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

Beer tasting, baseball, and Dinosaur BBQ

Day 5 / 9/07/2012 / Boston and Cambridge, MA

The day in Boston had a nice start, we went to the Samuel Adams brewery and took a tour there. Yes, the first day I wasn't driving and I'm drinking first thing in the morning. But hey, I'm on holiday. The tour was really interesting and we learned why all of the bigger beer brands in the States, like Budweiser, taste like they've been watered down, and what ingredients do what to the beer.




After the tour, or as a part of the tour, we got to taste three Samuel Adams beers. First was Boston Lager which is a good, quality lager. The second one was Octoberfest which seems like an upgrade to Boston Lager and it is sold more than any other Sam Adams beer if you consider only the days that the beer is on sale, Octoberfest being sold only around this time of the year. The last beer was also the best one, Red Brick. The beer got it's name from the red brick buildings that are everywhere in Boston and of course from the color of the beer. The most interesting thing about this beer is that you can only get it from tab and only in Boston. It seems that people take pride from being from Boston and Samuel Adams is using that pretty well in its marketing and brand building.







After the tour we decided to balance our day and went from a Boston alcohol sanctuary to a sanctuary of knowledge, Harvard. The whole campus area is huge and we only visited a small portion of it but still I think we got a good climpse of the atmosphere there.







We also visited a Harvard bookstore which was hard to forget as it had Harvard flags and banners everywhere in the store, I guess the students need to be reminded of where they study or maybe it's just for the tourists.




The final stop of the day was the most important place in Boston, Fenway Park. Even early on when we were planning the trip we decided that we would go see a baseball game since neither of us had ever seen one.







Since baseball is such a huge thing in Boston, I think we made a good choice with the Red Sox, just too bad that they lost but from what I've heard, it's pretty common. The Red Sox had just returned from a long road trip so the stadium was full and the atmosphere was great.




Everybody seemed to be wearing something from the Red Sox store so we decided to try and blend in with the locals. Don't know if it worked but at least we tried.




Day 6 / 9/08/2012 / Boston, MA - Salem, MA - [Mohawk Trail] - Deerfield, MA - Greenfield, MA - Bennington, VT - Middleville, NY

On Saturday it was time to get back on the road.




We first headed just north of Boston to hunt some witches in Salem. We didn't see anyone flying with a broom but then again we didn't wait for the sunset so maybe after it there would have been more supernatural things to spot. We did visit the Salem Witch Museum which had interesting information about the famous witch hunts of 1692.



After Salem we set out to route 2 and the Mohawk Trail which was, for me, the best part of the road trip so far, at least when it comes to the sceneries. Almost the whole trail is surrounded by big forrests and huge hills and rivers, or a river. It's just a beautiful place that would be great for hiking and canooing and just outdoors activities and we can recommend this trail to everybody who is interested in the above mentioned things or to anyone who likes driving in smaller, devious roads in hills and forests. Unfortunately the weather was rainy almost the whole time so we couldn't enjoy the sceneries as much as we would have liked.

On the trail we stopped to a souvenir shop just to buy something to drink but we ended up spending over an hour there talking to the very nice shopkeeper.







After spending longer on the Mohawk trail and because we had to readjust the pressure of our tires, problems using psi and a lousy air compressor, we didn't arrive to our campground until 1am. Still we put up our tent for the first time and slept pretty well on our new air mats and in sleeping bags.




Day 7 / 9/09/2012 / Middleville, NY - Herkimer, NY - Syracuse, NY - Farmington, NY

The KOA Herkimer Diamond campground was at an awesome location, right next to a river. The campground seemed like the kind of place you could easily spend more time in with lots of activites possible.




After doing some shopping in the local Walmart we headed out for today's main attraction, Dinosaur BBQ, in Syracuse. Those of you who have watched Man vs. Food might recognize the place. And it was at least as good as it seemed on tv.
The ribs were amazing, the meat almost fell of the bones, by far the best ribs I've ever had and maybe ever will.



-Riku

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad