Las Vegas

From the Grand Canyon we came here for 2 nights, for Brody's birthday. It is so much better than Star City or the Crown Casino. We stayed in the MGM Grand although New York, New York (right next door) was better. The drinks were cheaper and there was a delicious Italian restaurant in there too that we loved. The casinos are just like mini cities with shops and bars and rides and theatres all over the place. We didn't really do much except learn to play craps which I like, and have drinks. We also saw Mamma Mia at the Mandalay which was good fun. Brody didn't know all the songs though so I've decided he will have to be taught them when he gets home in Feb.
The view of the stip from the bridge between NY, NY and MGM.
Too many drinks....
The Luxor and the Empire State Building Vegas style. We saw The Venetian as we were leaving Vegas the next day and it has been built to copy Venice complete with bridges and realistic turquoise water. We really could have spent a week here, there is lots to do, but we kept going....
We drove to Yosemite National Park via Death Valley which is a hell of a long drive. Here is the car we have rented and since this is MY blog and now Chris's I can say that the Corvette is a crappy little car that is bumpy and uncomfortable. C loves it, but it is not my cup of tea.
Death Valley.

The Grand Canyon

We only had one full day in the Grand Canyon and on that day we had to get up at 5.30am to get organised for our mule ride down into the canyon. We read in our Rough Guides book that going into the canyon is so much better than just looking down into it from the rim and now after having done just that I fully agree.
I thought our mules would be small like donkeys, but they were actually bigger than the horses we rode in Palm Springs the day before. It was a pretty scary ride at times because the mules (in groups of 7) go down a really steep path in single file and they walk at the edge of the path so it looks like you are about to tip over the edge into the canyon. My mule seemed to be a rush the whole time and like to jump down the steps on the path and over rocks and stuff. It was really hard on my going down into the canyon like that. And it took over 2 hours to get all the way down to where we are in the photo above.
It was spectacular once we were down there though. We could appreciate much more just how big the canyon is. It is gigantic!

Here's us on our mules looking like odd sort of cowboys.

The next few photos I took on the way back up out of the canyon.

A fat little squirrel in a tree.
If you click on this photo (above) you can see the trail in the middle of the photo that we took to the end that allows you to look down the river.
If you enlarge this photo you can see people on the lookout. They are teeny.
From the Grand Canyon we went to Las Vegas and on the way we went past Hoover Dam. Sunset at the dam.
It is really big.

L.A.

From Santa Cruz we drove down to Los Angeles where we spent 4 days. As we arrived we had to drive on the freeways and man, are they crazy! I now know that there is something scarier than going 220km/h in Germany, it is going at 80m/h on a 6 lane highway with cars criss-crossing infront and behind you, while most of the drivers chat on their mobile phones. There are heaps of crashes too. The day we arrived there was a 6 car pileup on the freeway going the opposite direction to up, and one car was on it's roof. Luckily we avoided that giant traffic jam. The next day a crane somehow flipped over the barrier and crashed onto the other side of the road stopping traffic for most of the day.
In LA there is not really any other way to get around. There are a few buses, but LA is such a big sprawling place that if you want to do a lot of things in a short amount of time driving is the only way to go. It seems that most people are of the same opinion. There are cars everywhere, and as such there is also smog everywhere.
I have to say that when we arrived in LA I thought it was a complete dump. I found New York much better and easier to get around. I could not see any attractions to the place at all.
It was only when sunset came that I saw how gorgeous LA can be. The smog leads to extra nice sunsets!
We were staying on Venice Beach where we got a great view of the sunset. The beach itself is not that great. It stinks and the water is full of rubbish. The top picture is of Venice from the pier.

Although we never really started liking LA (the minute we did we drove somewhere and hated it again after being stuck in traffic) we did have fun. We didn't go to Universal Studios or Disneyland - I'm not interested in any of that, we did go shopping (things are so much cheaper here) and we went to the Walk of Stars. I just couldn't figure out why advertising guru Singo had a star....
I felt like the movie 'Speed' was an acurate portrayal of LA and I spent a good deal of time looking for a cop as hot as Keanu.
We tracked down the Hollywood sign in Beverly Hills. It was surprisingly hard to find.
We also saw Rydel High, from Grease, it is Venice High School and we drove past it every day. I thought it looked familiar so I googled it, forgot to get a pic, but then I think everyone remembers what that looks like. It is painted blue now.
On our last day we went to a LA Kings NHL (hockey) game and it was fun. I would really like to play hockey - if you didn't get slammed and tripped and beaten with sticks regularly throughout the game. The Kings lost.
After the hockey we drove to Palm Springs which is about 2 hours away and met up with Brody and Ron again. We were only there for one day to have a look at Joshua Tree National Park, on our way to the Grand Canyon. It was nice to get out of LA again and back onto the relaxed roads.
We went on a horse ride through the park. It is a strange place. Desert, but with funny yucca-like trees. I saw a taratula and was creepy.
We bought these hats from Walmart for $2 each! Cool!

Brody being a lone Cowboy.
Joshua Tree. Click on this pic to enlarge and see the trees.
A yucca at twilight.

Craters of the Moon and Red Woods

After Yellowstone we had to drive back down through Idaho to Salt Lake City to the airport. On our way we stopped at Craters of The Moon national monument. It is a sort of national park where there have been volcanos and it is a really weird place. Everything is volcanic rock and there are all sorts of strange rock formations around, as you can see behind me.

Here is Chris walking up an old volcano. It was way bigger than it looked, as we found out once we started walking. It was made of/covered with black sparkly rocks.
From Salt Lake City we flew to San Francisco to pick up our next car. Then we drove straight down to Santa Cruz (we are going back to San Francisco later this week to fly out to Sydney and we will have a look around then. Near Santa Cruz there is a forest of Red Wood trees that we went to see the next morning. The trees are massive and about 1500 years old. There is teeny little Chris inside one.

And me infront of another.

Yellowstone National Park

Going to Yellowstone from Texas was a massive climate change for us, as you can see. Texas was in the mid 20s everyday and sunny and the day we arrived in Salt Lake City and started driving it started snowing! So much that we had to stop driving and find a hotel to spend the night. The next morning there was a blanket of snow over everything and it was really pretty.
It was really cold though and we were very glad of our warm jackets. It stayed around 2C the whole time we were in Yellowstone. Above and below are the icicles I saw in our hotel car park.
After renting our Mustang we decided to be American again and go for a big SUV. We rented a Cadillac Escalade and boy is it MASSIVE! It really is just like driving a truck. Chris had a shocking time trying to park the thing in an underground car park in Salt Lake City, but it was ok in the National Park.
We stayed just outside the National Park in the town of West Yellowstone and everyday we drove in and spent the day there. The park itself is huge and when we first went in we were amazed at how many animals there were walking around so close to us. It was far better than any zoo. Apparently the park is quite crowded throughout summer and in winter the roads are closed and you can only go in on a tour in a big snow mobile. Fortunately we were there in the off season when it is almost winter but not quite so there were not many other people there at all. I think it was the perfect time to visit and we loved the snow.
I took all the photos of animals out the window of the car as we drove along. Firstly because Bison are dangerous and can gore you so you are now supposed to get out near them. Secondly I have found that I get the best pics of animals this way because they are not scared of a car driving near them, but they are scared of a person walking up to them. Chris would drive up and I would just open my window and snap away.
There were so many bison (or buffalo) everywhere, and they were huge, bigger than cows. They have such funny faces and they are so hairy. I loved them.
A coyote. We saw a few of these walking around.
An elk. I thought this was a moose, but a moose is bigger and has a different face.

A cold snowy road. It was so nice to have heated seats in our Escalade. If you lived in a place like this they would be worth every cent.
Me next to a frozen lake.
A frozen bison. They don't seem to mind the cold. We could see them walking through rivers than must have been soooo cold and lying in the snow having a sleep - even when there were fields without any snow just closeby.
Smetimes a big herd of bison would walk down the road and everyone in cars would have to wait for them to go by. This time they created a huge traffic jam since they wouldn't get off the road. I think they look smaller than they really are in this photo, because our car was so high up.
Us at a waterfall.
A bison in the sun. We were looking for a bear, but we never found one. I think they had already gone into hiberbation for the winter.
All around the park were geysers like these that really stunk like sulpher.
This one is called the Old Faithful geyser because it erupts fairly regularly. Here it is before going off. These 2 bison were like Lindsay Lohan and had to stand near it to get the attention. There were about 300 people sitting around waiting too see Old Faithful erupt and we were all forced to look at these 2 bison for the half hour we were waiting.
Here it is erupting.
Yellowstone was one of the best places we have been to on our trip. I would recommend coming here to anyone coming to the US. We spent 3 days here, and that was really the least amount of time you'd want to see everything. Longer would have been better, but once again we were on the move.