Noen bilder fra mitt kamera..

Alle bildene vi la ut på bloggen i løpet av turen var bilder fra UC sitt kamera, og nå har jeg fått gått gjennom litt bilder, og her er noen av de som utmerket seg:

Kan tenke meg det blir noen fornærma barn på denne gata når de lærer seg å lese..hehe!

Vår superkul leiebil!

Vib vs hummer

Hehehehehe...

"Street girls bringing in sailors must pay for room in advance"

Portsmouth

Fiiiin :)

I kø før grensa

Det tar en evighet å laste opp bilder, men jeg laster opp noen flere når jeg får tid igjen.

Vib.

28.-30. august

UC dro til onkelen sin denne søndagen etter at vi hadde gått lit rundt og sett mer av byen. Vi sov lenge og brukte morgenen på å pakke sammen tingene våre. Onkelen hennes hadde tilbudt seg å ta med kofferten min også, så jeg måtte pakke om i en fei. Men det var så godt å slippe å ha den å tenke på når jeg skulle reise til flyplassen.
Vi rakk å ta turen til Tiffany's før UC ble henta og dama bak disken så rart på meg når jeg spurte om de hadde noe under $ 100. "Sorry ma'am, we don't". Ja ja, vi var nå engang der :)

Etter å ha vinka UC avgårde og sendt kofferten min med de gikk jeg rundt i gatene på leting etter Top Shop. Den lå på Broadway, enkelt nok, men den lå heeeelt nederst på Broadway. Beina mine var helt ødelagte etter gåturen, men det er magisk hva airconditioning og litt window shopping kan gjøre. Jeg klarte å beherske meg, men kun fordi jeg ikke hadde plass til mer stæsj i bagasjen min. Etter en god stund på Top Shop gikk jeg hjem til hotellet med to pizza slicer med ost og en cola og la meg rett ut på senga og så på Emmy utdelingen. Det var helt nydelig å bare slappe av. Etter Emmy var over tok jeg meg en tur ut på en pub for å ta en pils. Søndag var ikke den store utedagen og jeg hadde glemt leg'et mitt så det ble en øl så hjem. Dagen etter sov jeg absolutt så lenge jeg kunne, pakket, sjekket ut og traska rundt i byen og nøt siste dagen i USA.

Jeg brukte siste dagen på å spise mer pizza, NY-style pizza er helt fantastisk, og å lete etter Grand Central Station. Den var helt fantastisk, akkurat som vi hadde blitt fortalt av en fyr vi hadde møtt tidligere i NYC på en pub. Det var som i en film! Jeg tok noen bilder som jeg legger ut etterhvert.
Så endte jeg opp emd å ta et par pils på et lokalt bryggeri/pub (type Mikrobryggeriet) før jeg satte meg på bussen til Newark. Der møtte jeg UC igjen, det var veldig koselig å se henne igjen, og vi tusla inn på flyplassen...veldig triste over at turen vår var ferdig allerede..

Noe mer er det vel ikke å si, turen hjem gikk fint, det var ingen nye filmer vi kunne se, Gardermoen og taxfreeshopping, og vi ble hentet av hver vår forelder :)

Og nå har vi vært hjemme i snart 3 uker, og hele turen føles så uvirkelig. Veldig rart!

August 27.-28.: San Francisco, Charlotte NC og New York

Theme song: "New York state of mind", Billy Joel.

Vi dro fra San Francisco fryktelig tidlig om morgenen, sto opp 03:30 for å rekke til flyplassen og flyet som gkk kl 06:00. Vi rakk det ganske så akkurat med frokost og bok-shopping. Flyturen var helt ok, vo sov begge to ganske mye av turen. Det tok 5 timer til Charlotte i North Carolina hvor vi måtte bytte fly for å komme til NYC. Her ble vi forsinket pga teknisk feil på flyet vi skulle ta, helt ok å vente på nytt fly da! Flyet kom og vi var fremme i NYC rundt kl 19. Vi hadde måttet betale for ekstra bagasje i San Fran og på Newark gikk ikke bager og kofferter upåaktet hen. En dude henvendte seg til UC mens vi lempet bagasje av båndet, og sa: "I hope you guys are moving here"..eh, nei. Uff, vi var helt nedlempa i bagasje, men det var greit å få en generalprøve før vi skulle fly hjem til Oslo. Vi visste akkurat hva vi trengte når og hvordan vi skulle pakke håndbagasje osv :)

Taxituren inn til sentrum tok ikke så lang tid og vi visste vi bodde sentralt med ikke hvor sentralt! Hotellet het Lotus Hotel og lå på 5th Avenue og 31st Street, 2 kvartaler fra the Empire State Building. Inngangspartiet var bittelite, var bare så vidt vi så det, men når vi endelig om opp på rommet ble vi positivt overrasket. Vi bodde på en hybel hor vi delte kjøkken og bad med et annet rom, og vi hadde masse plass. Rommet var rent og pent, vi hadde en peis (!) og sengene var kjempegode!
Den første kvelden gikk vi ut og spiste mexicansk på Chevy's på Broadway, og drakk kjempegode drinker! Vi holdt ut et par timer før vi måtte tusle hjem og i seng.
Dagen etterpå kom vi oss opp og ut til normal tid og gikk rundt hele NYC føltes det som. Vi gikk fra hotellet til Time's Square (5 min) opp hele 7th Avenue til Central Park, så gjennom parken til vi kom til The National History Museum hvor vi gikk inn. UC hadde ikke vært der før, men jeg var der for 2 år siden. Og det var lke gøy som sist! Dinosaurene er enormt imponerende. Rimelig glad de ikke lever i dag!

Etter museumet tok vi taxi til S'Mac i The East Village (345 East 12th Street) for å spise mac'n cheese. Det var skikkelig nam og vi dro mette og fornøyde tilbake til hotellet for å skifte før vi skulle på musical. Vi hadde tidligere på dagen kjøpt billetter til West Side Story på The Palace Theatre, det var den musicalen vi begge ville se. Og den var superbra! Jeg har ikke sett filmen eller noe før, eneste jeg visst var at det var en moderne Romeo og Juliet historie, og det var en søt og trist forestilling. Vi fikk med oss noen suvernirer også i form av to kopper vi fikk colaen vår i. Jepp, vi er enkle å glede!
Etter teateret gikk vi på en irsk pub og tok noen øl, der møtte jeg en kjempesøt fyr fra Charlotte, Nort Carolina. Han spilte rugby og var i byen i anledning en turnering. Når han og kompisene gikk så var det ikke vits å sitte der lenger så da gikk vi til Chevy's og tok en drink og så på en random bar ved Time's Square med live musikk. Det var helt greit, dama som sang var veldig flink og bassisten trodde han var guds gave til kvinner. Hehe, langt, mørkt, krøllete hår, trange jeans og trang t-skorte. Oh yeah!
UC følte seg ikke helt på topp så vi bestemte oss for å gå hjem etterhvert. Det var like greit, beina verka etter en hel dag i New York sine varme gater.

UC har kameraet med bloggbildene, men de kommer etterhvert.

August 25 and 26: San Francisco

Theme songs: "Falling off the edge of the earth" by Black Sabbath and "Dynamite" by Taio Cruz

'Careful now.'We're dealing here with a myth.'This city is a point upon a map of fog;'Lemuria in a city unknown.'Like us,'It doesn't quite exist.' "Ambrose Bierce, San Francisco journalist,poet, and novelist of the early 1900's

Back online kinda! So, Vib has written a blogthingie for the day in Santa Cruz and the first whole day in SanFran and she'll post it when she gets the chance! For now I'll give a short summary of the last days in this awesome city.

We went downtown on wednesday after a more or less dissappointing "night on the town" tuesday evening. We were going to try for some sightseeing, but ended up tearing the city apart shopping-wise instead. It was unplanned and it was beautiful! The dresses, oh the dresses! Fun times to be had ahead :) Ahead was not far a way as we headed out later that evening for a girls night out. We had been told by a waitress to try for a club called Ruby Skies, and went there just to find the place locked down until the weekend. So we ended up at the place next door; Slide. it actually has a slide for getting down to the bar - unfortunately the slide wasn't open, but the bar was. We met a group of guys from San Diego that came up for wednesday partying, and got a tip from them to go to Infusion Lounge as Slide was full of brooding lonely guys. Tequilas and drinks were had, and dancing until the wee hours of the morning, and Oval Eye followed shortly after. All in all we had a great time and can recommend SanFran night and day highly =D

The next day we were supposed to do sightseeing (again), meeting a friend of my family and shipping the guitar we'd bought home to Norway. We ended up spending the fore- and afternoon trying to ship the guitar.. The last place we went, they agreed to wrap and ship the guitar for, wait for this, 540 dollars!! Not happening! We decided to ask mom and dad to care for it for us. And ended up not sightseeing, not seeing the family friend and actually not ship a guitar, oh well, it happens ;)

We dealt with rush traffic in the city and went to get mom and dad at Emmeryville trainstation in Oakland at 4. I have driven in a couple of the major american cities now, but I don't know if I'll ever get used to it. Craziness! but a little fun.. It was awesome beyond imagination to see mom and dad again, and after getting them a room at our crappy, but turned out incredibly cheap hotel, we went to an appraised sea food restaurant in the neighbourhood. I'll get the name later. People should go there!! We had food and wine and exchanged traveling stories as they had spent the last couple of days on the AmTrak train from Chicago to San Francisco. After that dad droveall of us to the Golden Gate bridge, and we finally did some sightseeing in SanFran! We did the famous Lombard street after that (featured in a lot of car chase movies!) and then some. Exhausted from the day before, this day and the thought of air travel early in the morning, we went to bed at 10 pm. See you in NYC!

UC

Pictures will come later!

Bare en kort update!

Vi har etter mye om og men og ræl med ikke-fungerende internetthotellbooking fått hotellrom av de snille damene i på Civic Center Inn. Det er dårlig nett her som kun funker i lobbyen, så bloggingen kan muligens bli sparsommelig de neste dagene. Tekniske duppeditter har ikke vært på vårt lag idag, men vi har vært så heldige og tilbrakt en hel dag i strålende sol på stranda i Santa Cruz og badet flere ganger i Stillehavet. Ja til livet og bading :)

UC

August 22: Route 1 -> Monterey, Cali

Theme songs: "A long and winding road" by Beatles and "Perfect day" by Lou Reed

From "The Lord of the Rings":
Legolas in Gondor, seeing the gulls: "...then I stood still, forgetting war in Middle-Earth; for their wailing voices spoke to me of the sea! The sea! Alas! I have not yet beheld it, but deep in the hearts of all my kindred lies the sea-loving, which it is perilous to stir. Alas! for the gulls. No peace shall I have again under beech or under elm."

We got of to a slooow start today as we ended up watching horror movies and stand-up comedy before bed yesterday. But it was great; we spent an hour by the pool before we set out at about noon. We took highway 41 south-west to Morro Bay, where we enthusiastically were going to jump into the ocean before quickly realizing the water was freezing cold! My feet were ice. It was beautiful though, and there were surfers, and birds and water and sun. Lovely! We stopped a couple of other places to check out the water, but ended up taking pictures and wading instead.





From Morro Bay we took route 1 north on our way to San Francisco. We'd heard that route 1 was pretty, but it turned out to be much more than that. It was beautiful beoynd compare, I almost stopped breathing at times, I love the sea! But it's not good driving really winding roads with no fences down to the water and not breathe (or watch the road) so we stopped in several places and enjoyed the landscape and took our time. Love love loved it, and thought about elves and dwarves and great stories. I can really see how writers get inspired by nature.



We stopped in Big Sur just to fill gas really, but in an outdoors art gallery we found kittens! My day was perfect! And Vib saw the cutest puppy ever, I think it was a St. Bernhard puppy and it had one blue and one brown eye. I spent most of the time in Big Sur playing with the cats, and then we were off again.


We were perfect with our timing in reaching Carmel River and catching (yet another) gorgeous sunset. It got gradually colder though, so there was no question of swimming anymore :( Oh well, we've had pools enough for a lifetime ;)
It got quickly dark after that (as it always does after sunset - it actually takes like 20 minutes before pitch blackness sometimes - good the .oon was up ;)), and we opted for a sleepover in Monterey, approximately 2 hours from SanFran. It was an impossible town to get around in, but helped by the GPS we found our EconoLodge (4th time this trip)(with a pool!!) and went to dinner after. One beer was all it took to get tipsy, and we had an overly fun time shopping groceries and other stuff we may or may not need at a local store. A bunch of nice french guys thought we were very funny and tried to hit on us on a street corner from their car but they were honked away by other angry drivers pretty quickly. So we went back to the motel and will hopefully (haha) get an early start tomorrow ;) See you in SanFran! Good night or good morning.

UC

Sequoia trær: mer info om General Sherman og trærene generelt

Treet er 11 meter i diameter og 4.2 meter høyt. Det veier 1256 tonn og treet er 31 meter rundt og 2200 år gammelt. Ganske imponerende i grunn.

Generelt:

• Trærene blir vanligvis 50-85 meter høye og 6-8 meter i diameter, men et tre er målt til å være 94.8 meter høyt og 17 meter i diameter. 

• De blir vanligvis mellom 2000 og 3000 år gamle, og det eldste Sequoia treet man vet om ble 3500 år gammelt. 
•  
• Hvert tre har ca 11000 kongler og et voksent tre slipper mellom 300 000 - 400 000 frø i året.

• Trærene brenner ikke lett pga den tykke barken, men blir de rammet av brann så vokser de faktisk raskere og mer i løpet av de neste årene enn de vanligvis ville gjort.

•  De finnes i all hovedsak kun i USA, rundt California- området. 

Dra og se de hvis du/dere skal reise rundt i området, det er såååå verdt det :)

21.august: Sequoia Forest, California

Theme songs: "I've had the time of my life", from Dirty Dancing (what they were playing at the restaurant when UC dug into her fries).

We drove from the hotel at 11 AM so ready to see the Sequoia Forest. We had to go for a swim in the pool first of course, that's why we never leave the hotels before we abolutely have to! The drive took us about 6 hours, we arrived at the Nationl Park around 5 PM. Since we have an Annual Pass we got our map and didn't have to pay for the entrance (seems like it costs $ 20 to get in at most N.P's). But we would have happily paid just about anything when we saw forest. We drove through the Kings Canyon which was very pretty with trees hanging over the road and high mountains. Then the road got kinda challenging so I didn't see so  much more of that part of the N.P as I was too busy trying to stay on the road. But all of a sudden UC cried out "spider!!!" and we had to stop. It was a tarantella and it was huge!!

And then we arrived at The Giant Forest where the Sequoia Trees are located, and it was magnificent!! Here are some pictures from the National Park and of the trees:

It is huge!!

Tree-hugging is always a good idea :)

UC in front of Genral Sherman, the biggest living tree in the world!

Me and General Sherman <3

The forest was beautiful

This tree must feel small...it is in front of General Sherman which measures 31 meters around the trunk!

Sunset..again!

The base of a Sequoia tree..

Yet another sunset, what will we do when we get back to Oslo and there are no sunsets like this!

After the forest (and the frightening drive down from the National Park) we ended up at Best Western in Lemoore. We had a late dinner at a loal restaurant called something-something Vineyard (I'll find out the exact name of it). UC has sweetpotato fries and was over the moon. We both decided to have fish, and we were very happy with that choice.

Then we went back to the hotel and watch some stand-up on tv before we went to bed.

20.august: Las Vegas, Nevada -> Death Valley and Baker, California

Theme songs: "Leavin' Las Vegas", Sheryl Crow and "Time to say Goodbye", Sarah Brightman

So we did not get up as early as we wanted (surprise...), but we still managed to get a good 30 minutes in the pool and sunbathing. Then we had to seriously re-pack our suitcases. Too much stuff! But such beautiful stuff :) We checked out of Luxor at 11 AM, so sad to leave the hotel (and the 3 pools)!! We loaded the car with bags and suitcases and left it at the hotel as we went sightseeing. The city is so much fun! Things happening all the time, everywhere. I really wanted to see the New York, New York hotel, and we did. UC went on the rollercoaster, but as I am really afraid of heights and not too fond of rollercoasters, I stayed on the ground. Instead I window-shopped (and wisely let my card rest for a day..hehe!) We gambled at the Bellagio, UC played Roulette and I spent $ 20 on the one-armed bandits. We didn't win...wish we had so we wouldn't feel so bad for shopping so much yesterday :)

Here are some pictures from inside the Bellagio:


And here we are gambling:

We also went to see Caesars Palace as we both love the movie "Hangover" and wanted to see the hotel for ourselves. But there was no mattress on the roof, no tigers and no Bradley Cooper...hehe. But the hotel was still wonderful.

The reception at Caesar

We had lunch at a french restaurant on the Strip called "Mon Ami Gabi" where UC had a glass of wine (since I was driving..we have not gotten used to the fact that you can drink and drive here..feels like one of those things one shouldn't do even if it is allowed...). I ended up eating Mac'n Cheese (yes, very french) and UC had a crépe with chicken.

 We walked back to Luxor full and happy, but sad at the same time. We are definitely going back to Las Vegas sometime!! Note to self: Bring mo' money!

We left Las Vegas at 4 PM (16:00). But leaving the city seemed to be harder than we expected it to be. The GPS was too slow, the map was not detailed enough and we were tired. But we got out (even though we both thought about just staying there...) and headed straight for Death Valley. As tradition is for us now, we saw it bathed in the light of yet another beautiful sunset. Or, if I am to be exact (as I should) we only saw a small part of Death Valley, called Zabriskie Point As we set of to see more of the valley it was so dark we could hardly see the road. But Death Valley is the most quiet plae I've ever been! There was no sound at all besides people whispering..
We made it to Furnace Creek, and then we turned and went to Baker to find a motel for the night.

We ended up at Will's Fargo Motel which has a pool that is open all day and night :) We know how to pick'em. Today it has been really warm everywhere we've been, so a dip in the pool will be highly appreciated.

Tomorrow we're heading for the Seqouia national park!

Vib

Uploading pictures in the motel in Baker is impossible (the wi-fi's name here is actually "overprized"! Love it! So as soon as we get somewhere with decent internet we'll do it :)

Note: uploading pic's in Monterey works fine :)

August 18 and 19: Vegas, baby!

Theme songs: "This Kiss" by Faith Hill and "Viva Las Vegas" by Elvis Presley

“Vegas is everything that’s right with America. You can do whatever you want, 24 hours a day. They’ve effectively legalized everything there.”
- Drew Carey

Thelma: You said you 'n' me was gonna get out of town and for once just really let our hair down. Well darlin', look out 'cause my hair is comin' down!

So we didn't end up leaving Grand Canyon straight away after breakfast, instead we went back to see the national park in daylight while we were waiting for horseback riding time! We lost track of time of course, and the scenic view went by in a blur on our way out of the park. Horsies!!! We got in our saddles at Appache Stables in Tusayan. The names of our beautiful horses were Highway (Vib's) (a very appropriate name as we've been on many highways so far) and Midnight (mine). Our wrangler's name was Gary, an old cowboy with spurs on his cowboy boots, fun! We went on an hour trail through the woods of Grand Canyon and had a great time :) We even saw a rabbit (no elk unfortunately).After this we stopped for lunch and ice cream back at "We make.."

Then we headed west! Instead of taking route 40 all the way again, we took a detour through the historic route 66 and got to see more exciting things than if we'd only stayed on the interstate: Cool old gas stations, and other places that I imagine only exist in remembrance of the days when route 66 was the preferred way to go west.

We got to Hoover Dam at about 8 PM and caught another beautiful sunset on the way in. America's is AWESOME when it comes to sunsets, goodness gracious, I wish pictures did them justice, but they really don't.
We were only half an hour away from Vegas by then, and general excitement grew in the car. Suddenly, after driving over a hilltop we saw millions and millions of lights, and realised it wasn't Vegas but Henderson. How on earth would Vegas look from afar then! It was gorgeous really :) Guided by GPS and luck we found Luxor, allthough I have to say, my nerves were never higher and will never be as high again after driving by night in Las Vegas for the first time. No incidents though, and after driving around Luxor 3 times we finally decided to skip self parking (which turned out to be full anywways) and fancied ourselves with valet parking (always remember to tip everybody! We forgot about the valet parker guy, but the bellboy let us know where the land lay ;) ). Luxor it was, a very cool huge hotel shaped like a pyramid. And like all hotels in Vegas, everything happens inside: clubs, lounge, lounge, lounge, shopping, food, and of course the Casino! We made a mental note not to gamble our money away; we're too fond of shopping for that. We got a room on the 11th floor, it was not as cool as we'd hoped, but the view (overlooking the 3 enormours outdoor pools) turned out to be fantastic. We headed for dinner at about 11, and then went clubbing. We had gotten VIPtickets from some random guy when we entered Luxor which meant that we got to skip the line and the cover to get in at LAX, a Paris Hilton club. It was huge! As everything else is here. And FULL of people. And the drinks were strong, no need for measuring glasses or soda in that club. The tequila came in a milk glass! But it was much needed.We got to know a bunch of guys from Austria and Ireland, and one of the irish dudes showed us a trick for getting free drinks around the black jack tables, which we of course then used ;) We had a blast and got to bed at about 6 in the morning. This really is the city that never sleeps =D

We got up reasonanbly early at 11 considering the late night before, and went straight to the pool after breakfast, with no sunscreen or sunglasses as the good Norwegians we are, at the worst time a day for bad sun rays. Oh well. It was great at taking any headache away and we felt so luxurious (as you should at Luxor, I guess). Then there was time for sight seeing and shopping! We went to the MGM hotel and they had real lions with cubs, there was no way I would let an opportunity like that go by, so I payed the staggering amount of $25 to pet one of the cubs (the cost is for the picture that I got of course, but I didn't do it for pictures), cuteness beyond imagination!!
There were a lot of "ooh" and "aaah"-ing as we walked down Las Vegas boulevard, also known as The Strip. What a city, we were overwhelmed! If you ever get the chance to go here, take it (and bring us along!). It was hott (double-T) as well, but we were only happy that it was sunny and warm with no thunderstorms ;)
We got to the mall, and we shopped to we literally dropped! The shoes! The dresses! Vib got an awesome dress at Bettie Page (check out the webpage: bettiepageclothing.com). The sunglasses! The lingerie! We were supposed to head home at 7 PM, but got caught up in the fountain show at the Bellagio - so cool - and "This Kiss" was playing throughout the show, thus theme song material :)
We ended up eating nearby at Cabo Wabo, great food and better drinks: Vib had Cabo Rockin' Iced Tea and I had Coconut Margarita. We went back in the mall just to buy post cards really, but those drinks turned out to be dangerous when paired up with shopping possibilites. Shoes! And dresses! I say no more. Maybe except for broke? Hmm.

Exhausted we got back to Luxor for another night out of the town. Well, not so much, we fell asleep after one Grolsch each. Oooooooops.... So we'll postpone departure a bit as it was going to be today, and gamble before breakfast and sight see some more =D

UC

We'll post pictures tonight as we're running a bit late here ;)