USA Part Five
We left Vegas sad to be leaving our big double bed and personal bathroom, but not sad at all to be leaving Vegas its self. We headed East past the Hoover dam towards the Grand Canyon.
After a fairly standard journey through the desert we arrived in the GC National Park just before sunset. After finding our campsite and setting up our tent we made our way to the canyon rim to get our first glipse. Our timing was just right as we were able to watch a beutiful sunset over the canyon which gave us probably the best views of our whole time there.
The next day we had planned to hike down into the Canyon and camp the night before hiking the vertical miles back out the next day. However after much discussing (read discuss as me not liking the idea of hiking 6 hours out of the canyon in 40 degree heat) we decided that we probbaly didnt have the time as we had to start making our way back to LA.
I think had we hiked into the canyon we would have had a more memorable experience of it. As it was, hiking on the rim although it offered spectacular views left us feeling somewhat flat.
Unfortunatly we had miscalculated our days and so couldnt go to Joshua Tree after the GC. When we left GC we started our drive back West towards LA, with one stop overnight in the desert.
We spent the remainder of our days on the West coast hanging in LA. We went downtown the one day which was rather bland. Apart from the fantastic Walt Disney Concert Hall, designed by Frank O. Gehry.
The rest of our time in LA was spent reading on the beach.
On Sep 2nd we said goodbye to Andrew and Berna or kind hosts in LA and flew east to New York and so began the East Coast leg of our journey. The highlight of the flight was the last minute just before we landed where we got to see a great panoramic view of Manhatten Island at dusk.
We were not in NY for long (we had decided to leave NY for last, as we will fly from there to London) as we went straight from the airport to the train station and caught a 3 hour train South to Washigton DC, where we are staying with a friend of Christy's sister.
Today is our second day here and our first impressions of the city are good. Yesterday we spent mostly just walking around seeing the obligatory sites such as Capitol Hill, the White House etc... Today we spent the morning at the harrowing Holocaust Museum which was very good, although exausting. We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering down the Mall past the Reflecting Pool and the Lincoln Memorial and ontowards the Dupont Circle district. Which is where we are now and where we are planning to have some dinner tonight.
We are in DC until Tuesday, when we will start heading South via the Carolinas and then on to Florida or what is left of it...