Back home

Here we are back home in Zürich after this wonderful world trip of 4 months. The return is not easy: jetlag, the boiler does not start anymore, neither the cars do, the garden looks like a jungle and the return to work is planned for tomorrow 😯

However, we were happy to see again our friends, relatives and to grill some bratwurst 😃







Some figures for those who like numbers:

• Days spent far from home: 130
• Beers drank by Benoit to relax from stressful days: approximately 130
• Kilos of souvenirs brought back: 20 kilos
• Budget: we could have bought a nice 2nd hand Tesla with the money spent on this trip 😄
• 100 km traveled by fair means,
• 2'000 km traveled with rental cars
• 11'000 km traveled with the RV
• 45´000 km traveled in airplanes
• Photos brought back (after sorting): more than 4'000
• Videos: 27 
• How much the kids have learned: difficult to measure, but they took a lot !

We are so happy to have done this trip, this will let tons of nice memories to us 4. We will finish on this quote from Mark Twain that perfectly reflects our spirit: "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did"

This is the last post of this blog, thanks to all of you for following this nice adventure, it was a real pleasure to share these moments with you.

Ciao !

San Fransisco, last stop on the west coast

San Fransisco is a big city very pleasant to visit during a family trip. We stayed there 4 days (one of them was dedicated to cleaning the RV and packing up the 100 + Kilos of luggages 😫) and had a lot of fun ! 

The funniest day was the day we've spent with the Wright family met some days before in Sequoia National Park. These guys are "locals" and they know where to go to have the best Irish coffee, the best Clam Chowder, in short: the best places to spend a great day !

To close this west coast trip, we attended yesterday evening a baseball match and watched the Washington National playing the local San Fransisco Giants team ⚾

Lake Tahoe, the video

We never heard about Lake Tahoe before travelling in this West USA trip. Some travellers met along the route told us about this place that is - according to many Americans - the prettiest place on earth ... these guys have obviously not been to Corsica yet 😁, but we have to admit that Lake Tahoe is nice !

The lake is located at almost 2'000m elevation, surrounded by pretty mountains, offers water at a chilling temperature and hips of activities to ensure that you won't get bored ... welcome at Lake Tahoe !

Last National Parks of our trip: Yosemite and Sequoia

Our initial plan was to visit the Yosemite National Park in June, before the American’s summer holidays. Unfortunately we had to change our plans due to late opening of the Tioga Pass. 

Yosemite was then our next destination after Lake Tahoe (video to come in a couple of days ...). On the way we stopped at Mono Lake for one night which turned to 2 nights due to bad weather forecast in Yosemite.



We took the rain opportunity to visit Bodie, a ghost town that used to be the second biggest city of California at the gold-mining age.

The sky eventually cleared up and allowed us to start our Yosemite visit in descent conditions at the Tuolumne Meadows:

Yosemite is still as scenic as 12 years ago when we were there with Nausicaa. The mountains are pretty, temperature is pleasant, the water falls are amples and the hikes are all very well maintained. 

However, do not expect to see too much wildlife other than squirrels due to the huge number of tourists ! We did some hikes in the Yosemite Valley on Saturday (that is even busier than normal week days) and decided to not stay for another day in this crowd !

We then headed towards the last National Park of our trip: Sequoia National Park. You can see there the biggest trees of the world. This one - The General Grant Tree - is some 80 m high, 10 m diameter at the base and probably 2'000 years old 😮 

We ended by chance at the lovely Hume Lake in the middle of the National Park and loved it so much that we stayed there for 2 more days. This is the advantage of having looooong holidays and no reservations in advance !

Only one week left before we fly back home. Clarisse and Antone, although they are still having fun, are looking forward going back home to see their friends, be able to sleep alone in their bed, to shout in their room or listen their music without Dad or Mum complaining that they are too loud ... 😀

As for the parents, we cannot really say that we are looking forward going back to work, but at least we are full of positive energy to start again 😜

Crater Lake

Crater Lake is the only National Park located in Oregon. It used to be a volcano that eventually collapsed under its caldeira’s own weight.

We stopped there for a short but lovely stay on our way towards California.

Wake-boarding at Lake Billy Chinook

Lake Billy Chinook is a small artificial lake on the Deschutes river, right in the Central Oregon and far from the beaten tracks. 

Since we learned it was pretty, friendly and - most of all - that we could have another wakeboard session, we adapted our route to pass by this lake.

Here is the video of the coldest wakeboard day we've ever had 😱:

Woodburn's Drag Racing

Typical American sport event : the Drag Racing ! The concept is pretty easy: you simply need a - at least - 2'500 HP engine, a frame as light as possible, a couple of tires, and you're ready to race for 400 meters. 

The best ones need slightly more than 5 seconds to reach this distance ... and they need 20 l of fuel for these 5 seconds !

We have spend a day attending the Woodburn's Drag Racing. Very interesting, but also very, very LOUD !!!!

The original video (with the appropriate soundtrack) is here whereas the Youtube version is available below:

Sorry Yaël for being so long to publish this new video ... days are too short 😁. We have finally decided to bypass the Canada to let us more time for chilling out while driving south where the temperatures are higher ! 🌞