Wow, the opportunity arose for a real 'Trip of a Lifetime' holiday to parts of the USA and I gleefully accepted.
My wife and I flew from Heathrow to San Francisco and were met there by one of my sisters-in-law and her new husband. They took us to Napa, which would broadly serve as our base for the following 3 weeks.
After a couple of days of settling in and looking around Napa Valley and the town of Napa itself, we flew to Las Vegas to start our epic adventures.
Having landed and then found our hire car, we set off on the long drive to Zion National Park with a planned stop-off at the Valley of Fire.
During this drive, we had to leave the main highway that would lead to Zion to take the relevant route to the Valley of Fire. This road soon took on the look of the scene often seen in films - long straight undulating road with dusty scrub and desert either side.
After quite a while, we arrived at the Valley of Fire and were astounded by the size and colour of the rock formations there. Some trails are closed to walkers in the middle of Summer, due to the extreme heat, but there was plenty to see on a relatively short stop before continuing our journey.
Leaving the Valley of Fire, we continued on our route to Zion - this route taking us through a mighty impressive Virgin River Gorge, where the Virgin River (which flows through Zion) has carved its way through huge rocks over many years.
Eventually, we arrived at Zion National Park and were immediately greeted by amazing sights of huge multi-coloured rock formations. We were further amazed when our hosts booked us into the Lodge that was right in the park and would be home for 3 nights.
Zion really captured our hearts, despite not seeing a huge amount of it and despite not really doing it enough justice with the camera.
When our 3 night stay was up, it was time for another long drive - this time heading for Grand Canyon National Park. During this drive, we stopped off for a late breakfast at a roadside cafe where the food portions were particularly big - this providing another tale to tell after. Another stop en route, saw us visiting the Glen Canyon Dam before continuing towards the Grand Canyon.
The Grand Canyon also turned out to be an awesome place to visit, though again we were only due to stay for 3nights.
Again we were really lucky, as our hotel for those 3nights was alongside the footpath that forms part of the South Rim Trail (and is visible extreme right in sunset pic below) - the Canyon was visible from our bedroom window. The Grand Canyon treated us to an amazing sunset on our first night there, while we managed to view the Canyon from a few different spots during our stay.
Then we had the long drive, via the town of Williams and further on via the Hoover Dam, to get back to Las Vegas for our return flight to Oakland, San Francisco to have a couple of days back in Napa before embarking on the next amazing leg of our incredible adventure.
Arriving at Vegas too early for check in, we headed out to Red Rock Canyon (118 degrees in the sun) for another amazing sight of coloured rocks and more twisted formations.
That next leg got off to a false start, when we were delayed at Oakland Airport for about 13 hours due to staff shortage for our flight. Another big tale to tell after, as 13 hours at an airport was not part of the grand plan. It was just as well that our intended destination was well worth looking forward to - we were off to Hawaii !!!
We arrived on Kona Island late at night after our big delay and checked into The Kona Seaside Hotel in Kailua, this to be 'home' for a whole week.
There were many highlights during the stay on Kona, incredible colours around the coast, some huge waves for a couple of days, rounded off with 3 great sunsets on the last 3 nights. The photo above shows the view across the bay at Kailua and the incredible colours.
All too soon, our week in Hawaii was over and it was time to return to Napa for the last couple of days of a totally mind-blowing 3 weeks.
Then it was over, our 3 weeks of total escapism ended with the flight back to Heathrow and our return to reality.
I have many photos that I will illustrate this post with shortly, some of which I am very pleased with, but if I could repeat the trip I would definitely do better with the camera. I didn't take enough pics or enough variation while we were in Zion, a source of some regret, and I would be more adventurous around the Grand Canyon for photos if I returned. I also know a few spots I would obtain better and more interesting pics of around Kona, if I was lucky enough to be able to go again.
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