Western/California Highlights

My Western/California adventure is over, but the memories and experiences stay forever. The three weeks have been falloff highlights and I thought I'd share them here. 
My fave city during this strip was San Francisco for sure. No other city can compete with San Fran. It has to offer so much and even a week there is not enough. I will point out specific highlights in this post. Yosemite National Park was amazing as well, the nature is so impressive, I instantly fell in love with the landscape. And then there is The Grand Canyon, do I need to say more?!
Ok, let's get to the actual highlights: 
- Hot air ballooning over the Sonoran desert: Omg, it was incredible! Hot air ballooning has been on my bucket list for a while, so of course I signed up for it. We had to get up early, but it was so worth it. We saw them bowing up the balloons and then we just flow over the desert. Saw the sunrise, other balloons, the view was fabulous!

- Helicopter ride over the Grand Canyon: It's the Grand Canyon!!! The moment when we flew over the edge was amazing! Seeing the Canyon, the Colorado river, all the colours, just wow!!!

- Exploring Yosemite National Park: This park is fantastic. The nature is so pretty, it actually made me speechless. The mountains, the waterfalls, the forests, the lakes. A bike ride was the perfect way to explore the park and I'm sure I'll never forget this incredible day. 

- The Golden Gate Bride: We first drove over the bride in our our bus and then stopped at Vista Point to take pictures. Then we did a sunset cruise and sailed under the bridge, the sunset was awesome as well. During a bike tour we drove over the bridge as well and stopped along the way to take pictures. On the last day I even saw the bridge in fog.

- Coit Tower: The view from the tower is pretty impressive!!! You can see the whole city, over to Oakland, the Bay Bridge, Alcatraz and all the surrounding islands, the Golde Gate bride, Lombard sweet and so much more. 

- Alamo Square/The Painted Ladies: These houses look great next to each other, you get a city view and it's the perfect place to relax and read. 

- Twin Peaks: The best view of San Francisco!!!

- Monterey, Carmel and the 17-Mile Drive: Driving along the coast is an absolute must, just wow. Monterey and Carmel are cute little cities and there are so many wonderful things to see on the 17-Mile drive. 

San Francisco has so many highlights, so I will write a whole post about it and also about the 17-Mile drive possibly. Next up are my Contiki highlights.