Roadtrip roadtrips, we love roadtrips! Jip, we had another one, this time joined by Elsa's best friend Nicolene (visiting from the UK). It would have been four of us, but Lindie (the fourth member) unfortunately had some passport issues, and suffered the heartbreak of staying behind in England. We felt so sad that we decided to take our little eeyore doll along to take Lindie's place (you'll see it in a few of the photo's).
As before we covered over 2000 miles (closer to 2200!) hitting the highlights of the Western US which we passed by on our April trip. The itenerary for the 10 days was as follows:
1) We drove to Yosemite, where we spent the night in a youth hostel about 30 min outside the park (accommodation is a nightmare this time of year). Elsa and I had visited this park the week after we arrived in the US (Sept 07) and I must say this time round was so much better. The waterfalls were turned on, and the valley was green and majestic.
2) The next day we drove through the nothern part of the park along the Tuolumne meadows road, and over the seriously downhill Tioga pass. Our brakes started smoking halfway down, but after lots of prayer (and a bit more caution) we arrived safely in Mammoth Lakes - in time for a clearance sale at the Polo store.
3) Next we drove through the lowest (and hottest) point in the US, Death Valley, on our way to Las Vegas. The temperatures we luckily not too high, and we tried to shorten the drive (unsuccessfully) with the help of an audiobook from the Palo Alto library. We booked into the Excalibur hotel late afternoon.
4) Elsa and I got conned into going to a timeshare presentation, which ended up taking 5 hours of the next day. Luckily this got us tickets to a dinner show involving knights, swords, horses and maidens (not necessarily in that order).
5) Two days in Vegas was more than enough, so we were happy to head out towards the Hoover dam and the Grand Canyon the next day. Unfortunately I (Stephan) did not book a campsite, so we were forced to make use of the more primitive camping ground ourside Grand Canyon NP (can you say pit latrine?).
6) A full day along the rim was not enough to soak in the majesty of the canyon. We unsuccessfully waited for sunset over the canyon (too cloudy) and enjoyed pizza and ice cream as consolation. Next time we'll have to hike down into the abyss...
7) The drive to Los Angeles was again long and hot, but we'd had enough of the audiobooks. The worst part was desending into the smog and traffic of the city of angels. Why would anybody ever want to live here? (similar thoughts have crossed my mind when entering Johannesburg)
8) Driving around LA on a normal day is a nightmare. Fridays are hell. We therefore opted to leave the Subaru behind for a guided tour of the tourist highlights. I was again struck (I spent time here in 2000) by how dissapointing all the famous sights are in real life. Sorry for sounding negative, but have a look at our pictures of the Hollywood sign, and you'll see what I mean. The most interesting part of the day was watching the chanting crowds at the the Chinese theatre, paying their last respects to the King of Pop. Michael Jackson had died the day before, and the reality was slowly sinking in.
9) Our penultimate day started with some more traffic, and a drive up the lovely Pacific Coast Highway. More traffic meant that we could only stop briefly in the beautiful town of Santa Barbara (of soap opera fame). Poor Elsa and Nicolene were quite enthralled by the beautiful spanish architecture, but I knew we had to push on if we were going to pitch out tent in daylight (which by the extends until 8:30pm). Unfortunately for Nicolene the majority of the winding Highway 1 to Big sur was shrouded in mist. Elsa and I made it worse by reiterating how beautiful the views had been on our previous trip in Dec 2007.
10) Our final day took us along the last bit of windy coast road (the mist cleared for a while) to the town of Carmel-by-the-sea and the 17-mile drive of Monetrey. Again the mist spoiled the views a little, but Nicolene at least enjoyed the Pebble Beach Pro Shop. I enjoyed it even more after I found out the US Open will be played there next June. I have already entered the draw to get my hands on a few of those $110 tickets...
All in all a wonderful trip. We've posted a small smaple (150) of the photos on out Picasa page, the link for which you'll find on your right.
Elsa joined me for about half of that time, and we rented a car to go see some of the sights. This included doing the famous Grouse Grind (a murderous hike up a peak just outside Vancouver - the view was worth it! See the top photo), driving up the breathtaking Sea-to-Sky highway to have a look at the new Olympic village (for the 2010 Winter Olympics) at Whistler, and catching a ferry over to a rainy Victoria.
It was a busy time (not really a holiday), but it was great to get away and see a few of the sights while we had the chance. Vancouver is definitely worth a visit!
Sunday. Another lovely Stanford summers day, and we headed to the golfcourse after church. Actually it was TOO hot to play, but we had promised Angelique (one of our friends who lives a bit further north) that we'd take her golfing.
Elsa only lasted 9 holes, nearly dying of boredom. Angelique left after the 15th hole (she had to go fetch a friend from the airport), so I was left to sweat it out alone.
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