Joshua Tree NP and back in LA ♥️♥️♥️

On Monday, the longest bus ride of the tour awaited: the drive from the Grand Canyon to Joshua Tree National Park. Including all breaks and photo stops in the park, we were on the bus from 7:30 am to 6:00 pm. Afterwards, we were all hungry, even though we hadn't done much. I didn't like the park as much as the previous ones, there were a lot of rocks and cacti - the park is located between the Mojave Desert and the Colorado Desert. Due to the heat, we only took shorter walks there. Since the hotel in Yucca was rather remote, we stopped for dinner on the way and went to a saloon, which was then the highlight of my day 😄 We didn't see the solar eclipse because it was cloudy and we were also too far away, I think it was rather visible in the Wyoming, Utah, Oregon region.

That's why I was even more excited for Tuesday, because the last stop of my first tour, Los Angeles, was on the agenda. Already on the way, I was excited like a little child when I saw the palm trees, recognized the streets... I still have to find out during the trip whether I like Los Angeles or New York better... Miami was also great. But which is my favorite city? LA is definitely high up. The city has everything that Jessica's heart desires - sun, beach, nature, good shopping opportunities...

We were welcomed in LA by a local tour guide who issued us a $15 voucher for lunch at the Farmer's Market. So everyone could choose what they wanted to eat. That was great, because there are food stands from all over the world there!

Afterwards, we visited some well-known places in LA (Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive, Hollywood, Santa Monica), which I already knew, but I still learned a few new details, e.g. where the most beautiful restroom is at Rodeo Drive 😂😂 (@Biene: Very important!) The tour guide told us some exciting, sometimes unbelievable facts, e.g. that one of the designer shops (Bijan) is so expensive that you have to deposit $10,000 first just to get an appointment. Or that many apartments in Beverly Hills are rented for film shoots, and then residents are offered up to $80,000 to move out for a month (including moving furniture out). You can definitely consider that for that amount 😂

But I hardly took any photos, I already took pictures of everything earlier 😊 And the weather was great as always - nothing new in LA 😊

In the evening, it was time to say goodbye to the tour group - some continued to San Francisco and others left the group like me in LA. It was a great experience! But it was already a long time on the road - after 18 tour days, I'm also looking forward to planning my own schedule again for three days and deciding for myself what I want to see and how much time I spend. And it is certainly also interesting to meet new people again 😄

On Wednesday, a long, somewhat lost day awaited me, as I only flew to Vancouver at 5:55 pm and I was very remote at the airport hotel in LA, so I couldn't make big jumps anymore. I just went to a nearby mall (Westfield Culver City) and spent a looooong time at the airport. But more about that in the Vancouver post 😊