we wished we had a 4X4 instead of our Mazda 6! But our little fellow did very well, but I must say, the first steep climb was the worst, the car breathed and cursed and moaned but he made it! After that it was a lot of hopping around and shaking, but it surely was worth it! Then yours truly - who happens to be the navigator of the team, Marc insists on driving- made an error, leading us to another dirtroad: the Moki Dugway...ahum! This little (???!!!) road led us to the top of the plateau, no paved road, again a dirtroad and going the totally wrong direction! ààààrrrggghhh! I was só happy when we reached the top, you can imagine my face when we realised we were heading the wrong way and had to go back! Anyway, we reached the highway again safe and sound and then we followed Peter's tip and took the way to Goosenecks...marvellous ! There's a sign that says that you should enjoy the view and the quietness of the place, oh, we would , if one of the people there wouldn't have had his generator on!!! Anyway, after the necks -> Monument Valley, here we come ! Except...the navigator doze off again so we were already quite some miles further when we realised that there was something not really right.... Ahum! We again, we found it and instead of the nice paved road like in all the other parks we have visited, we again were facing a dusty dirtroad, so again some shaking and wobbling (all our body fluids are back into balance and the fat is spread out evenly again!) For sure Monument Valley was worth it, especially because it gives our typical image of the "Far West" and because the Navajo people still live in the park. For the rest, I think we have been spoiled in the previous parks, because we were not as overwhelmed as we have already been. As I say: spoiled...because for sure it was beautiful and fascinating ! And for those of you who know me, you will understand that I could not pass the little Navajo-stands who sell jewelry... (to Marc's dispair !) We are now staying in Page where we did some laundry and had some fun, because it reminded us of the Friends-episode where Rachel and Ross are doing laundry, you know with the chariot ? I couldn't resist taking one for "a ride" ! Oh yes, I hàve to say something about the public restrooms: why are all the toilets so low ? Why are the doors not completely closing? there is always some space where people could peek through!! And why are the sides of the cabine not closed to the floor or almost? Even for a short person like myself it is an awkward experience, I wonder what tall people do... !! Dears, that's it for tonight, tomorrow we would like to visit Antelope Canyon and later on drive through to somewhere around the Grand Canyon! Have a nice Sunday !!
dear sweet readers, we are sooooo happy with the reactions we received, giving us the enthusiasm to continue, even now when we (eum, I ) am craving for my soft bed... Thank you! thank you ! Thank you!!!!! Today we had an early wake up call and after a fine (???) continental (???) breakfast, we headed for Dead Horse Point State Park.I will not shock you with what the name came from, but it was quite sad. At the overlook, still a bit in the haze of the morning sun, we met Lisa, a lovely lady from Sacramento who was on holiday with her friend John from Canada. Nice chat we had ! Dead Horse Point gives a beautiful overlook over the canyon, created by the Colorado river. Next on our list was Island in the Sky, which is not the name of a psychedelic song, but the northern part of Canyonlands, formed by the Green River and the Colorado river. We have seen there, in the beauty of the early morning, an arche with an amazing view behind ! Immediately high in our top 5 of Highlights Of this Holiday ! A bit further, on Grand View point we could even see a bit of The Needles, which is the southern-east part of Canyonlands, but we will not visit it because of lack of time By noon, our breakfast was looong gone, so we came back to Moab and had a delicious salad at the Eclectic Café, bio-food and bio-atmosphere and we loved it! Then back to Arches National Park, this is by far the most extraordinary park we have seen so far! Wow ! Amazing what nature can do with rocks, water and sand ! We have seen beautiful arches, marvellously sculpted rocks, so magnificent ! The Landscape Arch has become famous because in September 1991, a big part of it fell down, so now the upper part of the arch is really thin...still...wow! After this hike, the mountain goat had to come into action again and not in the least way: as the sun was getting lower, it was time to visit Delicate Arch, which is at its best at sunset.But oh dear sweet lord, what a climb !!! Why do they hide all the beautiful things deep into the park so that you have to walk for over an hour (what do I say? Walk? Steep hiking, climbing, breathing like a nearly dead horse !!!) But the result was magnificent! The arch stands by itself at the edge of a plateau high in the hils, carressed by the sun and the wind and it is breathtaking (eum...in both senses ) We went silent after all this beauty and walked back to the car. After a hot shower we felt human again and ready to attack Zax Pizza Restaurant, which was a bit of a disappointment as it resembled more Pizza Hut than a nice pizza place! semi blègh! Tomorrow we will not go to Mesa Verde, Peter, because we have decided that it is too far away. We will go down to Monument Valley and decide there whether we will go to Page & Antelope Canyon or heading straight for Williams/Flagstaff... to be continued... have a nice Saturday all, we send you some sun and some warmth (today 35°C ) Take care and keep on reading !!! xxx
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 ...
Italië 2024
hello dears, for the second time in 3 full weeks, the sun has disappointed us. No sun today, it seems that she cannot get past the mountainridge that is near to the sea, because further inland we can see blue sky and sunshine, unfortunately not on our heads. "Very Happy"){kind=icon}
 "Crying or Very sad"){kind=icon}
 "Rolling Eyes"){kind=icon}
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Hello everybody! It is strange, but I think that all the angels are sitting on a thick cloud in their city, because it was the second night we woke up with a "closed" sky. After a refreshing breakfast at Starbucks and a goodbye hug to Christophe (Inès must have been still in their room) we set off towards San Francisco. But on our way we met....an outlet village!!!! No way we would miss the opportunity to shop here ! But my goodness, these outlet villages are huuuuuuge !! As we had a bit of a time pressure, we kind of "ran" through the village, ending in Marc bying a few jeans and myself buying some Nike running shoes. (I really hàve to get started doing some sports after this holiday, so I began with buying running shoes...ahum! let's see where thàt will end... "Laughing"){kind=icon}
 "Shocked"){kind=icon}
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hello all, we are staying in West Hollywood, so not really in downtown LA. Just for those of you who would like to situate us a bit... "Twisted Evil"){kind=icon}
Gooood morning everybody!! I know, it is almost night again for you guys, but after typing our blog yesterday evening, it was gone ! By no means I could find it back, and I didn't have the courage to write it all over again. "Wink"){kind=icon}
Howdy folks ! (we are in the Far West after all...) We found a very nice and cosy coffee house - The Java Circle- on Route 66 where we had a huge coffee and a muffin and we did some windowshopping in the city (ahum) center. Then it was time to leave for our appointment with ....a helicopter !!!! Yiehàà! The Grand Canyon is much to big to be seen from the Rim, so we dug deep into our pockets for an extraordinary experience ! Flying in a heli is one of the things figuring on our wish list and where can it better be done than at the Grand Canyon? Now, when being face to face with one of those machines, I wasn't all that courageous anymore and I almost regretted it, but that feeling was completely gone once we were airborne! Wohow!! Amazing! Fantastic! Fascinating ! The 30 minutes were too quickly over, but all good things come to an end and actually the 30 mins were enough to have an idea of how huge this all is ! "Surprised"){kind=icon}
gooood morning dears ! After a good night's rest and an ok breakfast , we first drove to Horseshoe Bend, to have a look at some beautiful meanders of the Colorado river, at the moment we were there, a speedboat was cruising the river, which made it even more special. After this, we headed for Antelope Canyon, as this is Navajo property and no national park we had to pay some entrance fee: 6$ per person, but on top of that we had to subscribe for the trip (25$ each!!) We had to wait for a while and then our names were called and we were all (14 of us) seated in a pickup truck. Our driver was Leroy, a Navajo and Charles Bronson lookalike! The trip alone was already an adventure as he had to manoever his car through loose sand ! Then we arrived at on of the highlights of our holiday: Upper Antelope Canyon! Waaaauw ! This is a slot canyon, and when the water whooshes through it, it leaves marks which look as if some textile is blowing in the wind, with the light coming from the top of the canyon, it gave some spectacular views ! Our camera's did not stop clicking and the Navajo lady (Charles' wife) was a great teller and sometimes she just took the camera out of our hands and took a wonderful picture herself. After our visit and a bumpy ride back to the parkinglot (temperature was 41°C there!!) we passed via Lake Powell and then we drove to Grand Canyon. We did not really know what to expect of it, we knew it was very touristic but in the end it was ok. The first view was overwhelming: it is soooo huge over here ! It cannot be compared with anything we saw so far. We took pictures here and there and then sought for a "sunset"-spot. Unfortunately the warm reds, pinks and purples are not really represented by our cameras ànd there were some clouds in the sky which ruined the light, but ok, you can't have it all, can you?
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dear sweet readers, we are sooooo happy with the reactions we received, giving us the enthusiasm to continue, even now when we (eum, I ) am craving for my soft bed... Thank you! thank you ! Thank you!!!!!
 "Razz"){kind=icon}
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.
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!!!
