Hittin' The Road
Monday, June 15, 2009
Greetings from Santa Fe (New Mexico)! Our journey from west to east is under way after setting off from San Fransisco where we spent a couple of great days.
We began our time with Tom by walking halfway around the city through Chinatown and all the way up to Telegraph Hill where we got a good view of Alcatraz, and thus the program for the afternoon was set in stone. Luckily for us there were no disgruntled ex-military types trying to take us hostage while aiming rockets of VX-gas at the city and unfortunately we didn't get to meet Ranger Bob but I did drop a couple of the lines along the tour (which was really really good!). If you haven't seen “The Rock” then you probably didn't get any of that... don't worry though, off to the video store you go and all will be revealed. In the evening we had an awesome dinner with Jeannie, her husband Tom (Tom and Tom did cause some minor confusion for us to) and their kids James and Claire. The next morning we headed into the Golden Gate Park to enjoy the Academy of Sciences followed up by a visit to the actual Golden Gate Bridge. The view from the other side of the Bay was something!
On the 3rd of June, after breakfast with Jeannie & Co. we left the Foggy City behind us and headed down the coast towards Monterrey with a quick stop at Stanford University. In Monterrey we visited the aquarium which was incredible! The tanks were huge and full of everything from Sea Horses to Hammerhead Sharks. We moved on down the coast through Big Sur to San Simeon. The road along the coast is absolutely stunning and we literally had to stop every 5 minutes. The next day we visited one of the coolest houses I have ever seen. William R. Hearst was a very rich man and he was also obsessed with Castles so he built one. He took a little of every culture and every era and built one heck of “castle” for himself where he hosted tons of guests from politicians to movie stars. Check out the photos now! After Hearst's Castle we moved down the coast stopping off in Santa Barbara to enjoy The Mission, and finally arriving in San Marino (northeast LA) where Tom's parents live.
In LA we had a great time with Tom, Grandpa and Oscie while checking out the sites. We went to Beverly Hills and Hollywood with a small detour along the way. Our navigator took us to Rodeo Rd. in Inglewood instead of to Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. Quite the trip from rags to riches one might say. We also visited Santa Monica and Venice Beach before leaving LA behind us. During our few days in LA we drove over 150 miles as LA is about as big as Belgium, we got offered doctor's recommendations for legal medicinal Marijuana, twice and we saw an endless list of awesome things. It truly is an amazing city!
With LA in the rear view mirror we headed out to the Joshua Tree National Park. The park is great and the views along the hikes we made were spectacular (Pictures say more than a 1000 words so off you go to our photos). The next stop along our drive east was Vegas, baby! We took a gamble on a site called hotwire.com and it really paid off! We got an awesome room in a 4 star hotel on the 19th floor with a great view over the strip opposite the fountains of the Bellagio for 52 USD a night. That was the only good deal we got in Vegas, including the poker tournaments we played. We both had some bad beats but we had a good time and that's what counts … yeah right!!! I'm still fuming over losing out to four 7's with my full house!!! So much for bolstering our budget.
On the 12th we left the neon lights of Vegas behind us and drove over the Hoover Dam to Williams along the legendary Route 66 (Yes, we got our kicks on Route 66). Williams was just a small stop off point for the biggest hole in the world, The Grand Canyon! That morning was the beginning of some of the most stunning scenery of the entire trip. First the Canyon, then the wide open desert and finally the stunning Monument Valley (That's the place filled with the red big flat round rocks that you see in all the movies). After driving through the desert (Nevada, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico) I gotta say it's one of my favorite places! The sky just seems so BIG, it's like it's closer to the earth somehow. The colors, especially at sunset are just incredible! I hope some of the photos we have can do it justice. Well 1000 miles later we are now in Santa Fe and the next stop is to drive down to El Paso, Texas.
Until next time,
Robbe & Micki
Posted byRobbe at 05:25
Bobby and Micki: it was a joy to have participated in a small part of the big adventure! Yáll enjoy Texas! Congratulations on the Penguins and the Lakers! Love, Tom
Hejsan! Låter hlet fantastiskt. Dom flesta som far till Las Vegas råkar ut för samma öde. Helt statistiskt faktum, by the way....:o). Härligt att höra om era upplevelser. Sitter på landet och jobbar. Ute är stormens styrka och temperaturen ungefär lika ca. 13 grader och meter i sekunden, för att inte tala om regnmillimetrarna som är i samma kategori.....
Glad sommar..:o). Såg inte NHL-finalen live, men har den bandad. Vi tycks alla vara lika glada.....:o). Hugs Pappa Jankka!