26. Zion National Park, Utah

Zion Means a place for sanctuary by early Mormon Pioneers

Video on History of Zion   little history lesson on Zion....it's very impressive.

Zion Photo Album



Hello everyone


well it's official....we are officially heading east....only 2 weeks left of this epic trip and we were super excited to visit Zion National Park in Utah! So we got an early start and left our hotel in vegas around 8 am. We drove for 4 hours and arrived at the park on the busiest day of the year since it  was Memorial Day ( 55,000 visitors that day  record number for the park).... during the peak time of day.....Once again there was absolutely no parking so we had to park in the town before the park called Springdale. So we grabbed a free shuttle bus straight to the visitor's center. Zion Park is super well organized....absolutely no cars are allowed to go to the trail heads and lookouts. So the line up for he shuttle was extremely  long.

Upon arrival to this place it immediately reminded us of the grand canyon and sedona landscapes. So our plan was to go to he museum and watch the orientation video. This is imperative because it give you a heads up about the history of the park.  The pan for the rest of the day was to do short hikes and to go to a few lookouts. But I can tell you that some of the most spectacular scenery was past the village eastward towards our campsite. As you can see in the photo album we couldn't stop taking photos. There was a section of rock formation that reminds me of the pastry Lobster tail ( my Italian  friends will know what i'm referring to) ...so i climbed up the rocks and stood in awe again at the scenery before me. Yes Annaick...i did it again.!!! This place is sooo special I can see why the Mormons called this a place for sanctuary.

We had heard about the Narrows Hike so we thought we'd go as far as we wanted and then turn back ....we picked up some walking sticks left behind by other hikers and set off. ..good thing we did because the currents is soooo fast at some crossings that you need to anchor yourself with the stick or else you'd lose your balance and off you went.....the stick were also useful to check ahead of your

next step  because the river bed is fulled with rumbling ..tumbling rocks and uneven terrain...so it was challenging in that respect ..but there were no elevation changes....cuz we were on the canyon floor....how cool is that!!!....now the beauty of a canyon is that there's always another bend.....so that was our motto...let's see what's around the next bend etc......until we made it to the narrows....it was by far the coolest....most humbling...most beautiful hike  hike i have ever done....the pictures say it all....a must do !!!

love always
mary and peter

23. & 24. Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks, California

Yosemite National Park Photo Album

Sequoia National Park Photo Album

Tunnel View

Alas, we committed our first faux pas of our trip!!!  welllll we were having sooo much fun at Maggie and Max's that we forgot to leave on Tuesday morning...instead we were merrily going along visiting Alcatraz..happy go lucky ....until we checked my iPhone calendar that said we should have checked in at Yosemite.......dohhhhhhh ......oh well so 2 nights at Yosemite quickly turned into 1 night. So we knew we had to make the most of it ....we drove quickly to the park and arrived around 1 o'clock...prime time for it to be a complete and absolute ZOO. It was absolutely impossible trying to park the van in the village ....so we had to circle around and around...until we decided to park about 2 km away from the village and biked in. That's when viewing of all the glorious landscape began. We biked to the bottom Yosemite Falls and were flabbergasted at the intensity of the water coming down the rock face....and it was freezing....so we got a little wet and moved along. Then we drove over to El Capitan, Tunnel View, then up , up , up to Glacier Point, 7000 feet high.....wow the view was spectacular....it momentarily took our breath away!!! how can rocks be so beautiful ?...why do I go gaga over nature wonders like this?  I've seen the most special place so far in the Grand Canyon, yet I am reduced to tears every time I see such a vision. Maybe it's the history behind these million year old rocks and how they came to be in its present form that  moves me so much. Various emotions dance through my body as I sit there soaking it all in.....  trying to sear these memories into my brain. I just can get enough...between Yosemite and Seqouia Parks I have been so overwhelmed with an abundance of such beauty.  Finally I got myself together and headed down the mountain and went to Bridalveil Falls. By now it was getting dark...we decided to have supper in the park down in the village near a river and called it a night. The drive back to the campsite was intense as it was pitch dark and witch back and forth over the mountain range. yikes!!!

Sequoia National Park was our destination the next day.  Once again we had to drive switchbacking (see red line on the map) on the edge of the mountain up towards the national park. We took the Kings Canyon entrance but didn't have time to stop at the canyon as we wanted to visit all of Sequoia Park. Interesting fact...unlike the grand canyon which was formed buy flowing water such as the Colorado River, giving the canyon the v shape....the King's Canyon was formed by glaciers  thereby giving it a u shape basin!!











So we finally arrived at the visitor's center and were told to visit 3 main areas since we only had 1 day. General Grant tree, General Sherman Tree and the Giant Forest.

General Sherman Tree

Imagine our surprise at the sheer size of these beautiful trees...unless you have a reference point, it's hard to fathom their size and their age as some are over 1000 years old. We learned how these giants grew so fast,,,basically the seeds, which look like an oat seed, grow straight up as fast as they can to the sky for about 600 years...then continue to go in width after that....cool fact!!! So  we drove off to find General Grant,,,yes he was a beaut....took some quick pics and set off to find the biggest tree on earth (not in height but in width) General Sherman

General Grant Tree

 The parking for Sherman was about 1 km away from the tree and it was a   downhill walk getting to Sherman...which meant a vigorous hike up hill after we visit Sherman. We were greeted by so many other giant Sequoias along the way...just as beautiful as sherman. Along the path we saw a cross section of a giant sequoia tree trunk  and it was absolutely massive, see photo album .  Well, just as I was leaning against the tree I heard a lady call my name.....what ???? how was it possible that  I knew someone here !!! well it's a small world after all ...I met a former parent Judy Smith....wow ....after chatting and catching up for a while we took some photos and said goodbye. We continued to walk along and finally stood face to face with General Sherman.....as I stood there all 5 ft of me ... I was in awe....felt so small in front of this very old tree since Cleopatra was queen of Egypt while some of these trees were saplings, since some estimates of the ages of these tress run about 1800 to 2700 year of age. How do you wrap your head around that??? so I cried ....AGAIN!!

We stayed for a while then drove off to see the Giant Forest.  The forest was so beautiful as the giants were near a meadow....so the contrast of the lush green against the orange red sequoias was spectacular. The walk was pleasant as we meandered through the forest on a boardwalk. We left the park rather late and we still had a 2 1/2 hours to our hotel in Bakersfield. Tomorrow.....Vegas !!!

love always
Mary and Peter

22. San Francisco

San Francisco Photo Album

Oh boy...we were excited to come to San Fran for a couple of reasons....firstly we felt that after this stop we are officially heading east ...towards home and secondly we were going to stay at Ilona's  sister's house in Danville ( about an hour east of san fran)  Maggie and Max.  Upon arrival we were greeted very warmly in their  beautiful home. They had prepared a wonderful meal which we ate by the pool,  After supper we cheered to their 38th wedding anniversary....chatted for a while then off to bed.

The next morning Maggie and Max t made us delicious breakfast and

cappuccinos....yum....then took us to Mount Diablo State Park, which right in their back yard.....we drove to the very top as it was too hot to walk..( plus we''re not in shape ) . As we switch backed up this 3800 foot mountain, we saw many, many road cyclists scaling this mountain, it was quite something to watch and max said it was grueling since he had done it previously. Once at the summit it saw a beautiful 360 view of bay to the coast. We also went to the museum, took some photos while being attacked by earwigs.....yukkkkkkkkkkk ...I would even go as far as saying it was in infestation....so we quickly descended from the observatory deck.

The descent down from the mountain was worse for me as I actually got nauseous. That evening we were treated to fabulous meals at the Metro Restaurant in nearby Lafayette.. We met Max and Maggie's friends Mark and Heidi, also former Canadians living in the area. They were very nice people. We exchanged stories and ate some pretty scrumptious meals. I had the homemade pasta dish and peter had pork loin dish.

On Sunday morning we headed toward downtown San Fran to go watch the Bay to Breakers run...it was interesting to say the least...we didn't want to go by car so we took our bikes on The Bart (their metro).  The race began on the bay side and headed west 10 km to the ocean side. After the run we thought we'd bike to the golden gate bridge....well I certainly chewed off more than I could

chew....OMG I thought I was gonna die riding my bike in the hilly city....there was no way I  was gonna make it...so we took a public bus back to the downtown core ( it's cool that we can put our bikes on the front rack on the city bus). After eating a spot of lunch and downing a very good Starbucks Coffee, I found my second wind 
 So we bike to the pier and headed over to pier 39. The place was buzzing with people, we were treated to the sea lions sunbathing on the docks, a close view of Alcatraz and many street performers.  after several hours of strolling the pier we headed back to the house...i was absolutely fried....it was a very long and exhausting day .....

Monday was a complete rest day...I was still recovering from the excruciating bike ride of the day before...so we chilled by the pool all day long. When Max and Maggie got home we had a delicious stir fry and went our for an ice cream to cap off a perfect relaxing day.













Our final day in San Fran was Tuesday and we had 1:30 tickets for visiting The Rock. we started our day in San Fran on Lombard Street. I had NOOOO idea the street would be so beautiful and very winding and decorated with beautiful flowers. So we drove down the street in delight ( Plz see video in our photo album) Afterwards we went to Coit Tower; another great lookout, unfortunately the Golden Gate Bridge was covered in fog. So off we went towards the pier. 












We had found a cheap parking through SpotHero app near Pier 9. We hopped on our bikes and cycled to pier 33 to board our cruise. Alas we had arrived on The Rock. It was a short boat ride as it's only 1 1/4 miles away from San Fran.  I had no idea this prison was a military prison before is was turned into a Federal Prison. Alctraz was reserved for uncooperative prisoners regardless of their crime. we visited the c -d blocks, mess hall, morgue, library , isolation cells.  We enjoyed our visit here. 

I've included a video on the most infamous escape of all!!


Alcatraz video



Finally after our informative visit at the Rock we decided to try to see if the Golden gate bridge was still shrouded with fog. We drove as close to it as possible at Fort Point and were surprised at how beautiful this bridge was, even though it was still covered in some fog.  We decided to take the bridge back to Maggie's house and that was a treat as well.....san fran was a definite hit for us!!

love always
Mary and Peter

21. Pismo Beach, Moody Bay and Monterey

Pismo Beach, Morro Bay and Monterrey Photo Album


Hello everyone

We said our goodbye's with Jocelyn in los Angeles and hit the  road up north toward Pismo Beach....we chose this stop because it was half way between San Francisco and LA.  We checked in our campsite and biked around the camp a little while geocaching. I dropped off a travel bug I had picked up in Sedona and picked up a new one which i'll take home to Montreal.

Bar's Motto

Peter having trouble choosing

Once again it was  too chilly to sit at the beach so we decided to drive up to San Luis Obispo which is Caltech town. We ended up at a bar where you can try 36 types of beer and wine. Basically the way it works is that you check in with your credit card and are given a bracelet with a chip. You go to the taps and decide which beer you wanna have, tap you bracelet and pour yourself a drink. They are a variety of beers at different costs of course. At the end of the night you can check out by paying what you owe with card and give bracelet back....I found the beer to be delicious and the system to innovative and cool. On our way back to the car we stumbled upon Bubblegum Alley....yep you guesssed it....it was pretty disgusting.....so I added mine too.....GROSS!!

The next day we drove to Morro Bay to see this giant rock...we also saw a school of sea otters playing in the bay and of course the wind was howling so we stayed for about an hour...took photos and had to retreat to the car for some warmth...

kite surfers...

And the piece de resistance was driving up the coast on Highway 1 to Monterrey...... OMG the coastal views of the rugged  coast with the beautiful bluffs and the deep blue ocean  was breathtaking ......we took our time and stopped frequently to take soak in the beauty. We watched the HBO series Pretty Little Lies so we wanted to go the the bridge and the cafe they filmed at on the show.....it did not disappoint....we got a kick of seeing these locations in real life.....then we drove south again on highway 1 towards Big Sur right to the end of the road, since the landslides have damaged the highway and therefore closed a huge section of the highway.  We promptly performed a U-turn and headed back north on highway 1. The next day we drove did the 17 Mile Drive at pebble beach....that was also pretty cool....we stayed to watch the sunset at one of the lookouts....spectacular....I  can't ever get enough of the sunsets !!!!

beautiful coastline

happy Mary and peter!!!

OFF to San Francisco!!!

Love always
Mary and Peter

Brixby bridge in the show

Cafe in the show

20. Los Angeles

Los Angeles Photo Album

WE arrived in L.A full of expectations since we always hear so much about this city.  So the first thing we did was check into our Airbnb house in North Hills. We were greeted by Jocelyn and her sisters. It was gonna feel good sleeping in a real bed and not in the van for four days. We immediately hit ti off with Jocelyn, Theresa and Pamela. They made us feel right at home. So the first order of operations was to figure out what we wanted to do in this town.

We decided to support local theater and went to a Green Day musical at the cupcake theater in LA. The theater was in an obscure part of town in very tiny place....the local artists did a fairly good job at singing and dancing in the musical but they were NO Jersey Boys that's for sure.

 The next day we decided to get into beach mode. We hit the coast and went to Saint Monica's pier and Venice Beach. Another cold day in Cali.....once again we did not swim in the ocean but we had a picnic lunch and met a lovely young girl from Nevada named Lexi. She was practicing her cartwheels so naturally we struck up a conversation!!!  , Heidi, her mom,  was very friendly and Lexi was delightful... she was  in grade 4 !!! After a 15-20 minute conversation we took a selfie and went our ways. We headed towards the Santa Monica pier which was an amusement park. We strolled along and enjoyed a pleasant afternoon.

We kicked off our second day with the infamous walk of fame on Hollywood Boulevard ( had to do it),  luckily we went early in the morning because we passed by later in the evening and was absolutely jam packed. So we did the touristy... thing took pictures of some stars on the walk. From there we went to the Chinese theater where we saw some footprints and hand prints of some stars and notably Marilyn Monroe was the only one that flowers on hers. We saw the  Dolby theater with the infamous red carpet....it was quite cheesy and we did feel very touristy but when in LA you got to do at least once right?










We stayed for a couple of hours and then decided to head over to the Getty Museum .....NOW this place is a spectacular place that's absolutely immense and it was very very well laid out.  There's a tram that takes you from the parking lot to the museum since the museum is up on a hill. The museum boasts some exquisite our collections from original artists such as then go Monet,Peter Paul Rubens, Rembrandt, Van Gogh many etc. we enjoyed it so much we stay till the very end we actually closed the place down. Best of all it's all free!!
😮

As usual when we got back to the house we chitchatted and exchanged our day events with our house Jocelyn and her family, this time we met her daughter Stephanie....it was so cool the way  Jocelyn's  family embraced us .....they give us many tips on where to get free food ...seriously they should have a blog on how to get free food...and it was very very pleasant.  After about an hour and a half of chatting we decided to head to bed. 

Our 3rd was an exciting day......we knew we had tickets to the James Corden show so we decided not to take any chances and  headed down to the CBS studios. We decided to park her car in indoor facility and then headed over to the farmers market which was right nearby. Walked around the farmers market for a little while and had some lunch and then started to notice that the line was forming for the James Corden show so we proceeded to the line ourselves. Official check-in was at three o'clock  and we got in line  at 1:40 and so it began... waiting ....waiting.... waiting .....waiting. Suddenly  an intern comes out to tell us there should be two lines one for priority tickets one for general mission ....we felt lucky since we had priority tickets and we were fairly close to the front of the first line. At about 4 o'clock they ushered us into the first waiting area in the building after we had cleared security through metal detectors and then finally were given a bracelet. So basically Peter and I deciphered that if you were young and hip you were given two colors purple and gray ....if you were not you were given just the purple and if you're lucky you're given a gold bracelet (gold bracelet meant that you were invited by somebody who worked at the show ). While in line we met some young kids from Montreal ....they  were actually from France but are working Montreal ...doing a work stage ...they were all in their early 20's ...so when we were ushered in  and we thought we're gonna sit together but noooooooooooooooo..... they got the two bracelets (young and hip) so  they were sent immediately to the front and we were sent to the middle ............oh well I guess if were 20 or 30 years younger. Once we got inside and told where to sit,  I was struck by the size of the studio 56....it's very very small and intimate ...so every seat was a good seat....and there were A LOT of people working behind the scenes.  The director gave us strict instructions to cheer at the top of our lungs in certain specified moments ....which were a lot of them..... and we were NOT to jeer or yell out  words.... just cheer and clap very loudly. He certainly cracked his whip and made sure that we did this.... he told us to fake it if we have to but we have to clap and cheer as loudly as we could!!!!  by the end of the night my voice was shot my triceps got a work out...... but it was kind a neat to watch a live show and it was so fun to be in the audience......James is very affable although he did not come to the audience to say hi how are you doing...thanks for coming....oh well!!!!

tomorrow we're off  up the coast to San Luis Obispo at Psimo beach

19. San Diego, California

San Diego, California photo album

hey hey everyone


I  hope you're keeping well ....sooooo we made it to Califonia....it's the furthest west we have ever been and we're sooo far from home, as you can see from the pic. I must admit, it was pretty cool smelling the pacific ocean and putting our feet in the very frigid water. Our timing is not good at all, as it's unusually cold in California this week compared to last week's temps of 90 Fahrenheit. Oh well, good thing we're Canadian and we have winter jackets. In fact we had to switch our campsite because the wind was howling so badly that we couldn't even cook. Anyway, we settled in and decided to go check out the downtown area.

We quickly stumbled upon fisherman's village and the USS MIDWAY Naval ship.....she was a beaut, acting as a backdrop to the Unconditional Surrender Statue; a man kissing a woman  after V-J Day as you can see from the original picture.....so we did like all the other tourists ....took a selfie in front of it....lol......we strolled along the oceanfront geocaching along the way....it was a really good intro to San Diego.!!!

The next day we decided to go the the Cabrillo National Monument at Point Loma. National parks are fantastic because there offer free tour guides explaining the preservation of a natural resource such as the park forests or tide pools or caves etc.  Our guide told us that Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo was the first European to ever set foot in California but it was Gaspar de Portolà who established the first settlement there...interesting facts huh?  So we went to his statue...looked out to the bay and we could see Mexico across the bay. Tijuna was right there!!! wow so close.....afterwards we proceeded to the lighthouse then the tide pools and called it day.....we had to hurry out of there and pick up some supper because we had a show to catch....Jersey Boys at the civic theater. We absolutely loved the show!! Of course it helped that the music was so good and of course the acting was spot on. I didn't really know much about Frankie Valli's story ...I cried a couple of times too. Anyway totally recommend this show. 




The last day we were in San Diego we decided to beach it. So we went to La Jolla beach and it didn't disappoint. although it was a super cold day to swim, it was hot enough to sit on the beach an vegge out while Peter went for a hike. He found some hand gliders doin their thing and some beautiful homes on the beach. we spent a deal of time there and recharged our batteries. 

We headed back to our campsite for supper ...woohooo, fajitas. We met some kids from Kansas next door to us who had trouble strign a fire. .....so we went over with our hatchet and help split the lod into kindling.....they were very polite and offered us a beer bu way of thanks.....so we hit it off....we had supper then hung out by the fire pit exchanging  stories... mostly about what it was like growing up in Kansas.... they were hilarious , and delightful.....a great night all around.....tomorrow we head off to LA.

love always
Mary and Peter