First time at USA - A trip report
 

Several months ago, I asked here about how to organise our first time at USA. I received very soon a number of interesting suggestions that catched my attention and make me and my DH be sure that USA was going to be our next travel destination. Along this year, I collected a lot of info from this forum, not only by direct questioning, by also through the experience of those who shared their trip reports. So there goes mine, perhaps somebody might find it helpful, or at least feel curiosity about it.

Some preliminar questions:

A couple of weeks after having purchased the flight tickets, we had good news: I was pregnant. Of course, this had some effects on the activities we planned: no long hikes, no rafting, no risk activities, no street food… No major problem, indeed. At the beginning of the trip, I was 4 months pregnant.

We are from Spain, so our itinerary was quite a rush. We are aware that perhaps we don’t ever come back, for example, to Southern Utah and were willing to see as much as possible. When travelling around Europe, we tend to stay longer on every stop of the travel. So perhaps this report is not going to be very useful for people from the USA.

I am 34 and my husband is 41. He is very fit and active. I try to follow him… (not easy).

ITINERARY (from 30th June to 15th July)

MADRID-NEW YORK-LAS VEGAS-ZION N.P-BRYCE N.P.-CAPITOL REEF N.P- MOAB (CANYONLANDS N.P & ARCHES N.P)- PAGE (LAKE POWELL)- GRAND CANYON- LAS VEGAS- NEW YORK-MADRID.

Day 1 (30th June)

We flight from Madrid to New York with Iberia (the Spanish greatest company). We got quite good priced tickects (about 550$ return), considering that prices are much higher in summer. Arrived in JFK at 7.30 PM, and took the Airtrain, then train A (subway) to 14th street and from there a cab to East Village Bed & Coffee, where we spent our three first nights. The total cost of the trip was 27$, including the tip. EVB&C is a quite good option if you are looking for cheap and relatively decent lodging. We did it like a kind of experiment, because it was more than 10 years since we didn’t share a bath. We only happened to see the other guests once along the stay. What we really like was the location: many nice little restaurants, many bars and an atmosphere best than we expected. We arrived by 9 pm, more or less, had a shower and went for a drink (well, a soda for me…). No dinner, it was by the time 4 am for us (jet lag…). After one hour or so, we went to bed, exhausted but happy.

(it will continue…)

Hello Filloa, we don't see a lot of trip reports about visits to the USA from travelers from other countries so it is a joy to read yours.

Congratulations regarding the news that you will be having a baby! You must be so happy and excited.

I look forward to the next installment of your time here in the states. Best regards.

I am looking forward to seeing the US through your eyes. Thanks for visiting our country and for taking the time to post your trip report.

Debbie

Filloa:

Nice start. What an interesting choice East Village Bed & Coffee a B&B in NYC. Glad to hear the shared bathrooms worked out for you. What was provided for your breakfast?

Congratulations on your expected little one.

Looking forward to more of your trip experience. Thank you for sharing.

Sandy

Look forward to reading more, Filloa.

DH and I will be in your country this October--we are very excited!

Great to have your trip report - keep it coming!

Thanks for the encouragement!
SandyBrit, EVB&C does not provide breakfast, only free coffee and tea. You have there a whole kitchen, if you wanted to cook, with fridge, microwave and so on, but no breakfast.

DAY 2 (July 1st.)

We wake up very early, but in the end we go out at 9 am. Our plan for the morning is to do one of the walks we have taken from a guide. The first destination will be Tribeca, Chinatown and Little Italy, mostly because this places are not far from East Village (we are staying uptown the last two days of our travel). We took bus 21 from Avenue C to near Canal Street and bought coffee, yogourth and pancakes at a deli for breakfast (in Spain nobody has cooked breakfast) and began our route. We liked Tribeca and shifted to Chinatown, as our walk guide suggested. We didn’t like Chinatown, in fact. Having been to Bangkok’s Chinatown last year, this one appeared to us like a huge fake handbag shop. Then we walked around to Little Italy, and get to Old Saint Patrick Cathedral. At Prince Street, near the Cathedral, we found McNally Robinson bookshop, which we liked very much. DH wanted to buy many interesting book, but he was forgetting that his very little English only allows him to read with a page-per-hour speed, so he only decided to buy a NY buildings book. But we wanted to go on walking and thought it was too heavy to carry it with us along the city. Perhaps any other time… I bought a Kurt Vonnegut’s book that I have always wanted to read.

We had done the walk faster than expected, so DH proposed to see a part of Greenwich Village area. We enjoyed it. There was a street market at Bleeker St. I had John’s written down on the notebook as a very good place for pizza, so we looked for it. However, we didn’t have lunch there: we were too excited with our first day in NY to wait at a line (I must say it was not a very long one). So, we grabbed a couple of slices of pizza from another place in the same street (nothing special, so I can’t recall the name), and go on walking through streets which appeared to be a part of a gay area. We felt it quite interesting, with small independent shops and cute restaurants. After trying (without any success) to call home from a phone box, we found an Internet cafe and sent a mail home.

By this time, I had a very specific plan: I needed pregnant clothes and there are shops in NY a lot cheaper than in Spain. So we took the subway to 42th street, and had our first contact with Times Square… We had different opinions on Times Square: DH enjoyed it, but I felt it crowded and tiring. We went to 57th Str. With Madison, and I bought a lot of clothes at Motherhood. After that, we did a little visit to Niketown, at 57th St, but DH decided that he had already enough sport clothes. By this time, I was tired and we took the subway to 2nd avenue with Houston St. and walked to EVB&C. We rested at our room for an hour and went out for dinner. We tried a vegetarian restaurant, Hummus Place, at St. Marks Place and we loved the food. The menu is really short, so I don’t recommend it if you are not willing to eat Hummus. But if you are, go ahead, we found it delicious and I think it was around 30$ for both, with tax and tip. After dinner, we felt it has been a long day and went to bed.

I'm anxious to hear more. :-)

Fantastic reading thru the eyes of someone from Spain!

I visited Spain 2 years ago and had a great time.

More!!!!

We fly to Las Vegas Sunday for our family's first trip there. I am anxious to hear what you liked in las Vegas! Please post again soon!
Joy in Virginia

Looking forward to the rest of the trip (as I will be visiting all of these same places in a few months!) from London.

Filloa:

You are in one of my favourite cities.

Glad you were able to purchase your maternity clothes in NYC. You walked and covered a lot of ground on day 2.

Looking forward to more of this delightful read.

Sandy

DAY 3 (2th July)

We get up with the idea of exploring the Financial District. We take the 21 bus and then the subway to City Hall. By the way, one of the things we liked less about NYC was its subway. Having travelled to several European major cities, we did believe that NYC subway would be at least as good as theirs… instead we found the dirtiest, poorly maintained subway we have ever been to. Madrid subway seems a luxury in comparison. We found at NY changes in lines with no written advertisment, stations without elevator or scalator and even stations without a visible subway plan. The only good point we found at subway was the staff: they were really helpful with us and our first interactions with Metrocard machines.
Well, after arriving at City Hall Park, we had a New York breakfast (at least, we were told it was): coffee and bagel, although we added also some fruit to it. It was a beautiful morning, sunny but not very hot, so we had it at the little park opposite the City Hall. We began there to enjoy the view of the skyscrapers. Then, a beautiful walk: St. Paul’s Chapel, Trinity Church and Wall Street. DH got very excited at Wall Street: he has a degree on Economy and another one on Management, so it was quite a mythical place for him. He wanted all kind of pictures near the Stock Exchange Building. After having done that, we were really enjoying the superb buildings and also its location, we didn’t figure out that they were so close one to another, and we decided that it was the moment to enjoy a more distant perspective. We walked then to the Staten Island ferry which was a very good and fast trip. We took beautiful pictures from the ferry. When we came back, it was about 1 pm, so we had lunch (Pasta salad with chicken and natural fresh made juice), rested for some minutes and go on walking around. Then we take the pedestrian path to Brooklyn Bridge. It was a little hot to do it, but the experience was worth the heat. More beautiful pictures from here. When we arrived in Brooklyn, we noticed that we had brought with us no guide to explore Brooklyn!!!! Moreover, I was feeling a little tired with so much walking and my belly began to seem a very heavy load, so we decided to do something absolutely different and took the subway to… Harlem. When we arrived at Cathedral Parkway Station, I was fully recovered and we walked to St. John’s Cathedral and then to Columbia University. We liked to do something which was not planned and after wandering around Columbia, we decided to return to our room and rest a bit before dinner.

We took a bus which travelled downtown through Columbus Avenue and it was nice, although slower than subway to have another view of city life. It seemed to us that there were some nice little restaurants at Columbus, although we didn’t stop to check it. We got quite impressed with Lincoln Center. We stop at 14 street and took bus 14. When we left the bus and were walking towards EVB&C, we met by chance Katz’s Deli and thought it was a good chance for give it a check. Unfortunately, it was only 7 pm (too early for any Spaniard to have dinner) so we only had sodas and a snack. We rested for an hour at EVB&C and then we went out and had dinner at El Cafecito. They serve Cuban food. We were not hungry, so we ordered a platter, with a mix of specialities and it was enough. Not bad, although it had too many fried items (I mean that all the items at the platter were cooked by frying them). However, as I have said, we were not hungry. The evening ended up there, because we had to arrange our lugagge for the day after.

DAY 4 (3rd July)

We got a combination of bus and train A (and Airtrain) to get to JFK airport (14$ both). The Jetblue flight was quite nice: we had a TV screen on the seat so we were quite engaged with Wimbledon Tennis. It was a pity that Rafael Nadal’s match had to be interrupted several times because of the rain… We arrived in Las Vegas at 2 pm and went to pick up our rental car at Hertz, which was booked in advance. The man at desk on Hertz was from Latinoamerica and spoke Spanish, so he was very helpful about how we had to take our way to Zion (Thanks, Octavio!). On our way to Zion, we made a stop to have a very late lunch at Glendale. Not a good place to stop, indeed… It was 115 degrees, my burguer was horrible and DH sandwich only so-so. It would have been better to stop at Mesquite, with much more places to choose. We arrived at Springdale at 6.30 pm, but we discovered at checking in on BW Zion Park Inn that it was 7.30 in Utah. Good room and nice hotel in Springdale. Well, we liked Springdale, with so beautiful mountains around and a number of trees which provided some shadow (it was also hot, although not so much as it was in Nevada). We went to the park entrance to buy the America the Beautiful card (80$ for both), which was a good purchase, and got information about hikes and free shuttle. At the village we bought also some fruit and milk. I found it quite expensive, but it is a small village with only a couple of minimarkets. We came back to hotel and got asleep very early.

Thanks for this report, Filloa!

I live in the US and it's really nice to hear about a trip to the US from a European point of view.

I was in your beautiful country a couple months ago. And you're right, the metro in Madrid is so clean & easy to use - it was great! And every Spainard I met was so kind and helpful.

I hope you liked the US as much as I liked Spain!

Lolly, it is great that you have enjoyed your trip to Spain. We both loved USA: National Parks were such a superb experience that we presently dream of doing more of them.
We also found USA people generally nice and friendly. Although they speak too fast! :)

I am really enjoying reading about your trip to the US. You took a fine approach to seeing New York, stayed in an interesting neighborhood and explored widely. And it sounds like fun to combine a city adventure in New York with the national parks out west.

I will be spending two nights in Madrid next month and am really looking forward to it.

Filloa, I am enjoying your trip report. It is interesting to read about my country from another point of view. I'm looking forward to the rest of your report.

I am also enjoying your report, both for your perspective on our country, and because we are going to southern Utah in a few weeks.

I also really, really hope that you were able to watch the Wimbledon final between Nadal and Federer. Classic!

Filloa:

So agree - New Yorkers are the best, friendly and helpful. I laughed when you said 'but they speak to fast'. When I first came to the US the first thing I had to do was slow my speech down because people couldn't understand me and I found American speech very slow but I adjusted and got used to it.

Curious what times at home would you have your meals? You mentioned 7:00 pm as being early for dinner. Always fun to hear how other people live.

Sandy

Hi SandyBrit: We Spaniards are a quite a freak as meals are concerned: we have very little breakfast, lunch is the main meal for almost everyone and we have dinner at 9.30-10.00 or even 10.30. If you book a table for dinner at 9.00, you are almost certain to succeed: hardly anybody has dinner sooo early, especially if dining out.
If you ever go to a Spanish resort, you will notice that at 7.00 pm you will only find Europeans having dinner at hotel restaurant: we Spaniards rushed at closure time... always too early for most of us.

I'm really enjoying your trip report so far. Thanks for sharing. I live in NJ, 30 minutes outside NYC and it was interesting to me to read your thoughts on NYC. Looking forward to the rest.

I loved your report, Filloa. I'm glad you're enjoying your trip. As others have said, it's interesting to hear the reactions of Europeans to America.

I too have been to your beautiful country several times and hope to visit it again, especially as I have been studying Spanish for several years and want to be in a Spanish-speaking environment in order to learn more.

This summer, a Spanish-speaking man has been helping me with my garden. We speak Spanish, as he doesn't know English, and my only complaint is that he speaks too fast.

I am really enjoying your report and I am impressed at your English!

DAY 5 (4th July)

We get up early and have some coffee (DH), milk, fruit and muffins for breakfast. Then we took the free shuttle (there is a stop in front of BW Park Inn) up to the park entrance. At park entrance, you must change to another shuttle. We first did the Lower Emerald Pools hike. Nice hike, with a lot of shadow (Temperature was already high), although very few water at the cascade, you know, summer season… Instead of walking back to the same shuttle stop, we chose to go on walking to the next stop, The Grotto. It is a bit longer than coming back, but it is worth it. We liked this short hike and take the bus to the next stops (Weeping Rock and Big Bend), but I didn’t feel that my pregnancy allowed me to try Angels Landing. I hope there will be another chance… At Temple of Sinawava, we did the 1 mile Riverside Walk. We had no plan to follow the river, but when we arrived there and saw that almost everybody got their feet in the water, I became envious and convinced DH to do it (he thought that it would be too tiring for me). What a good decision! For me, it was one of the most enjoying experiences of the whole travel. We found landscape breathtaking and it was so so so much fun! We walked along the river for almost another mile, and then I felt that it has been enough.

Came back to the shuttle at Temple of Sinawava and it was almost 1.00 pm and it was very hot (near 100 F) so we put off another short hike we had planned and came back to BW. After a shower, we had lunch at Koritas. Very good homemade mexican food, we had shrimp taco and veggies burrito, with “chocoflan” as dessert.

After lunch, we were in the absolute need of Spanish “siesta” and then we swim a little at the pool. As a cultural difference, I found American bathclothes quite “big” in comparison with the ones that girls and women wear in Spain. In fact, most women wore or a big swimsuit or the same kind of bikini as I did, but mine, in Spain, is a pregnancy one! So I didn’t look weird. In the evening we went to hotel’s shop and bought some T-shirts, they had the ones which I liked best of all the travel. A woman asked the sales assistant why the wines section was closed and we learnt that in Utah it is forbidden to sell alcohol at holidays, which we found curious. We shopped a little around the village and we noticed we had to have dinner then, because it was 4th July and most restaurants closed even earlier. We tried Bit & Spur and it was also Mexican food! In fact they have some dishes which are not Mexican, but because of the holiday, by that time they only served a part of their menu. Portions were huge and we enjoyed our dishes. After dinner, we intended to watch the fireworks, but it was a fire in Springdale and there were not fireworks that day.

DAY 6 (5th July)

We got up early, check out at BW and decided that we were going to Bryce and then to Torrey. Very beautiful landscape from Zion to Bryce. We stopped at viewpoints along the road and also at a souvenirs shop, where we bought some Indian reproductions (unfortunately, the beautiful blankets were too expensive for us). We arrived at Ruby Inn, left the car at the parking and take the shuttle. At Bryce we only did the very short walks of Sunset and Sunrise Point. Landscape from there doesn’t even look real, it is as if a child had painted it. We take the shuttle again and stopped at all the viewpoints. Gorgeus. However, I didn’t regret not to have planned a night there, because I find it less “walkeable” than Zion. I mean that you can only discover all the beauties of Zion by walking a little, while I found Bryce more doable from viewpoints. Nevertheless, DH would have liked to hike a little among the hoodoos… but it was not posible for me this time (too hot, too steep). We had lunch at a diner next to Ruby’s Inn. Not specially bad, but not good. DH insisted that I had to eat fish and I ordered the halibut… Well, we are from a coastal area in Spain which in addition is well-known for the quality of its seafood, so I won’t say more about what I thought about it. We followed the very very scenic 12 byway and DH insisted on stopping by any viewpoint along the road. When we arrived in Torrey, we were both very tired. We took a room at Econolodge (60 $) and tried to send a mail home. No luck, the Internet place had closed 10 minutes ago. We bought some food and came back to Econolodge. DH had a terrible headache, so he slept while I was really bored (by this time, I had noticed that the book I had brought from Spain me was not well printed and could not go on reading it). Perhaps if we were staying at a more fancy lodge, it would have been less boring, but I didn’t feel there was much to do at Torrey (except Capitol Reef, of course).

I'm so glad I found your trip report! It's wonderful and thanks for sharing your adventures...congrats on the upcoming wee one!

Really enjoyed this trip report, Filloa. Looking forward to an update.

Bloom

So sorry, but I didn't have time to update until today...

DAY 7 (6th July)

We wake up early and drove to Capitol Reef. Before arriving at Visitor Centre we stopped at Panorama Point and decided to do Goosenecks and Sunset Point short hikes. But we didn’t understand well the map and, instead of driving along the unpaved trail up to the head of both trails, we walked from Panorama Point. Of course, after 25 minutes, we commented: this is not 1/10 mile! It wasn’t, but we didn’t mind it very much. It was early yet and not too hot. Beautiful views from both viewpoints. We drove then to VC . Not as good info as in Zion or Bryce. We decided to do only the scenic drive, without any hike. Beautiful and not very long, although it didn’t impress us as much as Bryce. We came back to VC and take Hwy 24, where we stopped to admire the petroglyphs. At the beginning, we were not able to see them, but at last I discovered them. There were a German family with two kids there and one of the boys said that they looked like aliens. We had to agree! Indeed they do. We followed Hwy 24 and drove to Moab. We had no bookings at Moab, because we were not sure what day we were arriving there, so we went to BW and asked if they had any vacancies. They hadn’t, but we were offered a good price at River Canyon Lodge and took the room, which was ok. We had lunch at a pizza+salad place, nothing to remember, although it was not bad. Then, as we were not going to be given our room until 3.30 pm, we sent mail home at Internet Café on main Street and walked to a Information Centre on Main Street. We were very lucky: the lady on the desk was very helpful and advised us not to do Arches on the afternoon, both because of the heat and the light.

So we changed our initial idea and went to Canyonlands. We were highly impressed with Canyonlands. In fact, this NP was the first we had heard about, a long time ago, because we had at home a National Geographic documentary about it. We did there a 1 mile hike, which was superb. However, the visit was not as delightful as it could be and it was because of the weather. It is said that it rains 8 inches per year at Canyonlands… well, some of these inches fell that day! It started also a lightening storm and day grew dark earlier than usual. So we returned to Moab with a very good taste in the mouth (we adored Canyonlands), but feeling that the visit must have been longer and with a better light. We arrived at Moab by 9 pm. aprox. and went to have some dinner. We went to Slickrock Café and I ordered the best burguer I have ever had (roasted mushrooms and onions… ). Well, I must say that in Spain burguers are not really our speciality, you know… We liked the casual ambience and the staff was attentive. After dinner, we went directly to bed.

It is very interesting to hear your trip report...we, too, were in New York City the beginning of July, traveling from Seattle. We had a great time but agree with your comments about the subway (haven't been to Spain, but Paris Metro is much cleaner)...also my husband and teenage son liked Times Square, but it was a little busy for me. However, we all liked the NYC architecture, museums and Broadway shows. We're planning a trip soon to Bryce, Zion, and Canyonlands area, so it's also nice to hear about that part of your trip.

DAY 8 (7th July)

We didn’t start well this day. We intended to get up early to be at Arches before the heat was too much, but we didn’t wake up until 9 am, and I paid for this during all the morning. We went directly to Arches and did some of the usual views, Park Avenue, Windows… We did also the very easy Balanced Rock hike. Then we went to Delicate Arch section and walked the mini-mini hike from where you can see the quite distant arch. We didn’t think it was enough, so take the longer hike to a closer point (not the one that gets up to the proper arch). However, when I began to walk up the stairs that lead to the viewpoint, I didn’t feel in good shape to do it: I was feeling my belly to heavy… and decided that I was not going to do it. I encouraged DH to go on and although he was reluctant to do it, in the end he accepted, which was nice, because when he returned at least I could enjoy the pictures he had taken. Then we went to Sand Dune Arch, which we liked a lot and after that we did a hike to Broken Arch. The hike was not hard at all (1.2miles roundtrip), but it was hot by that time, so I felt quite tired and hot when we came back. We went directly from here to Devils Garden Trailhead Parking Area. We started the hike to Landscape Arch but I only arrived up to Pine Tree Arch and Tunnel Arch. After that, I came back to parking area, where there was water, and waited there for DH and his beautiful pictures of Landscape Arch.

I was feeling very much the heat and even some dizziness, so we returned back to Moab and had lunch at Slidrock Café, while we planned the afternoon. What we really felt like was to do rafting at Colorado River, but we didn’t think it was advisable for me. Although I tried to convince DH to do it himself, he didn’t want to leave me alone and he proposed the Colorado Scenic Drive as an alternative plan. We agreed to do it and after having rested a little at RCLogde, we took the drive from a couple of miles north of Moab. The Scenic drive was a good idea: beautiful, not tiring and even refreshing. It was nice to see the water almost along all the road by our side, especially after so much heat on the morning. We got to Deway Suspension Bridge and there we saw something that it is almost impossible to see in my country: a young man with a telescope rifle at his hands… he was not a policemen and his car was not official. We went back to the car and drove ahead, although we were more surprised that scared. I guess it was so strange for us that we forgot to be scared! We did some more stops on the way back to take pictures and went back to Moab. We didn’t feel like to have dinner, so we went to the grocery and bought some fruit, milk and cereal. At RCLodge we met another Spanish couple and the man told us their itinerary. They had flown from NY to Denver, then visited Great Dunes NP, which didn’t impress them and then Mesa Verde. He was really enthusiastic about Mesa Verde. They were both biologists, so they were enjoying the trip very much, with so many different plants and animals. We did some shopping at Moab, we visited a very interesting bookshop, with new and really marvellous old books (first Utah explorers reports, by instance), and some giftshops. After that, it was time for us to go to bed.

Filoa,
What a great trip report! I'm especially enjoying it because I ADORE Spain--it's my favorite vacation destination--and it's interesting to me to see the US from your perspective. (Your English is excellent, by the way--wish my Spanish was a fraction as good!)

Next time you come here (with your child, no doubt), think about checking out the Pacific Northwest. Seems you love hiking and natural beauty and I think you'd love it in this area.

Also agree about the subways in NY as compared to Madrid. And I know just what you mean about the fish, but if you come to Seattle, you can get very good fish (though the food is better in Spain.)

artlover, I feel flattered with your comment on my English. I like very much studying languages, but having learnt some French and German, my love will be always devoted to English...
I only wish I had more chances to practise spoken language.

DAY 9 (8th July)

We leave Moab early in the morning and with sorrow. We felt we could stay at least a day more and explore a little more of Canyonlands, but we have planned a different thing, and we are willing to do it too. So we take Hwy 191 South with Monument Valley as our objective. We made a stop at Monticello Visitor Center, where we checked that although Mesa Verde is not very far from there via Cortez, it is undoable, unless we don’t stop at Page… We chose not to change the initial plans and keep Mesa Verde as a future destination for another trip to USA (we expect to come back sooner than later) and go on south. We also stopped at the Historical Site of Bluff, and find it interesting. In fact, along these days in Utah, I have been feeling very strongly attracted to the Mormon arrival at Utah, especially after having checked by myself what a hard and steep land they were travelling around. Next stop was at Mexican Hat viewpoint, a very peculiar rock and it really looks like a mexican “sombrero”. We arrived almost at noon to Monument Valley. It is a Navajo Area, so our America the Beautiful is not honoured here and we must pay the ticket. There are very beautiful views from Visitor Centre, and decided to do the scenic drive. Well, I don’t regret to have done it, but it was a little scary for me: too many bumps, even when DH tried to go as slower as possible, the unpaved road is bad and I was afraid it was going too hard for my baby! The map we were given at the entrance seems to be not very well drawn... but we finally get to John Ford’s observation point (well, it is not easy to get lost there, I admit). The views from JF are more complete, but if I have to choose, perhaps I found the view from VC more beautiful. However, it is a matter of personal taste. We decided not to follow doing the drive, we found it risky for my pregnancy and came back without any incidence.

It was funny for us to find so many items on display at VC Navajo shop with John Wayne’s image. We both watched a lot of his films when we were children and I always remember him confronting the Indians!!!! I guess that he is popular and, after all, business is business…

I can’t recall now to have done any other stop until Page. We arrived in Page with 107 degrees, so you can guess what an impression we got!!!! We went directly to BW at Lake Powell, where I had tried to book a room without getting availability and they did have rooms. It was a very nice and comfortable room. There were Soccer Copa America at a Hispanic TV and we watched a part of the match, with our favourite Latin American national team, Argentina. After having rested a little, we went down and made a booking for Slot Antelope Canyon Tour at reception desk. I think that it was 57$ all included for the two of us. We decided to explore a little, in spite of the very high temperature and went to Glen Canyon Dam. We were amazed at the beautiful colour of Lake Powell and the contrast of its blue waters with the red rocks at the coastline. The Visitor Centre at the Dam had just closed (it closes at 6 pm) so we went on to the Wahwheap Marina. We found it beautiful and took some nice pictures from there. We considered to have dinner at the Resort in the Marina, but it was a little early for us, even when we had had no lunch and drove to Antelope Marina. We didn’t like it so much as Wahwheap and returned to Page. By this time, we were hungry and began to look for a nice place to have dinner. And we found Stromboli, very close to BW, where I had some pasta with seafood (very good) and DH had a delicious calzone. We were really satisfied with the place and the food. After that, it was time to go to bed.

DAY 10 (9th July)

We get up early and left the hotel at 7.15 to Horseshoe Bend. It is about 4 miles from Page, so we thought that it would be a good idea to do the short hike to the Bend before the Slot Canyon Tour, which we had scheduled for 9.30. We were right because at that time sun was not so strong and the heat was yet endurable. The place is beautiful and bizarre and we were lucky to find there a man from Maine who offered to take us a picture together with the bend behind us. He was quite a skillful photographer and we have now a beautiful souvenir from HB. We came back to the BW, had breakfast there (continental breakfast was included) and prepared to check out. They kept our lugagge while we went to the Slot tour. What to say about slot canyons? We loved it. I don’t like tours very much, and like them even less when the language is English and I must spend a lot of time trying to translate something to DH without losing what is saying now the guide. But the place is so so so special that I didn’t mind the tour. DH was so busy trying to do his best with our camera that he hardly asked for translation and it was a relief.

We came back to BW and before leaving Page, we ordered at Stromboli a pizza to take away, which we had after having drove some miles. We were going now to Grand Canyon South Rim, we took the Hwy 89 and took the junction to GC at Cameron. We stopped at some viewpoints on our way and began to enjoy the Canyon. But I was feeling very tired, I guess that it was not only for this day, but I was beginning to resent so many days with so much activity and not much sleep (we didn’t overcome jet lag during the whole trip). We have a cabin booked at Bright Angel Lodge. We arrived there a 3,45 pm, but the check in time was at 4.00 and they made us wait until the very hour. The lobby was hot and crowded and when we arrived to the cabin, it was obvious that it was ready since at least a couple of hours ago… I didn’t see the point of it and I don’t see it yet. Not a good politics, in my opinion. However, the cabin was nice and recently refurbished. The only problem is that we arrived during a heat wave and there is no air conditioned, only a ceiling fan. At that time of the afternoon, it was not enough. But after a shower and some rest, I was feeling much better and we went to Tusayan to buy milk, fruit, water and other groceries. We also sent mail home from a Café and went back to BA. We were ready then to go for a walk at the rim and it was really nice. We entered El Tovar and I was aware why it is so recommended at this forum: what a charming place! We considered to have dinner there, but we were not hungry and wanted some healthy food for me and the baby… so we decided to have lunch the next day instead. We went to bed early and we were relieved to check that, after having opened the windows, the cabin was not hot now and we could sleep well.

Filloa, thank you for a great report. I'm waiting for more. It is nice to see the US through the eyes of a visitor. I can't believe how much you packed in! Especially with the heat and your pregnancy.

Your English is wonderful. I wish I had such proficiency in another language. Congratulations on the baby. I hope you come back soon.

DAY 11 (10th July)

DH gets up very early in the morning and does its jogging along the rim. He came back very excited with the landscape and happy to have had at last the chance to take up again his sport routine. After having some breakfast at the cabin, we took the shuttle to the area that is not accesible by car (except with a special permit, for example, for people with a physical disability). We did not all the viewpoints, the views are quite similar from all them and in fact we preferred the ones on the west side of the rim, because the Colorado river is more visible from them. A matter of taste, again. After that, we had lunch at El Tovar. We liked the place and the dishes, although my salmon was completely raw on its inside (and my gyneacologist has advised me not to eat raw meat nor fish). It was hard for me that the kind waitress understood that the only thing I needed was that they do it a little more at the kitchen. Well, I ended up by thinking if she was also a foreigner, because both English and American people tend to understand me… she was ethnically Japanese, although with the American melting pot, who knows? However, she was really patient and in the end, I could enjoy a medium salmon (not a rare one). After lunch and a bit of siesta, we went for a walk to a viewpoint where we have not being at the shuttle. I can’t recall now the distance, perhaps 1 mile and a half round trip… At the rim there was by then a multiconfesional prayer, we found it culturally peculiar: at our country there are religious people (not so many that it used to), but no multiconfesional acts. We visited then some souvenir shops and bought little gifts for the family and went to bed early.

DAY 12 (11th July)

We left the GC and addressed to Las Vegas. We made a stop to stretch legs at Seligman a well-known stop of historical Route 66 (another of the mythical references we had of USA). We liked its bizarre buildings and think of have lunch there at Roadkil Café, where we saw how they grilled burgers and steaks with a delicious look. However, it was again too early for us too have lunch and we went on. We gave at look at the very huge Hoover Dam, but we only stop at one viewpoint with parking: it was so hot there that we felt discouraged from stopping at the Visitor Centre. We arrived in Las Vegas without major problem and, after some traffic congestion at the Strip, we arrived at Bill’s Gambling and Hotel (formerly Barbary Coast). We chose this hotel in advance because of its location at the Strip and because it was cheap and with moderately good reviews at TripAdvisor. The room was right, a little dark perhaps, but the bed was a real king size and sooooo comfortable that we were glad to have chosen it. And after having visited the huge hotels in LV (Caesars, Bellagio…) I commented with DH that if we had chosen one ot these, I wouldn’t be sure to be able to find our room!!! Well, after a shower, we went to have something for lunch-dinner (it was about 6 pm by them). We had some taco salad and pasta at a Café in one of the nearby hotels. Then we explored the Caesars Shopping Gallery, and found it amazing, like a toy paradise for not-so-grown-up children. We saw the fountains of Bellagio show a couple of times and then went to Paris Paris, which we found also quite impressive. We gambled a little, with very bad luck, but we didn’t mind (in Spain we say that if you are lucky at unlucky at gambling, you must be lucky at love, and I guess that this might be our situation). Then we visited Miracle Mile Shops near Planet Hollywood and I bought a T-shirt at Gap Maternity. After exploring this Moorish-styled gallery, where there was also a part which was inspired at Cordoba (Spain) Mosque, we decided that a milk shake and some fruit would do as a dinner. We walk back to the hotel and the street was yet very very hot.

DAY 13 (12th July)

In the morning we decided to explore the hotels at the southern part of the Strip. DH was horrified with LV traffic jams, so he decided that we would walk… it was horribly hot, of course. We visited MGM, NYNY, Tropicana, Excalibur, Luxor and Mandalay. We took the train which connects Excalibur with Mandalay Bay and then returned back by walking through the gallery which connects Excalibur, Luxor and Mandalay Bay. It was nice to explore those hotels without suffering with the so many degrees at the outside. We had some Asian noodles and rice at a food court for lunch and it was quite tasty, with a lot of veggies. I was really attracted by some of the fancy restaurants of these area, but it would have been a waste, because we were not hungry (the heat, I guess). We came back to our hotel, and we watched there a part of Americas Cup Soccer match, again with Argentina playing. After that, we gambled a little at the slots of Bally’s and we came back to the hotel to finish our lugagge (we were going to fly this same night to NY) . After that, we had a hot dog at Flamingo, check out and went to McCarran’s, leave the rental car and fly with USAirways to Newark.

It is time to give my opinion about LV: I found it amazing, but I wouldn’t stay there more time than we did. I wouldn’t never choose it for an extended holiday: too hot, it makes you wonder how could LV receive its name (Las Vegas means, more or less, “the meadows” in Spanish). It was fun to be there and I didn’t regret going to LV at all: it give a different flavour to our trip and I can state that there is nothing like that in Europe. Perhaps the most bizarre place I had ever seen, we enjoyed to be there… once.

DAY 14 (13th July)

We arrived at Newark and did our way to 54th street with Broadway (Ameritania Hotel) with public transport (Newark bus + PATH train to WTC + subway). It was not difficult and very very cheap. However, when we arrived at Ameritania, by 10.30 am, more or less, we were nearly dead. We were so lucky that we were given the room although check in time was not until 3 pm. We had thought of leaving the lugagge and do some sightseeing, but having been given the room, we took a nap, of course. When unpacking, I noticed something strange at my suitcase and then I found a paper from Lugagge Inspection. This was the thing I liked less at USA: I don’t mind that they checked my lugagge, but in my country any search on your personal belongings must be done in your presence. As a lawyer and a great admirer of American Constitution, that I find to be one of the great inspirers of the system of liberties of many countries, I felt that it gave me no guarantee… I understand security concerns about terrorism, how would I not? I came from a country with a terrorist gang in activity for more than 30 years and that suffered an Al Qaeda (or something similar) terrorist attack in 2004 with 192 casualties, but I won’t made me change my opinion about individual liberties. Well, it is only a cultural opinion and I wouldn’t like that any USA citizen would take offence from it (I found American people to be generally kind and friendly).

Returning to travel matters, after having slept a couple of hours, it was lunchtime and we went to 9th avenue, where we had seen some little nice restaurants. When arriving at 9th, we noticed that the restaurants we had liked were at Columbus area, but we found Route 66 and see a lot of local people having their lunch and decided to go in and try. We became fans of this place and we went on going there for lunch the next two days. After a homemade delicious lunch, we decided to visit the Natural History Museum. We took the bus to get there. When not in a rush, we preferred the bus to the subway, because you may give a look at the city from your seat and buses were much cleaner and nicer than NY subway. We liked NH Museum a lot and we stopped also by the beautiful Dakota Building (it reminded me of Rosemary’s Baby, a constant feeling when wandering around NY: it is like a great cinema studio) and we gave a short walk around Central Park, which both of us liked inmensely. I can’t remember if we did something else after that, but we had fruit salad and yogourt for dinner and then went to bed.