Start of the NP tour (31st of July to 1st of August 2013)

A very old cactus

We started our tour on Wednesday in the late morning direction Payson, AZ. It was an 8 hour drive, but time passed fast and the landscape was not boring like we tought it would be. We drove across some green spots, some mountainous spots, flat areas, desert areas with sand dunes....once crossed the Arizona border the landscape changed and we could see a lot of cactus, the typical Arizona cactus we usually see in cartoons, the 3-armed one. We stopped different times, but only for fuel, wc or food. It was too hot to stay outside, we reached a max of 46°C. 

Travertine bridge

We arrived in Payson at about 8.30 pm. Our host family had waited for us to cook dinner, so we ate fish scallops with pasta, caprese salad and home made bread, very goodThe following morning Davin made us breakfast (croissant sandwich with egg and bacon) and then he took us to the Tonto Natural Bridge State Park. We had a very nice hike and saw the worlds largest travertine bridge. In the afternoon Davin drove us to a big cactus because we wanted to take a picture in front of one.  We didn't know that you can eat cactus and that you can buy it in grocery stores (only in Arizona I guess). We stopped at the grocery and looked for cactus. We didn't find the fresh one, so we bought the pickled one. They are not bad, but we probably tasted mostly the spices and vinegar than the actual cactus taste, which is very mild. In the evening Devin cook dinner again, this time grilled salmon with olives, salad andhome made bread. 

A S'more

While chatting of our respective travel adventures we came up talking about S' mores (grilled marshmallows and a piece of chocolate squeezed into 2 graham crackers) and that I (Romina) wanted to try some. So Devin took out all the needed ingredients and we made S' mores. We grilled the marshmallows not over fire as traditionally but over the kitchen stove. Very funny American treats to prepare!! :)
Before going to bed we played pool, Lorenzo and I against Devin and his son. We won :)

Under the travertine bridge

It was a really nice stay with Devin and his family, they made the beginning of our trip memorable. The next morning we took off for the Petrified Forest NP.

San Francisco (19th to 21st of July 2013)

We started our trip to SF on Friday morning. We took the bus to go to the rental car place and then picked up Lore's mom and sister. The original plan was to start very early in the morning (around 3am) to avoid the LA traffic. But we failed to pick up the car on Thursday evening, because we missed the last bus. So finally we started around 9 am on Friday.  We decided to take the inland route to be faster, instead of the coastal route like planned (we would do that route coming back). It was actually an interesting travel, because we passed through desert like places, very green spots with palm trees or grapes and immense herds of cows (meat cows :( ). Also the temperature shift was interesting. We started with about 20 °C, passed the 40°C in the desert and ended up in cold and cloudy SF with 15°C!! We stopped several times on the road and we arrived at about 20.30. Once arrived and after checking in at the hotel, we took a walk to fisherman's Wharf and had something to eat.

Cable car ride

The following morning we started with the historic cable car ride to downtown SF. After taking some pictures at Union Square we walked through China Town until we reached Pier 39, where we met our friends (and Lorenzo's far relativs) Pamee, Chris and Stephanie Collette. We had met Pamee, her husband Steve and one of their sons Josh the last time we where in the US. And we hosted Josh ans his brother Chris in Sion in summer 2012. So the only family member we didn't meet before was Stephanie. We all had lunch at a mexican restaurant at Pier 39 and then took a Bridge-Alcatraz boat tour. It was freezing cold on the boat, but the view from under the Golden Gate (of course with fog) and Alcatraz was worth it! After the tour we stopped at a coffee shop and had a warm drink over some more chat with the Collettes. After saying goodbye to our friends we wanted to go to the Golden Gate bridge. We took the street car, but we had to wait a long time for it to come.  When we finally got downtown it was already getting dark, and we were all cold, so we did not go to the bridge but stayed  in downtown a bit longer. 

Before going back to our hotel we took some more cable car rides and we even got to see a car towing. In fact a car had parked on the cable car rails blocking it. We waited for about 45 min for the car to be towed away. We just could have jumped out and continue on foot, but we wanted to see that!! It was a long day but we appreciated it. 

On the following day we already had to drive back to SD. But first we stopped at the bridge for some pictures :) We also stopped in Mountain View to see google's headquarters with the Androids statues.

This time we drove partly on the coast and we passed through Santa Monica and Malibu. We did not exactly see the beaches because it was already dark, but we stopped in front of Bruce Wollis' s house, without seeing him of course :)

We then also drove through LA and Beverly Hills! We arrived in SD at around 1 am all exhausted. But we all had a great time!!

At Pier 39 with Pamee, Chris and Stephanie Collette

The bridge in the fog

Google Headquarters

San Diego (16th to 26th July 2013) - Part 2

Our stay in SD was somehow special this time, because we were not just the two of us. In fact Lore's sister Alessia is taking English classes (for two months) in SD right now. But that's not all. Lore's mom, Maria Teresa, also came to SD with one of Alessia's friends, Alice! They stayed for 10 days, from 16th to 26th July. So in that time frame we often did something together. We went to the zoo, Midway carrier museum, walked around Balboa Park, Sea Port Village and we went Coronado (to see the sunset, which we did not see because of the clouds). 

One morning we went to the Hash House for american breakfast. They brought us so much food we had left overs for 3 days!!!! But it was delicious. An other place we went to, was the shame of Gaslamp,  at Dick's. The waitress there are rude, but if you know it's made on purpose it's funny! For example, once seated, the waitress literally throw the menu and everything on the table. :) We also had more "normal" dinners, like the delicious dinner at the Inn the Park for the last night that Alice and Maria Teresa were in San Diego. 

We also spent one weekend in San Francisco, but we will talk about that crazy trip separately.

Last dinner together

At Coronado

The Hash

San Diego Zoo

At the Zoo

San Diego (11th to 31st July 2013) - Part 1

Nice welcoming in San Diego!!!

We arrived in SD in the evening of the 11th of July.  We took the bus to our new home. Through our friend Charlotte, who we met during our last stay in SD three years ago, we got the contact with Leanne and Chino, the couple hosting us in their beautiful house.  They are a very nice couple, very welcoming and generous. Leanne has a 13 year old daughter, who speaks very good french!  Also their dog, the pitbull Guinness, is very cute. Chino and Leanne's house is near Hillcrest, a nice neighborhood with different bars and shops and only a 15 min bus ride to downtown San Diego.

A car from Pride the gay parade

On our first Saturday we met Charlotte and a friend of her's and went to Hillcrest to watch 'Pride' the gay parade. The parade takes place every year and apparently this year it was especially crowded because of the law for gay mariage in California which just was accepted. It was interesting to watch people's outfits, from the one participating in the parade, but also from the ones watching.

On that same day we drove to Solana beach and Encinitas.  In Solana beach we watched a bocce competition which, Charlotte told us, is getting very popular in  California among joung people. Than we moved to Encinitas for a beach concert, a local band was playing. It was a really nice day! 

As we stay in SD for 3 weeks we are not gonna write about every single day, also because sometimes we just stayed home planning our National Park trip and enjoying the american house (pretending to be american by drinking hot chocolate with marshmallows! ) :) Instead we will just gonna resume some of our SD days.

Solana Beach

The local band Switchfoot playing.

Boston, MA (10th and 11th July 2013)

Lore & Lobster :)

We arrived at South Station very early as, for once, the overnight bus ride (from NYC to Boston) was too short! So we stayed a while inside the station, had a donut & hot chocolate based breakfast, reorganized our bags and planned the upcoming day. As we left the Station it was around 9 am and we had decided for continuing the Freedom Trail from the Quincy Market / Feneuil Hall, where we had left on past friday. Our goal was to  reach Charlestown on the other part of the bridge and see the USS Constitution, an old ship of the United States Navy (the oldest commissioned naval vessel afloat). It was named by President Washington after the Constitution if the United States. But we never made it to Charlestown as we had to change route and head to the Liberty wharf to the Legal Seafood Restaurant, where we met some very good friends, Bruce and Sally, for lunch. It was not by chance that we were in a seafood restaurant. In fact, Lore wanted to try lobster. Fortunately Bruce took lobster too, so that he could show Lore how to the that sea monster step by step :) It was actually real fun to watch him rip the crustacea apart....maybe a bit dangerous for the people sitting next to him or in front of him...

We had a really nice time with Bruce and Sally and concluded lunch with a delicious boston cream pie and a group picture along the pier.

After that lobster adventure we returned to Somerville where Nick and Rebecca, our Boston hosts, live. After a chat with Nick we went for groceries, as we cooked for them that evening. On the menu: pork steaks with cream sauce and mushrooms, wild rice and steamed carrots. After dinner Nick (Rebecca was not home that night) took us for a walk in Somerville and we stopped at the orange leaf, a frozen jogurt place :P 

We really had some nice and fun talk and once back home we even played Jenga, which we both hadn't played for ages...

The following morning we packed our stuff, had breakfast and around 11.30 am Nick drove us to the metro station, where we took the red line followed by the silver line direction Logan airport. 

What a nice welcome!!

Our flight to San Diego left at 6.45 pm with a delay of 1 hour. We really had a nice week on the east coast but also tiring, so we were looking forward to our 3 week stay in San Diego. We landed at about 9 pm local time and we took the bus to our new home :) 

During our San Diego vacation we will stay with Leanne and Chino, who rent us a room in their house. They are friends of friends of ours we met the last time we were in SD. They are a really nice couple and their welcoming was just perfect. In front of the main entrance Chino wrote Welcome to San Diego in blue chalk and on our bed we found towels and books about south California and San Diego Hikes. Happy and excited for this new chapter in our trip, our eyes closed as soon as we touched our new soft bed....

New York, NY (9th July 2013)

We arrived in NYC in the morning.  First thing we did was to leave our bags at a luggage storage place, as we would not have been able to take them with us the whole day. We then headed to lower Manhattan, to the battery park and Lady Liberty. We wanted to walk all the way from the bus station, to see a part of Manhattan we haven't before, but we soon had to give up the plan and take the subway (for the sake of our hurting feet, legs, backs...). It just was too long!! 

We enjoyed walking along the wharf and strolling through the park, looking for squirrels.

Lady Liberty

We then walked to the new One World Trade Center. We were not able to see the 9/11 Memorial as it was all surrounded by protections (because of street works going on). We should have had a pre-ordered ticket to enter the memorial but we didn't, as we did not know there was one required. We visited the Trinity Church (constructed in 1698) and St. Paul's Chapel instead. The latter one was very interesting to visit as during the 9/11 attack it was used as a place of rest and refuge for the recovery workers at the WTC site. It contains a lot of information about that terrible day, with statement of witnesses and general description of how things happened. At some point it gave you goose bumps!

One World Trade Center and St.Paul's Chapel on the left

After lower Manhattan we took a metro ride up to Central Park. The park is very nice, with lots of trees , little lakes, squirrels...After our visit someone told us that the park is entirely artificially made.

While in Central Park the battery of our camera went off, so we had to take pictures with our cell phones (both of them, of course, already with dying batteries). 

Trinity Church

We spent our evening sitting on the stairs upon the Ticket Ticket counter (discounted tickets for Broadway and Off Broadway musicals) in Times Square while is was getting darker and the lights getting more and more shiny. We were so tired we did not actively do something, we just sat there with some street food enjoying the surrounding attractive view of Times Square.

After midnight we finally could board on our bus to Boston. We were somehow sad to have spent only one day in NYC, but at the same time happy to rest. Also we were looking forward to meet our friends for lunch in Boston the following day.

Buffalo, NY (7th July 2013)

City Hall

In the morning we took the metro and headed to downtown  Buffalo. We started to walk, following a walking tour described in one of our brochures. Buffalo has a lot of nice buildings with architectural characteristics, for example the Guaranty building (1895-1896, Louis Sullivan) or the City Hall (1929-1931). We unfortunately could not go into the City Hall, but  apparently it has a wonderfully decorated inside.

We strolled along Elmwood Avenue, with plenty of shops, art galleries and restaurants/bars in colorful American style houses. Right after that we took Delaware Av., which has some beautiful mansions.

The naval park on the waterfront

At around 4.30 pm our host Sharon picked us up and drove us to the water front, a very nice place at the Erie canal with USS ships and a submarine used during WWII. We walked until a kind of watch tower where we could go up and enjoy the nice view over Buffalo. For dinner Sharon took us to a Greek restaurant on Elmwood Avenue. 

The House of Chicken wings

We originally had planned to take the train back to NYC on Monday morning (8th July), but as we saw that the ticket price had doubled we decided to take the Greyhound overnight again. As a result we had one day more in buffalo, which we used to explore the city on foot once more. We checked out the public library as we (actually it was just me, Romina ;-)) wanted to see the original manuscript of Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Twain lived in Buffalo for about 2 years. 

We had lunch at the Anchor bar, the house of chicken wings, where the original Buffalo chicken wings were first served. At the end of the day we prepared for another night ride and impatiently looked forward to be in NYC again!

Niagara Falls, NY (6th July 2013)

At 3 sisters island

On Saturday morning at 7.30 we arrived in Niagara Falls. Nicole from couch surfing was waiting for us at the bus station. She took us to a car-guided tour and showed us the city. We stopped at the 3 sisters islands, a very nice place near the falls that tourists usually do not visit.

At the why coffee shop with Nicole

After that Nicole took us to the why coffee shop, a local bar with a ? shaped counter, serving american breakfast. Omelette, pancakes, home fries, french toast...all the energy needed for a long day :-)

View of the Canadian side from the Horseshoe Falls

View of the American Falls on the left and
the Canadian Horseshoe Falls in the back

Nicole then took us to the Falls...what an awesome view! Tons and tons of water flowing by every second! We took the Maid of the Mist tour and went with a boat near the big horse shoe shaped waterfall.  It was like being in the middle of a storm! Amazing! After that we walked and waked along the water taking lots of pictures.

When all our different cameras (including our cell phones)  went low on battery we decided to head down to Buffalo, where our host Sharon was waiting for us. After a fast but good Mexican dinner at the Mighty Taco, Sharon took us to, we returned to her house where she offered us a home made dessert, made with bananas, raspberries, yogurt and chocolate cookies.

Boston, MA (5th July 2013)

In the morning Nick made us a delicious breakfast with eggs and vegetables.

While eating, he told us about their trip in Europe and about the wonderful experience they had in Hungary. It was very nice to listen to their stories!!!

After this interesting wake-up, we jumped on the car and they dropped us off near the subways station. From there we started our one-day visit  to Boston downtown.

Ready for the Freedom Trail

After a first stop at the Greyhound station, where we bought bus tickets for the evening, we started our walking tour into Boston, with our brand new camera ready to be used! Under the humid Bostonian heat we decided to take the freedom trail, the brick-lined route that leads to 16 historically significant sites, starting from the Massachusetts State House.

Quincy Market

Once we arrived at Faneuil Hall, the Quincy market attracted the attention of our hungry stomachs, so we stopped for a lobster roll and a beagle (not forgetting a super sized cookie of course). We walked some more, without having a specific goal, but just enjoying the views of the city.

Towards the end of the afternoon we headed back to the Greyhound station, where we took the overnight bus to Niagara Falls, NY.

On 10th of July we will be in Boston one day more, we will finish the freedom trail and meet some very good friends for lunch. We are looking forward!! :)

Boston, MA (4th July 2013)

On the plane

After more than 2 years from our last post, we take to live our blog again. On 4th of July we started a new American tour of the sightseeings we did not seen on the last tour. Expecially this time we will visit mostly National parks instead of cities. At least, this is the plan.

Before leaving Switzerland both of us had to work till the last moment. The result was that we had to finish to pack our stuff the night before leaving.

At 6AM we finally left Sion with the destination Boston, MA. Both of us were very excited.

We flew with the Irish company Aer Lingus, so had to stop and change the plane in Dublin. The flight to Boston was with an A330. The wings were impressive, bigger compared to the planes that we usually take.

4th of July fireworks

The 4th of July, the Indipendence day, is a big US festivity. In Boston we had  contact with a couple that we found through Couchsurfing and they invited us to a BBQ in the South of downtown Boston and to see the fireworks in the evening.

From the park we were watching the fires we had a beautiful view of the Boston skyline. There were normal fireworks, but also some smile-shaped fireworks :)

At the end of the evening we headed to the CS's home with a tipical old American car.

Our hosts Nick and Rebecca

Nick and Rebecca live in a beautiful appartment, with a super comfortable couch. In the morning Nick prepared a tasty breakfast: eggs with onions, peppers and broccolis in a wrap with cheese and salsa :) Mhhhhh