- This is a short version of the trip. We traveled for three weeks and I took more than 65 pictures on
the trip.
- Please note that you can click on all the pictures to get a larger version.
- Hold your mouse pointer still over the pictures to get a short description.
Another eleven months of waiting and I'm back! This time I planned to travel by myself but in the
last minute Anders joined me.
Chicago
We arrived at Chicago O'Hare 12.55 local time. We got a room at Palmer House Hilton, one of the finest
hotels in Chicago. Our room had a brick wall for a view, but who cares about the view from the hotel when
you can overlook Chicago from Sears Tower? It didn't take more than a minute to go to the skydeck at floor 103.
Detroit
The next day we left Chicago by train to Detroit. My cousin Csilla picked us up at the station and showed
us around Detroit.
The day after we went to the Henry Ford Museum. I think the museum was bigger than Volvo's plant in Gothenburg!
It was great to see all kinds of cars, both old and new, and even future ones.
Toronto, Niagara Falls
We took the tunnel from Detroit to Windsor, Canada. It's very different from Detroit with the downtown area
all the way to the waterfront. In Windsor they have beautiful parks by the water instead. We had dinner at
Csilla's parents house. I also met uncle Erwin for the first time.
Up early and off to Toronto. We wanted to see the Hockey Hall of Fame where Borje "BJ" Salming is honored.
He played 17 years for the Toronto Maple Leafs. After a walk to the CN Tower we went up to the skydeck and
had a wonderful view over Toronto.
We continued to Niagara Falls. It's big, powerful and beautiful, all at the same time. After dinner it's
darker outside and we drove by the falls again. Now they have the falls illuminated in all kinds of colors.
It's very different from daytime and I'm glad that I saw it both ways.
After a day touring wineries around Windsor we return to Detroit the day after that. I had the opportunity
to visit the Saturn headquarters where Csilla works. I think it is the perfect working environment. After
that we picked up a rental car, a Pontiac Grand Prix with a 3.8L V6.
Denver
It took forever to get out of Detroit and after that it wasn't much to see. We headed for Denver on the I-80.
Iowa and Nebraska were boring with lots of nothing to see.
When we got to Denver we wanted to climb Mt. Evans (by car of course). It's the highest road in U.S. But
unfortunately we had heavy rain there so we couldn't almost see the road ahead of us. Everybody drove with
their hazard lights on very slowly. The view should be spectacular on a clear day.
Grand Junction
The road from Denver to Grand Junction through Glenwood Canyon was absolutely gorgeous. In Grand Junction we
visited my aunt Adel. Her husband George is just as crazy about motorcycles as I am. He showed me his Norton
850 from -75. He's rebuilding it now and it will be the perfect cool bike.
George also took us to the Colorado National Monument. The view is just awesome. I also got to meet my
cousin Caroline, it's been about 20 years since the last time. Her husband is working on their Harley
so they can ride to Sturgis again.
Telluride, Durango
We head south on H-550 towards Durango, but we just had to check out Telluride. Famous for being the site
of Butch Cassidy's first bank robbery. Nowadays it's a renowned ski resort.
On the way to Durango we crossed the Red Mountain Pass. It's more than 11.000 feet high and the roads are closed in the
wintertime. It's a very dramatic scenery with small towns all the way to Durango.
On our way to Cortez we stopped at the Mesa Verde National Park. Indians lived there a thousand years ago
and it's amazing how modern they were. From Cortez we turned south onto H-666 from the movie "Natural
Born Killers". It was really boring, but not as boring as Nebraska.
Las Vegas
From Gallup in New Mexico we turned west onto the I-40 through Flagstaff on our way to Las Vegas. When we were
closing in on the Strip we saw the Eiffel-tower they are building for the new casino, Paris. We tried to get a
room at Mandalay Bay but they were sold out and so were Luxor and Excalibur too. There was some kind of
computer convention going on in Las Vegas so the rooms were sold out almost everywhere for double the
price. We finally got a great room at New York-New York, high up in their Empire State Building with a
good view towards the Strip. We went to a really good night club at MGM, Studio 54, it's a copy of the
famous night club in New York with the same name in the 70's. We also checked out the Venetian, it even has
a canal with gondoliers. Incredible. Las Vegas is the best.
Los Angeles
After two nights in Las Vegas we drove to LA to meet my cousin Jennifer. The day after we got there we went
to the Santa Monica Pier for a nice and quiet evening drinking Margaritas and listening to music. When we got
home we were invited to party with Vivid Video! We tried to call the manager at Vivid who invited Jennifer's
friend Rich to the party but we couldn't reach him. Rich didn't feel like going alone but would take
us there if we wanted to go, and did we want to go! Needless to say, we couldn't sleep after that.
Next day we went to a concert at the Hollywood Bowl. The LA Philharmonics played music from all the big
movies like Jaws and Star Wars. They were conducted by John Williams who wrote the music. Afterwards we went to a
cool bar, the Yamashiro.
Jennifer's friend Jonalyn got us VIP tour tickets at Warner Brothers where she works. It was totally
different from the tour at Universal Studios. At WB we stopped all the time and walked into studios, even when
they were working in there! We saw how they worked with the soundtrack to the coming movie "The Bone Collector".
We also got inside the studio of my favourite show "Friends". I recognized a lot from the show. The hills on
the picture are where you see the choppers fly in "M.A.S.H.".
Suddenly we saw George Clooney standing there right in front of us! That was really cool, he seems to be in
all the coming movies. We also saw the entrance to the ER. Just like "Friends" it's shot in LA, not in Chicago
or New York.
The End
We also rollerbladed from Santa Monica Beach to Will Rogers Beach. I saw the Baywatch headquarters there. One day
Anders and I went for a drive on Mulholland to Bel Air. This year we found the Playboy Mansion! Next year we might
get invited. When we returned the rental car we had driven 4966 km (3088 miles).
The last night we went to the Sky Bar. A really cool place with a pool in the middle, if it were
in Sweden a lot of people would fall into the pool. We later heard that Michael Jordan and Tyra Banks were there
at the same time but we missed them, or maybe they missed us. Jennifer gave us a ride to the airport early next
morning and we had to say goodbye. After the long flight home I was already bored with being home.
We arrived at Chicago O'Hare 12.55 local time. We got a room at Palmer House Hilton, one of the finest
hotels in Chicago. Our room had a brick wall for a view, but who cares about the view from the hotel when
you can overlook Chicago from Sears Tower? It didn't take more than a minute to go to the skydeck at floor 103.
The next day we left Chicago by train to Detroit. My cousin Csilla picked us up at the station and showed
us around Detroit.
The day after we went to the Henry Ford Museum. I think the museum was bigger than Volvo's plant in Gothenburg!
It was great to see all kinds of cars, both old and new, and even future ones.
We took the tunnel from Detroit to Windsor, Canada. It's very different from Detroit with the downtown area
all the way to the waterfront. In Windsor they have beautiful parks by the water instead. We had dinner at
Csilla's parents house. I also met uncle Erwin for the first time.
Up early and off to Toronto. We wanted to see the Hockey Hall of Fame where Borje "BJ" Salming is honored.
He played 17 years for the Toronto Maple Leafs. After a walk to the CN Tower we went up to the skydeck and
had a wonderful view over Toronto.
We continued to Niagara Falls. It's big, powerful and beautiful, all at the same time. After dinner it's
darker outside and we drove by the falls again. Now they have the falls illuminated in all kinds of colors.
It's very different from daytime and I'm glad that I saw it both ways.
After a day touring wineries around Windsor we return to Detroit the day after that. I had the opportunity
to visit the Saturn headquarters where Csilla works. I think it is the perfect working environment. After
that we picked up a rental car, a Pontiac Grand Prix with a 3.8L V6.
It took forever to get out of Detroit and after that it wasn't much to see. We headed for Denver on the I-80.
Iowa and Nebraska were boring with lots of nothing to see.
When we got to Denver we wanted to climb Mt. Evans (by car of course). It's the highest road in U.S. But
unfortunately we had heavy rain there so we couldn't almost see the road ahead of us. Everybody drove with
their hazard lights on very slowly. The view should be spectacular on a clear day.
The road from Denver to Grand Junction through Glenwood Canyon was absolutely gorgeous. In Grand Junction we
visited my aunt Adel. Her husband George is just as crazy about motorcycles as I am. He showed me his Norton
850 from -75. He's rebuilding it now and it will be the perfect cool bike.
George also took us to the Colorado National Monument. The view is just awesome. I also got to meet my
cousin Caroline, it's been about 20 years since the last time. Her husband is working on their Harley
so they can ride to Sturgis again.
We head south on H-550 towards Durango, but we just had to check out Telluride. Famous for being the site
of Butch Cassidy's first bank robbery. Nowadays it's a renowned ski resort.
On the way to Durango we crossed the Red Mountain Pass. It's more than 11.000 feet high and the roads are closed in the
wintertime. It's a very dramatic scenery with small towns all the way to Durango.
On our way to Cortez we stopped at the Mesa Verde National Park. Indians lived there a thousand years ago
and it's amazing how modern they were. From Cortez we turned south onto H-666 from the movie "Natural
Born Killers". It was really boring, but not as boring as Nebraska.
From Gallup in New Mexico we turned west onto the I-40 through Flagstaff on our way to Las Vegas. When we were
closing in on the Strip we saw the Eiffel-tower they are building for the new casino, Paris. We tried to get a
room at Mandalay Bay but they were sold out and so were Luxor and Excalibur too. There was some kind of
computer convention going on in Las Vegas so the rooms were sold out almost everywhere for double the
price. We finally got a great room at New York-New York, high up in their Empire State Building with a
good view towards the Strip. We went to a really good night club at MGM, Studio 54, it's a copy of the
famous night club in New York with the same name in the 70's. We also checked out the Venetian, it even has
a canal with gondoliers. Incredible. Las Vegas is the best.
After two nights in Las Vegas we drove to LA to meet my cousin Jennifer. The day after we got there we went
to the Santa Monica Pier for a nice and quiet evening drinking Margaritas and listening to music. When we got
home we were invited to party with Vivid Video! We tried to call the manager at Vivid who invited Jennifer's
friend Rich to the party but we couldn't reach him. Rich didn't feel like going alone but would take
us there if we wanted to go, and did we want to go! Needless to say, we couldn't sleep after that.
Next day we went to a concert at the Hollywood Bowl. The LA Philharmonics played music from all the big
movies like Jaws and Star Wars. They were conducted by John Williams who wrote the music. Afterwards we went to a
cool bar, the Yamashiro.
Jennifer's friend Jonalyn got us VIP tour tickets at Warner Brothers where she works. It was totally
different from the tour at Universal Studios. At WB we stopped all the time and walked into studios, even when
they were working in there! We saw how they worked with the soundtrack to the coming movie "The Bone Collector".
We also got inside the studio of my favourite show "Friends". I recognized a lot from the show. The hills on
the picture are where you see the choppers fly in "M.A.S.H.".
Suddenly we saw George Clooney standing there right in front of us! That was really cool, he seems to be in
all the coming movies. We also saw the entrance to the ER. Just like "Friends" it's shot in LA, not in Chicago
or New York.