Total WOW Overload! - highs and lows from our trip

[Cloverlady]

Back on Sunday night from THE most amazing trip we’ve ever been on. I’m writing this now to stave off the urge to sleep... Jetlag ugh!

Hopefully thist will be of use to others planning, sorry it's a bit long but I won't be doing a full trip report


In short myself, my hubby and 2 teen boys aged 16 and 13 did a road trip. We travelled from Los Angeles to Las Vegas to Yosemite to San Francisco and back to Los Angeles via the Pacific Coast Highway with many detours in between.

We stayed in 13 hotels in total in 3 weeks if you include airport hotels at art and finish.
Over 3500 miles were driven in our SUV by my hubby which he didn’t mind one bit, (in fact enjoyed) and never really once got tired. We had thought we couldn’t do Yosemite at this time of year due to the unpredictable weather so hadn’t booked anything, but as the weather was good we made enquiries whilst there, shuffled a few things and managed 2 wonderful nights near there!

This holiday was a total wow-overload, and all of our family group agreed. We saw some sights we will never ever forget...

I don’t know how we’re ever going to top this trip – we’d have to go to the moon or something, seriously! LOL

Sounds stupid , but there were so many ‘wows’ that honestly there were days on which I really felt I could not cope with seeing any more ‘stuff’. I was just overwhelmed, stupefied...



Highs


First and foremost has got to be the many National Parks we visited (Yosemite, Death Valley, Grand Canyon NP, Lake Mead National Rec Area, Valley of Fire, Muir Woods, Joshua Tree National Park, Mojave Preserve) We’ve always loved nature and scenery but we were just blown away. Words cannot begin to describe the sheer vastness, and the stunningly bleak yet magnificently beautiful scenery we saw. We ended up buying an annual pass for $80 - well worth every single last cent and more. Photos cannot possibly do these areas justice – and oh boy we tried! – we took over 6 THOUSAND photos in total on this trip!

Our other highs – in no particular order – some more high than others, and some just little things, ‘simple pleasure’ special to us...

- Being on the beach at Pismo early on a misty morning and seeing a pod of dolphins arc gracefully out of the water.

- Laughing at our teens getting a ride-all-day wristband for the Big Apple rollercoaster at the New York New York hotel in Las Vegas and riding it until they felt ill!

- Seeing real life tumbleweed! Cool!

- Seeing the space shuttle Endeavour in its final resting place at California Science Center.

- Santa Cruz Boardwalk and riding the iconic Giant Dipper wooden roller coaster which has featured in several movies including one of our faves, Lost Boys.

- Being totally and utterly awestruck by the stars – being able to look up with zero light pollution into a sky almost smoky grey in appearance due to the inconceivable number of stars. I have never seen anything like it in my life and I was almost moved to tears at this sight. Very very humbling indeed ...

- Witnessing a rare ‘desert bloom’ and seeing literally a carpet of different delicate desert flowers. People were taking hundreds of photos and talking of it being a rare spectacle.

- Oh my - The Grand Canyon! We stayed overnight at the south rim. On top of it’s sheer unbelievable SIZE which no photograph could ever scratch the surface of, we had an incredibly moving experience to be stood with others in reverential silence on Easter Sunday watching the sun slowly rise over the horizon. We had a gentle breeze bringing us faint echoes of almost unearthly singing coming from the congregation of a distant church service being held at the rim top. I’m not particularly religious or anything but it was very emotional, I felt privileged to be there.

- Yosemite Valley – Beautiful! So many breath taking natural sights concentrated in one area, from several waterfalls to sheer towering granite cliff faces etc. We were lucky to witness the falls in their fullest flow , in springtime when the snowmelt was well underway.

- Palm Springs Aerial Tramway, and seeing the San Andreas fault from up there.

- Artist’s Palette on Artist’s Drive, Death Valley. All of Artist’s Drive was stunning but wow. A simply remarkable vista of many colours of rock all together, caused by oxidation.

- Badwater Basin – the lowest point in the western hemisphere and the record hottest place in USA.

- Seeing an oasis in the bleakness of the desert, complete with warm spring fed pool where people had released their tropical fish and were thriving!

- Seeing a wild coyote up close and face to face – he was stood looking at us from the side of the road whilst we were driving through Yosemite NP. So calm and noble looking. We stopped the car and just looked at him. We managed to take some fantastic photos.

- Hanging off the side of streetcars in San Francisco!

- Cacti! I just loved them all, especially Joshua Trees and the (very painful! ) cholla.

- Videoing a mule deer in Yosemite! We were so close we could almost touch him!

- Seeing Los Angeles at night from Griffiths Observatory. All lit up in the classic grid pattern. Wow.

- Alcatraz (We went on the night tour) – I wasn’t expecting to like this so much, but it was very interesting indeed.

- Stopping in the middle of nowhere to watch a ridiculously long slow moving freight train approach us, and the train driver kindly responding to my son’s hand gesture request to sound the horn ! It’s just SOO American is that sound!

- Seeing the Hoover Dam.

- Watching our teens playing in deep snow at the top of Yosemite at Badger Pass (7000ft above sea level) after being so darned hot in the deserts! Incidentally, the Grand Canyon is 7000ft above sea level too, Aerial Tramway was 8,500ft and our own highest point, Ben Nevis, is a mere 4,400ft. No wonder the air was thin up there!

- Route 66 - and eating at an authentic 50’s diner in Kingman!

- Driving down the Strip at night - “Vegas, baby! ”

- Seeing dust devils develop in the desert! We saw lots - but we watched one develop and then track across the ground towards us and then pass right in front of our car, bending over a mile marker on one side of the road and flatten a small bush on the other side. Totally amazing to see!

- Sea otters playing at sunset from Shell Beach, Pismo.



Lows – nothing major though.


- Ethiopian Airlines – would not be keen to use again, we found the food was just awful, bordering on inedible, we left most of it. Tip – take your own food! Their Dreamliner was shabby and grubby and we had experience of IFE screens which had lost their touch-screen facility on both flights. Cabin crew appeared not very bothered about inflight safety, e.g. people freely getting out of seat and wandering about whilst seatbelt sign on, no check before landing that seatbelts were being worn and seats upright etc.

- The traffic and parking in San Francisco. Los Angeles traffic had been very busy (at one time we saw seven lanes of traffic in each direction!) but the drivers in San Fran seemed much more aggressive, beeping horns constantly. The parking charges in San Fran were just extortionate. It has to be public transport all the way!

- Not really a low but more of an observation. We felt we’d seen the real America. From the utter decadence of Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive for example, to the seedy underbelly of America – soo many homeless people in all the cities we visited pushing shopping trollies around loaded with their meagre belongings, and so many people with obvious mental health issues hanging about and lots of beggars. A bit disconcerting and a bit sad at the same time.

- The prices of things. Things, food and clothes etc all seemed more expensive on this trip. That said, our teens still managed to find things to buy at the Outlets in Vegas.



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Thanks to the Dibb we had an amazing time. I got many great tips and ideas from trip reports and thanks to Daytonababe for answering my many many silly questions on facebook LOL. Hope this help someone else to plan


Whilst we go to Florida regularly I don’t think we will repeat this trip - not that we didn’t enjoy it - far from it - but for the simple reason that it would spoil it as wouldn’t be as special - and it really was special. Our 2 typical grumpy teen boys reverted to childhood again at times and really bonded again. In fact it was true quality family time for us all. I was a bit apprehensive about what to expect before we went on this trip - but I am sooooo glad we did.

[Sweets]

I got a bit emotional reading this. It sounds like you had such an amazing time. I hope to do something similar sometime in the future.
Thanks for sharing.

[CrispyA]

Sounds like you had a fantastic trip. We loved the national parks as well - quite stunning.

[TracyW]

Wow, sounds amazing! We really enjoyed our West coast trip as well, but didn't see half of what you did! So glad you had a great family holiday, thanks for sharing.

[beautybutterfly]

sounds incredible, especially your grand canyon experience - I'd have definitely cried!

[daytonababe]

Well I've been waiting all day for the pics to appear on facebook ;-) get a move on lol

Re the homeless I'm used to them in Vegas specially as we go along Nellis Blvd so much, but there were more than ever this year. I came through Downtown one afternoon and there must have been 100's queued up for the Soup Kitchens. I always feel its a bit weird on the strip people gambling away 1000's and wearing expensive stuff and then all these homeless.

Shall be crossing Ethiopian off the list then ! But American Airlines are also really lax when it comes to the seatbelt sign, We've done 3 flights with them and each time people get up wander about and hang around near the galleys and nothing is said ! This year as we came over the Canyon and Vegas the seatbelt sign came on , a passing attendant heard Chloe say she would have liked some pics so told her to get up and take as many as she wanted.. Very different to VA & BA.

Now pics please ;-) x

[Guest]

Stunning report, thank you so much for sharing

[margyloveswdw]

Sounds like you had an amazing trip!

[happytraveller]

Really nice report I love the fact that the majority of your highs were natural occurrences, rather than through OCD planning,lol! Can you expand on the Valley of fire please-I'm hoping to get there this year

[Sandraoh40]

Your trip sounds amazing we are going soon and I cannot wait! One of things you mentioned is something I am really looking forward to, seeing the stars. We are staying in yucca valley, very near the Joshua tree national park and I think we should be hopefully be able to see the Milky Way...