I also kinda ignored DA during my 3 weeks of absence, sorry for that, I'll check my messages asap! Something else first though: there is this little contest of mine and there are still some days left to submit your entry
Let me know if you want more time; I can extend the deadline. I might do that anyway, because I am still waiting for quite some entries. here is the journal: 
Egg hatching contest!Hi there! I recently gained 250 watchers and I am very happy with thatI wish I had more time to check out your art and talk with you, because you are awesome people! Anyway, time for a celebration! I want to do that with this contest
Theme
I have made 4 eggs, one for each element (fire, air, earth and water). You must pick one of them and draw the creature that will hatch from it. You don't have to draw the hatching itself; your creature can have any age. It can be a dragon, a griffin, phoenix, unicorn (lol, unicorns hatching from eggs XD) or a creature you made up yourself! Use your imagination!
I also want to learn something about your creature; what is its name, where does it live, what's its personality, etc. You can make a reference sheet if you want to, but you can also make a normal drawing an
So here's a short summary of my holiday:
We (=me + Wiliart) went to the USA; a friend of mine lives in Golden, CO, and is a PhD student at the colorado school of mines. I always wanted to visit her and that finally happened
we spent the first two days there, which mainly involved doing some shopping and buying halloween stuff. which we didn't celebrate by the way, we were tired XD. That's not the only thing we did though, we also wanted to see some awesome nature stuff...Park one: Yellowstone.
just. awesome.
best park of them all
we were there for four days, which was the minimal amount of time you need for it. those hydrothermal stuff (geysers, hot springs, fumaroles, mud pots) are awesome, colorful (thanks to various algae and bacteria) and look like they are from a different planet. and bison are chill. I have to go back though, I didn't see a bear or wolf 
Oh, and we got a flat tire before we even got there XD 
Park two: Zion.
yeez, it was crowded here :S there were pedestrian traffic jams, which did make everything less fun. And I didn't travel towards the other side of the planet to hear Dutch; I come from a small country, but somehow Dutch people always pop up everywhere
Also true for Germans, hehe. anyway, there are some beautiful examples of crossbedding here, created by dunes when there was a huge desert a long time ago. There is also this awesome hike along/through a river, called the narrows; best hike of the holiday, but it ruined my shoes XD
Park three: Bryce Canyon.
which isn't a canyon by the way, it's a huge natural amphitheater. I don't know who's responsible for naming everything, but he is not very good at it. anyway, here are some hoodoos
Park four: Grand Canyon.
i guess you all know that one
it is huge! which makes it hard to explore; you need a day to hike from the rim to the bottom. We flew with an airplane over it, that's when you get a better idea of the size if this thing (and it's one of the best things we did!). We also went to a slot canyon and horseshoe bend.
Park five: Arches.
The name says it all: natural arches everywhere!
back to Golden. It was Halloween, but like I said earlier, we didn't do much XD Next day we did something really American: we went to an American football game XD I think I understand the rules now and it's quite interesting to watch. Still think the name is wrong though; there is no ball and feet are hardly used. I prefer the name 'handegg', lol! There are also some nice dinosaur tracks around there
Colorado Springs.
We went to the Garden of the Gods here, which looks a bit like Arches national park and consists of vertical walls of sandstone (and sometimes with a little arch). It is quite small though, so later that day we also went to the top of a 'fourteener' (= mountain higher than 14000 feet, or 4.27 km), called Pike's Peak. The air is 40% less thick than at sea level, so that was quite a difference for a lowland Dutchie
We were lucky with the weather; clouded skies were predicted, but the sky cleared around noon, so we had great views that day. more clouds appeared when we got back down. we also went to a cave (you know, the stalactite-stalagmite kind) and old indian houses built under an overhanging rock. quite a busy day.
Last park: Rocky Mountains.
This is were I decided to throw away my shoes; we were hiking though snow, and after a couple of hours I noticed that my shoes were not waterproof anymore. Oh well, they were cheap and second hand anyway. the snow made the hike very beautiful, but slightly slippery
some stuff I learned there:
- Americans are nice and polite, at least compared to Dutchies
- fire engines and hydrants are not always red. It feels like a huge disappointment.
- traffic rules are quite simple (yeey for that, an American in the Netherlands must shit his pants quite often
), but that does not result in a time-efficient way of transport. I really hate stop signs now; burn them and make more roundabouts - I already knew this, but it is still weird to see in real life: everything is huge! especially the cars, holy crap, you can't even drive them here. America is made for cars, the Netherlands for cyclists, hehe.
- to continue with cyclists: it is normal for cyclists to wear a helmet, but not for motorcyclists (defuq?).
- I expected to see quite a lot of very obese people (I do not want to offend someone, but it's just something the US is famous for... sadly enough), but everybody looked quite normal. Colorado is quite a healthy state, according to our friend.
- beef jerky is yummy!
- and various other stuff I forgot to write down.
that's it for now, you are awesome if you've read all of this
From the photos, it really looks like you had a HECK of a holiday over there, man, those parks, the geology!!!!! AAAAAAAAH 
TAKE ME WITH YOU THE NEXT TIME 
Ik wil natuurlijk aaaaaaaaalles zien (okay, misschien niet 5000 fotos maar een selectie ervan xD)