Roadtrip 2005

Yosemite National Park

2005-06-28T23:41:00.000+02:00

DAY 19:

On Thursday our destination was ‘Yosemite National Park’. We arrived at about 1 in the afternoon. It’s funny how the last park we visited is my favorite of all. As soon as we entered the park, there were several places we could pull over and take pictures of. The waterfalls were beautiful and the Merced River added a very nice touch to it.

At about 2 PM we went to see if there were any campsites available. Since it’s the summer season and almost weekend, we were out of luck. In ‘Curry Village’ we were able to put our name on a list of reservations. In case there were any cancellations, the people on the list would get the site. We were number 42 on the list.
They told us to come back at 3PM. We came back, but unfortunately when they reached number 29 on the list they were out of sites. :( Bummer.
We went to a payphone to call the nearest KOA campground in the area, which was 30 miles from the park. Unfortunately, they only had Thursday night available, instead of three nights, but we took it anyway.

DAY 20:

We went back to the park. First thing we did was go to the campground reservation office to put our names on the list for this afternoon. This day we were number 32 on the list. We went to see ‘Happy Isles’ and ‘Glacier Point’. From Glacier Point you could see this mountain called ‘Half Dome’. In this area we were able to see a bit of snow again.

Around 1.30PM we went back to the reservations office to be back on time for the 3 o’clock announcements. It takes about an hour to get from there to the Curry Village.
I guess luck was on our side today when the Park Ranger called out my name as the last person to get a site for this day. Woohoo.
We got a site at ‘Upper Pines’. When we went there the lady at the entrance warned us about the bears in the area. She told us to store food, water and all scented items in the provided bear lockers at all times. As soon as we had setup the tent and made our stir-fry dinner, we went to have a look at Yosemite Village. There was a nice big store, with ‘Yosemite goodies’ on one side and grocery items on the other. Lovely shop.
As soon as it got dark, we headed back and went into the tent. I was kind of scared sitting out in the open, darkness all around, knowing there are black bears and mountain lions around.

DAY 21:

This day I went to the reservations office again, but this time at 8 in the morning. Now I was number 15 on the list, which gave me the idea we would again have a site for tonight. Yay! :)
We took our bathers and a towell, as we headed to the Mirror Lake trail. Thinking we could have a swim in it or something. As we went to this trail, we came across a Mountain Lion warning sign. It had a warning about not to hike alone, or to jog. Yikes. About halfway down this trail, we were in between some giant rocks and the smell of cat urine was very pungent. At this point I thought we’d better get a move on. :)
When we got to the lake, and took our shoes off, people warned us about the strong current in the lake/river. I put both my feet in the lake and they nearly froze instantly. Ouch! This meant no swimming. We wanted to cross the lake, it was not deep at all, but because it was sooooo cold I couldn’t do it. This was melted ice coming from the mountains, so you can imagine just how cold it was at 9 in the morning.
Shortly after, we decided to take the same trail back and go back to the car. We drove around a bit more, took some more pictures and went back to the reservation office.

We were lucky again! :) When I got in line with my number, there were several people asking if anyone wanted to share their site. So was this guy called Peter. We agreed on sharing a site with him, it would save us half the night’s campsite fee and he seemed like a nice guy.
This time we picked a site in North Pines, near the river. When I pulled up to the campsite, this lady told me to be reaaaaaaal careful tonight, because rangers had seen two momma bears with her cubs at the campsite itself. When we were setting up the tent, Peter came with 4 beers ‘imported Holland’. (I had told him I was from Holland and was going back on Monday). The beer was called ‘3 Horses’ from Breda. I had never heard of it. After this we went to Yosemite Village again to get the things we needed to make dinner. Believe it or not, this 2.5 mile drive took us 1.5 hours. Apparently everybody was trying to get out of the park which caused a major traffic jam. I bought a fridge magnet of the Yosemite Falls to remember the park when I get back home.  We bought some chicken and made another stir-fry this night.
We wanted to see some more things before it got dark and walked down this path next to the river. It lead us to some stables with a lot of horses. There was this one horse standing by the fence and we decided to feed it with the things we found in the area. We petted it for a while and then walked back to our site. Our last night at Yosemite. :(

DAY 22:

This morning we packed everything and left the park at around 9AM. After living out of the trunk of a car for three weeks, it’s getting kind of difficult trying to fit everything in bags and sorting the dirty things from the clean things. Since the park itself does not have any gasstations, we had to exit the park from Highway 140 which leads to a town called El Portal. I was getting kind of nervous at this point, because there was not much left and the red light on my dashboard had been flashing for a while already. We made it to the gasstation and I was really relieved. They asked ridiculous prices for the gas, but when you need it real bad, you pay for it. Hah.
Believe it or not, around 10.30 we pulled over to a Burger King to have breakfast (never thought I’d say that!).
About 4 hours later we arrived at the Days Inn in Milbrae, which is a hotel/motel supposedly about 2 miles from the airport.

I’m sad this is the last day of my holiday, I’ve had a great time and will surely come back one day.
My flight leaves at noon tomorrow, I’ll be arriving back in Amsterdam on Tuesday.

Sequoia National Park

2005-06-23T04:50:00.000+02:00

PICTURES ADDED TO PREVIOUS POST!

DAY 18:

Today we left Bakersfield at 9 AM. Our destination would be ‘Sequoia National Park’.
This Park is known for it’s giant trees.
We arrived at approximately 11.30, entered the park and stopped at various places to have a look and take a picture.

Some of the mountains even still had snow on them. And not just the mountains. On our way back out of the park I looked at the right side of the road, into the bushes and saw something white. I thought it was snow, but thought ‘ah well, can’t be right, it’s summer!’. We stopped and had a look, and indeed it was snow. :)

Me with a giant tree! :)

We left the park and for the next 30 odd miles the road was going left to righ, up and down on and on and on. We all got so carsick we had to stop the car after a while.

Tonight we’d be staying at the Visilia KOA campground. We arrived here around 5PM. After setting up the tent it was time to go out and have dinner somewhere. It’s been a long day and living on a peanutbutter and jelly sandwich for breakfast all day is not good. We looked for a Subway. (Wish Holland had this…..). They have the best sandwiches!
When we returned to the campsite we got an icecream and this picture is the result. ;)

Tomorrow we’re going to Yosemite National Park. We will either be staying at the KOA campground 23 miles from the Park or we will stay in the park itself. We will definitely be staying for 2 or 3 days.

I must admit this trip is going pretty fast. I’m leaving from San Francisco airport on Monday. :(
Am happy to read in the comments my cats are doing OK. :)
I Am reading all the comments in case you were wondering. It’s nice to see people are actually reading the things that I write and post.

Will try to write again soon.

Grand Canyon

2005-06-22T00:27:00.000+02:00

DAY 14:

Today is Saturday and we’re leaving Las Vegas. I don’t think we’ve seen all of Vegas yet, but there is so much to see and do, you’d need at least a week to explore it all. We decided on going to the Grand Canyon tomorrow, so today we’re heading for the Zion National Park. This is 100 miles north of the Grand Canyon. When we arrived at the National Park we parked the car and took a shuttle into the park. It was a narrated shuttle and they explained the things we were seeing at certain stops. We got out of the shuttle at the last stop to look around. Lots of high mountains, real pretty, kind of hard to explain what it looked like. There were even people climbing these giant mountains.

After the Zion NP we headed to Glendale. This is were our next campground would be. We found it to be in the middle of canyons and it was really windy up here. We had to hold the tent down firmly trying to set it up. Tomorrow our destination would be the Grand Canyon. We have not had a signal on the phone for about a day now. Not that I expected there to be some kind of cell phone satellite dish to be out in the middle of nowhere, but it’s kind of handy to be able to use the phone.

DAY 15:

We left Glendale early in the morning. Today we’re going to the Grand Canyon and will also return to Las Vegas after this. So it’s going to be a long day driving around. When we got to the Grand Canyon we parked the car and went down a long path that went to this giant rock you could climb to oversee the Canyon. I didn’t dare climbing up there really. I just stuck the normal path and took a couple of pictures. :)

The Canyon is sooooo big. You can look as far as you can left or right and you wouldn’t see anything but canyons. Looking down makes you realize you’re so up high. We were at 8,000 feet.

After filling up our bottles with water again (can’t believe how much water we drink), we left the Grand Canyon NP and headed to Vegas again. It was a 4-hour drive and this time we stopped at Circus Circus to see if they still had some rooms available. This hotel/casino is on the opposite site of ‘the Strip’ of where we were a couple of days before. After standing in line for about 30 minutes the lady at the desk told us she did indeed have a room available for one night. We stayed in the ‘Sky rise Tower’. As we took our luggage and walked through the hotel, we came passed a small themepark in the middle of the hotel. Yes, INSIDE of the hotel. With a little rollercoaster, and a number of other attractions.

After bringing our stuff to the room and going to the hotel’s Buffet for dinner, we went to have a look at this side of the Strip. With the Stratosphere Tower, the Sahara Hotel and the number of little shops. I was looking for something ‘Heineken’-related for Tim to bring home to add to his collection. I found a ‘can’. Not much else Heineken related here besides besides the obvious bottles.

We found a wifi-hotspot at the Stratosphere hotel, which is where we would go the following morning to upload the previous web log entry.

DAY 16:

Today it’s Monday. We took the laptop to the Stratosphere hotel to upload a journal I had ready for a couple of days now.
Today’s destination would be Death Valley National Park. Just before we entered the park, we went to see a ghost town called Rhyolite. Apparently this was a town that housed 10,000 people in the early 1900’s. Several buildings were still there. A railway station, a jail, redlight district etc. And several signs stating ‘caution, rattle snakes’. Hmmmm.
We continued our trip and entered the national park. This must be the only park where there is nobody occupying the park’s entrance and makes sure you pay the fees. Guess why that is and why they call it Death Valley? Exactly, it’s soooooo hot here nobody wants to go and sit in one of those booths. :)
There were a number of signs by the side of the road stating you had better turn the air-conditioning of your car off, otherwise you’d overheat your engine.
We stopped at a place called Stovepipe Wells, but read that the campsite was closed. Looking around this place, made me realize I didn’t really want to spend a night here anyway, the heat would get to me too much. We filled up our water bottles and drove on. We saw beautiful san dunes and canyons. By the time we got out of the park it was almost 5.30PM and we wanted to go to a campground in Bakersfield. The navigator told us that would mean we had to drive for another 5 hours. Pfffffffffffffffff.
We stopped at a gasstation and filled up the tank. Yesterday we saw someone driving reaaaaaaal slow on the Highway pulling into a gasstation. My guess was he was running out of it. I’m not surprised. Some of the roads here seem so long, and seem to go without gasstations for miles on end. Whenever the tank would be half full and I saw a gasstation, I would just fill it up again.
We finally arrived in Bakersfield around 9.30PM and of course the office to the campground was closed already. We filled in a night registration form and choose a tentsite to stay at. We made dinner (yes at 10.30PM), cup of noodles sounded good. :)

DAY 17:

Today it’s Tuesday. I went to the campsite’s office to register for another night. I want to take it easy today. Must admit I kind of had enough of driving so many hours a day. We slept in today and headed to the shops to find a hotspot.

Tomorrow’s destinations will be Sequioa National Park and King’s Canyon. Maybe even Yosemite National Park. Will write again soon…

Las Vegas

2005-06-20T19:40:00.000+02:00

DAY 11:

This morning we called the Needles KOA campground to make reservations for this night. They asked us if we were really certain we wanted to stay the night, because it was after all in the middle of the desert. We decided to go ahead anyway.
After about 140 miles we entered the Joshua Tree National Park. Everywhere you look it’s desert, mountains and above all, quietness. We continued on our trip to Needles and it was desert, desert and well desert. :)

After about 170 more miles we arrived at the campground. Luckily the campsite was ‘shaded’, but it was hot nonetheless. After having setup the tent we went for a swim in the pool.
The lady at the front desk told us that there was wi-fi internet at the Route 66 café down the road.

DAY 12:

We went there the following morning for a cup of coffee and of course to be able to go online for an update on the web log. Unfortunately we weren’t able to go online at all, for some reason it did not work.
Our next stop would be the ‘Hoover Dam’. I had seen things on Discovery Channel about this dam, but to see it for real is something totally different. It’s big. No, it’s massive, giant, just big big big. The Colorado River runs right through it, which meant that on one side of the dam we were in the state ‘Nevada’ and on the other side we were in ‘Arizona’.

So yes, we have left the state ‘California’, for now and have arrived in Nevada.
After the Hoover Dam we went to Las Vegas, our final destination for today. We weren’t sure where we were going to stay yet. It was either going to be the Circus Circus or the Luxor Hotel. Funnily enough, Circus Circus was on the beginning of the ‘strip’ and the Luxor on the complete opposite. We decided to check the Luxor (www.luxor.com) first.
They still had a room available for two nights, yay! We’re on floor 13 room 98. The hotel is build like a pyramid. It’s got a lot of shops, slotmachines (of course), lots of rooms, theaters, food courts, the whole lot. You name it. The room’s got an Egyptian ‘feel’ to it as well, just like the rest of the hotel.

In the evening, we went out to have dinner and to walk down the strip (part of it anyway). We saw a number of hotels like, New York-New York, MGM, Excalibur, Aladdin and Mandalay. It all looked very much ‘alive’ at night. With all the lights, the music and all the traffic going through this street. After a number of hours and very sore feet we went back to our room and went to bed.

DAY 13:

This morning we took it easy and left the room late in the morning. We were hungry and decided to go to a Chinese buffet to have breakfast and lunch at once. After this we had enough energy to walk further down the strip and explore more hotels. We saw the ‘Venetian’. Its ceiling was almost like you were looking at the real sky. And there were gondolas floating around in the ‘river’ made inside the hotel. We also saw Treasure Island, Caesar’s Palace, Bellagio, Monte Carlo, the Mirage (we saw a white tiger there!), the Flamingo, the Ballsy, etc. We had our first frozen Margarita of this trip on the strip! It was yummy. Only 1 dollar, ha!
After even more sore feet than last night, we returned to our hotel and went for a swim in the pool and the spa. Tonight we had dinner at the same place as last night, Quiznos Subs.
Now I’m sitting here typing this next entry for the journal. I have no idea when I will be able to upload it. Can’t seem to be able to find a hotspot up in this hotel.

Tomorrow we’re heading to the Zion National Park and the Grand Canyon (North Rim).

More to come…

Innocent!

2005-06-15T07:58:00.000+02:00

DAY 9:

This day we decided to go to the Santa Maria courthouse. It’s where the Michael Jackson trial was taking place and where the jurors were deciding whether he was guilty of molesting a child or not. We wanted to see the fans with the banners outside, have a look around and then leave, to head off to Neverland. This is where Michael Jackson lives.

After we had been in Santa Maria for about an hour, people started screaming there was a verdict out. Within an hour, Michael would be at the courthouse to have the verdict read to him. It was a really hot afternoon and we were standing against these fences trying to get a glimpse of what was going on. We were interviewed by several reporters from different stations. After an hour, Michael finally arrived with his family, but we could hardly see him. All the reporters were standing in front of us unfortunately.
After 15 minutes or so, someone had a live feed of what was going on in the courtroom. 11 times in a row (there were 11 counts) we heard the verdict was innocent! Being long time Jackson fans we were really happy with the outcome. When Michael had left the court, we got in the car and went to Neverland. Apparently we were not the only ones!
There was a long line of cars parked, there were quite a number of TV stations present and helicopters were circling the area. We went up to the Neverland gates and took a couple of pictures of the fans, the gates itself and the surroundings.

Every few minutes a car would go out or get into the gates. In one of the cars, Michael’s laywer Messerau was present and we were able to get a good picture of him.
It was so incredibly hot, we had to walk back to the car and get something to drink. Realizing what time it was and how far we still had to drive to get to the L.A. KOA campground we decided to get a move on. We had to be there before 8PM, but the navigator said we needed more than 4 hours to get there, when it was already 4.30 PM.
The average speed limit here is 65mph, but I found out that if I drove 75 or more, we would just make it. And yes indeed, we were at the campground 10 minutes before 8. Good timing or what!
We quickly set up our tent and went to the swimmingpool and spa. That felt really good after a long hot day. We still had to make dinner afterwards and felt a cup of noodles would do.

DAY 10:

After breakfast, we made a list of things we wanted to see in Los Angeles today. There was Beverly Hills, Hollywood, West Coast Customs (From the MTV show ‘pimp my ride’) and Downtown Disney.
I must say driving in L.A. isn’t all that special. There is SO much smog in the air, it’s unbelievable. I bet those people have never seen a blue sky in their entire lifetime.
Beverly Hills is not what I expected it to be. There were nice big houses, mansions, palm trees, etc, but it’s different from what you see on TV. No movie stars or anything, or at least not where we were. We drove around, took some pictures and went to see the Hollywood sign. I found a website that explained how to get real close to this sign. They turned out to be right! We followed a couple of streets, went uphill and were able to park the car. There were several other people trying to do the same thing. This one girl asked if I could take a picture of her and her friend with the Hollywood sign in the back of it and in return she would take a picture of us too.

After this we went to West Coast Customs. It turned out to be real close to the L.A. airport. We were let in by a security guard and we went inside the office to take a couple of pictures. We saw ‘Q’ (manager) and then left again. Our last stop for today would be the ‘Downtown Disney’. It’s a place with a number of shops situated next to Disneyland.
None of the shops really had anything to do with the Disney theme, except for the Disney store itself. That store was awesome though. It had all kinds of Disney things, sweaters, t-shirts, music, movies, anything and everything Disney related, you name it!
After an hour of strolling around we went back to the car and went back ‘home’ (a.k.a. Tent). I asked the people at the front desk if I could charge the battery of my digital camera, because we have no electricity at the site. They agreed we could, so I left my things there and we went to a grocery store to get dinner for tonight. The site we are at now, does not have a picnic table or a fire ring, which doesn’t make it very easy to have breakfast or dinner. It’s a challenge to say the least. We made a stir-fry dish again tonight.
After this we went to the spa, very relaxing. And now we’re sitting in the car downloading the pictures of the camera and typing this entry for the weblog. It’s almost 11 PM and I must say I’m very tired.
Tomorrow we will have another long day ahead of us. We will go to Joshua Tree National Park and we will try to make reservations for the Needles KOA campground for tomorrow night. We will be driving for at least 4 hours tomorrow. The Needles campground is in the middle of the desert, so, AIRCO it is!

Well this is it for today… more to come!

June 12th

2005-06-13T19:10:00.000+02:00

DAY 4:

On Wednesday morning we packed everything. When we woke up we noticed it had been and was still raining. Since we were going south today, along the coast, we’d expected a lot of fog.
A little after 9AM we headed for the Alamo (car rental) office. I was not supposed to pick up the car until 10 AM, but we decided to try anyway. When we got there, we weren’t the only ones! There was a long line of people and we stood there waiting for at least 40 minutes. I made reservations for a ‘compact’ car, but because they didn’t have these available anymore, we got an upgrade which is a ‘midsize’. It’s a Dodge Stratus with cruise control! I tell ya, after driving a couple of hundred miles (it is now Sunday 10.30 PM as I type) I am so happy it’s got cruise control.

Our destination for this day would be Pfeiffer State Park at Big Sur. We decided to go and visit a ‘Target’ first. It is a superstore and we decided to buy some camping gear here. We needed a camping stove and some propane for this stove and for the lantern. After this we went to a city called San Jose where we did some grocery shopping at Albertsons.
It’s somewhat different trying to shop for food when having to keep in mind that you’re going to be camping. No refrigerator, no freezer.
We continued on our way and had a stop in Carmel by the sea and stretched our legs. After this it was a long crooked road, going from left to right and right to left. I am normally prone to carsickness, when I’m not driving, but now I was the driver, and still got carsick!

Around 5 PM we arrived at the State Park and checked in for two nights.
That same night it rained again. I woke up and felt that everything around us was starting to get very wet. The pillows, the sleeping bags, everything.
In the morning we took everything out and hung it to dry. Which was kind of impossible, because it was still sort of raining. We decided to go on a hike. Put on sweaters, took the backpack and went up the mountain. It was very steep and we had a beautiful view.
This night we made our first dinner on the stove. Well, dinner, it was spaghetti and some spaghetti sauce. It was fun nonetheless. We went to the State Park store to look if they had some firewood so we could roast marshmallows. We bought one bag and looked for wooden sticks to stick the marshmallows on. Luckily, the campfire kept the annoying mosquitoes away!

DAY 6:

The next day, Friday, our destination would be ‘ Tracy ‘. It’s the town where Daniel lives and we were all invited to a graduation party on Saturday of Daniel’s sister, Rosie.
As we drove back, we had a stop again in San Jose. Daniel wanted to show the house he grew up in and we went to a library to go online and check our email. After this we continued on our trip. What I noticed in these first couple of days is that there are a lot of road accidents. Everytime there was a news update on the radio about the traffic they would mention some kind of road accident. This time, they mentioned some thing about a car flipping over a couple of times and then caught fire. A couple of miles after hearing this, we saw smoke on the opposite lane and when we had a closer look it was this very same car the guy on the news spoke about. Scary! I decided to stick to the speed limit :)
DAY 7:

On Saturday we had to be at the graduation ceremony at 9AM. 400 students were graduating and there were speeches. After this we were invited to a BBQ and a party.
We were told to bring our bathing suit. This was a good idea, because it promised to be a hot day! I got sun burnt real bad on my back and my nose, but I’m actually getting a tan too!

DAY 8:

Today it’s Sunday. Can’t believe it’s been a week since I arrived in San Francisco. Around 11AM we drove off and went to a grocery shop called ‘Safeway’. We bought some vegetables and rice for our ‘stir-fry stove’ dinner that evening. Our destination for today would be the KOA campground in Santa Margaritha. The distance from Tracy to there was 235 miles! We stopped every 60 miles or so at a rest area to stretch our legs. We got to the campground around 4 and they still had some sites available, lucky for us in the shade!
Tonight, as it was getting dark and I was reading the leaflet I had gotten from the campground office, it mentioned something about the ‘wilderness’ in the area. Skunks, squirrels and …. Black bears! Uh-oh. When I went to the toilets tonight I had an encounter with one of these, nope, no bear, just a skunk as it was running away from us. :)

And now I’m sitting here, ready to go to sleep. I wanted to write down what had happened in the last couple of days in case I forgot things. I have no idea when I will be able to upload this.
Goodnight…

Day 3

2005-06-08T06:03:00.000+02:00

DAY 3:

This day we decided to try and get a closer look at both China Town, the Golden Gate Bridge and the ‘Crookedest Street’ called Lombard Street. We were in for a long walk again, not wanting to take the Cable Car. We wanted to see everything!
A couple of blocks from the hotel we were busted by a ‘cop’ for ‘looking too serious’ and having a ‘beautiful smile’ ( Guess who the latter was ;) ). We were given ‘I Love San Francisco’ and ‘I love your smile’ stickers all for the cause of the homeless. They asked for a donation. It was a nice way to approach people. Ha.
It’s fun to see how in China Town there is hardly anything American. Even the food that was put outside on display didn’t look like anything I had ever seen before. Lots of tourists out there, so it was difficult trying to get a decent picture of the ‘gate’ of China Town. Have a look for yourself, think we managed. :)

After this we walked to the ‘Coit Tower’. There was a nice view on the city from the top and we took some pictures. This way we were able to see everything on the Bay, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Bay bridge and of course, Alcatraz.

Next stop was Lombard Street a.k.a. ‘Crookedest Street’.It runs down a very steep hill, going from left to right. It probably shows better on the picture than the way I explain it.
Made me wonder why there were so many cars coming down this street, instead of taking another. Looked like a challenge driving down this thing. See for yourself. :)

After this we went to Pier 39, had lunch and shopped a little. I even got sun burnt on top of my head, how’s that! Ouch.

Tomorrow we will be going to Alamo, which is the place where I made reservations for the carrental.We will also be checking out of this hotel and our next stop will be Pfeiffer State Park in Big Sur. Nearly 166 Miles down the coast. Fun!
I doubt there will be any public Wi-Fi hotspot at the Park, so it’s uncertain when our next entry in the weblog will be. Keep checking!

The beginning...

2005-06-07T05:35:00.000+02:00

DAY 1 –

Ok. Time for the first real entry in this weblog. JYesterday, June 5th, I took the 11.45AM flight from Amsterdam to San Francisco.Due to stricter security regulations, boarding time took longer than expect. Some people even had to take their shoes off! I was happy to be allowed to go through without having my bags inspected.
This KLM Boeing 777 plane had an in-flight entertainment system, which was good given the time I had to spend on this flight; 11 hours and 10 minutes!I watched two movies, Birth and The Grudge. I tell ya, if you like good endings, do NOT watch these movies. :)About 20 minutes before landing was going to take place, the captain told us it was going to be 17C in San Francisco. I didn’t expect that!
After I got off the plane, gone through passport control and picked up my bags it was already 3 in the afternoon. When I went through the gates I was happy to see the person who promised to pick me up. J We went outside to an Airport Express shuttle to take us to the Adelaide Hostel. When the guy at the desk of the hotel gave us our roomkeys he mentioned ‘it’s the room across the building, you have to go up quite a few steps’ (looking at our bags). I didn’t expect what we were about to see next. Soon as we entered the building and looked up, there were these long narrow stairs. When I say long, I mean LONG. By the time we got up to our room, we could hardly breathe. Welcome to California! :)
As soon as we unpacked some of the things, we went out to have a look around the city. We walked a few blocks, saw Union Square Park, a massive shopping center (imagine looking up and feeling dizzy) and we went to Subway to pick up ‘dinner’. I must say a Subway sandwich tasted good after having had hardly anything to eat in the plane. I’m usually prone to motion sickness, so that’s why I hardly had anything in the plane.We went to bed early that night and set the alarm clock for 7AM.

DAY 2 –

After having breakfast and a nice cup of coffee, we took our touristy stuff (i.e. Camera, Sunglasses and sunscreen and backpack) and headed off to Fisherman’s Warf. We saw the Cable Cars pass by, but we decided to walk up and down the streets (steepppppp).We passed China Town (seeing billboards in another language other than English!) and all the various Chinese shops. Pier 39 was nice, the sea lions were pretty and the Golden Gate bridge looked like it dd on all the postcards! A lot of people were lining up for a ticket to go to the Alcatraz Island. We decided not to go yet today, perhaps tomorrow.

As we were walking passed all the shops, we bought a couple of postcards, a T-shirt and a fridge magnet (yes, just like a real tourist!) and when we saw a Starbucks we decided to try and see if we could get an internet connection working on my PDA. We wanted to see if there was a verdict reached yet on the Michael Jackson trial, but no such luck, the wi-fi spot was not for free.We decided to go up one more hill to see if we could get a closer look at the Golden Gate Bridge and we took a couple of pictures with Linda on it! They came out too dark, so I have to edit one at home and will post it afterwards.Then we went on our way back to the hotel and turned on CourtTV to see if there were any news updates concerning the Michael Jackson trial. (Yes, we’re Jackson fans :) ) No verdict after 8 hours yet. :)By this time, it was time for dinner and we had another Subway sandwich and a wrap.What I found most interesting today was, to see how steep the streets are for a city like this. Holland is flat and this here is everything BUT flat. Nice!

To be continued tomorrow : DAY 3.

Finally a blog!

2005-05-29T19:04:00.000+02:00

Well this is the first post.
We decided to keep our relatives and friends informed with this weblog while on our journey through California, Nevada and perhaps even Arizona.
Although we're not sure, how, when or where we will be able to find an internetconnection that let's us update the site, we will try to do this as much as we can.
Being the computerjunkie that I am, I decided I will bring my laptop with me.

Who knows, there might even be public hotspots for Wireless Internet connection provided at some campsites? heh. ;)

Flightdetails:
Schiphol, Amsterdam airport Sunday June 5th 11:45AM.
Flightnumber KLM 605
San Francisco International Airport arriving at 1.55PM.