Read all about the USA, Canada, and Belgium
Things to see, descriptions, photos, and history
Welcome to our website !
Our American Dream was a thorough exploration of North America, more specifically the United States and Canada. During eight years, we traveled all over the US and Canada with our Recreational Vehicle, to explore, to admire and to marvel.
Then I sat down and started writing, translating (I'm a Belgian), and illustrating. Only later did I realize that this would turn out to be a gigantic project, with some 1,300 (letter-size) pages of text, and some 2,200 pictures, maps and images...
Amazingly enough, there doesn't seem to be any website that provides a general overview and a description of all points of interest, sights, and simply interesting things that can be found in the United States and Canada. Many, if not all individual states and provinces describe their local wonders, but then again more out of a commercial point of view. So here is a commercial-free general touristic website (except for the Google ads)...
North America : USA and Canada
North America has an incredible number of extraordinary vista's and places of interest, most of them unheard of in Europe.
Everyone knows the Grand Canyon of course, but there are many other canyons, unknown but splendid. The Hell's Canyon in Oregon is even deeper !
The Niagara Falls are world famous, but have you ever heard of the beautiful Cumberland Falls in Somerset, or the even higher Multnomah Falls in Bonneville ?
And what about the extraordinary color pallet of the Painted Desert in Arizona, the snow-white gypsum dunes of White Sands in New Mexico and the breathtaking beauty of Crater Lake, situated in an extinguished volcano ? Do you know well hidden but fascinating pearls such as the exceptional Our Lady of the Angels Monastery in Hanceville, Prabhupada's Palace in Wheeling of the Crystal Palace in Los Angeles?
Just nose through our list of points of interest !
In each state we explored the history, general overview, views and landscapes, buildings and architecture, and the most important points of interest. We looked for grace, elegance and creativity, and sometimes found real pearls of incredible accomplishments. We did our best to describe the beauty of the Homeland, that is often taken for granted.
But how does one realize such an unusual dream ? When a European travel agency is asked to organize a visit to the United States, they'll almost always come up with New York, DisneyWorld, Las Vegas, and maybe even the Niagara Falls. But that is definitely IT... And Canada is so vast, that anyone will completely get lost without a thorough preparation.
Recreational Vehicle
After quite a bit of research and going through stacks of documentation we bought the perfect Recreational Vehicle (RV), and traveled all over both nations, exploring everything that the "average" tourist NEVER sees.
After eight years of exploration in our RV, we visited 48 states and 9 Canadian provinces, and our faithful truck clocked no less than 110.000 miles !
As far as I know, no other Belgian, and perhaps even no other European, ever before undertook such an organized exploration of the whole North American continent.
Belgium
Many of our American friends asked me to enlighten them about Belgium, and show some of our "Belgian wonders" ! Well, you already know all about Belgian waffles, Belgian chocolates, Belgian beer (...), French Fries (I'll tell you later how the French actually stole our fries...), Belgian weather (even worse than Seattle...), Belgian politics (so what's new...), etcetera, so here comes an entirely new chapter !
This website
This website is not a traditional travel story or travelogue, but rather a compilation of the many points of interest and remarkable things that we encountered during our exploration. It is set up as follows :
Home This website, or our Dutch website www.mydreamvillainflorida.be RV A recreational vehicle, our fifth wheel, the paperwork, and our RV-trips Countries USA
US points of interest and history, per state Canada
Canadian points of interest and history, per province Belgium
general overview, remarkable facts and history things to see in Brussels, Flanders, and Wallonia Articles articles about every imaginable subject... Florida Why choose Florida, and FL real estate Stuff what's new, a sitemap, website statistics, links, privacy policy Contact feedback for suggestions, praise, or (heaven forbid...) criticism Mind you, English isn't my native language, so don't be surprised if you encounter strange "Belgian glitches" in my text. However, since most of us were able to understand "The Terminator", I hope that you'll catch my drift too... And perhaps you may even get to better understand these weird Belgians...
Enjoy !