West Coast Road Trip

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Finally I get to share the amazing trip me and my boyfriend went on in December! The main reason we traveled to California were for a friend’s wedding. My Boyfriend got to know the bride when he was working in New York and we were so happy to be invited and attend an unusual type of wedding. A Nepalese wedding! If you get invited to a wedding that will take part on the other side of the globe you really want to take time off and have a real vacation. So we did.

On the beautifully roads of Arizona!

We started off in San Francisco and rented a car. We didn’t mind visiting the city so we went straight down the coast to Monterey. It´s a smaller fishing city with lots of water animals and great whale watching tours! To see a jumping whale was one of the most amazing things I have seen in life so far. And then on top of that, the boat were surrounded by hundreds of dolphins! Wow! What an incredible day to start with. My boyfriend loves animals so to see everything from whales, dolphins, sea lions, otters and seals, he and I was just blown away.

Sea lions in loads in the harbor of Monterey!

Another thing on the bucket list of my boyfriend was to see the Aircraft Boneyard in Tucson, Arizona. This was the furthest point on our trip and the reason we drove, (this is insane), 4000 km during our trip! It´s Sweden times 2,5! Actually it wasn´t too bad driving 5 hours every day because the landscape is just so amazing and changes in all kinds of variations. From Monterey we drove south on Highway 1 to Los Angeles. It’s one of the most scenic and famous drives you can take in the world, with the Pacific Ocean on one side and cliffs on the other.

Highway 1

Reaching into Arizona I fell in love with these amazing and tall cactuses! It’s so dry and still they are reaching an unbelievable high! The Aircraft Boneyard with 4000 retired air force airplanes and one of the largest air museums in the world I can tell you my boyfriend was like a kid! I actually enjoyed it too, mostly for the sunny weather (which otherwise was pretty cold all over the west coast).

Why does everyone (my boyfriend) take pictures horizontally when it really should be vertically??

Next step was reaching Grand Canyon. Last time I were supposed to drive to Grand Canyon it also was in December and we were hitting a snowstorm which made us turn back. This time I got an only an hour at the place because we were driving so much that day, but I´m very glad of seeing that scenery. It was like a painting you couldn’t touch. I wanted to make the most of my first view so my boyfriend were leading me to the edge while I had my eyes shut. Next time I will stay for hiking in the sunset!

A short stay in Las Vegas (the saying says I can’t tell you what we did there!) before we got closer to Sacramento, (which actually is the capital of California), where the wedding would be. 

The wedding was so far from a traditional Swedish wedding you can get! You know a formal western wedding when you get into the church and you immediately start to whisper, because I don’t know, some higher almighty listens? You are a little worried were to sit because you know the bride’s family usually sits on one side and the grooms on the other and then their families sits in the front rows and so on. The good part with this Nepalese wedding was, you didn’t have to worry at all about those stuff at all!

When we entered the ceremony at the given time the ceremony had already been going on for some hours (the ceremony can take up to three days otherwise). People were in colorful dresses, chatting, eating, walking around and even talking in their phones, all at the same time the main wedding ceremony took place! The guests were, at the most important part of the ceremony, walking up to the stage, were the bridal couple sat, to see what was happening. We did it as well because it was too crowded to see anything from the seating area! We really felt at ease from the start. The other thing was that the bridal couple looked very confused with what they were doing. They had to do everything the priest said during the ceremony and it seems like different families do different things to honor the gods. I can understand with so many hours of the ceremony I would never be able to remember everything of what’s going on up there! They did it great and they were so beautifully dressed! I really enjoyed being a part of their ceremony. Later at night we had dinner and party (and yes, the Bollywood dancing!). 

And that, is part of our incredible trip in the U.S! We are already planning on a longer road trip so if you have any ideas on what to see or do please let me now! 

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