We made it!!!

Besides our flat tire we didn’t experience any other obstacles, the car is running well so far and hopefully will lead us through many other cities in the future.

I hope you had fun reading our travel blog and we will try to post some pictures once in a while to keep you posted!

Our last stop was Huntington Beach which is known for its long 8.5 miles beach, mild climate and excellent surfing. We strolled along the pier and beach; they had lots of restaurants and shops and seemed a very crowded but fun place.

]]> http://www.trekpass.com/usa/santa-barbara-california.html/feed/ http://www.trekpass.com/usa/oxnard-california.html http://www.trekpass.com/usa/oxnard-california.html#comments Sat, 24 Mar 2007 05:58:53 +0000 admin http://www.trekpass.com/usa/oxnard-california.html After breakfast on Friday we discovered that driving through Death Valley NP (which we originally planned) would be a major detour and since most of the few hotels were already booked out we changed our plans and decided to drive directly to Oxnard, California (a 5 hour drive), located 20 miles South of Santa Barbara.

Next, there are great comedies, magic and dance shows at night. We were able to find a ticket booth that sold show tickets for half price (what a deal ) and so we watched two dance shows, Fashionistas and Bite, and one magic show, Steve Wyrick. All shows were amazing! We were pretty good about holding on to our money and only spend $2 on slot machines, but it was fascinating to watch people lose their money, especially at the Bellagio hotel where on some Blackjack tables the minimum amount was $500.

We arrived at Zion National Park at around 10 am (after a 2 hour drive from Bryce Canyon). Zion is probably three times bigger than the Bryce Canyon and is a center for Rock climbing, Hiking and Backcountry Hiking. There are seven popular trails with round-trip times of half an hour to four hours, we chose two trails, the Hidden Canyon and the Lower Emerald Pool which gave us great overlook of various Canyons. We found two day-hikes very interesting, “The Narrows” and “The Subway” for breathtaking views, however since both routes require wading up the river, sometimes even swimming through several deep pools of cold water, we agreed not to choose these hikes due to freezing water temperatures :-).

We left Page, Arizona in the morning and arrived after three hours at the Bryce Canyon National Park. Bryce Canyon offers great hiking and driving tours. The most famous points are Sunrise, Sunset, Inspiration and Bryce points from where you can encounter the Bryce Amphitheater. These points also offer a great starting point for easy and medium hikes through the Amphitheater. We chose the hiking trail that started at the Sunset Point and ended at the Sunrise Point, a 1.6 mile loop trail. After following a steep downward trail, we were hiking in the middle of the so called Hoodoos (a pillar of rock that form an array of fantastic shapes and were left by erosion), which was quiet stunning. We then spent the rest of the day driving the 18 mile-long main park road which led to outstanding views.

Our tour to the Antelope Canyon started at 9:30 am (you have to have an authorized guide to the Canyon since it is not open to the public anymore). When we got there we were amazed by the Canyon. The Canyon was formed by erosion of the surrounding Navajo Sandston primarily due to flash flooding. The amazing thing is that the colors of the rocks change by minute, from brown, yellow, gold, orange, red to purple and it is the perfect spot for photographers.

The tour lasted for about 2 hours, after lunch we decided to drive to the Horseshoe Dam where the Colorado River bends like a horseshoe through the Canyon.

We arrived in Monument Valley at 10 am (a two hour drive from Moab). Monument Valley is famous for the buttes, mesas, canyons, and the free standing rock formations, the tranquility of the land and its wilderness beauty. Also, many movies and commercials were filmed there beginning in 1938 by John Ford. You can either choose a guided tour through the Valley or do one of the self tours with your car which we did. The tour started at the Visitor center, where a 17 mile unpaved loop road winded through the park. Along the way there are 11 scenic stops. The tour was spectacular.

After leaving Monument Valley at 3pm and driving for 2.5 hours, we arrived in the city of Page, which is located near the Lake Powell.

We left Salt Lake City in the morning and arrived in the city of Moab, the starting point to the Arches NP, four hours later. We were ready to explore the NP in the afternoon. The park is popular for its arches, spires, balanced rocks and sandstone fins. Some of the arches are reachable by car and some are accessible through hiking trails. There is a 2 hour hiking trail towards the most famous Delicate Arch and the view from there is breathtaking. Other impressive arches are the Landscape Arch, The Windows, Balanced Rock, Skyline Arch and Broken Arch. It was worthwhile waiting for the sunset (7:23 pm) at the Garden of Eden when the rocks turned their colors into a glimmering red.

 We woke up early today since we wanted to watch the sunrise over Grand Teton at 7:20 am. After breakfast, we took off and drove on the most scenic road to Salt Lake City. We passed European named cities like Geneva, Montpelier and Paris. After four hours being on the road, we made it to our destination, Salt Lake City. We checked out the Temple Square, the center of Mormonism (we found out that 80% of Utah’s population are Mormons!). The Temple and the Tabernacle with its unique acoustics are major draws, as are the surrounding gardens, it is truly amazing. We were immediately approached by Mormon practitioners of the faith when we started taking pictures…let’s just say that we had an interesting conversation.

The park is popular for hiking, fishing, backpacking, skiing, cycling, climbing and much more and you may spot buffalo, moose, pronghorn and elk. All the roads except one are closed during the winter time; however we were still lucky to spot two moose in the valley. These animals are usually hard to find and we were unfortunate when we went moose hunting in Maine and Yellowstone NP before.

We then observed pronghorns, bison and deer on the way, it was fascinating. Since the rest of the Yellowstone National Park roads were closed due to winter conditions, we had to take a 4 hour detour to Idaho Falls.

    After finding out that most of the Yellowstone National Park entrances were closed due to weather conditions, we had to come up with plan B. We first left Rapid City in South Dakota at around 8 am this morning heading to Devils Tower National Monument, a volcanic neck which rises 1267 feet (386m) above the surrounding terrain. After a short break, we kept on driving north to I-90 for 488 miles until we got to Livingston. This is the starting point to get into the north entrance of the Yellowstone National Park.

We then moved on to the next monument, Crazy Horse Memorial, a stunning monument carved into a mountain. However, so far only the head is visible, when completed, the monument will be 641 feet (195 meters) wide and 563 feet (172 meters) high.

Our last landmark that we wanted to see for today was the Custer State Park. Arriving at the park we had the opportunity to drive on the Wildlife Loop (18miles) where we captured deer and bison on camera. It was quiet fascinating since we were pretty much the only visitors in the park, when we passed hundreds of bison. There was one incident when about 10 bison faced us on the street, we were hesitant to keep on driving, but then figured that they weren’t interested in us, instead, they were passing us only inches away from the car. What a nerve racking but fun experience!!!

Today we had a pretty early start; we left the hotel at 7 am while temperatures showed 7 degrees, brrrr! We had 774 miles in front of us (from Madison, Wisconsin to Rapid City, South Dakota).

During the first few hours we experienced bad weather condition: fog, strong wind gusts, and we spotted several cars that stranded on the snow covered sidewalk and had to be pulled out by tow trucks. Gladly, the scenery changed in the afternoon, while entering South Dakota the temperature soon began to rise to 59 degrees (what a big change!), the road began to get curvy and we soon realized that we approached the mountains. After driving for 12 hours, our mission was accomplished :-).

     Today we drove 90 miles to Milwaukee which is the largest city of Wisconsin. Milwaukee is also known for “The City of Festivals” because of its great number of ethnic and musical festivals, the largest of which is the Summerfest (which is comparable to the Oktoberfest in Munich). Since Milwaukee is also called the “Brew City”, we stopped at the Miller Brewing Company at around 12pm. The tour was excellent and very informative. At the end of the tour we were taken to the Miller Inn, which was a great replication of a real pub. As many Brewing Companies offer you small samplers at the end of the tour, we were surprised when the waitress gave us the first half liter of Miller Lite to try. 15 minutes later, she came with another round of beer, this time the Miller High Life, and again half a liter. Everyone was in a pretty good mood, especially when they served us the third round of Miller Special Light. How can you act responsibly (Millers’ slogan: Live responsibly) when they fill you up with so much beer :-).

Well, it was definitely a special experience at the Miller Brewing Company!

After we spend some time driving through the city of Milwaukee and checking out the German neighborhood with German shops and restaurants, we were ready to drive on to Madison where we arrived at around 4pm.

Pictures were taken at the Miller Brewing Company and the City of Milwaukee.

We left Cleveland yesterday around 10 am, the drive was quiet difficult since we experienced several snowstorms and wind gusts of 35mph kicked in later on. After driving 380 miles west, we arrived in Chicago. We checked in at the Hyatt Rosemont close to the O’Hare airport at around 4pm. Later on we checked out the Hotels’ gym (oh, I feel I’m in pretty bad shape).

Today we took the L (I still confuse it with the Boston T, here it is the L which stands for Loop) into Downtown Chicago. Since it was our 2nd time here in Chicago, we just visited the most important landmarks: Navy Pier, Millennium Park, Sears Tower and John Hancock Center. After strolling on Michigan Avenue through the “windy city”, we finished our visit with the most famous restaurant “Pizzeria Uno” where we enjoyed the most popular deep dish pizza.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame museum

    We were quiet fascinated about the layout of the museum and we figured that it would take us at least 5 hours to finish the “rock’n roll journey”. The museum offered a variety of interactive and video presentations, movies, an awe-inspiring entrance plaza, costumes and riveting reading material. The highlight of the exhibits included a Hall of Fame multi-media production that combined film footage, music, interviews, animation and still photography to tell the stories of the performing artists like James Brown, Jimmie Rodgers, B.B. King, Roy Orbison, The Beatles, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, The Doors, Bob Marley, The Eagles, Tom Petty, Black Sabbath…etc.

The second highlight was an art exhibition by Philip Burke whose unique caricatures and portraits of celebrities have been featured in magazines such as Rolling Stone, Time and Vogue. For me, this was the highlight of the day since art fascinates me!

    Today was another nice day with clear sky and lots of sunshine. We had breakfast in the lobby and decided to drive to Cleveland rather than going to Pittsburgh. We figured that Pittsburgh doesn’t offer many things to see and we knew that there is at least one landmark in Cleveland that is a must to see – the Rock’n Roll Hall of Fame museum.

    After leaving Dickson City at 10 am, we drove 350 miles West on Highway 80. After 3 hours of driving in perfect weather condition, it soon started to snow, it became foggy and we were forced to drive very slowly. We totally had to rely on our navigation system (Garmin) since signs were hard to identify because of the fog. After 5 hours of driving, we finally arrived in Cleveland. We checked into the Extended Stay Hotel (we bid on Priceline.com the night before and got a great Suite for $28, what a deal!).

    Later on, we stopped at McDonald’s and on the way found an Aldi store (I couldn’t believe it). For the ones who don’t know what Aldi is, it is one of the largest discount supermarket chain based in Germany. Besides Germany, it operates in many other European countries like Denmark, France and Netherlands and has spread as far as the United States and Australia. The prices are awesome cheap and of course we could not resist buying a few things.

    This was our last day in Boston; after we watched the news in the morning we were horrified, tornados in Alabama, blizzards in Milwaukee and heavy rain on the East Coast. We again changed our plans – with this kind of weather change, you really need to be flexible. We thought that being in the middle of a Tornado, which happens a lot in the Midwest, is much riskier than being stuck in the snow. At least with a major snowstorm you don’t get picked up from the road so easily as you could with a TornadoJ.

    Anyway, we left Boston around 11am when outside it poured like “cats and dogs” and it soon became very foggy on the road. After entering the state of New York it finally cleared off and a blue sky and lots of sunshine was lying in front of us! We stopped in Dickson City (what a name) which is a small skiing resort close to Scranton, Pennsylvania where we are staying tonight.

    Today was pretty relaxing, even though we had to bring our last box of “stuff” to the storage because it just wouldn’t fit in our car; we took the T into downtown Boston and visited one last time the harbor, Quincy market and the North End were we ended up having lunch at Giovanni’s. After getting back to the hotel, we saw in the news that snow is coming our way! With Blizzards in the Midwest and Tornado warnings in the South, we thought that we need to have a back-up plan!