We are back in Belgium, we are completely broke, in debt and homeless... but we are truly happy.
Most persons our age, by now, have invested in a house and/or children but we decided to invest in unforgettable memories and an experience we wouldn't trade for anything in the world! The past 1 year and 8 months have been amazing (as you may have noticed when reading this blog). We are sad to leave the US and definitely could have lived in NYC for some more years. If anyone out there is doubting to make the move abroad, don't think to much about it - as Nike put it so cleverly: just do it!
But moving back to Belgium does have a lot of pro's: family, friends, my pet parrot, affordable appartments with terraces, boterhammekes met préparé (the local delicacy), frietkoten (another local delicacy), affordable French wine and champagne, social security (finally, we can afford to go to the dentist!), ... oh and last but not least, direct flights to New York City!
Since we are back in Belgium, this blog officially has no purpose any more. Maybe I will post some more pictures of our road trip but except for that, I guess, this is it... the last post... (insert Frank Sinatra's hit "I Did It My Way" here).
Honestly, I didn't think I would be able to keep up posting 'till the very last day in the States (on the other hand, one of my stronger character trades is that I always finish what I start, no matter how difficult it gets). I hope our followers enjoyed reading our blog but also for us personally, it's nice to have a log of the past months. In the meantime, I caught the bloggers microbe so I don't exclude that maybe, one day, I will start another one. Or maybe, one day, we move back to the greatest city on the world, New York City!
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Sequoia & San Diego
The Final Countdown
From Las Vegas, we drove about 6 hours to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park. We've heard of these amazing large trees but we didn't imagine them to be this big! You feel like tiny ants walking among them! The General Sherman Tree which is the largest (not tallest) living tree in the world is about 1500 square meters in volume and has a base circumference of 31 meters!
Before heading to San Diego, our final stop, we checked in in a nice "real" hotel in Indian Wells near Palm Springs: the Miramonte Resort & Spa. We booked this great hotel on a discount through Jetsetter (I recommended it before in this post - definitely check this site before booking your hotels!).
Two days ago, we arrived in San Diego for the road trip finale... We were thinking of relaxing at the beach but once again, we couldn't resist to see the sights. So, we visited La Jolla with its seals:
The Gaslamp District in San Diego:
The Coronado Hotel (where Some Like It Hot was filmed with Marylin Monroe):
And we did some last minute shopping, mainly window shopping, this being the end of our three month road trip slash budget but I just had to go see some of my favorite American stores before leaving.
As a side note, and because we're fanatic Apple fans, while we were in the mall, we saw - of course - one of Apple's famous concept stores and next to it... this ridiculous concept store selling Microsoft products which happened to look exactly like the famous Apple stores. Microsoft imitated everything from the slick, glass, minimalist design to the "Apple guys" with colorful t-shirts helping customers with their questions. Pretty sad... guess Microsoft's marketing department ran out of ideas (see this article for more info).
From Las Vegas, we drove about 6 hours to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park. We've heard of these amazing large trees but we didn't imagine them to be this big! You feel like tiny ants walking among them! The General Sherman Tree which is the largest (not tallest) living tree in the world is about 1500 square meters in volume and has a base circumference of 31 meters!
Before heading to San Diego, our final stop, we checked in in a nice "real" hotel in Indian Wells near Palm Springs: the Miramonte Resort & Spa. We booked this great hotel on a discount through Jetsetter (I recommended it before in this post - definitely check this site before booking your hotels!).
Two days ago, we arrived in San Diego for the road trip finale... We were thinking of relaxing at the beach but once again, we couldn't resist to see the sights. So, we visited La Jolla with its seals:
The Gaslamp District in San Diego:
The Coronado Hotel (where Some Like It Hot was filmed with Marylin Monroe):
And we did some last minute shopping, mainly window shopping, this being the end of our three month road trip slash budget but I just had to go see some of my favorite American stores before leaving.
As a side note, and because we're fanatic Apple fans, while we were in the mall, we saw - of course - one of Apple's famous concept stores and next to it... this ridiculous concept store selling Microsoft products which happened to look exactly like the famous Apple stores. Microsoft imitated everything from the slick, glass, minimalist design to the "Apple guys" with colorful t-shirts helping customers with their questions. Pretty sad... guess Microsoft's marketing department ran out of ideas (see this article for more info).
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Red Rock Canyon & Death Valley
Nevada Deserts
Our second day in Vegas, we had to escape the casino’s and went looking for some more nature. In the morning, we drove half an hour to Red Rock Canyon. It’s very hard to believe that only a few miles from The Strip, you can go hiking amidst colorful mountains.
After a short break at our swimming pool (which had a slide going through a shark aquarium – Vegas, baby!) and an insanely cheap lunch buffet, we filled our water containers and headed to Death Valley National Park. We had to drive about 1,5 hour (which is OK according to our new American road trip standards) and we gradually saw our thermometer go up… and up… and up… until it reached 121° Fahrenheit (49.5° C). Why would someone voluntarily go to a sauna like park nicknamed Death Valley? Because it’s out of worldly beautiful!
We arrived there at about 5 pm (yep, and still almost 50° C in the shade), just in time for the golden hours and sunset.
Devil’s Golfcourse:
Badwater Basin, the lowest point in the Western hemisphere at 87.5 meters below sea level:
Artist’s Pallette:
Zabriskie Point:
While watching the sunset, we suddenly found us surrounded by Belgians… there were practically no other nationalities there. I guess Death Valley must be on sale in Belgium? Or are only Belgians (incl. us) crazy enough to visit Death Valley in August? It was a very weird experience to be watching a sunset in the hottest desert in America, surrounded by Flemish and French babble (some of them were talking about us – we used our American accents to listen in for a while – I know, naughty!). And of course, Ward recognized one of the Belgians as our former Brussels landlord. Our return to Belgium suddenly felt very close…
Our second day in Vegas, we had to escape the casino’s and went looking for some more nature. In the morning, we drove half an hour to Red Rock Canyon. It’s very hard to believe that only a few miles from The Strip, you can go hiking amidst colorful mountains.
After a short break at our swimming pool (which had a slide going through a shark aquarium – Vegas, baby!) and an insanely cheap lunch buffet, we filled our water containers and headed to Death Valley National Park. We had to drive about 1,5 hour (which is OK according to our new American road trip standards) and we gradually saw our thermometer go up… and up… and up… until it reached 121° Fahrenheit (49.5° C). Why would someone voluntarily go to a sauna like park nicknamed Death Valley? Because it’s out of worldly beautiful!
We arrived there at about 5 pm (yep, and still almost 50° C in the shade), just in time for the golden hours and sunset.
Devil’s Golfcourse:
Badwater Basin, the lowest point in the Western hemisphere at 87.5 meters below sea level:
Artist’s Pallette:
Zabriskie Point:
While watching the sunset, we suddenly found us surrounded by Belgians… there were practically no other nationalities there. I guess Death Valley must be on sale in Belgium? Or are only Belgians (incl. us) crazy enough to visit Death Valley in August? It was a very weird experience to be watching a sunset in the hottest desert in America, surrounded by Flemish and French babble (some of them were talking about us – we used our American accents to listen in for a while – I know, naughty!). And of course, Ward recognized one of the Belgians as our former Brussels landlord. Our return to Belgium suddenly felt very close…
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)