Sequoia Grove

Once upon a time the world was covered in red forests consisting of gigantic, humongous, mammoth trees. These days, you’ll only find them along the Californian coast in one of the national parks. I can tell you: they are huge! In fact, they are so tall and big, they...

Santa Barbara Do’s and Don’ts

“I wanna live here!” Every now and then we visit a place and as soon as we cross the city limit I am certain: I want to buy a house here. I had that same experience in Santa Barbara. Of course it helped that it was a late afternoon, with an orange setting sun...

Death Valley #3: Dust in the Wind

Another highlight in Death Valley: the Mesquite flat dunes. Even though the area looks small,  you can walk around for hours if you want to, following the sharp lines of crescent dunes further into the desert. You might be surprised by a sand storm, scrubbing your face...

Death valley #2: Mosaic Canyon

Who ever thinks Death Valley is just desert is wrong. Ok, there are beautiful sand dunes (more about that soon), salt plains and lots of pink, purple and beige rocks, but the canyons are maybe the most impressive spots to visit. Mosaic Canyon is one of them, and the name...

From the Clouds to Bryce Canyon

When you look up at the clouds you see faces and animals and pop-sickles if you’re lucky. In Bryce Canyon it’s a bit like that, only creamy white clouds are exchanged by camel colored rocks. Rocks that look like a group of giants standing on a field. Or castles...

Around Bryce Canyon

Taking road trips in the USA is almost better than the destination you are heading to itself. The scenery along the route between Las Vegas and Bryce Canyon is beautiful. So if your navigation system tells you the ride will take 4 hours and 28 minutes add at least 30...

‘I Am Out There’ Photo Contest W...

It was a close call between a beautiful picture of an air balloon, a guy sitting close to the edge of an Icelandic waterfall and a fisherman in Nepal. But after some deliberation together with Nikon we decided that the winner is …drumroll please ….Wiljo van...

Escape To Alcatraz

“Lights out! Total lock down!” I try to imagine what it must have been like. Being imprisoned on Alcatraz. But when I wander around the island between the run down buildings and beautiful gardens I’m just another tourist. The place is impressive, with...

A Room With a View

If Lucy could have seen the view from my room, she would have appreciated it even more than the view she got in the little Italian pension together with her cousin Charlotte. Of course here in San Francisco, she would  not fall in love with a free-spirited post Victorian...

On the Road

In 10 days we crossed 4 states, drove 2500 km, listened to Take it Easy by the Eagles over 30 times (“Don’t let the sound of your wheels drive you crazy”), used 170 gallons of gas, hit the A1, the 89, the 89A (by accident, but surprisingly beautiful),...

Into Death Valley

When we decided we were going to take a trip from Las Vegas to Death Valley I expected to spend the day in a desert. Well, that was true, it’s the lowest, driest and hottest spot in Northern America (they even measured the highest July temperature ever), but I never...

Around the World in a Day

Today I strolled the streets in Rome, had a Perrier in Paris, enjoyed a gondola ride in Venice, drove past the Sahara and visited New York. Sounds impossible right? Well, not when you’re in the super-weird-fantastic-crazy-everything-is-possible city Las Vegas! This...