Jenni goes Stateside: natural beauty

No this is not an incredibly conceited collection of makeup-free selfies (which I never take btw) but I've seen so many beautiful places over the last few days. Sorry for being quiet this past week but so much has happened! It's going to be a long blogpost but don't worry - there's plenty of photos to keep you from dying of boredom.

Going on a helicopter was literally the most amazing thing ever - and over the grand canyon no less! There's loads of different versions of the 7 wonders of the world but I've now seen two of the natural wonders of the world; the grand canyon and the northern lights. It was so beautiful and photos can't even show how huge it is! It just goes on for miles and miles and it makes you feel oddly insignificant; it actually makes you think quite deeply about the world we live in and human nature and mother nature and any other kind of nature's that there are. My grand-canyon-selfie game is quite poor because the lighting wasn't great and I've never looked shinier than when i tried it with the flash so let's not discuss that. 

We watched the sunset over the grand canyon at night and then revisited a  few viewpoints in the morning when the sky was clear and blue and beautiful. We also stayed in a hotel inside the grand canyon national park so we didn't have to walk very far to  get some great kodak moments. Staying in loads of beautiful hotels night after night isn't all it's cracked up to be though; living out of a suitcase for 3 weeks isn't easy especially when I've got so many clothes that i can't actually remember what I've brought with me. Denim shorts are a must though! This pair was roughly 17 pound from missguided and i sized up to make them more of a mom style. I then paired them with my new miss selfridge floral top (12 pound) and gladiator shoes from shcuh which are amazingly comfy so far so i made a good choice.

Then later that day we drove round on an open-top jeep round monument valley with a Navajo tour guide telling us about their spiritual culture and history which was really interesting (think brother bear - not the most intelligent or educated of comparisons but the closest one i can think of). And driving round it was almost like cloud-watching but with huge rocks instead. The top one looks like Jesus with his head bent on the right-hand side of it, the second looks like Snoopy lying on his back and the third looks like 3 elephants in a line. It was also a refreshing burst of colour. For someone whose used to Nottingham which is covered in an unattractive shade of grey (not even 50 shades, just the one!), it was so amazing to see so much red rock and orange sand and blue sky. Our guide also taught us some of his native Navajo language which sounds really similar to Chinese (thank you is na-he-ye)

Okay so i didn't technically ride the horse because if i did it would have fell straight off a cliff in monument valley and death-by-falling-horse is not what i want my grave to read, but i did get a photo with it. If you're wondering why i'm not looking at the camera it's because i was trying to make the horse turn its head to pose with me (needless to say, she was not very impressed). I did get a chance to test out my new lingual skills though because i managed to thank the guy who helped me on and off the horse in his own language (although i don't think i was saying it right because i had to say it 3 times before he understood me)

The next day we went to see lake powell which is another beautiful expanse of colour and made for some great photos. I wore my pink and black palm print two-piece from missguided (I think it was 25 for the set) and my black la moda sandals (24). And sunnies which make me feel very "audrey" (as in hepburn, not my old dinner lady from primary school). You didn't think i'd make it through a whole blogpost without my stereotypical poses did you? Except I got my mum and brother to join in with me too. I think my friends and family are finding my blog poses too easy to copy, maybe i should make up some new ones just to challenge them.

Then we headed to Bryce canyon which is more of the same. Red rock, blue skies, huge expanses of land which make you feel super tiny. There's so many trees everywhere as well - like literally as far as the eye can see. It's interesting because at first you think that global warming etc can't possibly be a problem with so many trees alive but then you realise how many you actually have to cut down to make way for even a small village never mind a big city. Being among all this nature is making me all sentimental - i'm definitely a city girl i cant cope with all this open air and time to reflect and daydream.

Then we went over to Zion which was probably my favourite because it wasn't quite as desert-like as the grand canyon or the bryce canyon - there was lots of wildlife and waterfalls and steams and animals. The sky was also perfect for taking photos; i was cursing myself that i took this trip just after finishing my photography a level. If i could've used these photos for my workbook then i'm pretty sure it would've been A*'s all round. I'm quite behind on my blog-writing because i'm now in Modesto after having been to Las Vegas, death valley, mammoth lakes and yosemite; crossing over into Utah and Nevada and now i'm back in California. I've just had literally no time to blog about it but i'm going to try and be a good girl and fill you in as quickly as i can. I can't believe all that I've managed to do in just over a week and better still; I've still got over a week and a half left!