Alright, I am gonna tell you the whole story of our west coast journey. I finished the 3rd semester at school, now i have time to spend on writing my blog again. It has been for a while since i updated the blog. So, let's get it done.
Everything started in September when Andras and I were drinking some refreshment on one of our Wednesday sessions. Or maybe we started thinking about this trip while we were traveling in Alaska. Who knows, but the point is that it was a very well planned trip. Andras planned it, because he loves planning long trips. He kept me updated, we got the itinerary ready and then the initial budget plan and with time the plan became more detailed until it got its final phase around mid October. Andras invited couple of his friends, finally two of them could make it. We knew that Xiao is gonna come with us for us, so we booked our flight tickets together. We were three at least, but the plan was to get together 7 of us. I convinced Marti on one of the Wednesday nights (a different one), it took for three ours to get her playing on our side. On the next morning she emailed us, that she wants to join the team! Great! We were on the way to fill up a bad ass SUV. On one of my accounting class I mentioned the trip to Aziz, who immediately got caught on the plan. He did not hesitate at all, however, his wife were coming on the third day of our trip to visit him in Hamden. "It's not a problem, Bence!" - said him, and joined us for two days in San Francisco. Plus Levi and Stefi also confirmed their arrival and booked the flight tickets. Nice! We were six. It was good, but not enough. We were unable to find anybody else as the date of the trip was coming and the flight tickets prices skyrocketed. A week before we left I just got an email from Xiao that said: "Hey, Jing wants to come!" Wow! You got it! He found a real good deal on the flight tickets, actually he spent less on tickets than us, but he had to stay one more night in San Francisco. So our final team got together! 7 of us!
This trip one of our biggest trips and we knew with Andris that this is gonna be pretty intense, hoped that everybody will be able to keep up with the tremendous programs and timely schedule. We visited five new states, such as California, Oregon, Utah, Arizona, Nevada!
Here is our schedule:
CA-NV-AZ-UT-OR
(Nov
16-25)
http://goo.gl/maps/9MWXL
Total length: 3300 miles (at a 50 mph average speed it means we sat 66 hours in the car)
What is this length? Well, the length of the Hungarian border is 1400 miles, 2.35 times we traveled around it. Or like I drove home from Budapest to Tarcal 22 times (156 miles x 22 miles)
I break the total ten days trip into three sections. I go with the first three days now. Then 3 days again and finally 4 days.
Friday
(Nov 16)
·
arriving to San Francisco (CA)
·
San Francisco night sightseeing
Saturday
(Nov 17)
·
sightseeing in San Francisco (CA)
Sunday
(Nov 18)
·
leaving SF in the morning
· Yosemite
National Park
(Mariposa, CA)
Yosemite Valley Visitor
Center
Tunnel View (Yosemite Valley
Overlook)
Half Dome
_____________________________________First Section___________________________________
Monday
(Nov 19)
· Kings Canyon
National Park
(Three Rivers, CA)
· Sequoia
National Park
(CA)
Tuesday
(Nov 20)
· Death Valley
National Park,
Furnace Creek (Inyo, CA)
Stovepipe Wells Village
Badwater
Furnace Creek Visitor Center
· Mt Wilson
Wilderness Area (AZ)
· Las Vegas (NV)
Wednesday
(Nov 21)
· Zion National
Park, Zion
Canyon Scenic Drive (Hurricane, UT)
_____________________________________Second Section_____________________________
Thursday
(Nov 22)
· Lassen
Volcanic National Park (Mineral, CA)
Kohm Yah-mah-nee Visitor Center
Lassen Volcanic National Park Highway
Manzanita Lake
Friday
(Nov 23)
· Crater Lake
National Park
(Klamath, OR)
Steel
Visitor Center
Watchman
Overlook
· Redwood
National Park
(Orick, CA)
Crescent
Beach
Prairie Creek Visitor Center
Klamath River Overlook
Newton B. Drury Scenic
Parkway
Kuchel Visitor Center
Saturday
(Nov 24)
·
beach (Fort Bragg)
·
Historic US Highway 1 scenic drive
· Napa Valley
(Napa, CA)
Wine tour (Mumm Napa)
Sunday
(Nov 25)
· leaving San Francisco (CA)
· arriving to Hamden (CT) on Monday (Nov 26)
_____________________________________Third Section_______________________________
So cool! We united! The whole team was together but Aziz. He arrived to the hotel earlier and was waiting for us around three ours. We went to rent our big ass car. A Ford Explorer, the biggest car I have ever sat in. http://www.cars.com/ford/explorer/2010/
Day 2. - San Francisco - November 17th
Having breakfast a budget WallMart shopping. It was far better than any subway sandwiches.
_____________________________________Third Section_______________________________
Day 1. - Hamden, San Francisco - November 16th
We are sitting on a train towards NYC. We left Whitney Village at 9:40 AM on November 16th, took the bus J4 that got us to New Haven where Andras joined us from work, took the train from New Haven Union Station to NYC Grand Central. Then took the GoPrime shuttle service from Grand Central to JFK, where got on the plane and flown to San Francisco through Atlanta, GA. I can tell that was a long journey.
First glimpse of the west coast. San Francisco from the sky. Pretty city even if this picture is blurry. By the was I have tell that these photos have been taken either Xiao, Jing or Stefi. Thank you guys for the excellent pix!
Here we are on the San Francisco International Airport Gate 22. All we had to do is to find Levi and Stefi who arrived 5 hours earlier than us. Cell phones did not work well, no texts went through. Andras and Levi could talk only one minute and then a long wait started....
...just like this:) We were tired and had no clue where our Hungarian friends were. And then Andras found them waiting for us one level higher.
Day 2. - San Francisco - November 17th
The boy section sitting in the hall of a three star hotel called Renaissance
On the back seat with the girls. I liked that place:)
Walking like a man in the Berkeley neighborhood in SanFran.
In the first half of the day we met Bandi who is from the same college as Andras and I and he is doing his Phd. at Berkeley. A very smart dude:) So he showed us around. We are standing in front of the Berkeley tower
Right under the tower
At the top of the tower:)
Subway Sandwich on our way:)
Then we got a very nice sunny day and we split apart. Marti, Levi and Stefi were driving around in Sanfran, doing the famous 49 mile trip sightseeing. Aziz, Jing and Xiao with me wanted to visit Alcatraz but we had to face with a huge line and the fact that those people were waiting for tickets two weeks ahead. They were sold out for weeks basically. Only one company has the licence to take you on the island...What a monopoly. Su we said: f*ck it! I called Marti: "Where are you?? We need you!!! This Alcatraz is sold out, we want to join you!" So they came and picked up us and we took the 49 mile scenic drive around the city. You can cover every neighborhood, famous building, park, point, everything. So we saw the whole city basically. Smart idea!
The fun car!
attempt 1st
2nd
3rd
finally! I jumped this high every time, but the timer was not on time:)
The Golden Gate - wow
The city from the Golden Gate
A bit closer to the bridge. Info about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Gate_Bridge
I saw many guys who were fishing in the wharf, and i wanted to try fishing at the Golden Gate. So I went to a guy, asked about his rod and how to cast...
...and he let me fish! So cool! Fishing at the Golden Gate on the West Coast!
At the Pacific Ocean, spectacular view.
At the Golden Gate Park - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_francisco
On the peak of San Francisco
San Francisco is the gay capital of the world. One of my friend told me dont buy anything that says San Francisco on it unless you are gay. So I did not.
Our Chinese guides took us to the biggest and oldest China Town in the US.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinatown,_San_Francisco
We had a wonderful, wonderful dinner! With wonderful friends!
Turn your screen left please or skip this photo of the China Town.
Then we picked up Andras and went back to the twin peaks to shoot some photos. Not bad.
Me with the Golden Gate at night. Shutter time 30 second: bridge is sharp, bence is blurry.:)
Taken by Aziz
That was the second day! San Francisco was the best city I have ever been to! I want to go back!
Fisherman's wharf is a must see!
Day 3. - Yosemite National Park - November 18th
The third day was pretty straightforward. We left San Francisco in the morning.
(By the way it seems like a lot of pictures on the blog, but not! Believe me. I could have posted around 600 photos just about San Francisco. Rather I post photos of me and photos of our group than the city. I am sorry about that.)
And headed towards Yosemite National Park. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yosemite_National_Park
If you read about the park, you become really excited just like me. Maybe too excited and expect too much, just like me...It was beautiful though!
Crossing the Sierra Nevada - it was a mysterious place, with unearthly colors.
Just reached Yosemite. That is the only National Park that I did not have picture with the sign.
Finally
My picture rotation doesn't work. I am sorry. I'll try to fix it. So on a special pine tree.
Lichen in macro mode.
First deer on the road out of the many.
In a large valley
I was like this...at the Half Dome. The most well-known part of the park. (In the background covered by clouds)
That was my favorite minute in the park. I have a 20 pix portfolio with these animals. They were watching a small coyote. You can find it in the back if you zoom in. I went and checked it out. But run away.
Others were amazed too.
And at the end of the day Andras got a flat tire in the park. It was 4:45 PM and we were so lucky because it was 150 feet from a garage which was open until 5 PM so the guy fixed it in 45 minutes and we were ready to go. Don't ask what we would have done otherwise, there was no cell phone coverage, no 3G...:) Just wild nature. Sometime you need luck in order to survive.
We had! That was a great team performance!
Keep reading the next spot is coming up.
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