Southwest US is a place of extremes: on one hand there’s the mega cities and the all-you-can-eat menus, and on the other hand lie the vast unspoiled desert plains. On this post Verne talks about the former, and on the next post Jules will follow with the latter.

Our original itinerary included only a short stay in Los Angeles before heading out to the Pacific, but we decided to extend our stay to get to know Southwest US a little better. We had already toured the coastline previously, so we went inwards this time. In retrospect, visiting the desert in the middle of the Summer might not have been our smartest move to date, but I’ll let Jules talk about that in the next post. For now we’ll enjoy an air-conditioned ride:

Before we start, bear with me for a second while I get philosophical: I feel that the more we travel, the less we know. Case in hand: out of all of the US, we settled on visiting three states. Within those states, we visited a few cities. Within those cities, we checked out a few places. Getting to know the whole world is like trying to read all the good books ever written: it can’t be done. Fortunately, traveling shouldn’t be about collecting passport stamps, but about collecting personal experiences. At the start of this round-the-world trip we were eager to see everything, but now we’re more realistic: we plan our visits the best we can, but then sit back and enjoy what we’re experiencing instead of worrying about what we’re missing out. By the way, that also means that this blog is not something you can plan a trip with, as it only reflects the modest experiences of one pair of travelers. Instead, mix it up: read a bunch of different blogs, leverage community tools (e.g. TripAdvisor) and reach out to locals!

Jules snaps a photo of San Diego’s beautiful coastline

The USS Midawy is a massive airport carrier turned into a museum

The USS Midway is named after the 1942 Battle of Midway

The entrance to the USS Midway

This veteran pilot gave us a passionate description of what it takes to land on an aircraft carrier (it’s some serious TopGun stuff)

After scolding his staff for getting his name wrong, Commander Verne prepares for take-off

We should have taken notes, no idea which plane this is

Commander Jules listens intently to her team’s briefing

This thing is called a Fresnel lens, and is used to guide the pilot’s landing approach (seriously, look it up, it’s fascinating stuff)

This was the crew’s favorite plane, as it brought food and letters from home

See those painted Apollo capsules? This chopper retrieved five of them, including the ‘Houston we have a problem’ Apollo 13

There’s a bunch of different aircrafts in the Midway

Verne at the end of the rather short landing strip

Those are three of the 10 airport carriers US currently has. It is very unusual to have them all at the same port at once

The bunk beds are tiny!

Rookie sailors started their stint in this anchor room, a noisy and dangerous place

In case you forget what country you’re visiting halfway through the boat cruise

We spent a night in Palm Springs on our way to Vegas

With 40 degrees even during the evening, restaurants in Palm Springs need to cool off the guests in the terrace

Las Vegas is described by many as Disneyland for grown-ups

Las Vegas has its own Eiffel Tower

A giant motorcycle popping out of the wall? Check.

Las Vegas’ strip at nightfall

A look at the underside of The High Roller, the world’s largest ferry wheel

Aham, moms have been asking for more selfies

With over 2,000 MW of installed capacity, the Hoover Dam was the largest dam in the world when it was built in the 30’s. It currently supplies around 15% of Las Vegas’ electricity

The intake towers guide the water to the turbines (you’ll be in a pickle if get sucked into one of them)

The water level of the dam was pretty low

The Colorado River Bridge, next to the Hoover Dam, is an engineering wonder by its own

Looking down the Hoover Dam is not a good idea if you don’t like heights

The Hoover Dam is half on Nevada and half on Arizona

Jules & Verne goofing off to one of Ivanpah’s power towers mirrors

The tram that takes you up to the Getty Center

The Getty Center was designed by Richard Meier

Each detail of the building has been meticulously designed

The garden was designed by Robert Irwin, and was one of Jules’ favorite parts of the Getty

Jules listens closely to the audio guide

Best thing in the Getty Center: it’s free!

There’s way too much to see in one visit. We stuck to the ‘Highlights’ pieces

A lot of though was clearly put into the presentation of each piece

Look at the detail of the nose and hair curls: no effort was spared into carving this wooden bust

Paul Gaugin’s ‘The Royal End’ (we were lucky enough to see Gaugin’s ‘When will you marry?’ in Basel before it was sold for 300$ million, so this one was a bit of a letdown)

Venus, Minerva and Juno (out of the picture) facing the Judgment of Paris

‘The Vexed Man’, by Messerschmidt

Everywhere you look…

… the view is breathtaking

One happy camper!

The stunning reception building

‘Standing Women I’ by Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti

Easy on the gadgets there, Verne!

A trip to Los Angeles wouldn’t be complete without checking out Santa Monica beach…

… and getting stuck in an equally classic traffic jam

We didn’t visit any Hoolywood studio, but we did come across this awesome quote at he LAX airport

OK, back to the road: the first city we visited was San Diego. With a population of 1.4 million, San Diego is the eight largest city in California. We had grandiose plans of visiting a bunch of stuff there, but ended up spending most of our time on USS Midway, an aircraft carrier ship turned into a museum. Launched in March 1945, the Midway missed the Second World War by a hair and ended up, ironically, spending most of its life stationed in Japan. Everything about it is big: 296 meters long, a weight of 64.000 tonnes, 212.000 horsepower, 80 planes and a staff of 4.500 to run it. You don’t need to be a kid or a nerd (although we are both) to appreciate this visit, as the stuff on display and the passionate tours of the volunteer veterans make it worthwhile for everyone.

Next up was Las Vegas. Albeit part of Nevada, this gambling oasis in the middle of the desert was created close to the state border to attract gambling-thirsty Californians (gambling is illegal in California, except inside the Indian reservations). Las Vegas grew up to host 75 legitimate casinos. It’s main attraction is undoubtedly ‘The Strip’, which is a bit like Donald Trump’s hairdo: tacky but mesmerizing. This avenue is a procession of giant casinos trying to topple one another: Bellagio’s water fountain shows, Paris Las Vegas’ Eiffel Tower replica, Luxor’s pyramid, etc. On the sidewalks you’ll also find multiple Elvis impersonators (who knows, one of them might be the real deal) and scantily cladded show girls. We couldn’t leave this place without doing some gambling, so we went all in and plunked 7$ on the slot machines. No jackpot unfortunately, but we did win a pack of gum!

Our last stop was Los Angeles. One of the fondest memories I have of this city (I lived in California for a couple of years when I was a kid) is visiting the Hollywood studios, but unfortunately we couldn’t squeeze a visit in our tight schedule. We ended visiting something completely different, but equally awesome: the Getty Center. Perched on top of one of LA’s hills, this Foundation was set by J. Paul Getty, an oilman that donated his fortune to the divulgation of art and culture. Besides the stunning architecture of the Center itself (designed by Richard Meier), there’s an impressive array of exhibitions to choose from. Jules was amazed by the architecture of the museum and the beautiful gardens by Robert Irwin, while I spent a disproportionate amount of time starring at ‘The Vexed Man’ bust, by Messerschmidt.

On the next post Jules will fill out the blanks of what we did between these cities. Teaser: it involves two silly tourists wondering through deserts in the middle of the Summer!

Verne*