San Francisco has always been a place that held a special place in my heart. There’s just something about this city that makes it so pleasant. Starting at the Piers, we had a good view of the Alcatraz and then met a group of sun bathing sea lions and later on explored a real submarine docked in the bay.

After quite a walk uphill and then down the crazy curved Lombard street, we enjoyed an overview of the city from the Coit tower. Well at least from it’s bottom, as the wait time to get to the top was around an hour and half. We walked through the China town and enjoyed a meal in an authentic chinese restaurant where locals like to eat.

Day two offered a relaxing cup of green tea in the Japanese tea garden followed by a visit in Japan town, where we observed ‘Obon’ - a festival to commemorate the deceased ancestors.

Of course what visit to San Francisco would be complete without taking a walk across the Golden Gate bridge. I mean come on, how can you not love this city?

We drove to San Jose, the heart of the Silicon Valley to check out the Museum of Innovation, which allows you to interact with displayed items. Robots, operating tables, ultra sound scanners were there to play around with. We created 3d computer models of our faces, designed our own roller coaster just to ride it in the simulator and even programmed a potato (don’t ask).

Next stop the Winchester House of Mystery. You know the Winchester rifles, right? Well, the widow of Mr. Winchester was told by an occultist that if she stops building her house, the spirits of all people killed by Winchester guns will hunt her. And so the house was being developed 24 hours a day for 38 years until the death of Mrs. Winchester. The result? A mansion with over 160 rooms and oddities like stairways that lead to the ceiling or doors that offer a drop from second floor right into the garden. Some say eccentric, others just plain loony. 

After a lunch at Paula’s Pancakes (Danish pancakes that is), we continued North on Highway 1, where we spotted a Segway rental place. If you don’t know what a Segway is, imagine a chariot without the horses and a vertical stick in the middle that is the driving wheel. If your imagination still fails after this rich description, head over to the gallery and see what I’m talking about and check out www.segwaybythebay.com. That was FUN!

But anyway, we’ve traveled to all the nice places including Santa Monica Pier and 3rd Street Promenade, Sunset Blvd, Hollywood Blvd and Fullerton, right outside LA, where we had a sleepover (thanks Helen!).

Next day was all about entertainment. We entered the Universal Studios to get a glimpse at what’s going on behinds the scenes of the big Hollywood productions. Even thought most rides are pretty outdated (Terminator 2, Back to The Future, The Mummy) but they’re fun nevertheless. And it made us feel like kids in a candy store :)

Connecting LA and Chicago, Route 66 used to be traveled by thousands of motorist before Interstate highway system was introduced. Now, decomissioned, it offers a slower but much more enjoyable journey with neon lit motels and diners with great feel and great food.
We stopped at a diner like that and appart from having fantastic food, the diner also happed to be featured in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill 2.

We also stopped by in Calico, CA. A ghost town that used to have a population of 1200 before everybody left. The town has been adapted as a tourist attraction with authentic buildings and artefacts from the times of the Wild West.

Next stop - the jungle of Los Angeles.

On the good note, it’s quite pretty. Huge open spaces, dried out lakes and amazing sunsets. Just don’t catch a flat tire there.

Before the Valley, we flew over the Hoover Dam and Lake Mead to enjoy the spectacular view.

Next, we finally take the mother road.

In my continuous attempts to understand Las Vegas, once again I have failed. Sure, it’s all flashy, colorful and um… ‘interesting’ looking but I just don’t seem to get the flow. At least we stayed in a neat place right next to the Strip - the beating heart of Vegas. So what can you do in Las Vegas? First of all gamble. After you’re done check out one of the many shows like the Blue Man Group, Pennn and Teller or Siegfried and Roy. When you’re done head over to a hot club and a cold Martini.

Well, we didn’t so maybe next time.

Enough of that. Zion is awesome. Regardless of all the good memories I have of this place, it’s beautiful and definitely worth seeing. As usual - lots of noisy tourists but fortunately I know the place pretty well, so we took a hike away from all the crowds and did a bit of rock climbing to see a hidden waterfall. We finished the tour at the Bumbleberry, where we tried their famous pie.

But the day was not over just yet…

However when you look at it, it’s not easy to understand the size of Grand Canyon because you have nothing to relate to. If there are any humans down there, they are too small to see, if you find a tree, it looks just like a little bush.

Before getting to the South Rim of Grand Canyon, we kind of lost our way just a little bit and almost drove to Lake Powell but heck, we got to see more. Well, if you count driving down the same road three times…

We have some problems with internet access on the deserts, so you may experience a slight delay. Worry not, buckle up and enjoy the ride. That’s what we’ll do.

And so, we took off and drove over 500 miles through the desert heading towards the Grand Canyon. If you think that’s boring, think again. We’ve seen dried plains, volcanic formations, cactuses, drove through a forest in the middle of a desert and found a NRAO Very Large Array (huge antennas checking out what’s going on in the galaxy).

Next stop - South Rim of the Grand Canyon.