USA Southwest Roadtrip

Flying into California was interesting. The border police in LA took me apart for nearly 1 1/2 hours, then our flight on to San Francisco gets delayed for 3 hours due to bad storms coming from the Pacific. We finally made it to Sam, Jessi, Ezequiel and Steven Smits' house on the day we promised to come. We had a great time going to a San Jose Sharks (hockey) fight against the Calgary Flames. Great punches! When Sam and I tried to get beer, I wasn't allowed to buy one (despite my big beard) because foreign Identity cards (even Canadian ones!) did not figure as IDs at all!

One of the first realizations that hit us in the US, is that the friends we planned to visit in California, Arizona, and Colorado, would require us to do a lot of driving in two weeks: San Jose, CA- Phoenix, AZ; Phoenix, AZ - Estes Park, CO; Estes Park, CO - Denver, CO, and the finalé, Denver, CO - San Francisco, CA... we spent 7 of our 14 days in the car. The fact that we were ill most of the time made the whole road trip and visits an intense experience--half the time my voice was gone, so I could mostly just nod in understanding and move my mouth, hoping my friends could tell what I was trying to say!

In many ways we had a great time with les Smits in San Jose, les Millers (and their many dogs!) in Phoenix, with Jon and Reid Ritschard in Estes Park, and Chris and Jenn in Colorado. Good conversations, good coffee in Phoenix, good cheesecake in San Jose (shouldn't have had all the whipped cream on it though!), great stoagies in Phoenix, great burger in Estes Park, healthy tea and food at last in Denver (thank you Chris and Jenn!), and the best fish I have had to date in San Francisco.

Without further ado... les photos. Cheers!

Bonjour les amis

Eh oui.....j'ai failli visiter les USA toute seule....les douaniers de l'aéroport de Los Angeles m'ont pris mon mari pendant 1h30, jusqu'à ce que j'aissaie, avec mon anglais pas très bon, de trouver une personne qui arrive enfin à me donner des indications.....et me rassurer en me disant que Mike Lotz allait arriver!!!!

Donc après beaucoup de retard vu la tempete à San Francisco, nous sommes arrivés chez la famille Smith qui nous ont super bien accueilli. Nous avons passé la soirée au match de hockey de San Jose......cela nous a bien détendu!

Nous sommes donc parti de San Jose et avons traversé 6 Etats en 2 semaines!! Nous avons roulé en moyenne 6h30 par jour, les paysages sont magnifiques, c'est très impressionnant de passer du désert à la neige! Nous avons visité beaucoup d'amis de Mike, et du coup mon anglais s'est vraiment amélioré et je suis super contente d'avoir appris à connaitre les amis de mon artiste qui ont eu une influence dans sa vie.

J'ai de la peine à digérer toutes les belles choses que j'ai vue.......heureusement que les vols sont long!

A bientot

Isaline