July 28th: The Grand Canyon, North Rim

We drove from Page to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.16 years ago, we went to the South Rim. The North Rim is at 2400m height, 300m higher than the South Rim. While the South Rim is in the desert and very busy, the North Rim is in a forest and has only 10% of the visitors. It was a much nicer experience.

We saw a lot of animals. Before we entered the park, we thought we saw a lot of black cows. As we drove closer we thought that these were rather big cows... They turned out to be bisons, once imported from Yellowstone. Their offspring still lives at the North Rim:

 And again, wild turkeys! We saw a lot of them:

Mule deer. We saw a lot of them too:

Back in Page, we went for dinner across the street. It used to be a gas station, now it is a Texas BBQ restaurant. A live band plays every night and everybody sits at long tables. It had a very nice atmosphere. The place was packed every night!

P.S. Voor Pieter: een voorbeeldje ; ) Dit zijn de smokers die ze daar gebruiken:

July 27th: Antelope Canyon and Lake Powell

We are in Page for three nights. Yesterday, we went to Antelope Canyon. We expected a crowd, a lot of waiting time and a rush through it. But we had a very nice guide. She took her time and showed where to make the most beautiful pictures. And beautiful it was. We made hundreds of pictures. Here are some of them.

The ones I made with my reflex camera show the actual colors:

Emma used the little camera, these photo's turned out a bit more fairy taleish (she used the "food" setting of the camera ; )  :

This is where we emerged back out of the canyon:

After the afternoon thunderstorm (it rains more here in the desert than it does in Italy in the summer!), we went swimming.

We drove over Glen Canyon Dam.

which creates the spectacular Lake Powell

We entered a new state, 'ceci n'est pas Jutta'

to drive down to the beach, 4x4 recommended! The lake was surprisingly cool, given the 37°C surrounding temperature!

July 26th: Sedona to Page

Our resort was at the edge of the village. It felt very privileged to wake up and see this: 

 In the morning, we went on a short hike.

After lunch we wanted to go swimming in the creek, but a lot of people had the same idea (it was Saturday). The State Park was full, so we drove on to Page.

All information for the road trip on hand:

In Flagstaff there was an RV parking lot sale and we decided to take a look: 

Wow, these American things are big!

We stopped for a short hike at Sunset Crater. This volcano created an ash mound and large lava fields in 1050 AD.  The lava still looks as if it erupted just yesterday: 

We drove through Navajo Nation. It was a vast landscape with not much in it. It is very clear that the reservations are located in the poorest parts of the country. As we traveled through, we understood history better.

But it is also beautiful:

July 25th: Sedona

Some cute critters that needed to be petted:

On Friday we did get up very early, 6 a.m. Very much against our nature! But it gets clear (and hot!) very early in the morning in Arizona.

We headed out to climb Cathedral Rock. 

This is where we are going:

Going up involved some rock climbing:

Of course, mountain goat Luka was always the first one up:

Almost there:

 It was a strenuous and hot climb, but the view to both sides was magnificent and well worth it:

  

And back down we went, to drink a loooooot of water!

July 24th, Phoenix to Sedona

In Phoenix, we went to the Heard Museum. It is a museum dedicated to Indian Art en Culture, from now and the past. Above all, it is a beautiful museum (and not as dusty as some Italian museums ; ) . 

This rug is dyed with Cochineal, it is over one hundred years old and still very bright red.

In the afternoon we drove north through a wide landscape of semi desert, with real "western style" cactuses in it. They are Saguaro's. They can grow up to 20 m high and grow their first arms after the age of 70!

We stopped at Montezuma Castle, a cliff dwelling of the Sinagua. It is build 800 years ago:

 Then we headed to Sedona, our home for the next two days.

July 23th

To Phoenix

On Wednesday we left Florida for Arizona. It was a longer flight then I expected, and three hours time difference (and we're still in the same country!!!).

Arriving in Florida always feels if somebody wraps a warm, humid blanket around you. But arriving in Phoenix was very weird, as if you were standing in the hot outlet of a bus or a big hair dryer. Very hot, very dry air blows in your face. At first, I thought I was underneath a big blower in the airport door as they do in Belgium, to keep the cold out. Only it wasn't cold at all! It was 111°F or 43,5°C air temperature. We experienced quite a lot of hot weather living in Italy, but this was in another league. We had the feeling we couldn't stay outside for long (what is true, you just die if you stay outside in temperatures like that), and our eyeballs were drying out fast in the hot wind. And it was evening when we arrived... Luckily the forecast expects lower temperatures in Sedona.

We were a bit nervous to pick up the rental car. We brought seven suitcases and seven pieces of hand luggage. In Belgium, it never fits into one car. But hey, everything is big in the States. It did fit nicely!

We couldn't fit five pillows in our luggage, so we stopped at IKEA to buy some. Space enough in the car!

July 22nd Blue Springs

On Tuesday, we went to Blue Spring State Park. 
17 Years ago, when we came to live in Florida, I thought "oh no, I don't want to live in a plastic world between Mickey Mouse, Miami Vice and the Snow Birds!" 
But then we discovered "The Real Florida". This is still the slogan of the Florida State Parks. And they are beautiful. Blue Spring was one of my favorites. No Center Parks (a chain of subtropical resorts we go to if we cannot stand the Belgian winter any more) can compete with that! Turquoise, crystal clear, refreshing water in a setting with palm trees and Live Oaks loaded with Spanish Moss. I could live there.

We rented some tubes and floated down the spring:

21 juli Kennedey Space Center

Monday we went to Kennedy Space Center. Five years ago, we didn't want to go, because the kids didn't speak English back then. And I would be the one to answer all the "what is this, what did they say?" questions...

But now the kids do speak English and we went.

We saw the assembly building, this one story building is so high, clouds can build up inside:

Luka was really happy he could touch a real moon rock:

We saw the space shuttle Atlantis up close:

And we saw wild turkeys (the first time in my life I saw them!):