This morning we both woke up pretty early. Danielle seems to have less problems with the 9 hours time difference as Sander because she slept till almost 7:00. After a small bite and taking a shower we left around 8:15 and we did found 2 geocaches near the hotel.

The plan for today existed in driving to Berkeley near San Francisco where we would stay in a hotel for 3 nights. After around 25 Miles we stopped for a full breakfast at the IHOP. We both enjoyed our Strawberry Banana Pancakes. After breakfast we went for the third Geocache of the day and we found it without any problems. It was a huge one with lots of tradable items in it. We checked them out and left for the rest of our trip north.

Soon Danielle took over the steering wheel and I relaxed and looked around. I told Danielle we would drive straight on the Highway 1. She believed me and that was probably the last time. It was a very curvy road with sometimes a lot of traffic and narrow bridges. But she did well and in the end she almost felt sorry for giving up the driver seat.

Since Danielle drove really fast we used more gas as expected and decided to get some gas for our SUV.

After getting gas Danielle drove the car for another 3 hours and we’ve seen so many things on the road.

About 100 Miles before San Francisco, it was already 15:00,  we stopped to grab a Starbucks and something small to eat. We also visited the Best Buy and bought a new car-kit for the iPhone because the old one was broken. We than learned that it’s not allowed to put something on the windshield in California, so we went for a version which can be mounted on the vents.

During the ride we decided not to go to Cupertino but it seemed like we passed it on the road there and decided to put it back in the schedule of today. We did make some pictures but the company store was closed today.

From there we drove straight through San Francisco because I wanted to drive over the Golden Gate Bridge. And we wanted to take some pictures because we had beautiful weather. But then all f a sudden there was a lot of fog coming in to the area. We hurried up and close to the bridge about 75% was still visible. So we looked for a parking-spot and after having our car parked we went out for pictures. But then the bridge was gone….

And our car has a sun roof! Which I needed to test out.

As you can see it was fully covered in the fog and so we don’t have a picture with the Golden Gate Bridge. So we drove to our hotel over the bridge and everything went well until 2 miles before our hotel… There was a huge traffic jam, but we have nothing to complain only 2 miles traffic problems on a trip from over 300 miles.

The hotel is the Holliday Inn Express & Suites in Berkeley. It’s a very nice hotel with nice rooms and fast internet. But tonight is going to be interesting, there is no power from 22:30 till 6:30 tomorrow morning. To make the guest feel comfortable the manager makes sure everyone got a flashlight…

As every night we went to a place for dinner and this night it was Sushi time. We ordered a Sushi-boat and it was delicious.

Now it’s time for bed! Let’s hope i get some more sleep as last night.

PS: Thanks for the comments yesterday!

After months of preparation today it was finally the day that our USA Westcoast Trip was gonna begin.

At Thursday Danielle already had vacation and and prepared al lot for the trip. After packing the suitcases on Thursday evening we went to sleep pretty early, because at 04:30h Daniel, a colleague of Sander picked us up and brought us to Nürnberg Airport. At around 5 we arrived at the airport and it was already pretty busy. We had already checked in online so we only had to drop of our luggage.

After going through security and buying some breakfast we left on time, at 6:10h, for our flight to Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. The aircraft was a Fokker 70 and at about 7:30h we arrived at AMS.

Our flight to Los Angeles did not depart until 09:50h so we had some time to buy some magazines and other stuff.

After we went through security and the bodyscanner the crew started boarding in time. We had seats at the emergency exit of the plane, a Boeing 747-400, and that was great. Especially because of the extra space for our legs.

The flight was ok, but it still took us 10,5 hours to get here.

Wenn we arrived at LAX we were the first to depart the aircraft, after that we had to wait extremely lang for our suitcases, but finally the arrive together. Even the border security was ok and did not took long.

Wenn we went to the Alamo rent-a-car to pick up our rental, we saw the Spaceshuttle Endavour landing at LAX on a Boing 747. This was very special and unique to see. Then we checked in at Alamo and get to pick out a car from the Fullsize SUV line. We picked a black Ford Explorer. It’s a great car and has many extra options on it. We will post a picture of the car tomorrow.

Then the trip began our trip. First thing to do was get out of L.A. and get on the Highway 1. We planned this because Highway 1 is parallel at the pacific coastline.

As you can see the views were beautiful. And we even stepped out of the car to checkout the water temperature. And it was very cold!

After visitng the City center of Santa Barbara to check-out the iPhone 5 at the Apple Store we went to eat burgers at Jack in the box at Solveng before we arrived at Santa Maria.

Quickly we bought some drinks and some food at Walmart in Santa Maria before we went to the hotel. Tonight we stay at the Holiday Inn Suites at Santa Barbara. the hotel looked better as on the online pictures and we stay in a room with a fully equipped kitchen. Ideal for a one night stay.

And after being underway for almost 25 hours we are finally there…