I was a bit apprehensive about going to Los Angeles. I’ve heard so much about it that I was afraid of being disappointed. And then, in the end, I really liked it. It’s great to visit, but to live there, I doubt it 😀 This article is part of our series of articles on the American West road trip. If you haven’t read the previous travel diaries, here they are: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11, #12, #13 Part 1: Travel JournalPart 2: Practical Tips Part 1: Travel Journal Day 28 of the road trip Today, we don’t do much because JB is super stressed.…

I don’t know if it’s the fatigue or the lack of research, but we couldn’t enjoy California’s central coast like others do. This article is part of our series of articles on the American West road trip. If you haven’t read the previous travel diaries, here they are: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11, #12 Part 1: Travel JournalPart 2: Practical Tips Part 1: Travel Journal Days 21 to 27 of the road trip: When I see other tourists able to do a road trip just by hugging the California coast, I wonder how they do it because it’s the least interesting part of our…

Fatigue is starting to set in, and despite an afternoon of rest yesterday, we had a hard time getting up this morning to head to San Francisco. This article is part of our series of articles on the American West road trip. If you haven’t read the previous travel diaries, here they are: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11 I would never have known what goes on in San Francisco if a friend hadn’t warned me. Knowing I was on a road trip in the States, she told me to look up “bipping” in San Francisco. Cars get their windows smashed in, especially if you…

After Sequoia National Park, we find ourselves at the gates of Yosemite National Park. In winter, the Tioga Road is closed, so we enter the park via El Portal Road. This article is part of our series of articles on the American West road trip. If you haven’t read the previous travel diaries, here they are: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10 Part 1: Travel JournalPart 2: Practical Tips Part 1: Travel Journal Day 17 of the road trip: Our hotel is in an area with no cell reception. Even the Wi-Fi at the hotel is paid, so we’re cut off from the internet for the…

Our hotel is 30 minutes from Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks, and after a good night’s sleep, we’re ready to brave the cold and wind to explore. Visiting Sequoia National Park means taking a big detour before heading to Yosemite, but we have plenty of time, so we might as well take advantage. And we’re glad we did, because in the end, we preferred Sequoia National Park to Yosemite. This article is part of our series of articles on the American West road trip. If you haven’t read the previous travel diaries, here they are: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9 Part 1: Travel JournalPart 2:…

I don’t know what got into me, I felt like visiting the Grand Canyon from the North Rim to see what the Grand Canyon looks like under the snow. The road leading to the Grand Canyon North Rim has been closed for several days, but there’s an alert on their site saying it will likely reopen on November 28 at 9 a.m. This article is part of our series of articles on the American West road trip. If you haven’t read the previous travel diaries, here they are: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8 Part 1: Travel JournalPart 2: Practical Tips Part 1: Travel Journal Day 14 of…

After a long drive yesterday, we treat ourselves to a well-deserved lie-in. We only have an hour of driving today, and I’m particularly motivated to drive, especially when I see there’s no one on the road. This article is part of our series of articles on the American West road trip. If you haven’t read the previous travel diaries, here they are: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7 Part 1: Travel JournalPart 2: Practical Tips Part 1: Travel Journal Day 13 of the road trip: I don’t think I’ve been behind the wheel since our Iceland road trip. Driving on a straight road wouldn’t have appealed to me. Driving…

The initial plan was to go to Bryce National Park directly from Moab, but I came across a small flyer about the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Taking the detour via Highway 12 and Escalante adds an hour to our drive, which made me hesitate. Coincidentally, our friend Kevin also drove this route and highly recommends it. So I’d rather we spend the night in Escalante, making a short detour through Boulder and the Burr Trail Road to give ourselves plenty of time. Sleeping in Bryce Canyon would have added another hour, since we already have 5 hours of driving planned. This article is part of our series of articles on…

After driving non-stop from Monument Valley, we arrived in Moab in the early afternoon. Check-in at the hotel isn’t until 3 PM, and we had to keep wandering around. We were a bit tired and stopped for gas (and beef jerky) in Moab before visiting Arches National Park nearby. We spent 5 nights in Moab. Normally 2 nights are enough, but we were right in the middle of Thanksgivingweek, when the whole country is on vacation, and we wanted to be in a small, quiet town (5,000 residents) to recharge our batteries, do laundry, and get some work done. The day after Thanksgiving is Black Friday, then Cyber Monday, all…

Today, we visit one of the iconic places in the United States: Monument Valley. This article is part of our series of articles on the American West road trip. If you haven’t read the previous travel diaries, here they are: #1, #2, #3, #4 Part 1: Travel JournalPart 2: Practical Tips Part 1: Travel Journal Day 6 of the road trip: Here’s what the Visitor Center website says about Monument Valley: Before the advent of humanity, the park was once a low-lying basin. Over hundreds of millions of years, materials eroded from the early Rockies formed layer upon layer of sediment, slowly and delicately solidifying into an uplift, caused by…