We've spent 22 days in the southwest of the USA! Probably one of the most intens holidays of our lives, driving almost 4000 km, visiting 4 major cities (Los Angeles, San Diego, Las Vegas and San Francisco) and more than half a dozen of national parks.
We left Schiphol on 29.05.2007 and after a stop in Washington we arrived in LA at the Crowne Plaza. A guided tour by bus is almost inevitable if you want to see LA in a short time span, because it's really a huge city (e.g. driving from Venice Beach to Beverly Hills takes about an hour via the highway). We saw all the major points of interest such as Venice Beach (a bit outdated), Santa Monica (very nice), Downtown, Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Bel-Air and of course "the homes of the stars"! The following picture was taken from a viewpoint at Mulholland Drive.
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Still suffering from a major jetlag, we managed to get our white Toyota Corolla in San Diego the following day. We didn't know a lot about this city, but we were positively surprised. It's a modern and cosy spot with a great nightlife, especially the Gaslamp Quarter. We also took the train to Tijuana (Mexico)... Needless to say, this is a totally different world (some repressed memories from Egypt surfaced again and a hint of "From Dusk till Dawn" was also present in my twisted mind) and as a word of caution to all of you ever wanting to do the same: be prepared to stand in line at the border afterwards for entering the USA... for a couple of hours. The USA border protection is no joke, we saw Mexicans who tried to run the border getting caught, handcuffed and taken into custody.
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A nice drive through some winding uphill roads took us to Palm Desert and Palm Springs. We thought Palm Springs would be great for shopping, but actually it's hard to even find a decent (non-touristic) shop over there. Our hotel however was top of the bill! At this time the temperature was already some 35 degrees Celsius. LA and San Diego were a bit cooler (20-25 degrees) due to the Pacific Ocean.
Going from Palm Desert to Scottsdale (near Phoenix, Arizona), we drove through Joshua Tree National Park. In Scottsdale we did some great shopping at the Scottsdale Fashion Square. It's amazing how this place can be kept at 25 degrees, while outside it's close to 40! The Marriott where we stayed was according to us the best hotel of the whole trip.
We also visited Montezuma Castle National Park, a great place for seeing wildlife. We saw a snake (up close and personal) and some lizards.
We then spent one day in Sedona to admire the Red Rocks, truly beautiful and inspiring.
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Next up: Grand Canyon National Park! This was definitely the most impressive view of 'em all, almost one mile deep! We were surprised that the area surrounding the canyon was a big forest and that temperatures were quite low (less than 20 during daytime and even close to zero at night). We made a helicopter flight over the canyon and this is for sure one of the things we'll remember for the rest of our lives. During one of our hiking tours we saw a humming bird and lots and lots of squirrels and chipmunks (usually begging for food). At night we even spotted a mule deer or two on the road.
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Two days in the Grand Canyon is not enough to see and do everything, but hey that's life and we had to move on.
Our next stop was Monument Valley (located in Utah, just across the Arizona state border). This site is best known as a Western (John Wayne) movie location (e.g. Back to the Future III was partly shot here), but it's also part of a vast Navajo Indian reservation. These native Americans try to sell some handmade jewellery and textiles, but I really like them because of their frybread.
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We spent one day at Lake Powell which was sufficient for us. After some days in "the middle of nowhere" (cf. Grand Canyon and Monument Valley), we expected a lively marina with some restaurants and shops. However, none of all that... because actually Lake Powell is also part of a national park and hence non-commercial. The resort did have a big pool and relaxing spa, ideal for charging our batteries. It was also here that we saw a roadrunner.
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During the trip from Lake Powell to Bryce Canyon, we stopped at the Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park. (Please note there is a difference between National Parks and State Parks...)
We stayed two nights near Bryce Canyon National Park. Completely different from the Grand Canyon (more fragile looking rocks and different colors), but also very beautiful and an ideal place for hiking. Animal update: ravens and prairie dogs. I fell victim to a severe sun burn, but looking at my tanned skin now, it was all worth it :)
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Driving from one place to another was an experience in itself. On average we travelled about 250 km each trip (shortest 140 km, longest 525 km), seeing some impressively fast changing scenery and passing every now and then a town with an average population of 150 (some houses or trailers, a gas station, a restaurant, a motel and a church). People living in these remote areas have to drive at least 400 km to get to a relatively big city. Driving is done on highways (not the big interstates with multiple lanes) which are often very uphill-downhill and most other streets are unpaved, gravel roads. Those big 5.7 liter V8 pick up trucks really do have some work cut out for them here, contrary to our European Cayennes, Touaregs, X5s, etc.
The next park was Zion. We stayed in the Zion Lodge which is located in the valley of the canyon. Again beautiful scenery all around us.
Viva Las Vegas! Finally back in the "real" world... or not :)
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Vegas is like Disneyworld for grown ups. Here you can find and do anything! Vegas by night is amazing: the lights, the sounds, the crowds, it truly never stops. The hotels and casinos are bigger than life. We had a room at the Planet Hollywood Resort on the famous Strip. This hotel has 150 shops, but that's nothing compared to for example Caesar's Palace or the Bellagio. We were in a shopping spree and with several Armani, Gucci, Prada, LV shops around (each corner) we were at the right place. We also focused on some shops which are not or hard to find in Belgium and the Netherlands like Guess, Bebe, Playboy and Armani Exchange. We partied hard until 3.30 am and even won some easy money at the roulette game!
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Las Vegas is located in Nevada, the fourth state we crossed (after California, Arizona and Utah). We had to head back to California now for our visit to Death Valley (which is also a national park). Well, I guess the name says it all huh... At temperatures of more than 45 degrees Celsius (in the shadow that is), I started not feeling very well and it took me some time to recover in our airconditioned lodge room. I had panicked a bit when our car started to heat up. This is definitely not the place to have your car break down! After having turned the airco down and driving at low revs, fortunately its temperature dropped. Luckily, Virginie kept her feminine cool.
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Here we were at Badwater Basin, the lowest point of the western hemisphere (86 m below sea level). This used to be a lake, but now it's just plain white salt. The whole place is pretty impressive, not only the extreme air temperature (we topped of at 122 degrees Fahrenheit = 50 degrees Celsius), but also the ground temperature (more than 75 degrees Celsius), the white bright sunlight and the strange colors of the mountains and dunes are amazing. It's beautiful, but way too hot for me :) Note that we saw a coyote crossing the street here... poor animal.
The next morning we left Death Valley as early as possible to avoid the heat. In the morning it had "cooled down" to about 100 degrees Fahrenheit. We had lunch in Bishop and visited Mono Lake.
What really took us by surprise is that a couple of hours after having left the extreme heat of Death Valley behind us, we were now seeing snow in the mountains - what a relief!
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This prompted the start of the most beautiful ride ever in the Sierra Nevada mountains over the Tioga pass into Yosemite National Park. This is a wonderful park with waterfalls from canyon walls, flowers, trees and animals. I wanted to spot a black bear, but Virginie wasn't too keen on this. In the end, we didn't see one, but we did see lots of other animals in the wild (we even had a hungry raccoon in our dumpster outside).
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Our last site to see was a familiar one: San Francisco. We'd been in Frisco about 5 years ago for 5 days (and then going to New York) and we immediately fell in love with the city by the bay! It's such a nice place. The city is not too big, has charming victorian houses, the well-known steep hills and roads, the wonderful cable cars and the piers near the Pacific Ocean.
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Although we'd expected a bit warmer weather than last time (which was in late October), it was still the same cool Ocean wind keeping the temperature just above or below 20 degrees Celsius. In the sun it feels nice, but at night it's quite cold. I guess this is more what we're used to... We took all the 3 cable car lines, crossing the city in different directions. Sometimes memories are more beautiful than it actually was, but not in this case, we just love the place. We shopped till we dropped (I bought a region 1 DVD player and some DVDs which are not released in Europe, Virginie bought some clothes), ate fresh crab at Fisherman's Wharf in a restautant called Pompei's Grotto (the exact same spot where we ate 5 years ago) and plain and simply enjoyed the city. If it weren't for this damn 12 hour plus flight, we'd come here more often...
Things we particularly noticed about the USA and its inhabitants:
- 50% of the population in the US speaks awful English (often they are of Mexican or Chinese origin)
- Americans know a great deal more about Europe than we think (e.g. we were often asked if we were from the Flemish or French speaking part of Belgium), sometimes they have visited or studied in Europe or know some people (relatives, friends, etc.) - we even met a family from Kentucky whose great-grandfather was orginally from Belgium
- (older) men dress badly and wear their trousers like Al Bundy does (high on the ass, low on the belly - really funny)
- girls and women are chewing gum all the time, which is not particularly elegant
- drinking alcohol makes you feel like being a criminal: it's only allowed over 21 and they do check your ID - a lot of signs in public warn you about the dangers of drinking or warn you that carrying opened containers with alcohol in public or having them in your car will lead to severe penalties
- Americans drive very relaxed, hardly any stress on the road
- not all the roads in the US are straight (Europeans often mok the cornering capabilities of US cars), most of the roads we drove on were quite challenging
- big engined cars and pick up trucks are very useful on unpaved desert and mountain roads
- there are like a zillion fast food chains in the US and you do find them in any spot
- the steaks in the States are way better than in Europe
- regular gas is at about 1 dollar per liter (prices have also risen the last couple of years and people are more aware of fuel economy)
- some of them do care about the enviroment (e.g. in the big cities there are always lanes exclusively for car pooling, busses in the parks are hybrid vehicles, signs in public to enhance environmental awareness)
- I saw one car with stickshift in 22 days, all other cars were automatic
- when ordering something in a bar or restaurant, you will always end up having to choose from a seemingly endless list of options/extras/substitutes
- the national parks are beautiful and very well organised and maintained
- concerning cities and shops, it's either too much (Las Vegas, LA) or too less (towns with a population of 150)
- it's true that a lot of Americans are overweight, in addition these people often can hardly walk normally
- adds on TV by lawyers asking whether you are suffering from a certain condition due to for example some pharmaceutical or your work to sue the company presumably responsible for it and earn big money
- American culture = sports (football, baseball, basketball, wrestling, ...) and the entertainment industry (movies, music, TV, ...)
- prickly pear cactus can be used for almost anything - and it's tasty!
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