Travel report #4 continue...
US - Las Vegas, Grand Canyon and Los Angeles
Monday November 6
We stayd to nights in Vegas, and that was enough. Went out to Red Rock Canyon, facinating as well, but not as good as Valley of Fire. Walked some more on the strip and gambled away almoust $2!
Tuesday November 7
Passed Hoover Dam when leaving Vegas, but not too facinating for two Norwegians:-) Drove on Hwy 66 from Kingman to Seligman. A very scenic route! Stopped in Williams and made that our Grand Canyon Camp! We watched the election on TV until Bush was announced president...
Wednesday November 8
Arrived at Grand Canyon at noon and what a sight. Another perfect day and we got to see (what we thought was) the most of the Canyon from the rim.
In the background you see the trail we were to walk back up!
Thursday November 9
Up before sunrise to get up to the Canyon rim and get in line for a bed down in the canyon. We got lucky and started on a unforgettable hike into the Canyon. We hiked down South Kaibab Trail and was amazed all the way. We started the hike around 9am and was down at 4pm.
As you can see, it was cold...
Had a lovely steak dinner at Phantom Ranch down by Colorado river!! We also met a Norwegian woman down there (she was there with her American husband:-) After dinner we had a lovely walk in the moonshine. We have never seen the moonlight that clear anywhere (at least not in this nice temprature).
Friday November 10
Time for change in the weather. We had heard about the forecast and over the night it has snowed on the rims, but not down where we were. We started hiking up again, not as nice as the hike down... We had sore legs by the time we got up!
After getting up we drove further east along the rim to see the rest of the Canyon (so far we had sighted only about a third). It is very long, and we had a nice drive, until we got to Flagstaff. We got into a SNOWSTORM and had a troublesome drive back to Williams!!
Saturday November 11
Woke up in Williams with 10-15cm of snow on our car!
Started on the journey back west and stopped in Oatman (got to see a gunfight in this "ghost city" that was nothing compared to Bodie) before we ended up in Lake Havasu City.
Walked across London Bridge during sunset. Bizar thing to do in the Arizona desert!
Sunday November 12
A day with a lot of driving, making it all the way to LA. Thanks to our relatives in Wisconsin we had friends to stay over with, Chuck and Penny Eidem. They welcomed us as family and we got our own little house behind theirs up in Altadena. Really good! Having family and friend (or even friend of friend) here in the US is way better than we ever dreamed of!! We had a nice supper meal with Chuck and Penny, and got to learn about their connection to Norway (both of them 100% Norwegian, but 3rd generation American).
Monday November 13
Penny brought us fresh home made bread and milk. No end to the fantastic hospitallity. We started our sightseeing in LA by looking at the "Walk of fame" in Hollywood.
Continued to Santa Monica and had lunch on the beach. Walked on the 3rd street promenade and looked at sunset in Palisades Park. Wonderful! Stopped at Union station and had dinner in Thai City in Hollywood on our way back to Altadena.
Tuesday November 14
We had lunch on the beach and got to see a lovely sunset!
Climbed as close to the Hollywood sign as we could get (dead end, did not bother to try again...)
The "Superman" building...
Wednesday November 15
Penny had prepared a nice breakfast and we sat with her and Chuck for about an hour having a nice meal and chat.
The day was spent in Pasadena, a lot of walking but we got to see a wonderful garden at Huntington, the old Gutenburg bible and the shopping streets of Pasadena.
Thursday November 16
Last day in LA. Packed our stuff and got on the train to San Diego. Nice scenary along the coast. Walked about a bit in San Diego, a nice place, could "sense" that we were closer to Mexcio...
Friday November 17
Our last day in the USA. We walked across the border and could immediatly tell that it was a different country. It felt warmer, lots of people, less "order", older cars, lots of unmaintained buildings and houses...
And people speak spanish and we don't. Struggled us through the immigration control with pointing and the few english words they spoke. We have decided to get on a spanish training course...
We made it to the bus station and started on a long bus jorney. From Tijuana to Guaymas took about 16 hours. Some miles into Mexico, in the middle of the night, we were all ordered out of the bus and with our luggage through a control post. We had to push a button and was told we could walk straight through :-)