Trip plans for 2009 (?)

New year 2009 is coming, so it's good time to think over my travel plans for next year...

1. US Kidstrip 2009
This trip has been planned since at least a year. I arranged US Visas for my daughters and changed time and places many times. But finally we'll go in April/May and would like to spend two weeks in California. Main goal is to see all the amusement parks like Disneyland, Universal Studios, Legoland, Sea World San Diego, etc. - later I'd like to show some American nature to my daughters, it means I want share my love with them... :)

2. Norway Phototour 2009
This was planned as some economic trip to nice place near Poland where you can take amazing pictures. The best time for such trip is holiday period, so I'd like to be there in July or August. Would like to go there by car and drive as much as possible just to find the most beautiful places of the country and take perfect pictures. Hope that two weeks is enough...

3. US Phototrip 2009
I mentioned plans for this trip few days ago, so you're a little familiar what I wanna do. But the best news is that I have at least two people who'll go with me and their cameras confirmed. So this trip will be a bit different. It's planned for max. 4 people and some old/some new places... autumn colors for sure...

Hope I'll have enough money and time to achieve my goals... as usual please wish me luck!

Xmas lights in Warsaw...

This year Warsaw looks different than ever. So I decided to go and take some pictures. Maybe time wasn't perfect, because of zillions of people walking around, but rate pics yourself...

And last pictures showing man dancing with fire (and police...)

Art Wolfe #2

So it's not easy to buy Art Wolfe DVDs. I'm trying to get them since few weeks and still no success. I'll not have them before Xmas. I don't even think will have them this year. Mainly because of weather in US. They sent me some e-mails. First was:

"Dear Customer:
If you have purchased Travels to the Edge DVDs and DVDs with book orders we have
finally confirmed with our distributors that our DVDs will arrive here in our
Seattle Office next Tuesday, Dec 16th. All orders will ship next Tuesday and
Wednesday 3 day, via UPS. If you have travel plans in which you need us to ship
your order to another address, simply e-mail us your order number or name with
the new address and we will confirm receipt and send accordingly.

We sincerely apologize for these delays, our distributor has been working round
the clock to fill our order. Please e-mail us at info@artwolfe.com if you
have any questions.

Thanks again

The Art Wolfe Gallery
www.ArtWolfe.com"

The other:

" Dear Customer:
Due to inclement weather in the Seattle area, there may be shipping
delays over the next several days. For shipping inquires, please
e-mail us at info@artwolfe.com.

For a look at the Seattle Weather, see the Seattle Times:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/home/index.html

Best regards,
The Art Wolfe Gallery"

Just life! :(

Nintendo Wii for Xmas...

This year I decided to buy something different for my kids. As you may guess by the title, I've bought Nintendo Wii console. It's not because this console is the best in graphics quality or sound or whatever else. It's not like Playstation 3 or Xbox360. It's different. And that's why I bought it. It has some nice abilities that no other console has! I'm talking about remotes and physical moves transfer to virtual world. The Wii has a motion sensitive sensor that acts like a tennis racket, baseball bat, gun, sword or steering wheel or whatever else you can imagine. The Wii can be played by little girls, bigger girls, mom, dad, grandma and grandpa…EVERYONE! It's like Nokia - connecting people. But on the other side, Nokia is more like Playstation - a lot of marketing for a crappy product. Wii is more like HTC - perfect niche product, with no marketing and bunch of customers buying it and being happy with it. That's what I like best - when people vote with their money spent on good products...
I've only one thing that worries me - will I be able to touch my kids Xmas gift? Or they'll just play with it and not allow me to even touch? Ok, this is the risk....we will see...
So I'd like to wish Marry Christmas to all of you and let's have a chance to play with toys we bought for our kids!

Potential Autumn Phototrip?

Recently I visited my good friend who just came back from trip over the Southwest. He managed to get some nice pictures of Zion National Park in Autumn time. I must admit that colors of the fall in this park are really amazing and I have to be there next year! It's decided. The only left thing is to find someone who will go with me, because traveling some trails is a little risky and shouldn't be done alone.
So if you like to take pictures, sleep in the tent, trek mountain trails that are sometimes tough and risky, just contact me and we will think over if it's possible to do it together. My plans are to visit some deserted parts (Subway, Angels Landing, etc.) of the park and will also try to get to Toroweap, Monument Valley and later go to Grand Teton NP. Besides I'll try my luck in getting to Wave part of Vermillion Cliffs and hopefully recovered Havasu Falls.
I would like to spend about two weeks visiting these areas in early November 2009. Wish me luck!

Art Wolfe

Have you ever seen "Travels to the Edge with Art Wolfe" ? Probably not, because this great series is not broadcasted in Poland. You even are not able to buy dvd with the movies outside USA. It's strange, because this is one of the best documentary I've ever seen - especially for photographers. You can see places and approach used by the author to take perfect pictures of wonderful places around the world.
Fortunately friend of mine found place you can buy DVD pack with all the episodes published up-to-date. Unfortunately you can only pay for them with american credit card and have it shipped to location in the US. So I had to make few tricks to get the movies home. Of course I'm still waiting for them, but hope they'll arrive just after xmas.
If you're interested, please check this site: Art Wolfe.

Dexter - a lot of marketing?

I've just got a copy of Dexter recorded on tv somewhere in States. Because heard a lot about it, slogans like "Dexter is hilarious" or "The best show on TV" and some others, I decided to start watching it. And you know what? I've to say it's mediocre. Nothing interesting, long episodes, mostly no action, boring scenes, poor actors, etc. After I've watched four episodes I feel like watching "Lost" - action is still in the same point and the movie was created only to fulfill as much air time as possible...
Of course, you don't have to agree with me, but I'd rather recommend watching Californication than Dexter... think of it

Time to think about another trip...

I feel that time to think about another trip just came... But to be honest I've to many ideas and most of them are a little expensive. So decision will be very tough. Although I'll try to enlist all my ideas and tell few words about each of them. Just for my memory.

1. Alaska - wonderful, but a little cold place. I'd like to get there, because it's a very remote place and you can feel the true freedom there... And I love freedom.
2. Yellowstone National Park - just wasn't there and heard a lot good words
3. Cuba - my dream trip. I'd like to be there with my beloved woman and spend the best moments of my life. Hope it happens soon...
4. Galapagos - I'm sure it's good place to take nice pictures of animals. And probably will disappear soon, so I'll have to hurry to see this miracle
5. Peru and South America in general - dream of my life. I sacrificed part of my life to learn spanish and visit this wonder of the world. I plan to be there more than once and hope it happens
6. Madagascar - one of only few destinations in Africa I would like to visit. Generally I don't like Africa, but Madagascar is different...wanna see these unique animals.
7. Kenya - want to take some pictures on safari and Kenya seems to be good place to do it
8. New Zealand - the most remote place in the world I'd like to see and great landscapes known from Lord of The Rings trilogy. Dream for every crazy photographer like me...
9. Australia - if you go to New Zealand, you must also see Australia. Besides as far as I heard it's the best country in the world if you want to stay there forever.
10. St Luis in United States of America - I don't know why I want to see this place, but just assumed I need to be there. A little caprice.
11. Hawaii - the best beaches and volcanos in United States and you know I'm crazy about states...
12. Canada especially Alberta province - want to take photographs of wilderness and animals and it seems to be last such place on the globe...

plfoto DNO picture

Hello everyone,
I'd like to inform you that my first picture reached DNO directory (list of best pictures selected by moderator) on plfoto.com service! You can see it there or below:

Independence Run - my results...

So I've just returned from my first official run. Unfortunately I reached only one of my two goals - net time 51:58 is below 59 minutes I set before the run. Second goal - place on finish was unable to reach today. I was 2076th (according to gross time that was 55:54) and wanted to be below 1500th (and 1818th according to net time). I'll have to fix it next time. Please see crappy picture of my plate and RFID sensor below. Besides you can check results on datasport.pl.

XX Independence Run in Warsaw

Hi All!
I'd like to boast of my registration for my first 10km run. Yes, I eventually decided to start in the race altogether with 4999 other people. This year we have 5000 runners from all over the Poland. Race will start at 12:00 on 11th November 2008 from Krakowskie Przedmieście and will finish in Wilanów. I hope to get there among first 1500 runners and have time below 59 minutes, but we'll see if this is possible...
Please keep your fingers crossed for me!
Thanks!

Snow in London

This week I'm staying in London, UK. It's rather boring and overcrowded city. But I've never seen snow here. Until today. In the morning all cars had roofs with snow on them. Amazing...
And in the same while I've heard that in Poland it's "second" summer - 18 Celsius degrees....
So which country is better for living? I bet for Poland.

Prison Break Season 3 and Californication...

Everyone probably heard about famous Prison Break series. I was watching first season breathlessly, and second even more. Because of interesting ending of season 2, I decided to also watch season 3. I can't say it's boring, but I've to say that director or screenwriter are slowly getting out of ideas and are trying to rehash old ones. It's not good for the movie. Unfortunately. So if you really need, you can watch it, but do not expect suspense level known from 1st and 2nd season. And one message for ladies - you can still admire Wentworth Miller. This is probably what can save the season 4... we'll see...
Regardless of that I've came across another interesting series recently. It's Californication. So far I've seen first five or six episodes and can tell you that this series has something in it. When you start watching it, you can't tear away from it. My interest in the movie appeared when I've heard the music on Jazz Radio and it was great (btw. it's great radiostation and I definitely recommend listening to it!). Then my friend gave me all the episodes ao I naturally started watching them... unfortunately have not enough time to finish, but this movie absorbed me... Will try to tell you more about it when I finish watching. Or just watch it for yourself and put your opinion as a comment to my blog?

Little overload...

Hello guys,
It's not a good time for preparing entries to my blog. That's because I don't have too many opportunities to take pictures. First because it's autumn - theoretically good time to catch some nice colors, but on the other side I've a lot of work in my company. Besides I've just got many new duties (fortunately I hope it's temporary only) and I'm very busy with them...
So please do not expect too many new entries in coming months...sorry about that. Hope to compensate it next calendar year!

Really nice pictures

Browsing plfoto.com I came across beautiful picture of the lady. I started to trace the author and his other works and found this site: http://www.anetakowalczyk.com/. Here you can find a series of the pictures with mentioned model. It's really nice. Congratulations Aneta! Keep up good work!

Internet from Aster City (finally)

Finally I've my Internet back. And what's interesting I had to say hello again to Aster City. It turned out that it's not so wrong. Spray customer service was much worse. They promised to install internet in 2 weeks and didn't even manage to call me in this period. After my call to the office they told me to wait even more! I got crazy and canceled my agreement with them then called Aster. They promised to re-enable internet and tv in 2 days for only 10 plz more than Spray, so I decided to do it. Finally Aster won this little battle. Spray owners can see what's important in this business. Not only price matters...

Trip to Olsztyn and Warmia

Last weekend I've attended company kick-off in Manor Hotel near Olsztyn. I've planned to leave for a weekend and bustle around trying to take some pictures. Unfortunately weather changed for the worse and I decided to get back home on Friday. But somehow I managed to take few pictures. Moreover my coleague decided to go with me and he also took some nice pics. Please find below some of my pictures. And one more comment is that I definitely do not recommend staying in Manor Hotel - it's below every standard...

1. Nice view in the Luknajno preserve

2. There's a lot of horses in the area

3. Another nice view in the swamp near Krutynia river

4. Marina in Mikolajki is really nice, especially in the sunset...

5. If you have luck, you can meet fox even during the day (Luknajno preserve)

Supai farewell (I hope it's temporary only)

It doesn't exist anymore! What the f**k is going on? It's another place that has been damaged recently (altogether with Wall Arch in Arches NP, New Orleans, Texas etc.) and even worse if we count what happened to WTC and Florida last years. World is changing for sure! So we should travel more to see it until it still exists, don't you think?
I decided to cite few sources about what happened to Supai:

"The Havasupai tribe is closing the village of Supai to visitors until damage from the August 17 flood is repaired, expected to take until next spring. There are reports of extensive destruction of the travertine deposits that make up the face of the waterfalls and form the pools at their base.

There was also extensive damage to bridges, campgrounds, and trails.

The Flagstaff Daily Sun posted a slideshow of the flood and its aftermath. [right, Havasu Canyon. Credit, Havasupai Reservation]"

"The trails leading to the village are not passable.

The bridges crossing Havasu Creek are washed out, and the waterfalls they lead to are unrecognizable.

“It’s devastating,” said Drusilla Clarke, speaking for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. “My grandparents lived down there. It’s going to be really hard for the people.” [...]

The beauty of that part of the Grand Canyon is an important part of the tribe’s identity, and tourists coming to visit it are an important part of its economy.

Billy Jack, with the Havasupai tourism office, said camping revenue alone generates $2 million for the tribe annually, and that, at best, it will be six months to a year before the area gets anywhere close to normal.

“I’m afraid it looks pretty grave,” Jack said. “The whole area’s unstable, especially toward the falls. “The tourist dollars are really critical.”

The BIA, Coconino County sheriff’s officials and tribal leaders were hesitant to guess when the village will become viable again as a tourist destination. Most of their knowledge of the damage comes from aerial tours and photographs."

It's seriously sad news. I'm shocked! I really feel compassion to Havasu Tribe. These nice people are temporary out of business and it's very sorry sight.
What I can do is to show you some waterfalls pics I've taken during my only two trips to Havasu (Autumn 2007 and Spring 2008). Here they're - hope it'll be possible to take better pictures in the future...

No Internet for 2 more weeks?

Currently I use Internet provided by Aster City. But they're very expensive and don't give you what you pay for. That's why I decided to change my provider to cheaper one: Spray. Of course I'm not sure if they're better, because it's hard to check before making an agreement with them, but at least they take half the money of Aster City, so I decided to take a risk and try. Unfortunately I have first bad experience with Spray - you've to wait maximum 30 days (actually they promised to do it in 14 days max.) from the moment of signing the agreement to installation of the connection! In Aster City you get it immediately (next day installation). What's worse it means that I can be without network for few days, because my agreement with Aster expires tomorrow and Spray has 25 days more to install their connections... wish me luck!

Visit to Alicante

As promised I visited Alicante last weekend. It's a very nice place on Costa Blanca shore with a lot of interesting real estate offers. My plan was to find some nice apartment, buy it, then rent it. Of course in the Internet everything is easy, prices are low, credits on good conditions and law is as simple as your native language. Everything changes when you want to finish the deal.
Finally (thanks to Magdalena & Team) we saw about 15 apartments, most of them were newly developed, but we also visited few second-hand. I have to say, that Costa Blanca got very expensive last years. In the Internet one can find many offers below 100k EUR, but they're completely unattractive when seen live. If you want to buy something nice, you have to pay at least 160k EUR (+tax and costs, that is another 20k EUR). And it's still about 900m away from the beach.
And we even found something nice and probably rentable, but it turned out that you can earn maximum 10k EUR/year minus costs of maintenance and cleaning. After thinking it over I decided to drop this idea and move my prospective business somewhere else - investments in Spain don't seem to be attractive anymore.
And please find few pictures below:

1. View from the bungalow for 130k EUR (net):


2. Swimming pool in a bungalow for 130k EUR (net):


3. Swimming pool in the crappy apartment for 160k EUR (net):

Phototrip Memories #2

Phototrip 2008 had a deep influence on my life, it's for sure. I still remember every while of the trip and when looking at the pictures of The Wall Arch I'm even more happy that we finally managed to organize this wonderful trip. As you might know famous Wall Arch doesn't exist anymore! Yes, unfortunately it's true - you can check these sad pictures on www.nps.gov. Or I've just copied them here (of course it's property of nps.gov):

Below is my own picture taken on 5th May 2008. On 8th of August it collapsed!

It only shows us how fragile is life and how fleeting are famous views of the world. Unluckily it's not the only example. Another one is New Orleans. I had luck to be there in 2000 and I think it was one of the best city in the USA - in my opinion at least as nice and interesting as San Francisco. We can say actually it doesn't exist anymore! The same story I had with WTC in NYC. I was there in May 2001 and in September it disappeared. It only shows us that travels are precious and they can be your only chance to see something that lasts only for a while (yes, hundreds years is sometimes also a while). It also means that I'll never have another chance to take picture of Wall Arch - and I'm not happy with what I've taken there. So remember - always do your best to take a good picture - sometimes there's no second chance.
I know this is very sad entry, but what happened really hit me! This lovely National Park will never be the same. And you should hurry up to have a chance to see other arches - they can disappear tomorrow...

Tuscany #2

As promised I'd like to write you few more comments on Tuscany. I've to say it again: this region is really wonderful, but probably best time to visit is May or October. Unfortunately as you know I visited it in August. And I've seen mostly cities, so more on them below.

Firenze - here you've to see at least two things - river with famous bridge Ponte Vecchio and Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. Both are wonderful, but probably only in the morning when there's no people there. Besides it's really hard to take a good picture of Cathedral, because even with very wide lens you can't step back, because of other buildings :( - so probably the best pictures I've seen were taken from the hill on the other river bank. Unfortunately I had no time for such picture and was trying my best with wide angle, but please rate it yourself...

1. The Bridge

2. The CathedralSiena - in my personal opinion this is the best city of Tuscany. I had luck and was there on 16th of August when there's Palio event (it's also organized on 2nd July). But because of my luck it was a lack of parking spaces. Fortunately we found very nice parking next to the train station - it's in 20 minutes walking distance to the city center and is rather cheap - I've paid only 2 EUR for 5 or 6 hours - very rare rate in Italy. After leaving the car we headed to the city and then we found out that there's Palio day! Very crowded city center, but also a lot of colorful parades. Just see few pictures...

1. Palio on Piazza del Campo
2. Around the Cathedral in Siena
3. The Cathedral of Siena (Duomo)

Montecatini Terme - we were staying in our villa near this city and discovered it only the last day of our stay. It turned out to be a nice place with wonderful spa park and old hotels. Very atmospheric place with a lot of green squares. I definitely recommend visiting this place just on your way somewhere else. Below:

1. My favourite picture from the whole trip to Italy:
2. Telephone
3. Guess what?Pisa - small, simple city with very famous tower. Yes, I can confirm it's really leaning! The tower was closed in 1990 because it was in danger of falling over, but after spending millions on construction works (as far as I know designed by polish engineer), it was finally opened once again and tourists can enter the 800-year-old tower again (but only if they're older than six and very patient and want to pay a lot of money). In August one had to wait at least 3 hours to get the ticket. Of course it's nothing bad - you can spend that time in one of nice restaurants around, but as I heard it's worth going up anyway. I wasn't up there, so can show you some pictures from below :(

1. The tower and vicinity

Tuscany #1

So I'm back from my family vacation in Tuscany. It was my first time in the region, but unfortunately taking pictures there appeared to be difficult, because of two factors: weather and kids. Thus I'll try to describe my impressions about regions itself and try to give you few hints what you should definitely see and what is complete waste of time.
Let's start with lodging. We wanted to spend a week in one of the many villas in Tuscany. Because of prices (Italy is VERY expensive) we had only few choices and because of language even less. We were trying to arrange something over the Internet, but cheap villas are sold very early and many of others do not respond to your english e-mails or respond to them after 2-3 weeks! Finally I booked a room in Villa Pasquini and it was a very good choice. Place is simple, but has the atmosphere. It lacks pool or air conditioning, but instead offers very nice rooms and good food. And what's even more important it's in the middle of the interesting part of Tuscany and close to everywhere.
Then attractions. Because of kids I had to focus on cities and kids attractions like zoo or amusement parks. That's why all my photos are architecture kind. We visited cities like Firenze, Pistoia, Venice, Siena, Montecatini Terme, Pisa, Viareggio, Lucca and many others. Let's try to describe best and worst things of few of them. Today I'll focus on Venice. More in next posts on my blog very soon.
Venice has very expensive parking where price is calculated on daily basis, so you've to pay 24 EUR for 24 hours even while visiting the city for two hours only - rip-off! I don't even mention food quality or prices and other facilities. Also paying 80 EUR for gondola ride was too expensive for me - I prefered small (0,2 ml) beer for 8 EUR (only 8 as Italian said!!!!). Besides prices Venice is a really nice, but also crowded city. You should definitely go there, but it might be better choice to park your car outside of the island and go there by train or bus. I also suggest going there in spring or autumn, not summer. In summer it's hard to take a picture with no people in it.
But instead of reading my scribble, please just see some of my poor pictures taken in the city:

Antelope - I see you like it!

I'd like to say thanks to all of you, who voted on my recent Antelope picture I had displayed on plfoto.com this morning. And here it is just for wider audience:

I decided to show some of my pictures from Phototrip 2008 and actually you can find 5 of them on plfoto and some more, here in the previous entires of the blog itself.
Enjoy!

Visit to California

I was asked to prepare one more plan for visiting States. This time my friend needed plan for visiting California in 2 weeks - of course it's not possible, but I was trying to do my best. I divided places to few parts and enlisted the most interesting things (obviously it's my choice, so you don't have to agree with me :)

First, LA

This is rather boring and overcrowded city, you can use it as an arrival/departure point, because flight tickets from Europe to LAX are cheap (about 1000 USD for return ticket if you're lucky). Generally I do not recommend visiting LA, but if you insist, my personal recommendation is to see at least following places:
- Hollywood Boulevard - and its Walk of Fame
- Crystal Cathedral

- Beverly Hills - just wander a little around and see how boring it is
- Universal Studios
- Santa Monica beach - I don't know why, but I like this stinking place

Of course there's a lot more, but you'll spend most of your time in the traffic jams, so not much time will be left for real sightseeing tours - I recommend going somewhere else and see better things. But choice is yours!
And if you want to spend very romantic night near LA, I definitely recommend wonderful hotel in St. Paula - Glen Tavern Inn. It's really perfect. And don't forget to ask for a room with jacuzzi!
Second, San Francisco & Bay Area

It's much more interesting than LA and I suggest you to spend most of your time here. I had known one better city once, but it hasn't atmosphere anymore (I mean New Orleans), so SF became my favorite. Below is the list of my beloved places in the city and around:
- Golden Gate - do not confuse it with Bay Bridge!

- Bay Bridge - this bridge is also nice and leads to Trasure Island with a great view of the city (especially in the evening or early night)
- Alcatraz Island - I've never been there, but heard that people like this prison! Strange...
- Russian Hill/Lombard Street - famous crooked street of San Francisco. Must see place!
- Pier 39/Fisherman's Wharf - this place has the atmosphere - just walk around, but watch for pickpockets!
- Chinatown - pure Honk Kong in the middle of San Francisco! Really interesting place and good restaurants if you like chineese food
- La Honda Rd (84) - beautiful road going from seaside to Mountain View (it connects 1 with 101), wonderful views of redwoods! You must drive this road and I guarantee you'll remember it forever!
- University of California, Berkeley - nice place with a lot of beautiful chicas and great atmosphere of student's village - definitely worth seeing!
- Standford University - the cradle of Sun Microsystems Inc.
- Lake Tahoe - selfexplanatory... Once I dreamed of buying house near the water, but it was too expensive back then. Now everything changed, so maybe I'll get back to this idea.
- Napa Valley - very picturesque place and nice for wine tasting. Recommended and very romantic!
- For shopping activities I recommend Gilroy (outlet center) and Milpitas Great Mall of America

Of course there's a lot more to see in Bay Area/Silicon Valley and I also suggest to take a 1 from San Francisco to Half Bay Moon (good access to the ocean and beach) and 101 then 880 around the Bay itself. Doing this loop will allow you to see most of the Silicon Valley Companies. If you're looking for good/cheap/well located hotel, you can try Holiday Inn San Jose (once it was Hyatt and it was even cheaper...).

Third, Las Vegas Area

My friend told me, that he dreams of a small detour to Las Vegas during their trip over California. Of course it's possible to go there for one or two days, but it's definitely too little to fully appreciate this city. Usually people who visits LV for one day are later saying that it's plastic and boring city and this is not true. You must spend at least a week there and then express your opinion. In 99% of cases it'll be opposite :)
My list of places that you must see being in LV:
- Fountain in front of Bellagio Hotel - I can spend hours staying and watching - for me it's like the eight wonder of the world!
- The Venetian - when you see it from the outside, you can think you're in Venice, but it's just a hotel in LV. But if you get inside, you'll be shocked! There's real Venice under the roof - amazing! - Treasure Island - when I was a child, I dreamed of becoming a pirate - here you can realize your dreams of childhood and see pirates with your own eyes - check the schedule of the shows and reserve best seats ahead!
- Hotel Paris - recently I was staying in this hotel occupying a room with a view to the Bellagio Fountain - unforgettable experience! And do not forget to go to the Eiffel Tower and see fountain from above!
- Calico Ghost Town - you can visit it on your way from LA to LV or on the way back. It's place where time stood still... very atmospheric place.
- Route 66 and other ghost towns - in California you can still find old parts of famous Route 66 and usually you can also find old buildings or even abandoned towns - you can find list of them here.

Again, I can tell you much more about the area, but don't want to bore you, so listed only "must see" places (again in my personal opinion). One more thing I can tell about Las Vegas is the hotel recommendation - you can sleep in one of the famous hotels across The Strip (Bellagio or Trasure Island are my dreams!) or if you want something more remote with very comfortable bed and at affordable price, try Emerald Suites.

Fourth, National Parks and nature of California

Yosemite NP was the first park of USA I've visited in my life and it left permanent trace in my life. I've fallen head over heels in love to California and National Parks of America! But California offers much more than Yosemite - just see the list below - this is very short and covers only basic recommendations for people that are short of time.
- Yosemite National Park (and inside the park don't forget to see attractions like sequoias in Mariposa Groove, view from Glacier Point, Yosemite Valley itself, all of the Falls, etc. The only good lodge is located in Wawona, but it can be a bit expensive, so it's better to look outside of the park)


- Death Valley National Park (in this wonderful NP you should definitely visit Zabriskie Point, Badwater, Furnance Creek, Artists Drive and more if you have time). If you plan to spend night near this park, I recommend looking for a cheap motel in Beatty, NV or Baker, CA.

- Sequoya & Kings Canyon NP (if I have only a day I'd focus on the plan presented here)
- Monterey Bay - beautiful place with wonderful aquarium
- Pacific Groove- my favourite village at the ocean side. Wonderful views!
- Morro Bay - nice place on the way from LA to SF if you take 1. You can see famous Morro Bay Rock and have a good lunch here. It's just an option for stopping by, not a must see attraction.

Please treat this short summary above as a starting point for planning your trip in details. From the other side if you've only two weeks, you'll not be able to see all mentioned attractions, so you must take difficult decisions.

Proposed map of the trip below:

View Larger Map

All pictures in this blog entry comes from my archive (usually scans of analog photos or pics taken with poor digital point-and-shot cameras - so I'm very sorry for the quality).


Good Luck Marek!