Finally it was Sunday the 28th of October!!! We spend the night before at Camilla's appartment. She was such a sweety and served the best dinner with lots of wine and champagne, so we were a bit tired when the alarm clock rang at 3:30 AM. But of we went to the airport to grab the first plane to The United States of America.

Los Angeles: After a friendly (??) chit chat with the passport control officer we were allowed access to the Land of Possibillities. We went straight to the cosy family owned "hostel/bar" in Ojai, where Martin´s father´s aunty Ne lives. She was waiting for us with organic orange juice with a splash of vodka, as well as delicious organic speciallities from within the region. In LA we visited the Baywatch Beach in Santa Monica (unfortunately no lifeguards were on duty, so no sign of Micth),  Venice Beach (it was cold, so neither muscle guys or silicon babes were to be seen, only crackheads), Beverly Hills, and Universal Studios (totally cool!! We tried all the rides). After a couple of days in LA, we went on the road...

Joshua Tree: Our first stop from LA was Joshua Tree National Park, where climbers, rock formations, and (believe it or not) Joshua Trees are equally spread around the desert. Smelly toilets are also an attraction, one comes across here... The high point, besides the beautyful setting, was Martin´s visit to the local Beauty Parlor, where he had all his hair shaved of... The following days Martin was known as "The bold Munck" (see pictures - comming soon... The two engineers cannot upload the pictures from their digital camara ;o).

Las Vegas: After two days in J-Tree we went to the glooming entertain center Las Vegas, an impressive but somewhat sad place. We took a walk along The Strip and did some serious gambling, resulting in the enormous winner amount of $1,25. Martin also gave Red Rocks some chalky paws, but got his a** seriously kicked! It was time to move on...

Grand Canyon: Looking up on Red Rocks for a couple of days gave us the erge to look down a bit, making Grand Canyon the perfect next stop. Grand Canyon is impressive! We caught both the sunset and sunrise, followed by a 25 km run/walk along the south rim to Hermits Rest. Fact: A 25 km hike results in sore feet and blisters as well as a craving for chocolate. The next day we were on the road again.

Monument Valley:  Again we came in time for the sunset and Martin got up early for the sunrise. Monument Valley is definetly beautyful, but once you have seen it, there is no reason to stay... Before we left, however, we took a run around one of the "Monuments", which almost killed Laerke, since the valley is in about 2500 m. She really needs to get into shape in the next weeks before Aconcagua.

Antilope Canyon: Martin has heard of this place from his favorite colleges, the Architects. They always go on and on about the red colors in Antilope Canyon, so he had to see it for himself. Also the multi wifes allowed in Utah attracted him, so we just had to go through this desert like state. All the women were taken, unfortunately, but the canyon was aboutely worth the drive!

Zion National Park: We had a short stop (just spent the night) in the lovely Zion National Park, where large red cliffs combined with yellow autumn colored trees gives a perfect scenary. To complete the picture we had wild deer walk freely around our campsite. On Laerke's birthday we went for a short hike in one of the valleys, before we went on towards Las Vegas. And guess what guys!! For once there was sunshine on my birthday!!! Oh happy day!!

Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday dearest Laerke, happy birthday to me :o)

Las Vegas, 2.0: This time we stayed in a motel close to The Strip, giving us a better oppotunity to really get a feel of Vegas. Laerke´s birthday dinner was enjoyed in a wonderful Harley Davidson restaurant, with a bunch of other smelly people, only they were mainly bikers. After dinner we hit the slot machines, this time winning the amount of $4,25, but it only took 30 minutes to loose them again, along with $16,25... All and all a waste of both time and money... But we laughed a (s)lot while doing so.

Yosemite: On our way back west, we had a quick stop in Bishop, so Martin again could play with rocks, this time in Happy Boulders. After a couple of hours we continued towards Yosemite, where we arrived in the dark to a large number of signs warning against large, strong, hungry bears. Laerke was not pleased that we were to stay the night in a tent! Next morning we were still alive and therefore tried to kill ourselves on a 6 hour hike with a 1000 m elevation. Despite the interaction with both a snake and an enourmes tiger like animal (known to the few survivers who also have met this creature as the bobcat), we survived again. So the next day we headed for civilation in San Francisco.

San Francisco: Cool city!!! I want to move here (quote Laerke)!!! Luckely Martin agrees. Frisco offers everything one needs and we tried to do as much as possible in only a couple of days: shopping, cable car ride, terrific food, nice parks, Golden Gate, Sausalito, and so on... But our time here was short, since we had to get back to LA to go to Chile.

Pacific Highway: There is not much to see when there is fog every where... But when we hit Santa Cruz the sun broke through, and we immediately fell in love with the town. I want to move here too... (quote Martin). After Santa Cruz we cruised further south, now in sunshine. We saw a beautyful sunset, but unfortunately Martin did not get a picture of straw, beacuse the fog came back.

Back in LA: Once again we enjoyed the hospitallity of Aunty Ne, who we stayed with the night before we left for Chile.

We are now in Mendoza Argentina, getting ready for Aconcugua...