Arizona, Utah, Nevada, California, April 2010

Going US !

For the first time in my life I had to go on business travel during school holiday. It was a tough decision to take the family with me or not and extend my stay to visit some places. At the end, I decided we should all go, thus we bought additional tickets and there we went.

The first week was planned as holiday, I intended to show my family some places I have been before in Nevada, Arizona and California and to visit some new places in Arizona and Utah.

The second week was for business, where the rest of the family planned to rush around in Las Vegas.

Our stay was unexpectedly extended due to the disturbance in flight schedule, the ash in the air from the Iceland Volcano grounded our flight and we had to stay for a third week. We tried to make the best out of it. Instead of hanging around and counting the days to depart we left for a few additional days in California.

Charles De Gaulle

Typical business departure, checking e-mails before boarding at Charles de Gaulle airport

Week 1:

The menu of the first week was heavily loaded, we had planned following visits:

- Hoover Dam: first dam on the Colorado river, built in 1934
- Tuzigoot National Monument: ruins from the Indians
- Montezuma castle and well: natural well used by Indians
- Sedona: place for wellness and happyness (could not feel it)
- Wallnut Canyon: nice canyon
- Grand Canyon: the big one
- Horseshoe bend: strange bend in the Colorado river
- Antilope Canyon: a very narrow canyon
- Page: city with a dam where we crossed the Colorado river
- Sunset Crater: volcano ashes
- Bryce Canyon: magnificent canyon
- Red Canyon: red, red ...
- Zion National Park: a beautiful park, narrow canyon
- Valley of Fire: scenic canyons where Cpt. Kirk died (Star Trek)

Kids

Kids having fun during the flight, of course with Teddies

Hoover Dam

First stop, visit to Hoover Dam. Its my third visit to the dam and it remains impressive, especially if you take the elevator and go down into the turbine rooms.

Route 66

Route 66, going East

Tuzigoot

The Tuzigoot National Monument are ruins from the Indians. The were used from 1000 till 1400 and apparently a mystery where the Indians disappeared to.

Montezuma caste

Montezuma caste, the weak parts of the rocks were washed away and the entrances was closed by the Indians.

Montezuma well

Montezuma well, natural well

Sedona

Sedona, red rock. The natural magnetic beams around should make you happy ....

Montezuma caste

In Wallnut canyon a nice example on how the Indians used the natural caves for housing

Montezuma well

Sunset crater

Grand Canyon

Horseshoe bend

Antelope canyon

Entrance to Antelope canyon

Antelope canyon

Dirt road to Antelope canyon

Lake Powell

Lake Powell at Page

Bryce canyon

Road towards Bryce canyon

Bryce canyon

We all at Bryce canyon

Bryce canyon

Red canyon

Zion canyon

Zion N.P.

Evelyn in Zion canyon

Evelyn in Zion N.P.

Liesbeth in zion canyon

Liesbeth in Zion N.P.

Road to Valley of Fire

Kids in Valley of Fire

Kids in the Valley of Fire

Valley of Fire

Look here

Hey look !

Valley of Fire

petroglyphs

Prehistoric Indian petroglyphs

Petrified wood

Petrified wood (wood turned into stone after 225 mio years)

Bump ahead

Week 2:

Work, work, work ...... at NAB 2010

Meanwhile the kids enjoyed the hotel-pool.

During the week time to go to a show, we went to Le Rêve at the Wynn

At the end of the week a day to go to Mojave desert and Death Valley, of course we had to stop in Evelyn, CA. Check out this link if you want to know where it is.

Wynn

The Encore hotel

Wynn Pool

Hotel pool

Wynn Pool

My two water rats in the hotel pool

Le reve

Le Rêve show in Wynn, Las Vegas, NV

Le reve

Le Rêve show in Wynn, Las Vegas, NV

Mohave desert

Mojave desert, full of Joshua trees

Joshua treee

Joshua tree + 3

Evelyn

An abandoned place called Evelyn, CA

flower

In Evelyn, CA we found this nice flower

Badwater

Badwater in Death Valley

Gold Canyon

Gold Canyon in Death Valley

Zabriskie point

Zabriskie point in Death Valley

Badwater

Badwater from Dantes view

Dantes view

View over Death Valley from Dantes view

return to Las Vegas

Week 3:

This week the kids should have been to school and I should have been in NYC. The volcano in Iceland changed the plans. Instead of caching our flights we were stuck in Las Vegas. We could have stayed, however we just took 1 night hotel and started to make up our plans. As it was impossible to get away the first three days we decided to drive away from the heat of Las Vegas and go first to San Diego and then to Los Angeles. From Los Angeles we could always drive back in a few hours in case seats would become available on a flight back home.

- San Diego: visit to the zoo, highlight were the 3 panda bears. Visit to the USS Midway, an aircraft carrier (this was impressive, far above expectations), Coronado Island.
- Carlsbad: small town along the coast with pleasant beaches (for the kids).
- Los Angeles: visit to Hollywood Blvd, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Malibu, downtown with Little Tokio.
- on the way back visits to Devils Punchbowl and Galico ghost town (silver and borax mining site).

Carlsbad