After our few short days in Germany we started to make our way down towards Italy. On the way though was Austria. We drove through miles of countryside and finally the Alps. It was beautiful driving around the countryside of Germany, and Austria. Here unlike the USA, towns are scattered, rather than having a large city that fans out into countryside, it seems like hundreds of little towns were plopped down in the middle of nowhere without purpose. ...
Munich, Germany was the first destination on our European trip and what a place. On this gray rainy day, the city seemed extremely somber. Being a Sunday, all the shops were closed and the city was extremely quite. Silence and quietness are something that seems prevalent in Germany. The people seem to enjoy their silence. Not in a rude or snobbish way, they just appear to be a more silent people who keep many thoughts to themselves. As if they contemplate each word or sentence that comes from there mouth, they seem to keep most words inside as if to spare us if any of the words are not entirely worth hearing; in total opposition to many people I know in the US who talk simply so silence is never heard. It is a calm and almost serene silence but the grey sky brings a sadness to this great city. ...
A couple of days ago my grand adventure around Europe came to a bittersweet end. Back in the USA now I had one full day at home before being shipped off to Michigan. So here I am sitting in my grandmother’s beautiful library addressing you. I have seen so many amazing things and of course I desire to share all of it with you. But I would like to share a brief preface before the fun begins: ...
For those of you who are not aware, I have been in Europe for the last week. I have been without internet and will soon be again, so I will just give a quick update. We started in Germany with a flight to Munich, after several days there we left for Venice, on the way we also stopped in Austria. We had a magical stay in Venice and have just finally moved on to Tuscany where we are currently staying in Chianti, a very small wine village right between Florence and Siena. After a day trip to Florence today tomorrow we are moving on to Siena and ending our day in Vinci, Italy. ...
Last year in Horseshoe Bend I found an amazing looking lizard while out hiking. This year since we returned to the same spot I was hoping to again find a lizard like that. To do this we began a lizard hunt. We found several different types of lizard, the most common was this little guy with the black banded neck. We also spotted a nice small red lizard. He was enjoying his sun spot and was extremely good at camouflaging himself. ...
Even now at 4:30 in the morning in Death Valley, it is near scorching. It is an ungodly heat, but for the beauty in this sparse land, it is worth it. We woke up really, really early in the morning to catch the sunrise and get a little hike in before it was too hot out. So we headed over to the Mesquite Sand Dunes to watch the sun rise over this sandy wonderland. ...
I know this is out of order but bear with me. Today was the last day of our road trip around the Southwest. After a week, four states, and twelve national parks my mom and I are finally home. Reasonably, we are both very tired so today’s story of how we went all the way from Death Valley’s 108 degree weather, to mountains of snow in Yosemite and finally home to our lovely little Santa Cruz. However you will have to wait one more day for the photos and the fully story. Stay tuned!!
Today was a day of reminiscing, we went back and visited many places that we saw last year on our road trip to Michigan and loved. The first of our most memorable revisits was Horseshoe Bend, a colossal gooseneck near Lake Powell. This extraordinarily impressive geological monolith is one of my favorite views I have ever seen. Sadly the lightning was a far cry from last years and resulted in shadowed photos. Good photos or not, this was beyond amazing and I am really glad to go back and have another chance to see this unique structure. ...
Today we decided to give Arches a second try but earlier, when there are not massive hordes of toursists all over the park. We had an extraordinary time! We first visited the Windows were there were no people at all and had a pleasant, but extremely fast paced hike as we took pictures of the window arches. Afterwards we headed over to the Delicate Arch where we were faced with a decision. To simply use the overlook of the arch or do a hike up a sheer rock face to stand right next to the cliff. We almost chose incorrectly and were thinking about doing the overlook for time’s sake. However in the end the hiker’s spirit won and we decided to make the trek to the arch. It was a decision we will never regret. ...
After last nights flat tire we were left behind schedule in Escalante instead of Moab for the night. As a result we had a lot of ground to make up tonight and did three national parks in one day. The first was Capitol Reef, a national park full of brightly colored cliffs, beautiful aspens, and petroglyphs. We saw many cool things in this park. The first was a little hidden cliff dwelling. I am not sure whether this is ancient (I doubt it) or something someone just decided would be cool to make but either way it was really interesting and cool. ...