LA

Three wonderful weeks are almost over and this will be our last blog entry from the US. Right now we are in a motel in Anaheim which is south of LA.

Yesterday we drove along the coast on Highway 1, which is one of the most beautiful drives in the US. We arrived in LA late and just stayed at a motel.
Today we walked on the Hollywood Boulevard and saw the Kodak Theatre, the place where the Oscars take place. We also got to see the Chinese Theater, where a lot of famous actors left their hand- and footprints. The rest of the day we did some shopping and spend our last dollars.

So tomorrow we are going to leave the country around 4:30 pm (Pacific Time).

We thank you for your interest in our blog and hope you had fun reading it!

See you, bis bald und auf Wiedersehen!

From LA

(our trip)

Yosemite & SF

After our stay at Mammoth Lakes we drove up to the Yosemite National Park. We were afraid, that the park would be packed because of Labor Day but it wasn't that bad. We stopped at various spots to enjoy the beautiful landscapes. The park definitely is one of the most beautiful ones in the US. We drove down to Yosemite Valley and after seeing El Capitan (a huge rock formation that is famous for its climbing routes), we decided to hike one of the suggested trails. We walked up to the Vernal Fall, which took us about one hour. Just before sunset we also got to see the Giant Sequoias in the south of the park. The Sequoias are giant trees that can get up to a couple thousand years old. Once again we could have stayed in the park for a week without even seeing everything but we had to move on.

We tried to get as close to San Francisco as we could and slept one night in Livemore. The next day we arrived at the Golden Gate Bridge around 1 pm. We walked half way over the bridge and saw a lot of people that had rental bikes. We thought that it was a pretty good idea to get to know San Francisco by bike. So we drove to a rental place and rented two hybrid bikes. Here you can see the route we went. It took us 4 1/2 hours to complete about 32 miles (50 km).

Totally exhausted we tried to find a motel nearby and stayed at a motel that was right next to a main street. Martin slept like a stone but I couldn't sleep very well, while big trucks drove by almost next to me.
We already planned the next day: visiting Alcatraz, shopping and getting as close to LA as possible. So that's what we did and now we are staying at an inn in Seaside, which is about 6 hours from LA.
We'll have two days left to see the LA area before we have to leave the US on Saturday.

It's amazing but also kind of challenging how much we get to see here in such a small period of time. Fortunately we have a lot of pictures and of course this blog to remember the great time we have had here.



(our trip)

From 119 to 51

On Friday afternoon we arrived in Las Vegas. We realized pretty fast that this weekend wasn't the best time to spend two days in Las Vegas. It was the Labor Day weekend which we didn't really know. So it took us a while to find a reasonable place to stay for the night.
At the first night we stayed at the "Circus Circus" just next to the "Strip", the main attraction road in Las Vegas. We walked up and down the strip on the first night. It just seems so unreal if you see all this crazy stuff just right in the middle of the desert. But it's there and it's still growing! We saw a lot of construction work so there will be even bigger mega resorts in the near future. One of them is the "City Center" which will even have an own power plant. We also tried some slot machines that night, but we didn't get very far...

On the second day we went shopping again. Once again we were pretty tired after that so we just watched some TV (it was actually "Ocean's Eleven" which takes place in Vegas!!) and went to bed early so we could get started as soon as possible the next day.

Our first stop on the next day was Death Valley, the hottest place on earth! And it really was hot as hell there. Our car measured temperatures between 110 (43 Celsius) and 119 (48 Celsius) degrees! We went out of the car a couple times but never stayed out longer than 5 to 10 minutes. At some point we even had to turn off our AC, so the car's engine wouldn't overheat. We got through the valley safely but we didn't only experience hot temperatures but also extreme changes in the altitude. We went from -280 feet (-85 meter) to about 5000 feet (1500 meter) and then back down to about 1000 (300 meter).

And if this wasn't enough: after we left Death Valley we faced a big sand storm in front of us at Independence, CA. When we stopped at the visitor center they told us we might not be able to get through the storm. We drove through it and even though the conditions were pretty bad, we made it.
So when we got to Mammoth Lakes we decided to stay there, since it wasn't very far from Yosemite National Park, which will be our next stop. Once again we realized that accommodations are a little pricy on holiday weekends but this was compensated by the wonderful clean mountain air and an awesome view of the Milky Way.

PS just to let you know: today we experienced temperatures from 119 (48.3 Celsius) at Death Valley down to 51 (10.5 Celsius) at Mammoth Lake! It seemed like we spend a day in the sauna.

Las Vegas & Death Valley

Arches, Monuments and Canyons

The last two days we had the opportunity to see some of the greatest landscapes of the USA. Yesterday we visited the Arches National Park and had a lot of fun following the trails and doing all kinds of stuff, like climbing or just shooting silly pictures. The arches there are just amazing. Instead of just spending a couple of hours there we spend almost the whole day there and could have easily spend a couple more days there. But we had to move on and so we drove another 2 hours and got until Blandings (Utah), where we spent the night.

Today we got to see Monument Valley. Another unbelievable landscape! To even top that we got to see the Grand Canyon! Words can't describe the view of the Grand Canyon. Maybe the pictures help you to imagine what we saw.
So right now we are in Williams, which is south of the Grand Canyon. Tomorrow we'll set off for Sin City, better known as Las Vegas.

Arches, Monuments and Canyons

(our trip)

Colorado

After a really long drive we got until Abilene, Kansas on Saturday. The next day we arrived in Denver in the late afternoon. We got one of the last rooms in one of the hotels there. Since the Democratic National Convention started on Monday, almost every hotel and motel was packed. We decided to go downtown the same day. We got to see the Capitol, a lot of nice parks, the famous 16th street and a lot of cops. The reason for such a high security level was of course the DNC. We tried to get as close as we could to the Pepsi Convention Center but at some point we couldn't get through the gates. So we got to know the Denver nightlife a little bit and we thought Denver is really one of the most interesting cities in the US.

The next day we went up to the Red Rocks to see the Amphitheater. What an awesome view! I have actually been there before but it was definitely worth a second visit. Every great artist has performed there. Just have a look at the Hall of Fame.

The second part of this day was designated to shopping. We went to one of the biggest shopping malls in the state of Colorado and didn't really find a way out. We went shopping for about 7 hours! In the end we just wanted a bed because we were actually exhausted from all that shopping. We still wanted to get at least a little westwards so we drove as far as we could and ended up in Dillon.

For today our plans were clear: we wanted to go rafting in the Rockies. So we called a rafting place and reserved a boat for 1 o'clock. Unfortunately we didn't make it there on time because of unpredictable road works. We got to Canon City around 1:30 (after we drove by the place without seeing the huge sign the first time and rather believed our gps that led us right in the middle of nowhere). Even though this may sound kind of weird but we were actually better of running late. That way they gave us a more or less private trip with just the guide and the two of us. Usually you have a guide and 6 people together in the boat. So we really enjoyed the great scenery of the Arkansas River and even had to fight with the rapids a little bit. We really had a great time and could recommend rafting in the Rockies to everyone! Rafting makes you so happy, that you don't even mind buying expensive pictures after it ;-).

So we are on the road again and plan to arrive in Grand Junction around 11. Tomorrow we want to see the arches at the Arches National Park. In about two days we plan to visit Monument Valley and walk on the skywalk at the Grand Canyon.

(our route so far)

Colorado

Interstation: Denver

We arrived in Denver yesterday and visited downtown. More details will follow ...
Here is our Route so far on Google Maps.

Yes we can!

The drive from Rushville to Indianapolis went smooth and we got there in the afternoon. First we got to meet Brad and Bella (a really clever dog) and later on Jen came back from work and we had some burgers and corn. Delicious! Before dinner Brad showed us some tricks with Bella. We had a lot of fun!

After dinner a friend of Brad and Jen joined us and we went to a football high school game that took place in the new built Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianpolis. What a huge place! 70,000 fit in there and the roof is retractable. I guess even the pictures can't explain how big that place was.
After the game (which the good guys won :), we went to Fountain Square. It's an area with a couple of restaurants and a bowling alley in the style of the time between the 20ies and 50ies. In the bowling alley there was a place in the style of the 50ies and one in the style of the 20ies. We went to the Duckpin Bowling which was in the style of the 20ies. The rules where a little different and the balls were about half the size of a regular bowling ball and there were no holes in it. compared to regular bowling it was a lot harder to score a spare or even a strike. But Brad did it! We also had a couple spares.

Back home we tried to figure out what we could do the next day. At first we planned to go to the bodies exhibition but just before we went to bed Brad found out that Barack Obama is going to hold a speech in Springfield the next day. So we decided to go there spontaneously. Springfield was on our way anyway so that was a perfect plan. We left early the next day and got to Springfield around 11. After waiting in line for an hour and waiting another 1 1/2 hours he finally got on stage. Obama! It was really cool to so him live and later on we might be able to say that we got to see next the president of the USA.
So after that we had to say good bye to Jen and Brad. Thanks guys for the great day!

We hit the interstate and drove west and were actually thinking about exchanging our PT Cruiser since we didn't have cruise control which is a nice feature to have on such a long drive. We called a National rental station at St. Louis and got to exchange our car! I heard Martin's right leg saying "Thank you". So now we are driving a Toyota Corolla and try to get as far as we can. We plan to arrive in Denver tomorrow. And guess who is gonna arrive there also? Obama for the National Democratic Convention. Yes we can!

Indianapolis and Springfield again

PS: We have to mention the tiniest burger we've ever eaten. They are called sliders, 'cause you don't even have to chew to get them down. just sliding .... :-D

PS2: Here are Brads pics from Springfield.