From Death Valley to Sin City

It has now been over three months since we came back to Finland and as the weather outside is cold and wintery, it is great to look back on the trip and remember all of the amazing things that we did. We haven't updated our blog as often as we would have liked because of all the distractions of the real life but we'll, read I'll since Liisa's been a lot more active than I have, try to be more active from now on.

Day 32 / 10/04/2012 / Yermo, CA - [Death Valley: Badwater - Artist's Drive - Artist's Palette - Furnace Creek - Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes - Mosaic Canyon - Zabriskie Point] - Las Vegas, NV

On Thursday we headed to Death Valley. It was a couple hour drive from the camp site and it would have been good to start the day early but as the previous day was a long day, we didn't manage to hit the road until noon. We entered Death Valley from the south and our first stop was Badwater, the lowest place in North America. Unlike the other national parks we visited, Death Valley didn't have any gates where you could pay for entrance. Instead you had to go to a visitor center and nobody seemed to monitor it either.













After Badwater our next stop was Artist's Palette which showed some cool colors that nature had "painted" on the rock. Before the palette we stopped by and climbed a big hill, which wasn't too easy in the scorching desert, and enjoyed some amazing views.







We tried to fight of the heat by eating some ice cream from a general store at Furnace Creek. We also bought the last ingredients that I needed for my vision. I had been thinking of how to remember my boss and my colleagues who were in Helsinki enjoying the rainiest month in a hundred years. I decided to send them a picture from Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes which you can see below.







From the dunes we hurried forward as the sun was getting dangerously close to the horizon. A friend of mine had recommended Mosaic Canyon, which is a dry waterfall. It was a very nice place and well worth the visit even though we had to use a very questionable road to get there. Liisa had to get out of the car several time to move huge rocks out of the way.







When we got out of the canyon, the sun was almost down so it was time to head for Las Vegas. There is a lot of attractions in the northern part of Death Valley which would have certainly been worth visiting. When we got to Las Vegas, Markku had already checked in to our hotel room, which was a really cool mini suite in MGM Grand. If you are driving to Las Vegas we strongly recommend that you arrive there after nightfall because it is something amazing to suddenly see a sea of light appearing from the darkness.




After getting our luggage to the room and eating a little something, it was time to hit the casino. We had a lot of fun gambling and going around the resort and didn't make it to our room until 5 am.

Day 33 / 10/05/2012 / Las Vegas, NV

After our first night in Vegas we decided it was better to stay on the Strip instead of staying for a couple of nights in a hotel near the airport, so we extended our stay at MGM after considering a couple of other options. We decided to go for a lunch to Diego's, a mexican restaurant at MGM. We went there because we got a $75 gift voucher from the hotel. The food was good but the service was really slow even though there weren't that many customers.




After lunch we went for a walk on the Strip. Our first stop was the M&M's store which was an interesting stop. They have build a whole a whole world around the brand, with little slot machines, poker chips, pens, movies, clothes, and games, the candies are almost irrelevant. After continuing our stroll on the Strip we encountered a lot of people selling tickets to all kinds of shows and plays. If we would have had about $400 extra each, we could have taken a helicopter ride to the Grand Canyon. Something worth considering on the next trip.




We started to feel like gambling so we began our casino tour that lasted for the rest of the day and night. We walked around the Strip and played for a while in every casino that seemed interesting.

Day 34 / 10/06/2012 / Las Vegas, NV [Stratosphere Tower & Circue du Soleil KÀ]

After changing our room in the morning to a smaller one for the last two nights, it was time to continue exploring the Strip and all of the casinos. First we stopped at the Coca-Cola store to enjoy some sodas from around the world. We can recommend the plate of sodas there, you get small cups of different sodas from everywhere in the world. There are some delicious ones as well as some that we don't understand how people can drink them.




From the Coca-Cola store we went for a very healthy lunch to Fatburger and continued from there to once again gamble in a few casinos before taking the Monorail to the Stratosphere where we went to the Stratosphere Tower to enjoy the view. The Monorail is a very convenient way to move from one end of the Strip to the other end.










The main event for the day was a Cirque Du Soleil show KÀ which was amazing. It mixed martial arts with acrobatics and the performers were incredibly talented. I definitely will go and see another Cirque Du Soleil performance. The evening continued as the previous ones, meaning gambling. Liisa tried Blackjack for the first time and managed to win about $75 and I sat down to a Texas hold'em table which wasn't a proper one but a casino version where you played against the house like in Blackjack.

Day 35 / 10/07/2012 / Las Vegas, NV

Our third day in Vegas included eating crepes at the Paris casino, watching the fountain show in front of the Bellagio and of course more gambling. It was also Markku's last day in the States and he decided to go see one more show, Penn and Teller. Me and Liisa decided to go to Hooters casino to get some hot wings. We were too late for the wings but I managed to find a real Texas hold'em table and was able to double my money after gambling for a couple of hours.













Day 36 / 10/08/2012 / Las Vegas, NV

After gambling for four nights, we were really tired and decided to extend our stay for one more night. We stayed in the hotel room just watching TV, sleeping, and eating junk food.

Day 37 / 10/09/2012 / Las Vegas, NV - Kingman, AZ - Seligman, AZ - Flagstaff, AZ

Before leaving Las Vegas we wanted to see the famous Las Vegas sign. We looked at the map and decided to walk there, not a good idea. It was surprisingly far and it was freaking hot. We didn't visit all the casinos that we would've wanted, like Luxor, Excalibur, and Mandalay Bay, which were located at the other end of the Strip. There is a train going between these casinos that you can use if you're moving around them.




We drove out of the city through the Strip which was a nice way to leave the city. At this point we had been traveling for 6000 miles and had about 4000 to go. We took the route 93 as we headed west and enjoyed the beautiful sceneries along the way. After checking the KOA campground in Kingman we decided to go all the way to Flagstaff. Although it wasn't much better, it made do and we slept once again on the front seats of our trusty Toyota Camry.













-Riku
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Along The Pacific Coast Highway - Route 1

Day 26 / 9/28/2012 / San Francisco, CA - [Pigeon Point Lighthouse] - Santa Cruz, CA - Pacific Grove, CA [Point Pinos Lighthouse] - Carmel, CA - Monterey, CA

On Friday it was time to head towards warmer climate and for the next three days we would be following the Pacific coast line on our way to LA. We had heard a lot of good things about Highway 1 and we wanted see for ourselves if what we had heard was true or not. We started our drive in a familiar foggy morning from San Francisco and found our way to Highway 1.




On our first day we had a few stops along the coast, first being Pigeon Point lighthouse were we spent a few minutes taking pictures and enjoying the coast. The second stop was a natural bridge formed on the Natural Bridges State Beach in Santa Cruz. After seeing the one remaing natural of bridge and a very entertaining bird, we had a sushi lunch downtown and before we knew it, we were back on the road.




In Pacific Grove was Friday's main attraction, Point Pinos Lighthouse. Liisa is very interested in lighthouses and we had decided to visit one on each coast. Point Pinos lighthouse was different from our previous lighthouse, Cape Cod Light, in that it was actually inside the lighthouse keeper's house. Also the woman selling us tickets had lived in the lighthouse for a few years in the 50's and knew the place very well.




Our first night on our coastal part of our trip was in Moneterey and more accurately in the Super 8 motel, which was a nice and clean motel. After checking me and Liisa went for a drive around Carmel, which we had read a lot of good things, while Markku stayed in the motel to rest. Carmel was a disappointment. Sure the beach was nice but unless you get your kicks on looking at expensive and big houses by the beach, there's really not much to see. The town also seemed more suited for elder people with lots of money. Monterey on the other hand was much more to our liking and we ended up having a very nice late dinner in a bar called The Mucky Duck.

Our first plan was to go eat in the 17 Mile Drive which was supposed to be a beautiful drive and have great places to eat in. I'm sure the food in the restaurants are good but as we had left our Lexus at home and our Ferrari didn't have enough room for all three of us, we felt a little out of place and decided to eat elsewhere which, like I mentioned before, was a good decision.

Day 27 / 9/29/2012 / Monterey, CA - [Point Lobos] - Big Sur [Café Kevah] - Pismo Beach, CA - Santa Maria, CA

We had heard from a man in the Point Pinos lighthouse that Point Lobos, not too far from Monterey, is the most beautiful place in the area. So first thing in the morning, we headed there. The place was great and we had fun looking at the waves hitting the rocky shore and tried to capture this with our cameras.




After an hour or so we continued our trip south, towards warmth as it was a little chilly by the beach. On our way to Big Sur, a nice restaurant/café/store complex high on a hill by the sea, we stopped every once in a while to admire the coast or the cliffs next to the highway. Big Sur is in a nice location and the food we got from the café was good and the store, even though it's slightly over priced has some cool stuff like the little water thingy on Liisa's update.




After leaving Big Sur and stopping for a few times to take pictures, Liisa decided it was time for her to drive for the first time on this trip. The original plan was for the both of us to drive but since Liisa got a spinal disc herniation on her neck just weeks before we left, our plans changed. So it was my time to sit back and enjoy the ride, riding shotgun. Well I couldn't enjoy too much as it was Liisa's first time behind a wheel in almost three years and the curvy narrow roads next to a few hundred feet drop wasn't maybe the best place to start driving again. She did a great job and drove almost like a pro so I wasn't too worried. After the five or so miles her neck did get a little sore again so we switched back.

Close to our next stop in Pismo Beach, we spotted hundreds of sea lions relaxing on the beach and stopped for a moment.













The reason for stopping in Pismo Beach was to have a picnic there. As the day was almost over and the sun was almost setting we must have had the fastest picnic ever recorded. We sat down, took a couple of pictures, ate our Subway sandwiches, and got up and left. After that we checked the few beach stores close by which were really nice and headed for our hotel.










The hotel, not far from Pismo Beach, was by far the best roadside hotel/motel we've stayed at so far. The rooms were very clean, the service was good, and the breakfast was good. The hotel was Best Western Plus Big America in Santa Maria.

Day 28 / 9/30/2012 / Santa Maria, CA - Santa Barbara, CA - Malibu, CA - Los Angeles/Woodland Hills, CA

The morning was so sunny and warm that we decided to head for the first beach we could find. After searching for a while, we finally found a beach in Santa Barbara where Liisa and Markku went for a swim and I enjoyed the sun. When we drove closer to LA, we found even better beaches in Malibu and the area before Malibu.




The beach in Santa Barbara and every beach before that seemed to have a lot of seaweed or something floating in the sea right in front of the beach but a little further south from Santa Barbara it was all gone and the beaches were clear. So if you're looking for a beach in that area, go south.







Even though we were too late to swim in the beach we found, we still enjoyed a great sunset before heading to our LA hotel in Woodland Hills, another Best Western and another great find with good rooms and cheap prices not too far from Hollywood.
-Riku

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Driving across state lines - days 19-22

After two weeks of not updating our blog, it's time to get writing. I'm only two weeks behind our actual trip but here we again.

Day 19 / 9/21/2012 / West Yellowstone, MT - Pocatello, ID - Twin Falls, ID [Shoshone Falls] - Jerome, ID

After a night in a very comfortable bed, it was time to get back on the road. The wake-up wasn't as good as we would've hoped, as they started to vacuum the rooms 8 in the morning, it's just how they do it in West Yellowstone... We drove across the state border from Montana to Idaho and stopped at Pocatello where we had a really good steak lunch at Green T Bar and Grill. After finding out that Pocatello's old town wasn't as nice as we had hoped and after buying a camping mattress for me, we continued westward.




Our next campground was in Jerome, Idaho. Nearby is a really nice canyon and a couple of decent waterfalls to see called Shoshone Falls. Other than that we didn't use much time there and instead decided to have another movie night in the tent. What we noticed during our stay in Jerome is that there is a lot of flies, a lot. Since Jerome was our only stop in Idaho we got the feeling that Idaho is full of flies which I hope is not the case ;)










Day 20 / 9/22/2012 / Jerome, ID - South Lake Tahoe, CA

We wanted to drive as close as possible to our next big stop, San Francisco, so day 20 was driving day. We managed to drive about 500 miles mostly through desolate sceneries passing lonely towns while wondering what do the people there do because we couldn't even see stores in the towns and they are in the middle of nowhere. Still the area is beautiful and it was great to see it. Too bad the pictures won't do justice to the place. Also as an upside, I-80 is pretty fast to drive through.










We stopped at a larger city in Nevada called Winnemucca. It was clear that we had arrived to Nevada. There were casinos everywhere. We fought the urge to start gambling and instead just ate at Jack in the Box and did some shopping in Walmart. We kept driving and enjoyed another great sunset. The great thing about driving from east to west is the sunsets. The colors are great and you can enjoy them longer as you are driving towards them.




After dark we drove off the Interstate and had a pretty close call. In the middle of the road was standing a wild horse. There was a herd of maybe about 10 horses crossing the road. Most had gone over but one was standing on the road and one was behind it. Luckily we spotted the horse standing on the road early enough to break and it was great seeing them.

When we arrived to South Lake Tahoe, it was pretty late. We were also surprised of the whole place. We had been expecting a nice quiet place by the lake with a lot of cabins, instead we found a busy city with lots of hotels and even more young people partying. It's clearly a place where young people go to party when they want to go to a lake but doesn't want to rough it out without TVs, internet, comfortable beds, Starbucks, and other people.
We were disappointed on the tent sites in the KOA campground we had planned to go. We didn't want pay over $40 for them, which is a lot of money compared to other KOA campgrounds. Instead we went to Campground by the Lake which was only about $24 although after seeing the restroom we understood why it was so cheap.

Day 21 / 9/23/2012 / South Lake Tahoe, CA - Carson Valley, CA - Virginia City, NV - Carson City, NV - Minden, NV - Topaz Lake, NV

Since the restrooms in the campground were so bad we used our GPS to find a swimming hall where we could use the shower. We found one close by and went there. The area around South Lake Tahoe is filled with hills and curvy roads, after dark they are a challenge to drive but in sunlight it's pretty fun.
Virginia City on the Nevada side was the reason we had stayed in the area. It's an old wild west style town and is worth a stop. There are lots of nice historic buildings like old hotels and restaurants and an old saloon called Bucket of Blood which has been in service since 1876, too bad I was driving. There was also a biker meeting happening in the town called Street Vibrations so the town was probably more crowded than normal. On the positive side we saw some really nice bikes.
















After visiting Yellowstone, we had decided to also go to Yosemite. The problem was that there had been recent cases of hantavirus in the park, a couple of people had even died. So instead of camping in Yosemite and waking up there we decided to just spend time in Carson Valley and Carson City gambling a little and driving through the night along the Nevada/California border, and arriving in Yosemite in the morning. This way we could have the whole day in Yosemite and we could minimize the risk of ruining the rest of our trip.

It was a good decision and we had a lot of fun gambling and driving to the next casino to gamble some more. The drive went well and thanks to some energy drinks we made it to Topaz Lake, right next to the California border and not far from Yosemite. There we had to sleep for a few hours.

Day 22 / 9/24/2012 / Topaz Lake, NV - [Yosemite, CA] - West Sacramento, CA







After a well rested night, well at least after the night, we started driving the road from Topaz Lake to Yosemite, 395. The view is great just after Topaz Lake and I don't know if we could have picked a better route to enter Yosemite. Also we had the happiest park ranger selling the entrance ticket. You just couldn't be sad after talking to that guy.







Yosemite is somehow grander compared to Yellowstone with its great mountains and vertical differences. But still we both liked Yellowstone better as it was somehow more unique. Yosemite didn't have as well organized parking places and stops to admire the views. Of course the mountain roads are more challenging to build but the problem was everywhere, even on flat ground. There clearly wasn't enough parking places to the trails starting from next to the roads. Still I liked Yosemite a lot even though Yellowstone was clearly better. I got the feeling that I might have liked Yosemite much more if I could have spent more time on the trails.







We spent most of the day in the park, going to the valley and seeing maybe the biggest thing in Yosemite: the Tunnel View. El Capitan does look great and all the mountains made me wish that I was a climber.




Afterwards we started driving the road 120, another great road with a lot to see although it was a little hard to concentrate on those things after a short night and a day in Yosemite. Still I had fun driving a very, very curvy road downhill. Liisa didn't have so much fun as she got a little car sick with my downhill driving but it was the first time on the trip.
-Riku

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad