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A 2 week tour of South West America
Entry 17 of 18 | show all | print this entry |
(Photos to follow).
OK, now we're hurrying to fit it all in. In the last 16 days, we've visited Los Angeles, Hollywood, San Fransisco, Las Vegas, and 6 National Parks in 4 different states in South Western America. We've visited the studios, sat in the audience for 3 showings of 'Wheel of Fortune', walked up in 2 feet of snow, and in the baking heat of the desert, lost money in Las Vegas (apologies to anyone who was hoping to receive a present when we get back), flown in another helicopter, and experienced the wildest roller coasters we've ever been on.
We started in Los Angeles, and after a long flight from Auckland, queued for ages to get through immigration, then shortly afterwards found ourselves in a long queue to collect our hire car (the size of the hire car operation near the airport is incredible). Eventually we had our car, and were free to join the thousands of cars sitting in the Freeway queues. It took us an hour and a half to get to our hotel in Whittier.
After a much needed good night's sleep, we headed to our studio tour at Sony Pictures (another hour and a half's driving), and a wander around some of the film and TV sets, but we didn't see anyone we recognised. Another hour's driving took us to Hollywood, which looks a bit of a dump during the day, but we booked a tour around Beverly Hills, and that definitely isn't a dump. Among the homes we saw, were those belonging to: Michelle Pfeiffer, Nick Cage, Danny Devito,and the playboy mansion of Hugh Heffner. We saw lots of others, but we lost the list we wrote.
When we got back to Hollywood, it was dark, and this is the time to visit Hollywood. You can't see the decay, and the place comes alive, full of people and bright lights. We had dinner at the famous Musso and Franks' restaurant (nice food served by grumpy waiters, perhaps we didn't look famous or important enough), then walked up to the Kodak theatre and the Grumman Chinese Theatre to see the foot and hand prints in the pavement (sorry, sidewalk).
Saturday saw us at the Magic Mountain theme park and the fastest, wildest roller coasters I've ever been on. There were lots of them too, and we struggled to get round them all in one day, even though we arrived early, and didn't leave until well after dark.
After the excitement of the roller coasters, we then headed off for some peace and quiet. We were heading for the Grand Canyon, but decided to divert through the Joshua Tree National Park. This was a good decision, as the park has some very weird rock formations, as well as the unique type of yucca trees it is named for. We even saw a coyote at the side of the road. We arrived at our hotel in Tusayan late in the evening, just a few miles from the Grand Canyon (and a lot cheaper), so it was a bit late to see anything that night.
In the morning, we decided to splash out on a helicopter ride over the canyon. It was incredibly expensive, but the canyon, is amazing. About 1 mile deep, and 11 miles across, it's impossible to visualise, without seeing it. This something everybody who has the chance to, should go and see. During the day, we took the shuttle bus to the end of the rim walk at Hermit's rest, and walked back to Grand Canyon village. Apart from some dramatic vertical drops from our icy/snowy perch on the edge of the rim, we probably didn't gain much, other than exercise, over the majority of people who were jumping on and off the free shuttle buses.
The following day, we had to drive through the park again, on our way to Bryce Canyon. Fortunately we had bought an annual National Parks pass, and even though we only used it for 2 weeks, it paid for itself twice over. The drive took us most of the day, and when we arrived, there were only 2 hours before sunset, so we rushed around taking in the various lookouts . We planned to do a walk, but when we arrived, the only decent trail that was open, was still two feet deep in snow, and even walking to the lookout, our legs were sinking right in. We took one look at the ridges we would be walking over in these conditions, and decided it wasn't to be. For one thing, in that snow, the one and a half hour walk would have turned into a three hour endurance test, and with only 2 hours of daylight left, not wise. Bryce Canyon is a magic place to be, with pinnacles standing like rock forests, and at 8,000ft, it has some great long distance views in the clear weather at this time of year. The snow was restricting us a little, but we were glad to see everything at this time of year, with fewer crowds, and the icing that snow adds to the scenery. The melting snow was making for some spectacular waterfalls and rivers also, so we were very happy with our timing.
On next to Zion Canyon, and a nice place, but after the last 3 parks, nothing special. Although it's very close, it's lower than Bryce, so we were at least able to go for a walk, but we soon decided to set off for our next destination, and a complete change of scenery.
After a few hours driving, we could see we were getting closer when we saw the smog cloud rising out of the desert, and then shortly afterwards, the towers of Las Vegas began to peek through the smog.
The traffic in Vegas was as bad as Los Angeles, so we pulled into the first of the major casino/hotels we came across. This was 'Circus Circus', a family orientated casino, with an indoor theme park, complete with roller coaster, and fairground attractions in another section. After dinner we settled down to a slot machine, and lost $10 in about 30 seconds, so we decided to send the evening on the roulette table instead. Jo sat in the players seat, and immediately began to win. For about 20 seconds. 5 minutes later and our allocated gambling money was gone. To cheer ourselves up, we went and won some cuddly toys on the fair games, then went for a walk along the famous strip. This place has to be seen. Thousands of slot machines, Huge hotels with thousands of rooms, imitating everything and anything. Our favourite was the Venetian, complete with artificial sky, and a canal running through the huge underground shopping mall, complete with gondolas, and singing gondoliers.
We spent the next day taking it all in, and watching a couple of the short, but spectacular free shows, but eventually the heat was too much, so we headed back, and got ready for the show we had booked for the evening. This was one of those Vegas spectaculars with singers, dancers, comedians, magic, jugglers, etc.etc.etc. A very good show. Back in the hotel, we quickly donated the rest of our gambling money to the casino and went to bed.
Time to change the scenery again, so on Friday we ventured to Death Valley National Park. This is basically desert, surrounded by mountains, and at Badwater, the lowest point in The U.S. (282 feet below sea level). It was strange to stand there, and look up at a sign on a hillside depicting sea level. There are also some strange rock formations here that are well worth seeing. We were lucky to be able to get a room at one of the 'Oasis' hotels in this desert, and were able to send some time looking round the next morning. There's no way I would want to come here in the Summer though, it was hot enough in March. As we left Death Valley, we had to drive out through the mountains, and the pressure difference was so great, we had to keep loosening the tops of the water bottles, as we feared the plastic was going to break.
We had planned to drive directly from Death Valley (baking hot) to Yosemite, but after noticing that the entrance road was closed in Winter, we rang to check, and sure enough, the East entrance we were planning to use was closed until May, due to snow. This meant a detour of a couple of hundred miles, so the rest of the day was driving, driving, and a bit of driving.
We found a cheap, nice hotel in Oakhurst, 16 miles from Yosemite, and conked out for the night. We spent the next day walking round Yosemite, and it is indeed a nice park, but even in March, very crowded. Considering the snow cleared roads we had driven through, it was weird how hot and green it was in the lower valleys. We noticed that they offered ranger-led snow-shoe walks in one of the higher areas, but we'd arrived just too late, so we went back to the same hotel, and set our alarm a little earlier for the next day.
Monday morning, and after the slow drive to Badger's pass, we were ready for our first attempt at snow-shoeing. Badger's Pass is in one of the high parts of the park, and they have skiing here most of the year. We spent a couple of hours following the ranger around. Snow-shoes are easy to get used to, as long as you don't trip over yourself, and the ranger was fun.
Heading back to civilisation again, another long drive found us in San Fransisco. We'd booked a reasonable hotel, but hadn't allowed for the $25 a day valet parking. We were here 3 days, so that was $75 we could have spent 2 minutes losing in Vegas. Oh well!
The next day we took the cable car to Fisherman's Wharf. The system here is the only one in the world which operates on an underground cable constantly being pulled round, with an open groove half way between the tracks. When the cable car needs to move, it simply grips the cable, releases it's brakes and off it goes. It doesn't have a driver, just a 'brakeman'. It's also quite interesting when the streetcar is full, and you have to hang on to the side, while traffic goes flying past.
The Wharf, although touristy, is very nice. We wandered around, found a bar selling Belgian beer and fries for lunch, visited some historic ships (free with our National Parks pass!), and took a Bay Cruise past Alcatraz, and up to the Golden Gate bridge. We walked back to Lombard St. (the crookedest street in the world), and walked up it to get to the cable car stop. This is one of Frisco's desirable addresses, but the residents must get fed up of the constant stream of tourist rental cars driving down it. We just got back to the hotel in time to find that they offer complimentary wine between 5 and 6pm. Some compensation for the parking charge, so we tried to do it justice.
The following day was a coach sightseeing tour, and a quick look around (we had to dash back to the hotel for the free wine after all), and then on Thursday we were on the famous scenic coastal route back to L.A. Unfortunately, we had fog most of the way, so we should have just gone the direct route back, and saved ourselves some time.
We had returned early to L.A. as we had tickets to sit in the audience for 'Wheel of Fortune'. They shoot 5 shows a day, and we sat in for the first 3, before another audience came in for the last 2. We're not sure we'll be on the tele, but it was a fun experience. We're thinking of looking for something like this in London after we get back. It's easy to book on the Internet.
In the evening we headed back to Hollywood to watch a film at Grumman's Chinese Theatre, but they were showing 'Starsky and Hutch', so we went to the El Capitan theatre instead, and watched the enjoyable 'Hidalgo'.
With a day free before our flight to New York, we drove to Santa Monica, where we hired a tandem for an hour. There is a concrete cycle path here, right on the beach, so we cruised up and down, as far as Venice beach. Short of ideas, we spent the rest of our last day here wandering around the shops and the fairground on the pier, and then went back to the hotel.
We're now in New York for a 3 day visit, and then we're heading back to Holland for a few days, before finally heading home.
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