Summer 1999 we started in Vancouver to our 8 month lasting trip. We visited Vancouver Island and than took the ferry from Victoria to
Port Angeles in Washington and continued south on Highway 101- the most beautiful highway of the USA.

For the Highway 101 you should bring some time with you, because the highlights (like the colour chart of the Pacific Ocean, the rain forest in the Olympic Nat. Park, the giant and oldest trees on earth – the Redwoods-, the big colonies of seals and sealions, or just the little colourful towns) invite you to stop, before you reach San Francisco, the town which has been hit by many earthquakes and big fires, but maritime trading, banking and tourism keep the city alive.

There is one highlight after the other, like the Golden Gate Bridge, the prison Alcatraz, the Cable Car, the Lombardstreet with its hairpin bends,
plenty cultural programs and the international awsome food in Chinatown and fresh fiswh down at the Fisherman’s Wharf, and also,
it is a very good starting point for a roundtrip through the National Parks of the Southwest.

We left San Francisco, going east and reached Yosemite Nat. Park, which is called the nicest park of California. From there we travelled through the Sequoia/Kings Canyon and the Death Valley and headed to Las Vegas. There is no cheaper place to eat and stay over night. Certainly you
shouldn’t try to find your luck in gambling, instead you should be impressed of the gigantic casinos, which all have been and will be built under the motto “nothing is impossible”.

From Las Vegas one National Park follows the other. It is starting with the Zion Nat. Park followed by the Bryce Canyon, the Capital Reef and the Arches Nat. Park; than going south, there is the Mesa Verde Nat. Park. After that we headed west to the Monument Valley, Lake Powell,
the Grand Canyon and the Yoshua Tree Nat. Park and reached L.A..

No National Park looks like the other and you get the impression, that each one eclipses the other by the size, the mountains, the roks,
the canyons, the caves, the rivers and lakes, the waterfalls, the fauna and the animals.

After such impressive nature, it was a great change for us, to be in a city again. Specially, because it was Los Angeles and where we have been guests
of Andy and Tom (we met the two at the Inside Passage) who showed us their hometown with all the places worth seeing, like Hollywood,
Beverly Hills, the Universal Studios and the awsome surroundings of Los Angeles.