Hoover Dam and Grand Canyon

The famous Hoover Dam, as gigantic as imagined!
At first I thought; Wow, thats pretty big! then; Nahhh... And now, with some more reflection over the whole thing - Yes! It's pretty big!

There's not a whole lot to say about the dam.. it's huge, big and all of the above. It's just like on the pictures and like the movies. My Mom really liked it, and it was awesome to see her walking on the memorial bridge! I just love teasing her, you just get so many fun comments :) makes many good laughs for both of us.

Adventure #2 today was Grand Canyon! Woohooo! At least we thought...

I really want to do the sky walk, so we had to go to the West side of G.C. Now, to get to the west side, you have to drive an hour on a tiny swirly dirt road (we didn't know that at first). Well, you do what you gotta do, right? We hit the road, and it went fine. A little slower and longer then we had wished, but it was fine. We finally hit the pavement on the other side and now we start to get really excited! The sun was shining, I had updated my iPOD with new good music. My mom even turned up the volume a few times(!). The landscape was amazing - totally gorgeous! We slowed down by the 'parking guy', waiting for directions for how to drive and such. Not a sign of what would come next; this guy, definitely didn't have Bob-news a lá "I'll let you go for free" nahhh... this guy said; "I'm sorry Ladies, we closed the park at 3.45 pm, but you are very welcome to park here and go to our gift shop". Do I have to explain why I now tonight, joined the website fmylife.com ????!!!!! I mean REALLY? Who close a National Park at 3.45 to begin with? When one of their nicest attractions are the sunset! CRAZY!
After some talking, they agreed to let us in, but we would only have had a 15 minute break by the actual canyon so we said 'thank you but no thank you', and headed out - through the gift shop! At least we could use the restroom....
This whole time I kept thinking about the comedian Jeff Dunham and his puppet Peanut. The episode when Peanut tries to remember where they are (Santa Anna) and every conclusion he makes is in hell. I kind of felt like poor little Peanut there.. No stores (gift shop doesn't count), no water, no gas stations, no food, just dessert everywhere (beautiful dessert but still) and now we had to drive this whole long drive back to find somewhere to sleep, so that tomorrow morning we can make that drive again. All the way out there, and guess? We'll have to pay over $60 to see natures own creation, and then drive all the way back again! Hmpf..!

Besides all these floppy incidents, we are having a good time, Mom and I. All these things really just crack us up! It's just so stupid. Just our luck!
After a long day with no food, we ended up at Denny's. It was goooood! Besides the fact that my Mom couldn't get H2O-satisfied and then later, that we had trouble with paying. Who thought it could be so hard...? Ohhh people, there's nothing like an over tiered Mother and Daughter on the Road....! Thank Heavens for Ross, who took us in for some speed shopping before bedtime.

Location update:

Kingman, Arizona

Death Valley

More car... More car riding then wanted today..! But I guess that's what happens when you have a weirdo car (ours now baptized; Jason P. Fuck Focus), a funky GPS (also baptized; Tjöta) and a bad map, which is missing roads. Yep it was just our day! Luckily we never got lost, I mean we stayed in Death Valley (which really earned the name btw) all day. It was that simple. We had one way in and another out.
And if you ever go there people, fill up with gas and buy water and snacks before entering, (thank the Lord we listened to you bella!) and then if you feel that, "hmmm, maybe we should hit the road and get out of this place with no food and a gas price on freaking $4,50" (!!!), well then just drive through the park 5 hours and find our new Buddy, Park ranger Bob. Bob was nice. Bob let us travel Death Valley for free all day. We like Bob. We like free. It wasn't worth more then free. Bob also told us a secret. A new faster way to get to VEGAS! So we definitely like Bob. But of course we didn't drive to Vegas yet, that's for later. My Mom cried for a store and some shopping, so tonight we stayed at a hotel with Casino and then taaaadaaaa; we hit up Walmart! Haha! Well... when in the dessert, you take what you find. Which wasn't a whole lot! It was the poorest Super Walmart I've ever seen..

So, now when I've been hard on the car, the GPS and the map (Who all earned it) I can continue and tell you all how extremely amazing Death Valley also were!

it was EXTREMELY AMAZING! The mountains and the hills, they just keep getting bigger, wider and more stunning for every drive we make. It was sweeet! To drive up and down the mountains and get the view from the far top to the low bottom of the entire valley was pretty cool. Even though you sat in the car almost the entire day, you didn't get sick of it, it was just to beautiful to get sick of.

My camera is way to bad for these kinds of landscapes. It just sucks to even put pics on the blog, they are to far off. Someone who would have done this landscape more justice is Corey. There was so many picture opportunities I know he would have loved, and he would have done a great job too! Especially driving out of the valley during sunset, and then later when the stars peaked out together with the moon. Oh it was so beautiful! i'm weak for the night sky, I can just sit there and slowly daze of in my own little world, watching it for hours. Space is fascinating. But back to Earth! The mountains were black, the sky was in different shades of blue and green - yes, I remember your classes Corey, and it would have been perfect for <drums> Time laps! If I only would have had a better camera! Next time, next time.

Location update

Pahrump, Nevada

Yosemite National Park

"Rain rain go away - come back another day!" Liam, Aidan, please come and sing for us in the car tomorrow! Bring your instruments too! I don't want another day like today. We have been in the car all day - and it's been raining without a single break all day! We jammed out with good music and we caught up on everyone else's lives, so it wasn't a bad drive. It just sucks that we had such bad luck!

We arrived at Yosemite National Park - and it was; rainy, cloudy, foggy and grey. Woopie! "We'll just try to see as much as possible on our way through and hopefully it stop". Psssshhhyyy... no way! We got it all the way through with a sweet addition; our hwy was CLOSED. Great. Now we had to make a detour to southern Cali. Wonderful! Bah. 

I should't complain, like I said we had a great day in the car, and when we did see the landscape it was beautiful! For sure! We saw some really big trees, crazy high mountains, waterfalls etc - It just would have been so much more beautiful and amazing if it hadn't been so damn foggy! 

Driving up and down the mountains was kind of fun and interesting. With all the fog you couldn't see the cars in front of you and to add to the suspense for my "afraid-of-heights-mom", there was no fence or security railing on the tiny swirly roads we used. She did a great job driving, I'm so happy I didn't have to do that drive. It just wasn't appealing at all considering the weather conditions. But she did great, almost too great, I had to tell her to slow down a couple of times! I mean I was in the passenger seat close to the actual cliffs and edges, and I did see all the way down there, from time to time! It was pretty darn high, and with my good imagination... Don't even go there, my imagination is 110% + with 3D. It's like a free IMAX. I can really see anything in my head! Anyways, let's just say it didn't seem like a too cool of a roller coaster, to get hydroplaning on top of that mountain... 

Nahh... Better luck tomorrow, even though today was a fair small adventure! 

Mom: "It's like driving in Heaven!".

Actually if you stepped out from the car like this, you got a little bit better of a view. Though this is about the best we could get from the car, if we were lucky. Behind all this fog you have a deep valley with rivers, surrounded by high mountains and waterfalls. It was really beautiful!

Location update; 

In the middle of nowhere - Bakersfield, CA.

On my way home. Travel over view 1

I'm on my way home, taking some detours in the US on my way.
Here's how I've been traveling so far.
[Click to make bigger]

The Tanners House and the Petrified Forest

Outside the painted Ladies

After finally getting our rental car - it's kind of a bitch getting everything rented here - we went to see the Tanner house! Yay! The only thing except the bridge that I really wanted to see. Now, every time I watch the show, I can say " I've been there", just like the ol' show geek I am from time to time.

 Heading out from the city, Mom got to drive on the Golden Gate Bridge. Something fun for her to check of the list :) It was so foggy over and around the bridge that we couldn't see the actual construction of it until we drove 'under' it, still we couldn't see up to the top! It was an interesting experience in addition to our first drive on the bridge when it was sunny with a blue sky and you had the water glistening all around you.

Crazy how you couldn't see the bridge!

Our adventure for today would be to go to the Petrified Forest and to see the Redwood trees. We did the first of the two, deciding it wasn't worth driving 3,5 hours north to see the Redwood trees, when everything else on our to-do-list is to the east and to the south of San Fransisco.  

It was kind of tricky to find this easy-to-find-tourist attraction. We kept getting tossed with different directions all over the place. Well, now we can say we've seen Santa Rosa and it's surroundings - for sure! The landscape was just beautiful! With huge hills and mountains reaching up above cloud level and with wine yards stretching all over it was quiet a view. I also loved all the hills and fields with sheep's and cows while driving out of San Fransisco this morning. I have never seen so many cows in America haha, and it was on my way from one of the places where I the least would have expected it. Anyways, It was gorgeous! Worth the drive, I don't know where else I've seen such a landscape before? With the hills like that? I can't recall I have?


The Petrified Forest became a big disappointment. The walk through the little park was very short, with almost no information on the signs. The actual petrified trees were cool, but it didn't reach the expectations we had on the place.

Now we are resting in Sacramento, figuring out our next moves. Where to next? Hopefully we can hit up some National Parks in Nevada and Utah tomorrow.

Shopping in China Town

Heart of San Fransisco

Today we woke up early  :( ... Moms....
We went straight to China town and spend the day shopping there and by Union Square. I love all the small Chinese stores, you can make some really good bargains there.

Up and Down the hills

After a long day of walking up and down the hills, in and out the stores, we ended up at Marshalls, where we came to do most of our shopping. Funny how you travel so far away from home (DC) and end up shopping at the same old stores... Only in America. My mom asked me what I will do when I get back to Sweden..? People, what will I do?!

Mom by San Fransiscos tallest building;
Bank of America and by the Bankmans Heart

Now we are trying to figure out what to do our last night in the City, and what our next move in the state will be..? Where to next? :)

Doing San Fransisco as real TOURISTS!

Our first real day in San Fransisco. What to do, what to do?

Guided Tourist Bus - that's what to do!
We bought a tour for down town San Fransisco, and got the Golden Gate tour for free! By mistake - but hey it was a gift send from above! That's how I'd like to see it. Mom called it something else, but let's just say her negative choice of word won't find a place in this blog. It's a precious gift when someone 'screw up' your booking to the better! And she come to realize this too! ;)

This will just be a short picture up date, there's not to much to say. The city is cool with all the hills, the bridges are huge and the street life is busy. It's just like on TV with all the cable cars driving around. The guides on the bus were really good and they bombed us with cool facts.
For lunch my mom confused me more then ever! She choose Mc Donalds instead of Rainforest Cafe! My own Mother! Still can't believe it. Sure, it's easy and fast, but we had just learned that there's over 3000 restaurants and 89 Starbucks in San Fransisco. I never for thought she'd pick Mc Donalds after that statement- and that I would be the grumpy 'parent' walking in to Mc Donalds after her.. So strange.
It was a long day, which luckily ended better with more sight seeing, shopping and Chinese food.

San Fransisco City Hall
The dome of the city hall is the 5th largest in the world. 

Not by far the steepest hill in San Fransisco, but still a typical view.

Mom :)

Us with Alcatraz in the background 

Strawberry lemonade at Pier 39 - Yummy!

The Sea lions at Pier 39, quiet a show

Ready for the Golden Gate tour!

Palace of fine Arts Theatre

Mom and I by the Golden Gate Bridge

Another hill, but with focus on the cable car system.
This web is seen all over the place. Pretty cool how it's in use.