Holiday in the USA

Holiday in the USA

Talk about my holiday in the United States of America 2003

Why did I go?
We went because of my parents 12,5 year anniversary and because they got married in Las Vegas in 1990. We decided to go to the USA instead of throwing a big anniversary party for family and friends.

With whom did I go?
My family: my father, mother, sister and me. My little sister smuggled her care bear in her suitcase.

When did I go?
We went in summer holidays of 2003. The USA is also lying on the northern hemisphere, so summer over there is in the same period. That means that the weather is fine over there too.

How did we travel?
First we went from Venlo (our home) to Schiphol (Amsterdam). From Schiphol we flew to Frankfurt (Germany) and then flew to Denver (USA). It took us about 16 hours to get to Denver. In Denver we rented a big GMC (General Motor Corporation) van. In this car we traveled for 4 weeks.

Where I went?
We went to the western part of the USA and traveled trough the Rocky Mountains. We visited the states: Colorado
Wyoming
Utah
Nevada
Arizona

What have I done?
• Yellow stone - A national park full with geysers. There is one geyser, called The Old Faithful, witch steams every 60-90 minutes. Nice small waterfalls but smelly. There was a volcano lake frozen almost whole time. When we swim in it, it was very cold.
• Brice Canyon - A national park with high stone formations (like a pillar). The legend is that bad people, who die, end as such a pillar. This was best national park I’ve seen, because you can walk between the pillars. It the opposite of the Grand Canyon. Grand Canyon is a hole and in Brice Canyon it’s like people build it.
• Las Vegas - A city with a lot of casinos. It was build for the construction workers who build the hover dam. The workers liked to gamble a lot. So Las Vegas became bigger and bigger. When we came there at night, all lights where shining (looks very nice). We went downtown and there was a sort of huge TV above our heads. Everyone was watching there. It was just a funny maid up movie.
• Grand Canyon - the biggest canyon in the US, we could choose 3 ways to see the canyon: 1. with a mule go down and up (3 days) 2. By plane (1 hour) 3. Rafting down the Colorado River (5 days). We chose the plane, 6 seats, because we didn’t had time travel for days in the Grand Canyon. If you do that it would be a holiday in it self.
• Lake Powel - A lake full with nice stone formations. Because of the dry weather that summer in the lake was less water then usual. One of the stone formations, Rainbow Bridge, is a holy symbol for the Indians. You can only go there by boat. We rented a boat and fern at Lake Powel for 1 day.
• 4 corners - the only place in the US where 4 state borders come together. There where a lot of Indian markets around there. With a lot kinds of stuff. For example jewelry.
• Back to Denver, to catch the plane back home.

What is my own impression?
• America is a huge country. With still lots of space and beautiful landscapes and national parks.
• Everything is bigger in the USA. Meaning: roads, cars, houses, shopping malls, bottles of soda, hamburgers, even the people are much bigger (and heavier).

I had a great time in America. I saw a lot more than I can tell you about now. If you want you can have a look in the picture books ,I brought with me, after my talk.
Also my family enjoyed it very much, so that we decided to do a similar trip this year, but in the western part of Canada (British Columbia).

This was my talk about my holiday in the USA. Does anyone have a question about my talk?

If nobody has a question, I would like to thank you for your attention, and I hope that you all get a chance to visit all the places I told you about, for yourself. Thank you!