We started our first full day in Los Angeles in the late morning. Luckily we had our Silver Surfer because it would have been hard to get from one place to another without that in LA. We first took a road up mulholland drive which gives you a great view.. Well probably it's nicer when there isn't so much fog lying over the city.
I am not gonna write too much in this article because this day was just so exhausting and so full with so many great memories that it would exceed the scope of this blog!
We also went to Universal Studio where are the movies are beeing shot. It was not too exciting because we didn't go to the movie studios (50$ entry) but it was definitely worth seeing.
Afterwards we went to the food market to get something good. On the way we picked up Megan, Judd's cousin. She joined us for the next two days. The selection of food was so huge that it was almost impossible to decide what to eat. We had so much that we just wanted to sit down and do nothing afterwards. (Un)Fortunately we still had a packed day ahead of us with lots of attractions that we were looking forward to seeing.
Our next stop was in Venice Beach. It is really known for his canals and ocean front walk. A lot of weird people are walking around and many people working out or playing basketball. We just chilled at the beach for half an hour and walked up and down the road and through the canals. It was really amazing.
Right after this we went to the Santa Monica pier. It was completely different. People were not so crazy anymore but also not so loose. It was a completely different atmosphere. We walked down the pier and Freddy decided to jump in a rope. Judd wanted to join but shortly before he wanted to go in Freddy tripped and of course blamed it on Judd. Check it our for yourselve!
In the afternoon we went to eat a sandwhich and some korean bbq. Needless to say that the sandwhich was just way better (and bigger). After another good meal we went to buy a few beers and chill back at Judd's place. Watching some Tv and chilling in the Jacuzzi. That is what a life of a student should be like!
HOLLYWOOD (LAND) - The sign, put up by a real estate agency in 1923, originally said: HOLLYWOODLAND, but a landslide took the LAND away from the land. So today it´s only HOLLYWOOD
We made tons of CD´s for on the go. One of them is the famous "California" - CD. It has numerous tracks on Calfornia, like OC`s Califonia, Red Hot Chili Peppers´ Californication, Katy Perry´s California Girls and The Eagles´ House of the Rising the Sun. California is just soo awesome. We never played this sacred CD until we left Las Vegas and approached the state-border to California!
The Plan: - Los Angeles - Malibu - Santa Barbara - Big Sur - San Francisco
The drive to L.A. was unbelievable hot. I mean we passed through deserts. L.A. is such a huge city, 2nd largest after NY in the US. It has almost as many inhabitants as the whole Netherlands: LA: 13mil vs. NL: 17mil.
We arrived in L.A. around 5pm and we had to met with our host Judd at 7pm. That was just perfect timing for us to checkout Hollywood. We walked up and down the strip a little bit and met quite a few famous persons. Not in person, but their stars.
This was just the beginning. We arrived at Judd´s house around 7pm, where his dad awaited us with really good chicken and mashed potatoes. That night we went out in Studio City where Judd lives. He lives in a really cool house with a pool and a guesthouse which we could use. We watched so much TV in the evening like Two and a Half Men or Big Bang Theory. There was also a really funny kids TV show, which was nothing but stupid, still funny! We ended the night quite early, because the next day, Judd promised to take us on a big city tour through L.A. It´s incredible how Judd led us through his city. He just had arrived the same day that we did, but from South Africa. He did an awesome job of showing us around and I mean really around. We saw so much, but that will follow soon...
Of course we also walked over the strip went into the casinos, and checked everything out! Everything is just so shiny and bright (Freddy: "Vegas is fake") . We walked to Eiffel tower, through the Bellagio, past Caesar's Palace, into the Cosmopolitan, and further down the strip. Here and then we also stopped to watch a few rounds of some weird game with dice. We saw some strippers, crazy people, and girls that should not wear what they were wearing. But this is pretty much all we are gonna say here. I think Vegas is worth checking out.
If you want you can be someone entirely different there and enjoy the fabulous life of Las Vegas!
So what did we do in Vegas? Well. as the title already says we are not gonna talk about our night life. Even though there wouldn't be much to tell because Freddy hates Vegas and my sister was still jet-lagged. More about that later!
We were planning to spend the night in Grand Canyon but spontaneously decided to hit the road and see were it takes us in that night. We didn't have any food left besides salsa sauce and tuna which is mixed surprisingly delicious. We were driving to Williams which is south of the Grand Canyon. We were looking for something to do there but this city is completely deserted. Besides some Motels there is nothing around. So we decided to drive a little bit further down the road and camp on the streetside somewhere between Williams and Las Vegas. You could already see the horizon glow 40 miles before Vegas so we thought we should check it out during the night.Vegas, here we come!
We arrived in Vegas at 11 pm but couldn't check in until the next day. We went out on the strip for a little bit and chilled at the hotel lobby. Normally you cannot check in before noon in a hotel so we did not know where to stay fo the next 12-ish hours. We used our charming German accent once again to try and convince the guy to give us the room-key earlier. After waiting until 6 am at the hotel they gave us basically a third night for free. So we brought all our stuff to the insanely big apartment and took a nice nap in the King Bed. At 2 pm we went to the airport to pick up my sister, Natalie. We even made some great signs for her!
We drove to "Food for less" and bought enough for the next two days. Good food to prepare us for the upcoming nights and mornings after. We put everything in the freezer and settled down in our awesome apartment. BTW this article is gonna be full of pictures and less of words.
So the apartment was pretty sick. A big-ass bedroom with a kingbed and a nice jacuzzi right next to it, a flatscreen in the bathroom, bedroom, kitchen, and the living room. The best part was the high quality beamer projecting on the 15x8 feet screen... Take a look for yourself.
What to say about the Grand Canyon. We arrived in the evening which was pretty cool because we got to see the sunset. We got to the gate at 7 pm and it was not stationed anymore so we saved us 25 $ entry fee. But there is a reason that it is not stationed so late anymore. There are no camoping spots available by that time and you are not allowed to sleep in your car or just camp next to the road. So we had to find a different solution!
Looking for a place to stay in the dark was not easy. Grand Canyon Village is a small city at the Grand Canyon with its own college and even student apartments. We thought we should check it out and maybe try to crash there. So we went into one of those apartments and met 2 guys and 2 girls who first offered us pizza and the opportunity to sleep there. But we should first talk it over with the manager. The manager was not reachable so we decided to park our car next to the apartment and just sleep in it. No police car comes by this area so we were safe to stay there. The next morning we woke up really early and got a shower. We were planning to hike a lot that day, maybe down the canyon and up again. We had a really good breakfast just at the rim of the canyon. We learned a few thing about the formation of the Grand Canyon and informed ourselves were to hike.
We decided to hike down the path which was 1500 feet deep (600 something meter). The plan said it takes 4-6 hours. We hiked down and up in 2 1/2 hours. Our uphill walk just took us 1 hour so we were faster upwards than downwards. The reason i'm writing this is not to brag but to show to Richard Koder how much we improved and how ready we are for the next hike with him! ;)
Afterwards...
We wanted to hit the showers but as soon as I entered it I regocnized that i forgot my towel in the car. So I went back to the car got my towel and suddenly froze. I heared a weird sound just next to me. I turned around and saw an enormous elk. It was just standing next to me and was about to attack the Silver Surfer. Well, at least it seemed to me like that :D Maybe he was just there to smell Freddy's clothes that were hanging aroung in front of the car...
We were driving down highway 180, Arizona. Grand Canyon wasn´t far away when we saw a sign "Dinosaur - 1.5 miles to the right". We couldn´t believe our eyes when we first saw footprints of a baby Tyrano Saurus Rex. First we thought somebody had carved the footprints in the sand, but it wasn´t sand. Even if it looks like it, the ground is solid rock. Different footprints were just all over the place. They even cut out pieces of the ground to put the footprints into museums. The next thing we saw was a head of a dinosaur, or the parts that were remaining. Once bone it´s now stone. We also saw the remainders of one of those dinosaur birds. Then there was a huge crocodile and another head of a dinosaur. There were also dinosaur-eggs still stuck in the ground.
Our guide Natt even found a few egg-shells and gave them to us. Though called egg-shells they are stones today. Natt is a Navajo Indian who has been doing these tours for a couple of years. The Navajo are an Indian Nation that own a reservation almost the size of Germany. Natt also made us aware of some red small stones that are magnetic. We could just pick them up and carry them home. She also makes her own jewelry out of the stones she finds. The red stones we could keep are said to help against high blood pressure and diabetes. Together with her and her kids, we had a lot of fun.
Unfortunately we had to leave Taos really early because we were planning to go to Monument Valley before heading to the Grand Canyon. After leaving the lights on for 2 hours without having the engine on, the battery was empty and we needed some help to get the car starting again. Thankfully Margaret was around and could help us really quickly so we did not have a really big time delay. When we on the road we soon saw this weird looking rock just in the middle of nowhere! It is called Shiprock and is 1500 feet high. Around it is absolutely nothing which makes it even more interesting!
Afterwards we drove through some National Parks making our way to Monument Valley. The trip along this amazing road was a little bit damped by all the electric cables that totally ruine your view on all those rocks! Many pictures were taken but only a few of them are usable.
Saying goodbye to Taos was not easy. We would have liked to stay there for a few more nights but unfortunately there was much more of the US that we wanted to see. We want to thank everyone in Taos for welcoming us so nicely and taking us in for all this time! We
Margaret and Roger decided to take us "mushroom-hunting" for a day. In the morning we picked up Phil and went a few miles north. Before we started the day Margaret made some sandwiches for us which were delicious. It was really good bread and then a layer of avocado, a slice of ham, cheese and a lettuce leaf, and to top it off really delicious mustard. Together with an egg and a beer it made the perfect breakfast!
So we went down the hill and looked for some mushrooms that we could eat for dinner. It was quite disappointing for some of us.. we barely found anything useful so when we met again we decided to go somewhere else where we would hopefully be more lucky!
So after the first round we decided to take some awesome "Surprising-faces". Which ended up to be a mix of everything.
The second round of the hunt for enormous! We found so many mushrooms! We had 5 big bags of them. We even gave a few away because we didn't want to keep all of them. The next morning we made eggs with mushrooms which were just delicious.
After the Hunt we went to a local bar to get really greasy food because Patrick, Margaret's son, told us to do so. It was.. really greasy.. a lot of cheese and chilli on the fries. It was probably not the healthies food we had.. but still very good traditional food.