Trip #3, the West Coast Trip (also dubbed “Can they spend 33 days together in a minivan?” tour) is complete. We took 7 days to drive to Seattle and stopped at the Field of Dreams, Badlands National Park, Mt. Rushmore, and Yellowstone National Park.
We then drove down the west coast stopping at all the ballparks along the way. We also stopped at some beautiful golf courses (Torrey Pines, Pebble Beach). Our favorite city was San Diego. Temperate climate, crystal clear skies, a beautiful bay, ships going in and out all afternoon, Balboa Park and great seafood. We’re hoping the Dept. of the Navy sees fit to transfer Steven there so we can go back.
Our route home took us thru Phoenix, Denver and Kansas City. I was most impressed with Monument Valley on the Navajo Reservation. It’s where they’ve filmed many of the Hollywood westerns most notably with John Wayne. Our tour guide, Roy, knew all the best places to take pictures and told the best stories.
We put on 7960 miles in a rented Dodge Caravan. By the way, it was so hot in Phoenix, the rear bumper expanded and prevented the rear hatch from opening. We invented an ingenious way to open the hatch … we’d put one foot on the bumper to press it down and open the hatch at the same time. I’m sure there’s a joke in there somewhere. We spent $9639 ($750 on tickets; $251 at museums and tours; $1212 on eating out; $1481 on gas -- max price $4.89/gallon; $859 on the rental car; $2950 on hotels; $886 on groceries and miscellaneous knick-knacks; and $1250 in cash ($400 of which went to various casinos in Las Vegas).
AT&T Park (San Francisco) was our favorite stadium. The view of the Bay was spectacular.
Petco Park (San Diego) and Coors Field (Denver) had the best hot dogs. It was hard to pick between the two … 33 days on the road clouds the brain!
-- Things to note:
1) The US has an incredible National Park system (thanks to Teddy Roosevelt as we learned during our Mt. Rushmore tour). There were so many things to see and each was more beautiful than the next. Arches National Park was particularly interesting since it wasn’t on our itinerary … we just happened to drive on the road passed it.
2) South Dakota is the most boring state to drive thru (beating out Iowa). Very flat and no sights to see.
3) There are far too many casinos in Montana. I guess that’s not surprising. After all, what else is there to do in Montana. I’m still quite perturbed that they allowed the Little Big Horn casino.
4) We witnessed some incredible flooding in Iowa although what we saw was the prelude to the big flooding problems they had. It apparently rained a lot after we left. I will also never forget being hustled to the basement of the restaurant, dinner plate in hand, when the tornado warning alarm was sounded.
5) Yellowstone is gorgeous. Two noteworthy events … it was the first time I saw snow on the ground in June … the melting snow led to some spectacular waterfall scenes in Yellowstone; and, for the first time in my life I had to yield to a bison (who looked me in the eye as we passed him in a way that said ‘this is my road, a—hole!’)
6) We experienced the hottest temperatures of our lives (116deg) as we drove to Phoenix. We also went thru the smoke from the first forest fires although it got much worse after we left California. Thank goodness for indoor stadiums. It was too hot to sit outside in Phoenix to watch a game.
7) The tour of the Ping Golf Club Mfg facility was outstanding. Best factory tour I’ve been on (The Budweiser tour in St. Louis was very good, but I’m no longer a beer drinker). I just had to get fitted for a Ping putter. I just got it so I’ll get to try it out this weekend.
8) The Broker Restaurant with its All-You-Can-Eat shrimp bowl brought before you order wins the best restaurant of the trip
9) The songs of the trip … both of the Maroon 5 songs currently in heavy rotation –
Won’t Go home Without You (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gskuP-8dtSU) and
Wake Up Call (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOskLZ-w3RA&feature=related).
East Coast trip next. Fenway Park, Yankee Stadium here we come!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment