Sea World videos

Roadtrip pictures, videos and other goodies

Some of the 1500+ pictures I wanted to share:

Pictures on the map (unfortunately not all of them have GPS data):

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Our full road trip map, well at least the part I recorded with GPS tracking:

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The new background

The background image was taken last week, still in Cali:





Btw, U.S. Rt. 66 is called National Trails Hwy.

Progress report

Hi,

Almost all my pictures are processed, now I just have to pick that couple of hundred ones, I'd like to share with the rest of the world :) Most of them have GPS data, so Picasa can put them on Google Maps. I hope it will work out!

In the meantime, here's a video of me shooting a .45 colt in a shooting range in Las Vegas at Discount Firearms. Until you try one of these, you say, why the heck would I need a gun. But it's fun! And remember, guns don't kill people; people do..., well guns help :) (aka. Eddie Izzard)

I wanna be a hillbilly

I leave for one week, and the whole world turns upside down. If I was super hyper optimist, I would say I am one of the first SW engineers who can try out a 'revolutionary' approach: Our client decided to rent the developer resources of the whole company and manage us directly. No we're not contractors, our employment doesn't change... Practically I haven't got one single boss but I'm not self employed either.

It feels like living on an island completely alone, and I'm supposed to do something and I do have a deadline, but there's no one who tells me what and when to do, but will knock on my door when the deadline is due. Maybe, the island decides I'm a candidate and will tell me what and when to do ;) Do I have to push that button?

(For those who haven't seen the serial, I was referring to Lost.)

So right now I envy the people I saw living in their trailer in the middle of the desert worrying about not a single thing...

Basically...

Pronounce: /ˈbeɪ sɪk ah li/ :)

I'm back to work. Or something like that. I'm exhausted and still dreaming about the wonderful places we've seen. I promise I try to process the 1000+ images I took the last week, and post the best ones here!

I dropped my friends at the airport this morning. The lucky bastards continued their journey to Hawaii... Me? I can enjoy the beauty of eCommerce architecting again... I left for a week and a lots of things (mostly crazy ones) happened, so I have a lot of catching ups to do.

Peace, out...

Day 9: Las Vegas to SF Bay via Mojave Desert

It was a long day again. Everyone felt that we saw enough desert for now, so we skipped our plans to drive through Death Valley, and took the interstate. The sun was shining, but it was not hot. So putting tank top on was not a good idea. Plus we drove in a nice sand storm, too.

We had 'breakfast' around noon at the Hooters Hotel & Casino, pumped some gas to fill up the tank from the cheap gas in Nevada, and off we went. We took a little detour to Mojave, CA on our way back to visit the Mojave Air and Spaceport. Home of a smaller airplane graveyard and Virgin Galactic. Unfortunately we missed the daily tour at 2pm, but as we were told, we couldn't take any pictures anyhow, since the tenants (!) living in the planes (!) don't like people taking pictures... So for compensation we had some snacks at the local Denny's and our 2nd Maple Bacon Sundae :)

After leaving Mojave we drove through some mountains. On their tops lots of windmills were planted to generate some clean energy. Well judged by the wind that blew then, the investment worth it... The view was amazing. Since I didn't stop, I didn't take any pictures. The rest of the journey was rather uneventful. We reached I-5 around 7pm and arrived at home at 10:30pm.

I was exhausted. In 9 days we travelled around 2400 miles. We saw many beautiful places, that is hard to imagine and had lots of fun! I'm back to work and I hope I can catch up to my sleeping in the next couple of days.

If you're planning to do a similar cross country road trip, one good tip: avoid interstates. You will miss everything! Driving through the countryside on other highways and freeways will give you a little taste of what Americans felt a couple of decades ago: freedom. Today everyone is flying. Interstates are occupied by trucks, and everything is about travelling fast and reaching your destination as soon as you can. And you miss the joy of travelling itself. Besides taking legendary roads like the Route 66 (or any other country road) comes with complimentary time travelling. At least 50 years back in the past. Don't forget your extra gas can at home though! :) And enjoy the view of towns/villages in the middle of nowhere... Everyone should try it at least once.

If I retire in this country, I'll definitely buy an RV, and will travel throughout the country strictly avoiding interstate highways.

Insect population of three states (CA, NV, AZ) on the grill

Day 8: Grand Canyon

Ca. 1000km back and forth. We made it in 14hrs. And every second worth it. Driving through Arizona was great. The Hoover Dam is monumental. And the Grand Canyon itself cannot be explained nor in pictures. Really. It is something everyone should see at least once in a lifetime. You are standing on top of it and look down at least 2000 meters deep and it starts right at your foot. Down there a tiny river sparkles in blue, and it is unbelievable that it could carve through those rocks and could creat this wonder.
I made a couple of pictures with my phone, attached below. "Real" pictures to follow in the upcoming days as I process my ca. 1500 photos i took during these days.
When we arrived back to Las Vegas we went to the sign to take some pictures and played a couple of bucks at the slot machines. I eventually won the largest amount ever with a single spin doubling the money I put in, and in a couple of minutes I lost it all.
Now what I want to do is to get some rest. Tomorrow we're heading back to Sunnyvale on the interstate (yes, Death Valley was dropped off the plan. We saw enough desert already.) but we will still try to get in the airplane graveyard in Mojave. It is just a couple of miles off the interstate. I hope we'll get lucky and can take a couple of pictures. The from Tuesday back to my desk and my Hybris architecturing fun...
P.S.: Arizona is quite cold for being a desert. The Grand Canyon is explicitly cold. Bring a jacket with you if you go there ;)

My biggest winnings. I've lost'em all :)

Grand Canyon is just amazing. No picture and no description can tell you what you'd feel when you're standing on the rim and look down. It is definitely one of the world's wonders!

Day 7: Las Vegas

Today was really fun. We had breakfast around 11 o'clock then we had to a shooting range. Ancsi was firing a 9mm I chose a 45 caliber revolver. I chickened out unlike my friend who tried machine guns, too. An AK and an MP.
Since the weather was really good we spent about 2 hours at the pool on top of the 8th floor, and after that took the monorail to MGM Grand and had dinner at Fatburger. The next 5-6 hours we spent with walking back to Stratosphere. I took like 300 pictures (no one can say now I'm not using my camera) and went inside to New York New York, Bellagio (where Ancsi won $119.33!!) and the Mirage. We spent another hour playing the slot machines in our hotel and we came back to our room.
Tomorrow the plan is to go to the Grand Canyon, which will take the whole day, go up to the Stratosphere Tower and to Fremont Street (old downtown) to take night pictures. According to the original plan on Monday we are heading back to San Francisco through the Death Valley. Since it'd take at least 14 hours we might choose the interstate to get some rest. And I still have to buy a black cowboy hat ;) We'll decide tomorrow. The boys might say we saw enough desert on Rt. 66 while coming to Vegas...
Today was fun even though my story here was short.

The gun I fired :)

Day 6: Route 66 to Las Vegas

Starting the day was not easy. My friends went out the night before, and they got really wasted so instead of taking off at 9am we could only start our journey around half past 10 in the morning. A quick breakfast and off we go. I was really hoping the contents of my friends stomach will stay there :)
They fell asleep as soon we hit the interstate. I've decided not to go to L.A. but find Rt. 66 in Victorville first. There is a nice little family operated museum on D Street. It was really exciting. The boys started to wake up finally but they still couldn't enjoy the museum too much. After a quick change into shorts (it was really hot. We arrived in the desert!) we continued our journey to Barstow on north on D Street that turned into National Trails Hwy (Rt. 66!). I filled up the tanks and we ate at a nice pizza place, the we turned onto 1st street to visit the museum here at the train station. Unfortunately it closed at 4pm and we arrived around 4:30 :(((
So we sit back in the car and back to Main Street. Which ended up in the entrance of the military base. The officer there told us, that they've built their base onto the road, but i should take the I40 for just one exit and we could continue our jurney.
The road was amazing. Almost no cars, desert view just the straight lanes leading to nowhere. Amazing feeling! There are no road signs. I wanted to steal one for myself. I think I'm not the only one, so they decided to paint Rt. 66 onto the road's surface instead. At the halfway to Amboy there was a rest station with abandoned buildings. We stopped to take tons of pictures :) after that we left another abandoned roadside cafe called Bagdad. It really seemed like the one from the movie Bagdad Cafe.
These middle of nowhere towns are really interesting. You need to drive for an hour to meet someone, people living here are really isolated. It is very much like in the movies.
After Amboy we left Rt. 66 and travelled through the Mojave National Preserve to reach I15 and Las Vegas.
When we arrived to Vegas we drove by the famous Welcome to fabulous Las Vegas sign, through the Strip and arrived at Stratosphere, our hotel. We had a nice burger dinner at Roxy's and headed to the slot machines. I lost $20, but Zsolti made $150 from 15 cents, Maxx also won four times of his bet and made $20.
We went to bed around 1:30am and fallen asleep immediately.
They always tell bad things about american cars, but after driving like 400 miles none of my limps, back, butt, neck hurts... Symptoms I got from 1 hour driving our Citroën... So it seems american cars were made for the american road and vice versa. I don't even want to imagine what'd it feel like to take the same journey with the Corolla we were renting ;)

The lucky bastard. Put in $20 and won almost $160. First game ever in Vegas. Beginner's luck I'd say

Nice painting on the walls of the pizza place we stopped by to eat lunch

And the table. *Sigh* This is how life looked like 50-60 years ago here

Day 5: Sea World & La Jolla

This morning we went to Pacific Beach to have breakfast. According to our plan me and my wife would go to Sea World, Maxx and Zsolt, our guests would have spent the day surfing in the Pacific Ocean. The weather was not really promising so they decided to rather join us. My AAA membership paid off. Sea World had a promotion $20 off from the admission fee for AAA members. That's $80 savings! :D
As we entered the sun started to shine so we could use our SPF100 sunscreen we got the other day. First we saw the dolphin show. I cannot really tell how amazing it was, but it was spectacular. Right after that the show with Shamu, the killer whale started. Both shows were something I could only see from TV. Really American :)
The park is full with rides, some of them required an hour to wait in line, but American parents would do anything to give some excitement to their hyperactive kids on sugary soda ;) The salt and sweet water aquariums were not really enjoyable, but the sea lion show was amazing. It was made for smaller kids. The story was great and the animals were really sweet.
The arctic experience with penguins, walruses, belugas, ice bears was super great. Ice was on the walls of the hallways and even the visitors are was chilly so you could really feel like being on the north pole. Well it was not -40°C but comming from +30°C outside inside was significantly colder.
Sharks were cool, too. In the end we walked through their aquarium in a glass tube.
I've made like 400 pictures, and will upload the best of them sooner or later, so stay tuned ;)
After the park we went to La Jolla. This area has the highest property rates in the US. Well, for a reason ;) We had a juicy burger at the beach, saw the Church of Jesus Christ (You'll see pictures later :) It is monumental and bright white. Amazing!), and sunset over the Pacific Ocean.
Tomorrow after breakfast we continue with our trip to Las Vegas! Can't wait!!!!
BTW, I could really live in San Diego. Did I say that already?! It is the 8th largest city in the US and the 2nd largest one in California, but still you don't feel the distance, no rush hour, people are extremely nice and everything is super clean and tidy.

Sunset at the Pacific Ocean

Shamu, or one of his reincarnations/alter-egos :)

Day 4: Sightseeing in San Diego

San Diego is a great city full with mysteries. There's no rush hour, the streets are crazy clean, people are young and friendly and homeless don't nag you for a cigarette. I could really live here. It's like a small American town but blown really big :)

We walked around 11kms today. Had breakfast for $5 at Jack in the Box, then walked thru Little Italy. I had a great double espresso there!! The $1 coffee at the breakfast place was khm not really my taste ;) From there we walked along the shoreline to see USS Midway, an airplane carrier built for WW2 serving till 1992. Finally I could use my AAA membership to get us $2 off per ticket from the admission fee. We spent about 3hrs on board. Life on such a ship is not easy but surely full of adventure. After that we had lunch in a restaurant next to the ship. Shrimp with pasta and peanut butter mousse and a double espresso for dessert.

Man, after this trip I'll spend 2 weeks nonstop on the treadmill to loose all the extra weight I'm gaining :S

After lunch we continued walking along the shore to the marina, and walked back to the hotel through the historic Gaslamp District.

Did I tell you, this city is great? :) The downtown itself is not too big, about 1-1.5hrs walking. Still the city itself is bigger than San Francisco...

Sorry for not posting any pictures, but I'm writing the using my phone and I'm taking pictures with my brand new Canon Rebel T2i.

The plans for tomorrow is not finalised yet. Sea World maybe. Unfortunately it is not warm and sunny enough to lay in the sand at the beach :( I was really looking forward to that.

Day 3: Venice Beach, driving to San Diego

In the morning we packed our stuff and left everything in the trunk. We walked to the marina to take a look at the yachts. Man I don't know what I should be working and for how long to get one of those!
After the marina we walked down to the beach, and walked up to the Venice Beach Walk in the ocean/sand. In the meantime the sun started to shine, so we knew we'll be lobster red by the end of this day, but noone felt like walking back to the car to get the sunscreen. We ate burgers/hot dogs for lunch while watching people playing basketball. After that we started our walk to see the freak show. The black guy walking on cullet is still there. His show is the very same tp the last word :) We didn't find the dancing black boys though.
Time flied by, so it was already after 3pm when we left Los Angeles. The freeway was full, but no real traffic jam. In the middle of the journey we stopped by a Denny's Dinner. Yesterday i heard in the radio that they sell ice cream with bacon... So we ate again just to fulfill our 6000 cal diet ;) I went with the fried steak and the maple bacon sundae, and drank some pacific chill :) After a couple of miles we stopped by a vista point. Lots of birds and squirrels begging for food, but the view was great.
We arrived shortly after 8pm in our hotel, which is really hip and funky. They have alarm clocks with iPod docking station and a workstation at the window :)
No one has plans for wednesday, so we don't know yet what to see here. But no beach for another day. Skin-burn...

We put bacon on WHAT?! Yumm

Pacific Chill... Some green better-not-to-know-what and Sprite

Deep fried, breaded steak. Yepp, this is America

The bacon wonder: Maple Bacon Sundae

The best hotel room ever @ the W in San Diego

Day 2: L.A.

Today was my birthday. At the breakfast table I got lots of great gifts, thanks very much! And I also got a blue ribbon saying "Birthday Boy" that I was wearing the whole day.
We started with Hollywood Blvd to check out the walk of fame. Souvenir shops, posing at Schwarzi's star, and lunch at Hooters. The girls were lovely and the burger was excellent. Hooters is a good place ;)
After that we went up to the Hollywood Sign. Unfortunately the weather was gray but we did take some pictures of it. We've tried to go all the way up, but the trail was closed.
On the way back to the beach we drve through Mulholland Drive, and arrived at the pier in Santa Monica. My wife won a white monkey doll on "Whack A Mole" so she was really happy. We had dinner in the Bubba Gump Shrimp Restaurant at the pier and took a couple dozen of pictures of the sunset, and the theme park while it was getting dark.
Back to the hotel to freshen up, and we went to have some drinks for my BD. The Hawaiian place closed right after we finished our first drinks, so we went to the Mexican place across the street. We ordered 60oz margaritas and got drunk, had a great time and laughed a lot.
Now my head hurts.

Day 1: SF Bay to L.A.

I should write a lot... Well, I won't. The day was awsome. We started with Santa Cruz, then on Hw1 to L.A. That was the plan. Unfortunately after Monterey the road was closed. No detour. It is only closed between 8am and 8pm. So we had to turn back to 101. But at least we saw a couple of nice little bays, rocks, shore. Pictures will come later...

After a while from 101 we took 41 to go back to the ocean, but agan Hw1 just turned to inland from that junction. :( Driving the car was great. I don't feel like crap after riding 450 miles today. It was really comfy. And it ate less as usual. 411 miles with a full tank and it is still not completely empty.

So after 7pm we arrived in L.A. Zsolt's hotels.com booking was messed up, but in the end everything was fine. We had dinner at the burger place across the street, and walked to the end of the pier in the dark. Tomorrow downtown, Hollywood Sign, Venice Beachwalk is the plan.

Officially off-line state due in 22hrs

The first vacation in let's say almost 2 years. Having a little break for getting married and packing my stuff to move from Europe to the US doesn't really count as vacation, now does it? :)

I could - Gott sei Dank! - finish all my last minute updates to my current duties, so what's left is a lovely early morning confcall about the data model tomorrow, and to get my mind together and think through what are the things I should auf keinem Fall forget at home. Like hotel reservations, ID papers, camera, charger etc. I need to figure out how to set the mail client on my Droid to download messages mark as important only. The coupons can wait (www.entertainment.com).

Somehow I also need to figure out how to export the route from gMaps to our Garmin Nüvi. (Bin ein Geek, weisste?!) Check the tire pressure on the car, fluid levels. Ah, man! But it these are much better things to worry about than anything work related.

3 days left

And the roadtrip begins. Yeehaaa. 2.5 gallons gascan, check. AAA membership, check. Desert is desert :>

Road Trip

Two good old friends are coming to visit us in a week, and starting their holiday we planned to make a road trip. One week, lots of driving, lots of stuff to see. I'll keep you all posted!





View Road Trip 2011 Zsoltii & Maxx in a larger map

What we plan to see:

1.  LA: Venice Beach, Walk of Fame, Hollywood Sign
2. San Diego: Beach, Sea World
3. Las Vegas: EVERYTHING POSSIBLE :D
4. Hoover Dam
5. Grand Canyon
6. Death Valley
7. Airplane graveyard in Mojave, CA

It will be a lot of fun, I'm looking forward to it. Hopefully I'll be able to take really good pictures with my brand new Canon t2i that the postman kindly left on my doorstep yesterday :S