[21-23 August, Tanju] We were hearing the roar of the ocean waves when we arrived at our apartment around midnight on the 20th. But when we opened the curtains on the morning of the 21st and saw the Santa Monica…
Route 1
[20 August, Tanju] The final leg of our long-distance driving was the familiar Route 1 in California, hugging the Pacific coast. Both Zehra and I had driven many times before on this road both north to south and south to…
San Francisco, campuses and friends
[19 August, Tanju] We arrived at Nuri’s house in Sausalito around 9:30 pm. Nuri’s valet parking service, Selin’s warm embraces at the door, and Janna’s sumptuous dinner table made us forget our tiredness. We could not get up as early as…
Yosemite (finally)
[18 August, Tanju] “Finally” because I haven’t/couldn’t visit this most famous of the California national parks while I lived in Los Angeles for seven years and frequently visited California afterwards. Now, we had planned to visit Yosemite for at least…
Arriving & Leaving Las Vegas
[17 August, Tanju] If you are not into gambling or don’t find kitsch imitations of historical artifacts, monuments or even whole cities interesting, the heat and the crowds of Las Vegas are turn offs. But our main objective was to…
Grand Canyon after 20 years
[15-16 Aug, Tanju] We left Grand Teton hotel after witnessing the sunrise reflecting on the mountains. We had about 12 hour to drive to Grand Canyon so we left quickly around 7 am. We crossed Wyoming mountains and forests, Utah…
Yellowstone & Grand Teton National Parks
[14 August, Tanju] Grand Teton and Yellowstone are two neighboring national parks, Yellowstone is on the north. We arrived at our hotel on the evening of August 13th after an eight-hour drive. Our hotel, Jackson Lake Lodge, was situated in…
America: Grand Canyon Day 1
It’s been a while since I posted anything, but whenever I tried to write the internet went “NOPE!”! So yeah…. Anyway, we went to the Grand Canyon, saw lot of views, couldn’t make it to the sunset (it would have…
Bring Heavy Clothing and Gas Masks
We’ve just set out from our lodgings by the Jackson Lake, but I already miss the two national parks, Yellowstone and Teton, we visited in Wyoming. Home to a plethora of North American wildlife, including the majestic buffalo, and filled…
Where the buffalo roams
on Zehra’s suggestion we made brief early morning visit to the Badlands National Park when we left Wall for Mt. Rushmore. We were very lucky to see a few buffalo who are being reintroduced to the prairie after hunted to…