- San Diego – A house, a dog and lots of beaches
After the quite gross bus dropped us off around noon in the middle of San Diego, we started to get an overview about the city. That’s why we wanted to store our big backpacks somewhere and for all the travellers of you, we’re telling you now the ultimate tip: we just went to one of ...
- Farewell tour through San Francisco and Los Angeles
Back at Judy’s house in Orinda, we relaxed a bit and ordered the probably best Pizza in San Francisco, Zachary’s Chicago Style. As we already saw most of the highlights of the city and because the tickets for Alcatraz were unfortunately sold out (due to the peak season they were booked out a few weeks ...
- Crater Lake and Lassen Volcanic NP: A bit of geology and the Australian reunion
The drive to Crater Lake figured out to be longer as we initially thought (around 6 hours) and that’s why we arrived at the north entrance of Crater Lake NP in the late afternoon. We tried our luck at a camp ground in the National Forest which surrounds the national park and were able to ...
- Seattle – on the paths of Bill Gates and Marihuana
After we left the (sorry again, but the guy thought to be really important) asshole at the border behind us, we were back in the States. The city Seattle is mainly known for music, legalisation of marihuana and the main location of Microsoft. We were lucky enough to find again super nice couchsurfers named Emily ...
- Glacier NP and the 4th of July in a small town
From Marylin, we drove towards Glacier National Park, more specifically to Kalispell, where Lance and Shelley Jo wanted to host us for the next two days. A short 6 hour drive and two stopovers in a small town next to a river and at the Garden of One Thousand Buddhas later, we arrived at their ...
- Grand Teton and Yellowstone: be bear aware
During our time in Grand Teton and Yellowstone national park, we found a couchsurfer named Bruce. When we arrived (it was finally a bit cooler, only roundabout 30°C), it seemed there was no one at home, until he opened the door being on the way back to work. Bruce is 66 years old and to ...
- Salt Lake City or rather Mormon City?
As we already know, Utah is the biggest habitat for followers of the Mormon Church and Salt Lake City as the capital of Utah does the same job for the church. The centre of the city is characterized by the Temple Square with an enormous concert hall and a temple for weddings, which is not ...
- Moab: a village inbetween two national parks
Yes we went back to Utah, the state with all these nice national parks. We only saw two of them so far, why we wanted to extend the list with another two. The main reason for the 7h drive (which is extremely scenic, so not boring at all) was Arches National Park, but as Moab ...
- Las Vegas – finally the big 30th birthday in the city of sins
A quick 2.5 hour drive later, we arrived at the very popular Las Vegas Boulevard aka “The Strip”. The obvious goal of the Party-/gambling-/entertainment-/luxury-mile is to fulfil even the weirdest wishes of its customers. Whatever that might be… Everything is possible here. You name it, you’ll find it. Luxury Hotels (which are apparently not as ...
- Off to Utah, the state of national parks
After we said good bye to Marc and Rachel, we continued our way along the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and crossed the Glen Canyon Dam (the highest dam of America), in order to drive to our next destination, Bryce Canyon National Park where we planned to stay half a day. First we drove ...
- North Arizona: Maybe the most impressive we’ve ever seen and a bath in a little canyon
Marc (44) and Rachel (29) were our hosts for our time in Arizona and once again, it couldn’t have been any better. They were not at home when we arrived, but they left the door unlocked and we made ourselves comfortable in one of the two guest rooms we were allowed to choose from. After ...
- The (apperently) most beautiful national park in the world, the Death Vallay and three states within a day
From Orinda we took off to Yosemite national park which is probably one of the most famous (and the 3rd oldest) national parks worldwide. And for sure there is a reason why, you will recognize it clearly in the pictures. However, approximately 4 million visitors per year ask for entertainment why the main part, the ...
- San Francisco – Come to stay?
When you inform yourself about San Francisco, you will be overwhelmed with positive references. But we wouldn’t have thought that the city is so extremely charming. But one thing after the other…
We arrived clearly after sunset at Judy’s place, who wanted to host us for our time in San Francisco. Judy is a friend of ...
- Santa Barbara – Two hosts in a spanish town
Why Spanish town, we are in America, aren’t we? That’s what we thought as well, but it makes sense (be aware, we want to sound smart now). On the one hand, California is a famous place for Mexican immigrants (who earlier days made friends with Spanish people, as we all know). Secondly, in the beginning ...
- Los Angeles – delayed starting
36 (!!!) hours delayed, we finally arrived in the city of angels in the land of unlimited opportunities. Caused by the delay, we didn’t arrive in the afternoon as we actually thought, but at midnight. That’s why we got a grandiose landing with thousands of lights, but on the other hand we were kind of ...