United States

September 13 until October 19 2002

On this page and the following pages you will find a travelogue of the five week trip we made to Dallas and San Francisco, then we toured along a number of national parks in the southwest of the US with an RV and we ended our trip in Las Vegas. As this report is too long for one page it is split up into multiple pages. On this page you will find the first part.

Preparation

Somewhere in August 1997 we received an invitation for the 15 year reunion of Hillekes high school in Arlington, Texas, in September of that same year. In 1982 Hilleke was an exchange student and she lived for one year in the States. As we already had booked another vacation for that year and one month was too short to arrange it all, we decided not to go there. But we than already made the plan to go to the 20 year reunion in 2002. So at the beginning of 2002 we started to find out if, when and where the reunion would be. Via some former classmates of Hilleke, Dean and Mary, we found out that the reunion was planned for Saturday, September 14. As going to the States for only the reunion would be a little overkill we decided to combine it with our vacation. Also a former colleague of Hilleke and his wife, Ge and Hilleguus, had moved to San José in California, so we could pay them a visit as well. The final plan became the following:

For our three year old daughter Ciska it is her second intercontinental flight and long before we left we prepared her for this journey. We also taught her some English sentences as Dutch is her native tongue. Like 'How are you?' and what to answer when someone asks her. And also 'What is your name?' plus the accompanying answer.

Outward Journey

On September the 13th in the afternoon we flew with United Airlines from Amsterdam to Washington DC. As soon as we entered Schiphol all our luggage was checked, even before we had checked-in. Our cabin luggage has been checked several times and right before we entered the plane we were questioned about our luggage. Right on time, at 1.20 pm, we departed. The plane, a Boeing 777, was only partly filled. More than half of the chairs were empty. During the flight we received the custom papers for entering the US. At that moment Hilleke found out that she had lost her passport. She had to show it when were questioned just before we entered the plane, so after that she had lost it somewhere. She thought that she had put it in the back pocket of Ciska's buggy which is now in the cargo area of the plane, but she wasn't sure. She only hoped that she had closed the zipper of the pocket. We will see when we arrive in Washington.
Just after 3 pm (local time) we arrived at the airport of Washington DC. Because of all the security measures a buggy will now be delivered after customs instead of immediately at the gate. But they made an exception for us and the buggy was delivered at the gate. The back pocket of the buggy was closed and it contained Hillekes passport. She was quite relieved as one might expect. At a quarter to four we sat at the gate from which our plane to Dallas would depart, so we had all the time to drink some coffee as our plane was due for departure at 5.20. Also this one left right on time. During this flight Ciska fell asleep. For her it is already 11.20 pm and this morning she was awake at 7.00 am. We arrived at Dallas DFW at 7.10 pm, 20 minutes ahead of schedule. Dean and his mother who were there to pick us up had just arrived. Also our luggage arrived very quickly and at 7.30 we were on our way to the car. After a short ride we arrived at Deans house in Arlington were we will stay the coming days. Ciska was again fully awake as if she had slept for a whole night.

Arlington, the reunion and a visit to Allen

On Saturday Dean drove us on a sightseeing tour through Arlington, not the most obvious tourist destination of the US. We also drove by the Sam Houston Highschool, the school at which Hilleke was an exchange student for one year, twenty years ago. After that we visited Jenny, Deans mother. Ciska will stay there this evening when we are at the reunion. Deans mother emigrated a long time ago from the Netherlands to the US and she still speaks Dutch, so she can talk to Ciska as she doesn't speak any English. On the way back to Deans home we drove by the Ballpark, the place were the reunion is being held this evening. The Ballpark in Arlington is the stadium of the Texas Rangers. It is quite an impressive building and from a distance it looks like a castle.
Around 6 pm we took Ciska to Jenny and we left for the Ballpark. When we arrived there, Hilleke immediately saw some former classmates. She and Dean had a great evening meeting all those classmates. Also Hilleke friend Mary and her husband Alex were present. For Alex and Arjan the evening was a lot less exciting as they didn't know anybody present there. At the end of the reunion a number of people was asked to step forward. Hilleke as well as the one that had travelled the longest distance to get to the reunion. We made an appointment with Mary and Alex to visit them tomorrow, they live in Allen, a town not far from Dallas. When the reunion was over we drove back to Jenny's house to pick up Ciska. She had fallen asleep on the couch. She had a great evening together with Dean's niece Megan.

Fort Worth

The next day we went to Fort Worth. We started with a visit to the Log Cabin Village. Here you may find some wooden cottages from about 1850-1900. These cottages were build and used back then by the pioneers that lived in these areas. It is hard to imagine that those people lived with a whole family, sometimes with more than 10 children, in a one room cottage of only a few square meters. There was also a school, the teacher lived in a small room above the school. In some of these cottages someone is sitting in a costume from these past times who is able to tell something about the story of the cottage. Children of Ciska's age (3 years old) already had to work in the field or they had to spin the wool. Dean had never heard of Log Cabin Village before, so for him it was also his first visit here. Log Cabin Village is not that large and after one hour we had seen it all. Next we went to see the 'Water Gardens' in Fort Worth. An oasis of peace and water. There is an artificial waterfall and the water plunges down quite deep over a number of stairs and concrete blocks and finally it disappears. As a visitor you can walk all the way down. When paying a visit to Fort Worth you have to see the historic stockyards. When we arrived we first had something to eat and next we wandered around. We looked at the former cow stables, now they are empty. Twice a day they have a cattle drive through the streets (actually only one street) of Fort Worth. Ciska liked this a lot. Next we visited the Japanese gardens, Ciska really liked feeding the Koi carps. There are quite a lot of these fish swimming there, all in different shades of colour. We also saw a water snake. In the mean time it was already quite late and Ciska had became very tired, so we decided to go back to Arlington. After we had some Mexican take-away food we packed our luggage. Tomorrow we leave Texas and we'll fly to San Francisco.

Heading for the west coast

At around 6 o'clock the alarm went off. After a cup of coffee we packed the remaining things end after that Dean drove us to the airport. When we arrived there we could immediately check in our trunks, so we didn't need to take them with us all the way to the check-in counters. The check-in went very fast and after that the luggage check. Ciska's buggy was checked very thoroughly. The gate wasn't very far and when we arrived there we didn't have to wait very long before we could board. The plane was almost completely filled. We left right on time and we even arrived 15 minutes early in San Francisco. Hilleguus was already waiting for us at the luggage belt. We had to walk quite a distance to the car, which wasn't easy as the buggy still had two flat tires. From the airport we drove to San José. The temperature here was very pleasant, not as hot as in Texas. In the afternoon, Hilleguus dropped us off at the Winchester Mystery House in San José. This is the house of the widow of the Winchester family, those of the firearms. It is quite a bizarre house, it was under construction for 38 years until her dead. The house has 160 chambers and because of the ever continuing construction there are doors to nowhere, a stair ending at the ceiling, cupboards with only a door and immediately beyond the door there is a wall. There is a chimney that ends right before it goes through the roof, etc., etc. At the end of the afternoon Hilleguus came to pick us up and we drove back to San José. Ge and Hilleguus indeed had a bicycle pump so we were able to inflate the tires of Ciska's buggy.

San Francisco

For two days in a row we paid a visit to San Francisco. We went there by train. The first day we just a bit too late at the station, the train left right before our eyes. Because of this we arrived in San Francisco at half pas ten instead of a quarter past nine. We took the bus to the Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39. It was already a quarter past eleven before we arrived. The first thing we did was buying tickets for a boat trip in the bay and a visit to Alcatraz. The boat departed at 12 o'clock and the trip lasted an hour. First we sailed by the famous sea lions at Pier 39. Ciska liked them very much, although the smell was horrible. We were very lucky as there was no fog, which is very common, at all in the bay. So we were able to see the Golden Gate bridge undisturbed. Very impressive to sail along and under it so very close. Back in the harbour we had another hour before the boat to Alcatraz departed so we had a lunch at Pier 39. Alcatraz is very impressive to visit. The prisoners back then lived in very small cells, it is hard to imagine that some of the prisoners spent more than 10 years in those cells. We wandered around inside as well as outside and a quarter to five we left. We had some drinks at the Hardrock Café and of course Arjan had to buy himself another t-shirt. The second day we managed to take the early train and at a quarter past nine we were in San Francisco and we took the bus to go to the Powell Street Cable Car Turntable from were we want to ride on the famous cable car to the harbour. But there was a long queue of people waiting to hop on one of the cable cars. We had to wait for at least an hour before it was our turn. So we walked another 100 meters to the next stop and there we were able to jump on the first cable car that arrived. Quite an experience to ride on one of those cable cars. We got off at the end station and walked from there to the Hydestreet Pier. There are a number of old ships that you may visit. We didn't. From there we walked to the Fisherman's Wharf. A bit of a disappointment, there is not much activity, there are mainly restaurants. With another cable car we went to the Cable Car Museum. There are a number of old cable cars but the building also houses the machinery that pulls the cables through the streets to move all the cable cars. Interesting to see. From the Cable Car Museum we walked to Chinatown and from there we walked all the way to the train station.

Monterey and Carmel

The next day we went, together with Ge and Hilleguus, to Monterey. First we visited the famous Monterey Bay Aquarium. The moment we entered they were about to start feeding the fish in a large aquarium. A woman stood next to it and she told a lot of this about the fish and their natural environment while her husband swam around in the aquarium in a diving suit. They had also a number of aquariums were children were allowed to touch a number of sea creatures. Ciska liked this very much. They also have a number of aquariums containing jellyfish. Great to sea how they move through the water. Outside of the building they made a large terrace from which you have a nice view over the Monterey Bay. From the terrace you are able to see starfish in the water, but also sea otters and pelicans. From the aquarium we drove along the ocean road. We also stopped to admire another bunch of sea otters and pelicans. In the town of Carmel we went to the Carmel Mission. We arrived there at half past four while it closes at a quarter to five. Because they were about to close we were allowed to visit the mission for free. The Carmel Mission was founded in 1770 by Father Junipero Serra. He is buried near the altar. It was the administrative centre for all missions in Northern California. And it is still being used as a catholic church. Around a quarter to five we were requested to go to the exit and from there we drove back to San José.

Start of our RV tour

On Monday 23rd of September our camper tour is about to start. As we can pick-up the RV only the afternoon we spent the morning with packing and do some shopping for the first days in the RV. Around twelve thirty we used Hilleguus' car to drive to Oakland, that's the place for the Cruise America SFO office. In the mean time Hilleguus had took Ciska to the house of a friend of her to play in their swimming pool. After three quarters of an hour we arrived in Oakland. At the office everything went ok. We only had to pay another $1500,= for the insurance, drop-off fee for Las Vegas, personal- and camper kits and a deposit. The contract also mentioned that we were not allowed to drive into Death Valley as it was still too hot there, around 110ºF (> 40ºC). Around three o'clock everything was settled and we were about to return to San José. Hilleke in the car of Hilleguus and Arjan in the RV. It was a 25 feet RV, similar to the one we rented in Canada two years ago. Around four we arrived in San José and we started to load all of our luggage into the RV. As Cruise America doesn't rent child seats with their RVs we had to find another solution. It turned out that the neighbours of Ge and Hilleguus had one and we were allowed to take it with us for the coming three and a half weeks. We will send it back via mail when we arrive in Las Vegas. We didn't unpack all of our luggage, we can do that this evening at the camping. Hilleguus and Ciska also arrived when we were busy loading. When everything was packed we said goodbye and we drove off. We are heading for Sequoia NP, but this is too far to reach at this time of day, so we stayed the night at a camping in the 'roaring' town of Chowchilla.