A Visit With Grandparents to Las Vegas and S. California

A few weeks ago my grandparents came over from Germany to California to visit me and spend a week traveling. We started our trip with me showing them San Francisco, the biggest city I live close to. I took them to the ferry building, pier 39 where you can see the seals, to Fisherman’s Wharf and we got to see Alcatraz.

Sunday morning we started our real Road trip to Vegas. It took us about 9 hours to get to our hotel. The landscape here is breathtaking. It’s just so wide. We drove through miles and miles of hills, mountains and deserts. The temperatures went up higher and higher the closer we got to Las Vegas. In the end we reached about 115°F. Walking outside was almost impossible without breaks. I really didn’t enjoy the heat. In Vegas we spend a lot of time on The Strip.

My favorite part was probably our trip to the Grand Canyon. I can only recommend it. Pictures don’t show the enormous expanse of the canyon.

Our last few days we spend in Los Angeles. We went on a Warner Brother’s studio tour, walked along Hollywood Blvd, drove down to Venice Beach and Santa Monica, where I finally was able to learn how to surf, walked around Lake Hollywood and celebrated the 4th of July Downtown.

I’ve seen quite a few places in the US by now and Southern California is still my favorite. I live in Northern California and it might be just 5 hours away from LA but I already see the difference. The beaches are so much nicer, there are palm trees literally everywhere and the people seem to be more relaxed.
I enjoyed the whole trip. After not seeing my grandparents for more than 10 months it first felt strange to suddenly spend all day long with them but eventually completely familiar.

Kim Lisa Röding