Our last blog?

When you've come this far, you should really also see the ocean. Well - ecce oceanus pacificus!

We have had a couple of relaxed days in LA. And as promised: we had lunch today two tables away from Ellen DeG. at a place where recently R-Pats (formerly of K-Stew), as well as Charlize Th. and Leo DiC. had been, and on our way out Esther almost stumbled over Topher G. (I must admit I completely missed that), the actor playing Eric Forman in That 70s Show. And no, we did not scream hysterically, nor did we ask for autographs or take pictures. So you'll just have to take our word for it!

We'll be flying back home tomorrow. Thanks again for following us!

State-istics

Texas

The Lone Star state
State flower: Bluebonnet
Places we stayed: Dallas, San Antonio, Fort Stockton


New Mexico

The Enchantment State
State flower: Yucca flower
Places we stayed: Carlsbad, Santa Fe

Arizona

The Grand Canyon State
State flower: Saguaro Cactus Blossom
Places we stayed: Holbrook, Scottsdale, Sedona, Tusayan (Grand Canyon)

Nevada

The Silver State
State flower: Sagebrush
Places we stayed: Las Vegas


California

The Golden State
State flower: California poppy
Places we stayed: Studio City (Los Angeles)

Lalaland!

We have arrived in Los Angeles.

Now, the final stretch was really boring. Four hours of boring desert, and pretty busy too - little did we know that it was "come home Sunday". But having arrived, we feel pretty good about the entire trip. It has been a very special experience and one I may have to (and want to!) repeat in years to come. And then hopefully there will not be a hazardous spill in the Carlsbad Caverns, there will be a different opera in Santa Fe (La Traviata!), and we'll see different things, meet different people and try different colors on our nails!

We shall spend our remaining time in LA with friends and family. If we spot (and recognize!) any celebrities, we'll let you know.

Numbers

2,000 miles.

3,200 kilometers.
Four states.
Three timezones.
Nine hotels.
About fifteen gas stations (and gas is soooo cheap here!).
Hundreds of C&W songs on the radio.
482 photos (excluding the ones Esther took with her three cameras).
24 blog posts (including this one).
Countless lemonades and bagels with cream cheese. Three shows.

And so much fun!

Tomorrow willl be the last stretch of our road trip. Another 300 miles. Another state. We will keep you posted!

Vegas baby Vegas!

Yesterday we arrived in Las Vegas, Nevada. We are staying in a hotel full of gondolas, masks, seductive phantoms and blackjack tables, yes, it's The Venetian. The weather is extremely hot, so we only saw the Strip from the car. We also went to see the Hoover Dam, which was really impressive. Here are some pictures of the Dam and Las Vegas:

Today we went to Cirque du Soleil's "O" at the Bellagio, which is a beautiful circus water show and was very fun to see.

Grand Canyon

Thursday we went to the Grand Canyon, and it was absolutely amazing. We walked a good 3 km, and the view was beautiful. Barbara was a little scared that I would fall off the edges, but she had nothing to worry because I was very careful. There also were many elk, and some cars behind us had to stop because the elk crossed the road.

The lovely view,

and of course the elk. (Esther scripsit)

Duitsers, Fransen en ... Hollanders!

Hebben we onszelf tot nu toe als vrij exotische vreemdelingen (οί βαρβαροι) mogen beschouwen, vandaag werden we in de Grand Canyon overspoeld door Duitsers, Fransen en heel veel Hollanders. Henk en Ingrid nemen het er goed van; zoveel werd wel duidelijk! Morgen reizen we weer door; later meer over de Grand Canyon. Alvast een foto.

Sedona

Yesterday we drove from Phoenix to Sedona, which was a relaxed two hour drive. We are staying in L'Auberge de Sedona, which is a beatiful hotel with little Centerparks cottages (Dutch people will know). In Sedona we went to a little shopping center with a lot of art galleries where Native Americans showed their art called 'Tlaquepaque'. We went to a lot of beautiful shops in Tlaquepaque, we ate some ice cream in Tlaquepaque, we climbed some stairs in Tlaquepaque. We love saying Tlaquepaque.
After that, we went to a house of a friend, where there was a beautiful view of the red rocks, and Sedona itself. There also were two little bronze javelinas called Soviet and Union. For dinner we went to a steakhouse with a beautiful terrace where we could see more red rocks, and an occasional bat or two. At our little Centerparks cottage there was an outside shower, where I showered under the starry sky.
Today we will be driving to the Grand Canyon, about which I am very excited. (Esther scripsit)

Me, Soviet and Union.

Relax

We will be leaving Scottsdale today to drive all the way to Sedona (a relaxed two hour drive). We have spent the last two days mostly at the poolside although we have also done some shopping and culture. We went to Taliesin West on Monday evening.

Taliesin West is a house built by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1937-1957. He lived there, with his family and apprentices, during the winters (summers were spent in Taliesin in Wisconsin). The house, which is only open to the public on special tours, including the Monday evening tours that we participated in, is designed to blend in with nature and not only the house itself is spectacular, but so are the views of the mountains and valley surrounding it - especially during sunset which is when we were there.

Phoenix is supposed to be one of the hottest cities in the US (temperaturewise), with 360 sunny days in the year. So you can imagine how blessed we feel that we have had rain each day that we were here. Fortunately, the rain is short enough to still be fun (see previous post) and cool enough to take away some of the heat.

On Monday, we also did the mother-daughter spa experience. Great fun, and we got our nails polished too!

Fun

Today, we drove to smothering Phoenix (100 degrees and up), which took us through Tonto National Forest. The landscape was, again, breathtaking. Green hills with lakes, pine and birch forest mountains, and finally seguoia cactus desert.

We have now arrived in the luxurious spa resort, where for the next couple of days, we will enjoy the "girls just wanna have fun" package. It's been fun so far, although we found the waitress at tonight's restaurant who, when presenting the bill, said "I've really enjoyed the time we got to spend together this evening" also very funny!

Route 66

Yesterday, we drove from Santa Fe to Holbrook, AZ, part of which was on route 66.

Most of it has now been replaced by Interstate 40. But many of the old motels, diners, gas stations, etc. are still there. We enjoyed all of those: motel, diner ànd gas station! Although tempting, we did not, however, make use of the services offered by the store on this picture.

Enchanting

We left New Mexico today and arrived in Arizona. New time zone (we are now nine hours behind CET)! First stop: the Petrified Forest and the Painted Desert. Spec-ta-cu-lar!!!!!!

A night at the opera

Santa Fe has a world famous opera festival each summer.

The Santa Fe Opera has a building just outside of Santa Fe in the mountains. It is an open air theatre and the building is an adventure in itself.
We had bought tickets for yesterday's performance, which was an opera by Rossini, Maometto II. We got to the venue a little early because we had to pick up the tickets, and also wanted to see the theatre and its surroundings. When we got there, dozens of people had already arrived and were having a picnic. They had set up tables and chairs and lots of food, right behind their cars in the parking lot. It appeared to be some kind of tradition, just like strawberries at Wimbledon. To us it looked funny: people being all dressed up for the opera having a picnic on the parking lot.
The opera itself was fabulous. All of the four lead singers sang beautifully and the orchestra was also great; so was the direction, the decors and everything else. It was a very special experience. I took along the program for next year; 'cause you never know....!

Santa Fe

We had a great time in Santa Fe.

It is a gorgeous place with a great climate and full of museums, galleries and shops selling native American art. We took a shuttle tour on Thursday which took us through all of the city and a little bit outside as well. The guide told us all about the history of the place, not all of it glorious - very interesting. The rest of the time we spent walking around and shopping and enjoying the swimming pool. On Thursday night we had dinner at the Luminaria restaurant, which is the restaurant at the hotel. It is supposed to be very famous, but frankly we were somewhat disappointed. To be honest, duck breast doesn't combine very well with raw green apples and fresh mozzarella is supposed to be really soft and not rubbery. Anyway, the surroundings are really pretty.

Roads

We have now arrived in Santa Fe, New Mexico. First thing that is different is that it is so much cooler here - "only" about 30 degrees (Celsius, obviously), rather than the 37 plus that we had grown accustomed to in Texas and Southern New Mexico. From what we have seen so far, Santa Fe is a lovely place with beautiful buildings and lot of cute little shops. We will stay here three nights and will post in the next few days about our adventures.

We have now travelled 1,000 miles. Before we left, a number of people told us that most of the route, especially the part that we have traveled now, would be very boring. Well - I would like to invite those people to come to the Netherlands and drive through Flevoland to learn what boring is. The roads that we have traveled on have been beautiful: from the amazingly green hills in south and west Texas, to the purple and red desert in New Mexico and the smalltown/ghost town American just-like-on-tv cities in between. Like most travelers, we drive an SUV: a Jeep, conveniently addressed by its model name (Patriot, just like the missile) by Texas valet parkers.

We have seen many different people: families on vacation, truck drivers. And things you don't see everyday in other parts of the world, such as the middle-aged couple on an after dinner stroll with the man carrying a gun out in the open. And we have had every type of food: from McDonalds (great free wifi!), to upscale tex mex and homemade paté, with drinks with way too many icecubes and, of course, straws. And we're not even halfway!

We try to post on this blog at least every two days. A lot of people visit our blog - including some loyal fans from Russia who appear to keep coming back to check every day. Do let us know what you think on or off blog: we enjoy hearing from y'all!

Nanananana BATMAN!

Yesterday we left Texas and we drove to the Enchantment State, New Mexico! We stopped at Carlsbad to see the Carlsbad Caverns, but unfortunately it was closed because of a "hazardous spill" in one of the caves. Luckily we did get to watch the Bat Flight, which was very impressive. The Bat Flight is every evening at twilight, when the bats come out of their cave to go hunting. There was a ranger who told us that there were approximately 400,000 bats in the Bat Cave of Carlsbad. He also said that this was not very much in comparison to the biggest Bat Cave somewhere in Texas, where there were about 20 million bats! We had to be very quiet for the bats to come out, and we weren't allowed to make pictures during the flight.

In this picture you can see a bit of the amfitheater where we watched the bats, left of my head. It was a very beautiful park, and it's a shame we only stayed for one night. (Esther scripsit)

Paisano Pete

Meet Paisano Pete, the world's largest road runner (meep meep!!!). In Fort Stockton, Texas. Where else?

Remember the Alamo

So - what do we think about San Antonio? Esther thinks it is very Mexican. Actually, she means she has seen a lot of Mexicans. I think it has something Spanish to it, but that may also be because we saw five Spanish Missions (including the Alamo). All of them are pretty close to one another and are reasonably in tact - one of them is even still in use as a church. Missions are the oldest European built buildings in the US.

The Alamo was interesting, although it doesn't mean as much to us as it did to most of the other visitors. The sign at the entrance stating emotionally that without the Alamo, Texas would not have existed was therefore somewhat lost on us. Nevertheless, we enjoyed it (lovely garden, see picture), and we got some goodie stuff at the gift shop.


Yesterday, we had walked the Riverwalk - the other big thing in San Antonio. It is a walkway, somewhat like along the grachten in Utrecht at a level below the streets, originally built by the Spanish to arrange for a water supply from San Antonio river to the Alamo. It is, obviously, lined by restaurants and shops, but still very charming. We then had a good American, though noisy, dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe on Riverwalk and Esther bought herself a t-shirt.

Today, we did the Riverwalk again - this time by boat. After lunch and a nap, we drove by all the Missions and then went on to have dinner. The waiter that served us was awfully handsome (made Esther melt) and terribly nice, but had a hard time remembering the French names of the specials. Tomorrow we will travel on to our next stop which will take us, on a two day trip, out of Texas...

San Antonio, obviously

Just arrived. More later.

This ain't my first rodeo

Today we went to the Dallas Museum of Art and the Nasher sculpture museum. In the Dallas Museum of Art we saw some early pictures of Piet Mondriaan, Japanese masks, wooden man figurines from South Africa and more. In the extremeley hot sculpture garden, we found some sculptures that looked really sad, so Esther decided to join them to lighten up the picture.
In the evening, we went to see the Mesquite Rodeo, where we saw bull riding, tie down roping, saddle bronc riding, steer wrestling and a lot more awesome acts. One of the most funny parts to watch was the 'Dash for Cash' part, where little children try to grab the ribbon of a little calf's tail. The winner got 20 dollars from the rodeo clown.
Today was the last day in Dallas, tomorrow we will drive all the way to San Antonio, where our real roadtrip will begin. (Esther fecit)

Glass

Yesterday was mostly errands day. We went to AAA to get a "TripTik"; which is basically a little booklet with a route description door to door and maps and some background information. It probably doesn't add much to the information we already had but it's a comforting thought to know that we have it with us. We also tried to get an AT&T prepaid card for the iPad, but that appears to be impossible. So as consolation we went to a shopping mall and bought some cool clothes. The immensely cultural experience ended by another scrumptious meal which got Esther to decide that she was not ever going to eat again.
This morning, after Esther had breakfast, we went to the Dallas Arboretum which, in spite of the fact that it was a generous 100 degrees, was really nice. There was an exhibit there from glass sculptor Chihuly with some really spectacular glass objects scattered throughout the garden. On our way back we went to downtown Dallas and saw the place where President Kennedy was shot. We then got a tour of all of the places of interest in Joel's youth ("and this is where I had piano lessons"), which was moderately interesting but did make us feel very special 😉.
Below is a picture of Esther in the Dallas Arboretum; the weird red things behind her is one of the glass sculptures.

The Meal

Today was a day with memorable meals - and we have not even had dinner yet.... Woke up early and Joel made what Esther thought was the best bagel with lox 'n cream cheese ever. Then we went to Fort Worth and visited the museum of modern art there. The building was beautiful, the collection less impressive. We then went on to Joe Garcia, and had "the Meal": a table full of true Tex-Mex goodies "family style". The place itself was also lovely, with a beautiful garden with lots of fountains & flowers. Wonder what we'll have for dinner....

Schiphol, monday morning

Vanochtend op Schiphol....

Don't mess with Texas!

After an nine hour flight with a lot of sushi, chicken, orange juice and movies, we have finally arrived in our first destination, Dallas, TX. One small tip: never wear black pants or a black jacket when you're traveling to Texas, because your legs will die of the enormous heat when you get off that airplane. The time difference between Amsterdam and Dallas is approximately eight hours, so for you Dutch readers: it is 2:39 AM now in my head, and I haven't even had dinner yet. That is a day of 20 hours! Luckily I got to spend most of it in a plane with films and a massage chair. It is extremely hot out here, so I prefer to stay in the wonderful air-conditioning. And lasagna for dinner. Pictures will be posted soon!

Bijna weg

Alles is ingepakt (methode Louis Vuitton) en alle apps zijn gedownload. Het grootste deel van de route is gepland. Dat is niet uit een gebrek aan spontaniteit, maar omdat we, ondanks de verwachte hitte, in plaatsen zullen komen waar het erg druk zal zijn. Zo waren alle hotels (en trouwens ook campings) in de Grand Canyon al vol. Bovendien zijn er enkele plekken waar ik eerder ben geweest en die ik graag opnieuw wil bezoeken. Maar alle plannen kunnen natuurlijk gewijzigd worden....!

Food for thought

OK. We'll look into it:
http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/07/11/roswell-really-happened-says-former-cia-agent/?hpt=hp_t2

Our first post!

ER: This is our very first post! In five days our awesome road trip will begin. We start in Dallas, TX, all the way to Los Angeles, CA. In a mini SUV! Very Thelma & Louise-y. We will post a lot of pictures, so you can see every place we visit. Stay tuned and feast your eyes!