California

Hey everyone! I haven't updated in a long long time haha, sorry for that! My life in the USA has been really busy lately. The time I'm leaving is getting closer and when I think about that I have mixed feelings. On June 2nd my plane will depart and on June 3rd I'll be in the Netherlands again after 10 months. I'm super excited to see my family and friends again but I'm not excited to leave Greenville behind.
In this blogpost I'll tell you all about the trip to California I made with my parents and sister over a month ago. My last blog post was all about their time in Greenville. After the week they spent here, Spring Break began and we flew to Los Angeles to start our trip.


Los Angeles
After a morning of flying, we arrived in the City of Angels! The very first thing we did was going to Santa Monica Beach & Pier. You might have seen this place on pictures: a pretty beach with a big amusement park! It's also called 'Muscle Beach' because of all the people that work out there. After that we drove to Griffith Park, where we did a hike. This is a really famous park because of the awesome views on LA and on the Hollywood Sign.

At night we visited something you can't miss in LA: the Walk of Fame. It was fun to see all the stars but I liked it even more to see the handprints of famous actors at the Chinese Theatre.

My favorite thing we did in Los Angeles was the Warner Bros Studios Tour. Warner Bros produces all kinds of movies and television shows. We drove around the film sets on little cars with a guide. We saw sets from things like the Big Bang Theory and Pretty Little Liars. We also saw props from movies like Batman and Harry Potter. But my favorite thing about the tour was that we got to see the set of Central Perk from Friends! In the pictures you can see costumes from Harry Potter and me holding a real oscar (it was way heavier than I expected!)

Central Perk from Friends! 

The last thing we visited in LA was Beverly Hills. You've probably heard of this place, it's the neighborhood where the rich and famous people live. We walked around on Rodeo Drive where everything was super expensive and the everyone looked rich. Fun to see but I don't think I could live there.

Highway 1 & The Big Sur
After visiting LA we stayed in a little beach town called 'Ventura'. We did some shopping and did the thing my family loves the most: having dinner together. My parents own a restaurant and we all love food, haha! Highway 1 is a state highway that runs along the whole coast of California. We drove a big part of it on our way to Yosemite National Park. We visited a lot of towns and beaches. My favorite town on the way was Santa Barbara: a really pretty typical Californian town with old buildings and palm trees everywhere.

Breakfast in Ventura

Santa Barbara - so pretty! 

Morro Bay

The Big Sur is an area of beautiful coastline and beaches. There's also a lot of enormous redwood trees and places to go hiking. During our trip we visited a place that was on top of my wishlist: In-N-Out Burger! I definitely wasn't disappointed. We ended up in the town of Monterey and also visited the cute town Santa Cruz.

Yosemite
We started driving inlands to go to a very famous place: Yosemite National Park. Yosemite was totally different from the rest of our trip: lots of nature & hiking and no cellphone service (which was actually pretty nice). My favorite place in Yosemite was Tunnel View, I don't think I've every seen a view prettier than that. Other things we visited were Yosemite Falls, Mirror Lake and giant Sequoia Trees. On the way back to San Francisco we also visited 'Muir Woods National Park'; amazing woods with giant trees. So pretty!

Tunnel View

On the first picture you can see me being super happy that we're about to see giant sequoias and on the second picture you can see my mom, sis and me (if you look really closely!)

San Francisco
Our last destination! We basically did all the touristy things during our time in SF: we drove over the Golden Gate Bridge, went to Union Square, visited Golden Gate Park, saw the Painted Ladies, drove around in the typical Cable Cars and went to Lombard Street.

I LOVE these houses

The thing I loved the most was unexpected: we were on our way to Fisherman's wharf when we saw lots of cameras. When we got closer, we found out that they were recording an episode of Masterchef Australia! The cooks were just preparing a dish which they had to finish in 45 minutes. Luckily we were allowed to stay and watch, and we were even asked to participate. The director asked the audience to count down in the last seconds, to cheer the contestants on and to clap when they brought their dish to the judges. It was a really fun experience because I love watching Masterchef! I never thought I would see it happen in real life.

The judges!

Another favorite in San Francisco was our visit to Alcatraz! As you might know, this is an island which used to be a federal prison. We did a night tour which made it even creepier since it was dark outside. We got to see the cells, dining hall, library and even the hospital, which was literally the scariest place ever. It was really interesting to see the place and hear all the stories of the inmates that stayed there.

After San Francisco it was, sadly enough, time to say goodbye! This was the hardes moment ever, because I got used to having my parents and sister around again, speaking Dutch and traveling together. But luckily I knew that I would be seeing them again in only 2 months (which is only one month now!). It was an awesome trip and I'm so thankful for the fact that my parents gave me the chance to experience this.

Goodbyes are hard :( 

Where in the USA would you like to travel?