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Our lovely hostess
At a small beach where our picnick was enlighted by a 'raving' lunatic who was dancing with the waves Ok, we went to the US. Why the hell did we go to the US, as this does not fit our principles of this trip. Indeed, would not say it´s a tricky or "difficult to reach" country, but to get ourselves from the middle of the Pacific Ocean to South America, we needed a cost-efficient route and voila: Los Angeles. And if we were already there, why not to spend some days and money in Western luxury. And well, what can you do normally in a standard stop-over??? Maybe you can do a quick city tour or a museum or two, but that ain't so much fun. So therefore we ended up in Long Beach and later on drove too much in Nevada and Arizona. We made the best of it, only in ten days.
Linda, Linda, Linda, what would we do without you?
The first big surprise was actually Linda, an acquintance from Agi's former job with whom she worked a lot together. She mentioned one time
"In case you're around LA, drop me a mail and let's meet up". Good decent kids as we are, we just did that and got a very welcoming reply from Linda.
Our private taxi
Long Beach transportation, including chauffeur ;-) We loved her organized bulletpointed email, especially the part that we could do our laundry at her place :-)) Friends, you can´t probably imagine what a nice thing it is to have your clothes washed in a washing machine after months of handwash only. Agi was really grateful... And Linda gave us great help with other practical items too, for sure she put on her backpacker mindset immediately she heard we were coming. So she picked us up at LA airport and took us to her place in Long Beach. We didn't know how long we would stay there, but we ended up there for 5 nice relaxed days. We spent our days cruising down the Pacific Highway, eating chocolate covered frozen bananas, kayaking in/around Naples marina and I personally ended up drinking Mexican beer. Active as Linda is, we actually joined her to the gym, the first time for us in ~9 months. It was basically killing us, but the sauna and the pool side afterwards were rewarding enough that we went for a second time later on. And a great suprise at the end of our stay was that a cousin of hers invited us to an LA
Dodgers baseball game, including access to the club house. We didn´t want to impose ourselves, but what can you do, but nodding vigorously "Yes, we want to go!"? The game was good (the LA Dodgers beated the Arizona Diamondbacks 5:4), the buffet was wonderful (we recommend the Dodger Dogs with all the works). But all good things come to an end, so we had to say good bye to Linda... Thanks again for ALL!
Next stop: Vegas
Ok, you've got a few days to spare and what´s the first thing that pops in your mind: Las Vegas!!! Relatively close to LA as you just have to cross the Mojave desert. Agi worked there for 3 months back in 2001, so after hearing time after time "I've been there" or "I've worked there" while watching Ocean's 11, 12 or 13, it was now time to see it for myself. She wanted to show me the places where she worked and lived, but apparently 9 years are too long to do this. The Aladdin casino is gone and replaced by a new shiny one and the lot where her appartment used to be is a construction site now for a
LA Dodgers game
I wonder what she found more interesting: the Dodgers or the Dodger Dogs??? new casino. The Bellagio was still there though, so much for a guided tour: 2 out of the 3 places were gone. But she wished she had brought along her Bellagio employee ID which she kept in 2001, could have explored more then. Funny detail about the Aladdin casino, Agi couldn't remember the name and therefore had to ask a taxi driver. The driver´s mood suddenly was a notch or two more friendly, as he figured out that one of those two 'slightly tipsy' tourists actually worked and lived in Vegas...
Anyways, we drove across the desert in our convertible budget rental car and we spent 2 nights in Vegas. We were lodged at the Stratosphere and enjoyed the world´s highest fun rides on top of the tower. Thanks God we warmed up with some alcohol before we went for these, so our fear was gone by the time we were hanging 900 feet above the Strip. We also did a Casino crawl that night. They are nice, nice, but basically all the same. And non of them made us rich! The 2nd night we went for a show: Cirque de Soleil´s Zumanity. This is the "adult show" of
CS, great theatre, beautiful costumes and a wonderful show. Agi loved it thoroughly, I went so-so, guess that for me the "adult" or the "circus" elements should have been worked out more...
Grand Canyon a.k.a. the Big Ditch
But again, we had to move on, so we decided to move a bit more into the desert and head for the Grand Canyon in Arizona, something new on this trip for Agi. On the way we stopped at Lake Mead for a swim and passed the Hoover Dam. We continued on the historic Route 66 and spent the night in Williams. A middle of nowhere place, but very touristy due to the vicinity of the Canyons and the fact that it´s right on R66. After our waffles breakfast we headed off to the canyon. Being a canyon you really see nothing of it, until you actually stand at the edge and awe at the 10 miles ditch in the earth called the Grand Canyon. We saw the southern rim only and guess that the south eastern part was the best: the Desert views. For two reasons: the views and the lack of the huge tourist crowds. Pretty
Our own toy car
Ok, the airco was shit, so roof down all the time. Pretty neat, but we burned our noses and foreheads. The life of a backpacker ain´t glamorous all the time... neat, especially around sunset time. We headed off to a small 'cliff' and enjoyed the views with a bit of wine. Afterwards we went back to the campground and tried to imitate the Dodger Dogs on our campfire, but alas, tasty as they were, they didn't come close to the real thing...
Our last days...
Having not much time to spare, we headed back to California, down to Big Bear Lake. Crossing deserts again and wishing the airco would work properly.... It didn´t, so top down we drove on and on, burning our faces... Sunblock didn´t work, now the skin is peeling off.. auch. Slept at the lake and on our last day we headed off to Hollywood. The plane left around midnight, so time enough. Ended up unexpectedly underneath the Hollywood sign, a lucky twist. Did the obligatory walk on the Walk of Fame. Took a picture with the footprints of Donald Duck and almost puked on the ones from Celine Dion.... And we also visited Ripley´s Believe It or Not? attraction, thanks to Agi´s free entry pass. Time well spent. But the airport beckoned us, so we left for our next destination. Adios, C&A.
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