My heart lives somewhere between summer and autumn. During the hottest months, it feeds on golden light, cotton candy skies reflecting in the sea, oleanders, palm tree shadows, kids laughing in the background, magnolias, and stargazing. It feeds on the smell of the pavement after it rains, reading books, and dandelion fluff.

I love rainy summers, filled with thunderstorms and crashing waves. I love running home and feeling raindrops on my skin. Swimming in the sea and waiting for the dark clouds to finally give up and let rain through. Distant lightning flashing on the horizon, making us feel like we should remember that moment forever.

Every summer has its own meaning. Some are defined by hiding and running from thunderstorms, others smell of linen and fresh cut grass. Some are full of adventures, wilderness and freedom, others bring the comfortable feeling of being home. Can't wait to see what summer 2017's gonna be like! :)

Beach House - Myth

US diary // part 4

And here it is: the last part of our California/Nevada/Arizona diary.

As I mentioned in the previous post, we woke up in a true American motel located in Ridgecrest, where we had our breakfast and took off for Death Valley. Death Valley National Park is a desert, and the highest temperature ever recorded there was 56.7 ° C. It is, as people like to call it, a land of extremes. Its Badwater Baisin marks the lowest elevation in North America (86 m below the sea level). I highly highly recommend visiting this park, just be make sure you bring A LOT of water. It truly is a unique sight and it honestly blew our minds that one day we can almost melt in one of the hottest places in the world and the other we are freezing in jackets. America’s vast diversity is really one of a kind.

We spent the night in Las Vegas and thus crossed the state line between California and Nevada. To be honest, Las Vegas (being filled with casinos, hotels and fake foreign attractions) is not really our kind of thing so we just slept there and in the morning continued with our journey. The next park to cross off our bucket list was Valley of Fire, which is named after breath-taking red sandstone formations. It offers the most stunning view of nature’s wonders and will definitely leave you speechless.

On our way to Williams, we crossed another state line between Nevada and Arizona and crossed the famous Hoover Dam. This engineering marvel is a concrete arch-gravity dam, constructed during the Great Depression.

The next morning, we woke up in historic Williams, which lies on the road of Historic Route 66 (one of the original highways within the US Highways system covering a total of 3,940 km). We visited a lovely cafe for breakfast where we basically stuffed our faces with pancakes and headed to glorious Grand Canyon. And it really is grand. It offers spectacular views that send shivers down your spine and make you realize just how mighty nature can be and how small you really are.

After our grand visit (it never gets old), we took off for our longest drive yet since we had to return to California, where we booked our Airbnb. The drive lasted for approximately 5 hours, so we arrived to our lovely apartment in Twentynine Palms at around 11 pm and fell sound asleep.

When we woke up and had our dose of caffeine, we drove to hot Palm Springs and took a stroll around the city. We didn’t spend much time there though, since the heat was almost unbearable (around 35 °C). 

We had lunch at Grill-A-Burger and ate delicious avocado fries. When we were fed and full, it was time to visit the last national park. Joshua Tree National Park offers surreal geologic features and a fascinating variety of plants. I especially loved the ’little’ Cholla Cactus Garden and Keys View, where we watched our last American sunset.

Then it was time to pack and prepare for the next day. We had a connecting flight LAX-Rome-Venice and arrived to Ljubljana at around 11 pm on Sunday 14^th May.

All in all, this trip was amazing. Everything went smoothly, Americans are the kindest, nature is unreal, and the roads are in great condition. What I liked most? My favorite destinations were LA and Laguna Beach, and I absolutely loved driving on Hwy 1 and seeing the endless coast. In contrast, my boyfriend liked San Fran the most. However, whether you prefer the beach, parks, tall buildings or paved roads, America has them all. I have lost count of how many ooh’s and aah’s we uttered on our adventure and it’s only a matter of time until we book another overseas ticket.

Until the next time, America!

♡

^{2pac feat Dr.Dre - California Love}

US dairy // part 3

After our last night in San Francisco, we headed to the next destination: Pinecrest Lake in Stanislaus National Forest. And it was *surprise, surprise* unexpectedly beautiful. It kind of reminded me of American youth films such as The Parent Trap, where kids go to a summer camp by the lake. I imagine it's wonderful to spend the summer in this place, you can swim in the lake, climb mountains, watch movies under the stars... My inner scout was already planning scavenger hunts.

On the way to our airbnb, we stopped for dinner in the cutest little town Sonora. Fairy lights were literally everywhere, and you could feel the hospitality of the locals in the air. We ate a delicious dinner at Diamondback Grill and then enjoyed an evening stroll around the city.

Finally, we arrived at our airbnb in Jamestown. Of course we knew that this one is going to be special, but we were still lost for words. We stayed in the so-called Casita, and if you are planning to visit Yosemite National Park I highly recommend staying in this wonderful place.

We woke up to a gloomy morning, and made our way to California's most famous National Park: Yosemite. The weather was kind of crappy, but it was still amazing. We walked to the waterfall, visited Yosemite Valley and then drove around the park. Its nature is completely stunning, and I have to say that all National Parks in US (at least the ones we visited) are organized to perfection. 

We spent the majority of our day in Yosemite, and in the evening headed for dinner in Jamestown. When we returned to our little Casita it started to rain again. We fell asleep listening to the raindrops and it felt like there's only us in our little home in the world.

The next day we left Jamestown and visited Calaveras Big Trees National State Park. If you seek peace and serenity, I can guarantee you'll find it in this park. It's absolutely beautiful and you can marvel at tall trees and get to know their stories. 

We ate in a little town called Murphys, which was, again, beautiful and picturesque. Our Airbnb for the night was located in Visalia, a.k.a the gateway to sequoias. After a good night’s sleep, we woke up to a gloriously beautiful morning and drove to Sequoia National Park, where we drove around, hung out with the giant trees and enjoyed in majestic nature.

On our way to Ridgecrest, we stopped at Lake Isabella. Anyone who knows me is well aware of the fact that I am sunset-obsessed. So you can only imagine how I felt when we stopped to this:

There’s no filter on these photos. I have never seen anything like this before, my heart was literally melting and I was lost for words. I know this may seem as a slight (or huge) exaggeration, but I was honestly in heaven. After 389448938948 photos, we continued with our drive and arrived to Ridgecrest, where we stayed the night. 

This is it for part 3 of our US travels, see you soon with part 4! :) 

♡

lontalius - comfortable