UP TO THE SKY!!!
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, the captain welcomes you on board! Please tighten your seat belts, we are ready for take off! I wish you a pleasant flight and hope you enjoy your stay with us...! CLEAR!!!
Finally, I am officially approved by the government, the flights are scheduled, ground school kit has started and everything looks good to make it on time. up to the sky!!! The two Piper Warriors II I´m flying:
back in West Lafayette
coming from California, mid March, looking out of the window, we have snow! I´m absolutely thrilled...
six and a half more weeks to go. time will fly by.
Die Zeit der Heimkehr rueckt naeher und wer noch schnell ein bisschen Platz in meinem Koffer fuer Mitbringsel ergattern will, sollte sich schnell mit einer kleinen Beschreibung des desired Objektes an mich wenden!:) Einkaufen ist hier naemlich eine laengere Fahrt... (Esther, ich habe deine Liste nicht vergessen! Aber mach besser eine Prioritaetenliste daraus ;))
Spring Break California TOP CHOICE!
10 exciting, fun, and somehow crazy days are over and as long as I´m still in the feeling of this outstanding adventure, I´m using the silence in my apt. before the great thunderstorm (called uni) to report shortly...
THURSDAY, 3/9- get up at 3am to catch the flight at 7 in Chicago, Midway
- arrival in San Francisco at 9.04am having great sunshine
- Mexican salmon lunch
- Golden Gate Bridge (I´m driving, juhu!)
- along the coast north of San Francisco and up the mountains (super!!)
- Hotel surprise: mini room with one queen size bed for 5 people...(the consequences of booking for 2 ;-))
- first Northface shop search...
- Benni picks up Tesi, we sleep on the floor with no sleeping bag nor a matress (f... cold and hard!)
PICTURE OF THE DAY: the Golden Gate Bridge
FRIDAY, 3/10- breakfast in a sweet cafe on Sutter Street (don´t want to count the number of pics Flo took...:)), where we booked the next hotel in the restroom *g* (there was the only outlet)
- downtown, Northface store no.2
- Chinatown
- Cable Car up and down
- Lafayette Park (wtf?! we don´t need no Lafayette!!!)
- Lincoln Park at the ocean (awsome!)
- race through the city (Benni: "Flo, schau nach rechts, da kommt ein Park!") to catch the sunset at Fisherman´s Wharf
- Fisherman´s Wharf (good luck Flo hadn´t found a Northface jacket - damn seagull, hehe *g*)
- Walmart (red Walmarts suck!) to get some sleeping bags and an air matress (no more night on the floor!)
PICTURE OF THE DAY: riding the Cable Car up- and downwards
SATURDAY, 3/11- Northface Outlet visit (thanks goodness the last one :))
- Berkley (the university where we should have studied!!)
- stop at a hippie market -> real rye bread, Laugenbrezeln, organic oranges and kiwis (just like in Australia...)
- Yosemite national park
- on the way to Fresno we just couldn´t resist to collect some oranges and huge grapefruits
- diner at IHOP, pancake with steak (not for me!)
PICTURE OF THE DAY: yosemite
SUNDAY, 3/12
- never ever have breakfast at Jack in the Box!
- drive to Sequoia up the mountains and through the snow ->learned how to use snow chains
- Sherman Tree, largest tree of the world, in Giant Forest (snow, snow, snow, but SO beautiful - just like a fairytale forest)
- road between Sequoia and Kings Canyon is closed so out and in again
- hours and hours of driving through the middle of nowhere...what would happen if we ran out of fuel? where is the chain saw heini? =O
- half way up the mountain we spot an old saloon cafe (where we leave our business card - best burger in town! *g*) and meet the mountain cowboy and the chain saw fuzzi we had thought of! gotta get out of there! but: icy, snowy, up the mountain, driving with chains,...
- arrival at our wooden cabin in Grant Grove just in time (TOP CHOICE!), night hiking through the snow (up to our knees) and playing "sandwich" (guess, who had to lie on the bottom...!)
PICTURE OF THE DAY: *mhmh* :)
MONDAY, 3/13
- third largest tree in the world and walking tour
- attempt to do a hiking tour... (the grinning park ranger should have warned us)
- being wet and cold and driving downhill again through the best snow ever
- on the way to Fresno, we drove into an orange plantage. thanks to flo´s and my persuasion skills (OF COURSE, we had asked for permission *gg*) we climbed over a barbed wire fence and up some hills to have a beautiful view over the hinterland and wineyards (guess, it was a cow paddock - at least Aram´s shoes told that story ;-))
- picked some lemons and oranges and in a pizza hut we sealed the pact to tour in Germany just as we do here with a freshly picked lemon
- car trading -> upgrading to SUV
- outlet in Tulare with blooming almond trees on the way
- dinner at WienerSchnitzel (we: "NO Wiener Schnitzel!??"- "Wiener Schnitzel, what´s that??" - shocked faces - we: "Do you know what it means?" - "I think it´s German for Sauerkraut" OH MY!!!! they served hotdogs...i don´t tell you how it looked like - at least fresh *gg*)
PICUTRE OF THE DAY: California view
TUESDAY, 3/14
- buying a tent ("are you ok?? GOOD LUCK!"), gas, and food
- driving to and through Death Valley
- licking salt from the rocks
- standing on the back of the SUV while driving (supergeil!! ;-))
- hiking through Canyon
- pumping up the left rear tire since it´s losing air...
- Sand Dunes (see the picture of the previous post); collecting poor little boy that lost his way - and Aram´s attempt to murder Flo *g*
- 4WD-way to Echo Canyon to find a good camping spot (pretty bumpy... but who needs an exhaust pipe?? or better: who was that crappy engineer that designed the exhaust??)
- STORM! dinner in the shaky car and trying to assembly the tent
- walking tour under the full moon in Death Valley
- sleeping (Death Valley, Storm, Tent Stands! Amazing, considering it´s from Walmart...)
PICTURE OF THE DAY: drive through Death Valley standing on the car rear
WEDNESDAY, 3/15
- waking up at moonset and sunrise
- rear tire drives like a sea cucumber --> everyone out, save weight, Laura´s driving through the bumpy "street"
- some freak borrows us a compressor to blow up the tire, currency: one German Balisto
- Furnace Creek to brush the teeth and breakfast of champions with oranges and the perfect panorama
- Dante´s view: a viewpoint over the salt lakes
- attempt to reach Beatty and then Las Vegas. On the way we see a gravel single lane street to a mine - let´s go! There the tire finally broke... (remember: SINGLE lane!) but no problem for mechanical engineering students! (if Tesi helps ;-)) Vee doub - tuned by German engineers - YEAH!!
- the good thing: the perfect excuse to be late in Las Vegas to change the car again :)
- dinner in the Harley Davidson Cafe in Vegas (they must have thought, in Germany, one takes a shower only once a week... :))
- drive to Hurricane (that´s how we drove, too) where the mission "5 people sleep in a room booked for 2" failed
PICUTRE OF THE DAY: tire champions
THURSDAY, 3/16
- Zion national park: gorgeous!! we did 3 hiking trails through red snow and deep slobber ("laura, because of those shoes you are just ruining, we wasted 2,5 hours in Toronto!!" - well, it was fun though :))
- drive (uhm, race...) to Bryce Canyon: even more gorgeous!!
- dinner at a Steak house where we renewed the pact with a chocolate cake
- drive to Williams (a 5hrs drive despite a max speed of 110mph and a failed attempt to take over a state trooper while already driving 15 mph over the speed limit) - the only drive that really sucked
PICTURE OF THE DAY: Bryce Canyon
FRIDAY, 3/17
- mini sightseeing in Williams - a tourist Western town - and Greek pancakes as breakfast
- Grand Canyon (juhu!)
- Burger, burger!!
- Las Vegas: the maintenance guy will hate us :) & we walked through the hotels amazed by the amount of money that disappears...
PICTURE OF THE DAY: Grand Canyon - at least 200 meters down...
SATURDAY, 3/18
- Aram and Flo fly back early that morning and I´m a good girl and give them a ride to the airport
- Tesi, Benni, and me take another tour through the hotels, the city, the outlet center (new shoes!) and the m&m´s shop
- a race through the walmart to buy a new bag saves us the late return fee for the car as well as the following night... carry on luggage for the flight: sleeping bags and airbed...
- dinner at the airport: a big table full of food and a strange glance at Benni who carries an open can of tuna through the airport :)
- 8.32pm departure Las Vegas
- 11pm arrival Denver: sleeping on the airbed in our sleeping bags at the airport for 5 hours *g*
PICTURE OF THE DAY: Vegas
SUNDAY, 3/19
- 6 am leaving Denver, flight to Chicago
- back in West Lafayette... oh no!!
PICTURE OF THE DAY: alles dabei, kein problem
Thanks, guys, for that OUTSTANDING trip!!! That was SUPERGEIL!!!!
And not to forget: Flo, deine Tante ROCKT!! Thanks for all the pictures!! :)
