Day 25 - Grand Canyon to Las Vegas

Incog Nito writes:
We get early up in the morning to go to the Grand Canyon. We reached it shortly after sunrise. We had a lovely view of the little Colorado and also the big Colorado. After some croissants we decided to go and see the Imax film about the Grand Canyon, which was very interesting. Out of the park dad and I had some tomatoes and sandwiches at Lake Kaibab. When we finished, dad drove us to the hoover dam, where we had a quick swim in the Colorado river. Half an hour later we went on and reached Las Vegas about 8 o’clock. It was amazing driving through Vegas. We got our hotel room in Mandalay Bay, which is super cool.

Darth writes:
Very Early Start (6 am). Scenic drive to Grand Canyon.













Grand Canyon majestic, but comprehendable only from its bottom, as ever. Instead of walking down, we IMAXed down, learning about the history of exploration and discovery.













Quick detour on route 66









and a swim in the Colorado / Lake Mead just below the Hoover dam.









Then drive to Las Vegas which Matti is excited about.

Day 24 - Bryce Canyon

We started to move to Bryce national park at 10 am Arizona time and arrived the park about 3 pm. We changed our clothes and shoes for a 2 ½ hours and 9 km long hike trough the needles. It was very interesting and I made many pictures from the landscape. We met also some Germans on the way to sunset point and saw them again when we finished the loop at the parking space. (They were thus much slower than us). Then dad drove us to the rainbow point, where we had something to eat and a squirrel tried to eat one of dad’s new shoes, but he was a little bit to weak. After finishing our lunch-dinner we looked for a hotel. En Route we had a close encounter with a deer. Finally we stopped and found one 100 km away from Bryce. The hotel didn’t have wi-fi. I saw that subway had one free so we went to subway and we had two cokes and free internet to keep all our fans up to date on what is going on.

Day 23 - Moab to Monument Valley via Silverton

Day 22 - Arches National Park

After a reasonable breakfast, we went to GATEWAY shopping center – very nice – and tried to replace my Nike shoes as the bottom is coming off @ the local FOOTLOCKER store. Unfortunately they did not have my size. Dad got treated to a matching pair in silver & blue. Then we went to the APPLE store and got professional help with our various apple tools. Obviously we also investigate the iPhone again.
And then there was Arches National Park – with rain which is very unusual. Arches is very interesting – for WOW fans – it resembles the “blasted lands” with the Dark Portal. We watched Delicate Arch at sunset. The day closed with a Chinese dinner and a jump into the motel’s pool in Moab.

Day 21 - Salt Lake

After a longer drive (which I slept) we stopped by a golf club. At the 6th hole it started to rain so heavily and even hail that we had to stop and got total wet into the club house, where we had some tee and burgers. After we were a little bit dryer we went onto the trip to Salt Lake City. We missed the Air Force Museum in Hill. Arrived to the hotel in Salt Lake City we checked in and saw the revison of the tour de france. When it was over dad and I decided to go to a little brewery and have some food there.

Day 20 - Yellowstone National Park

Together with the time zone shift (-1 h) we managed to sleep in till 11 am. We entered through the Western Entrance after acquiring a weekly pass for 25 USD. The first stop brought us close to living caribous and a nice river landscape with a beautiful red dragonfly.
The next stop was already a geothermal one with hot springs and colorful thermopile algae and bacteria. Then we did a small back country track including a river crossing. On the riverbanks we found a dead caribou which dad nearly stepped onto. After a pizza we watched OLD FAITHFUL erupt. Then we tipped our toes into Lake Yellowstone at the West Thump basin, which was disapproved by one of the park rangers. Next was the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone with the Upper and Lower Falls. The canyon has really walls of yellow rock !!! Dad hiked down to Uncle Tom’s view point while I recovered from sore Achilles ligaments. The day’s excitements ended with spotting a few bison and apparently a sleeping grizzle in the distance.

Day 19 - Yakima to Yellowstone

The day of the long drive from Yakima to Yellowstone.
Museum in Walla Walla. Scenic drive to Lolo Pass. Speeding warning (81 vs 70 mph) in Lolo. Late arrival in West Yellowstone.

Day 18 - Mount St Helens, Mount Rainier

made pilgramage to some great companies














bad weather, we did see neither of the snow capped tops. Mount St Helens is 27 years after the blast still a scarred area.

























several animals













In the evening we had a good steak in Black Angus

Day 17 - Seattle

last picture from Canada











We reached Seattle after a stressful morning, as our flight and car bookings did not match the schedule. The US security check picked Dad again for special procesures. Seattle airport was unpleasant; we had to wait quite some time for our luggage. Next to our hotel was a nice shopping area (University Village) and we had our first change to explore the iPhone. Dad and I like it very much, I have to agree it is cool. Unfortunately it will not yet work with European providers. Downtown Seattle we visited the famous Pike Market and the even more famous fish store; it was not as impressive as expected. After a 25 min rush visit to the art museum (SAM) we took the 45 year old monorail to the Space Needle. Up in the Space Needle. We did not see much as the weather had turned sour. Returned to the hotel we tried the internet which did not work - buh. As alternative we did our laundry.

Day 16 - Vancouver Island

photo has been removed upon special request.

Day 15 - Vancouver

I slept very long. Then we went to Timmy H. for very nice croissants, saw a well equipped sandler sleeping in front of the shop. We took a bus to Waterfront Station and visited the Harbour Front Shopping mall, where I finally found ¾ length trousers in a Golf Shop. We heard that Sergio Garcia is leading the British Open. We went up the Vancouver tower and had a very cloudy view of the city and its surrounding. Next we walked through Gastown and saw the steam clock, then the sandler quarter of Vancouver and finally China Town and the classical Chinese garden. After some Maki and green tea we visited the science center. Dad had a slightly faster reaction time than me but lost out on the high jump reach. Via some detour we reached the University of British Columbia and the museum of Anthropology. Being almost 6pm it was already closed. We turned around and had dinner in the very nice bar & lounge Joey’s Grill. As finishing touch of the day we went for some sports with our new American football and the Gym and the pool in the hotel.

Day 14 - Jasper to Vancouver

We started out day very early because dad had to drive us to Vancouver, which is more than 800 km away from Jasper. Our tour was going over Kamloops. About at 10 o’clock dad stopped at a golf club and we played 9 holes. In the end dad won with 49 of 36 and I got 72 of 36. As soon as we had finished we drove in pouring rain until 5 pm and a heavy traffic jam. We looked for a bar with a TV-set and saw the semi finale of Austria and Czech rep. after the half time we left and arrived in Vancouver about 8 pm. We cheeked in the holiday inn hotel and then went to the cinema to see the new Harry potter. Before the film started we went into a very good pizzeria.

Mount Robson - the highest peak in Canada - almost 4000m










Golf near Kamloop