Welcome to Wyoming (Bienvenido a Wyoming)!

Well, we've officially started our "...and back again" portion of the trip.

After a few relaxing days in San Francisco (a special thanks to Mike and the boys for showing us such a great time!), we continued our California visit with a trip up to Napa to check out the wineries and the beautiful views.

Vineyards in Napa

The delicious grapes of wrath

Wizard-trees

Following that, it was north until the Redwoods! We arrived shortly after sunset, and quickly set up camp, played some Scrabble, and got a good night's sleep. It was cool, crisp, and we were shaded by some of the tallest trees we've ever seen. It was so comfortable that we had no problem sleeping til 11am yesterday - a far cry from desert camping!

Our little tent

Emily had to lie on the ground to get this picture. Adam has photographic evidence.

That's a big stinkin' tree.

Tranquilo

Our next stop after the Redwoods was a little town called Ferndale, California. It is the former agricultural center of Northern California, and is (more or less) one main street lined with beautiful historic Victorian houses and stores.

Mmm... meat.

This is one tree, carefully manicured. Ferndale is very artsy-fartsy.

After a tasty lunch in Ferndale, we started heading east for the first time in 3 weeks. It was a strange feeling, indeed! We drove until we couldn't drive anymore, and ended up sleeping in Battle Mountain, Nevada last night. Today we drove through Nevada, Idaho, and finally ended up in Wyoming. Whyoming? Why not?

The edge of the America

Wednesday morning, Jared woke us up as he was leaving for work (waking up at 8:30 was harder than either of us remembered)! We said our goodbyes, and got on our way to San Francisco. We opted to drive the Pacific Coast Highway, which takes a few extra hours, but it worth it for the incredible views.



The drive was very windy, very mountainous, winding, and generally awesome, except for the stretch where we almost ran out of gas (Thank you, Big Sur Shell!).

We stopped for dinner in Monterey, a little shore city filled with art galleries, shops and restaurants. We did some souvenir shopping, and walked down the wharf looking for a place to eat. All the restaurants on the wharf offer free samples of their clam chowder as you walk by, so after trying a few, we decided on Abolonetti's for some seafood and antipasto (for the record, neither of us ordered the clam chowder, anyway).

We made it to Emily's friend Mike's house in San Francisco Wednesday night, and after some catching up, headed to sleep. We've spent the last few days in San Francisco, and are truly enjoying it here. Very mild weather, great people, delicious food, and beautiful views.

View of downtown from Dolores Park

Some brightly colored Victorian houses in San Francisco

The Bay Bridge

It's always hoodie weather, here!

Beverly Hills... that's where I want to be!

"They call Los Angeles the City of Angels. I didn't find it to be that exactly,
but I'll allow as there are some nice folks there."
- The Stranger, The Big Lebowski

Los Angeles is a very interesting city to visit - there is a lot going on, it is very hilly, celebrities live there, and it's hip, hip, hip. We got into L.A. Sunday night, and crashed at our friend Bobbie's place in West Hollywood. Monday was spent touring West Hollywood - we had brunch at Toast (brunch is the new lunch), walked down Robertson Avenue, and had a few drinks at Barney's Beanery, where (apparently) Janis Joplin's car was parked the night she died. Rock and roll history, folks.

Monday evening we met up with old friends Megan and Jared, and everyone enjoyed a delicious dinner at Miceli's in Hollywood.

Megan, Emily, and Bobbie

We spent the night at Megan's place up in "Old Hollywood." Check out her view of the Hollywood sign!


Tuesday morning we hopped in a cab and took it right to the VIP entrance at CBS studios (thanks, Bobbie!) and were treated to a live taping of "The Price is Right"! Neither of us got called up as contestants, but our seats were front and center behind contestant's row (check us out... the show airs October 9th)!

The whole Hollywood crew met up again for dinner (and networking... so LA...) at Lucky Devil, and after some goodbyes, we made our way to Jared's apartment to spend our last night in Los Angeles.

Life's a beach!

Treasure Island - Laguna Beach, California

Southern California has treated us well! After two full days on the beach in San Diego (plus some excellent seaside fireworks on the 4th) we started to head up north to Los Angeles, but were sidetracked by a little city called Laguna Beach.


Laguna gets a bad rap due to the MTV show of the same name, but its actually a very hip town, home to many artists and independent businesses, as well as some of the most quiet, peaceful, beautiful beaches along the California coast. After two days on Pacific Beach in San Diego (which had a louder, harder-partying crowd), Laguna Beach was just what we needed. Taking the advice of Emily's friend Sandy (a native Lagunan, and our virtual tour guide) we parked outside the Montage Resort and Spa, and walked down to Treasure Island Cover, beneath the resort.



We spent the day reading and relaxing on the beach, and after a tasty dinner at the Coyote Grill, we left Laguna at sunset, and headed up to Sunset (Boulevard, that is).

Happy 4th of July!

...from sunny San Diego!

Arizona... more than iced tea and department store jeans.

Wednesday morning we woke up in New Mexico, and made our way out to the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. There were a few things we wanted to check out in the park, so we took the scenic drive through the whole park. First, we stopped off at the Painted Desert, a brightly-colored expanse of land, where we were planning on spending the night. The storms in the distance were not too promising, though...


The Painted Desert looks kind of like like prehistoric scenery - you can really imagine what it must have been like when dinosaurs roamed the land...

...see?

We kept driving, and the colors of the land quickly began changing from reds and browns to blues and grays (or is it "greys"?). We got out and took the Blue Mesa trail down into a canyon, where we got a good look at the blue-tinted mountains, as well as our first good look at some petrified wood.


They teach about petrified wood in school, but it's hard to imagine it unless you actually see and touch it. Some of it looks just like giant logs, wood-grain and all, but some of it has been completely replaced by brightly-colored gems and minerals. All of it is rock-solid.



After a long walk through the Crystal Forest trail (to see the petrified wood up close), we had to decide whether or not to camp for the night. Despite some ominous clouds and drizzles early on in the day, the park rangers eased our concerns, and we hiked a mile down into the Painted Desert to set up camp.


We were all alone in the middle of the Arizona desert, and it felt absolutely amazing. We cooked a delicious dinner (by "cooked," we mean "boiled water and added it to the freeze-dried camping food pouches we brought with us," but it was delicious nonetheless), and had one of the best nights of sleep on our trip.


The thing about camping in the desert is that going to sleep at night is very pleasant (cool weather, nice breeze), but waking up to the desert sun can be pretty rough. By 7am, it was nearly unbearable in our tent. We packed up, and proceeded to do one of the most grueling uphill hikes either of us has ever done. To reward ourselves for such a great feat, we stopped in Winslow, Arizona for breakfast. Next stop? The Grand Canyon.

Getting to the Grand Canyon was tough - Adam's GPS ("Alice") took us on a scenic drive up there (sometimes she gets a little confused...), but we ended up seeing a part of Arizona we didn't even know existed: the Kaibab Forest.


Trees? In Arizona? Who knew?! And not just a few trees - a whole forest! We finally made it up to the Grand Canyon, and believe us... it's big.


It's hard to describe how big it actually is, even in pictures, but all it took was one look and we both finally understood. Unfortunately for us, we happened to visit during peak Grand Canyon visiting time, and the parking lot/canyon viewpoints felt more like the zoo than a national park. Once we'd had our fill of grand-ness (and canyon-osity), we continued our trip west.

We stopped for supper in Seligman, Arizona, which happens to be "the birthplace of Route 66." Emily has been trying to drive on Route 66 since we left Atlanta, so she was very excited to find out where we were. We ate at the Roadkill Cafe (located on the site of the old O.K. Saloon), and had a cool photo shoot around some of the historic buildings and sites in Seligman (including an old Route 66 jailhouse)

Gotta love the sepia tone...

After some grub, we pushed on to Cali-forn-i-a. For our entire trip through the desert, we had been told it was "monsoon season," but aside from a few little rain showers, we hadn't seen an actual monsoon. Luckily, Arizona treated us to one right before we got to the border. It started with some dark clouds and lightning, and quickly became a total downpour. Check out this video - watch the visibility level after the lightning strikes.

To all the worried mothers reading, this is also the point that we pulled onto the shoulder and waited for the storm to pass.

After that, it was a smooth trip into California. We spent the night in Bakersfield and drove down to San Diego this morning. We got a beautiful day at the beach, and are heading to bed looking forward to another one tomorrow!

Gooooooodnight!

New Mexico is a show-off.

"Can we just move in here?"

Our time in New Mexico is almost at an end, but everything we've seen so far has been impressive. We woke up yesterday morning and headed to our campsite in Albuquerque, set up camp, and got geared up to hike. Albuquerque's elevation is 5,312 feet above sea level (that's 31 feet higher than Denver...take that, Colorado!) so we opted for a leisurely hike to get us acclimated to the elevation.

We hiked along the Rinconada Canyon in the Petroglyph National Monument. Petroglyphs are drawings carved in the volcanic rocks by ancient natives, usually depicting animals, gods, and other native-y things. Some of them looked pretty ridiculous.

After hiking we grabbed some delicious supplies (from what we suspect is the only Super Wal-Mart with a terra cotta roof) and headed back to camp to cook up burgers and veggies.


Around 9pm, the winds started up - we were camping by the foothills of the Sandia Mountains, and the winds coming over the peaks can get pretty vicious. We turned in around 11, and noticed that the wind was flapping our tent a little bit. Three hours later, the winds had kicked up to 15-20mph (thank you, weather.com) and our tent sounded like a jet engine. For our own sanity (and safety) we spent the night in a hotel, which was good, because we needed our energy for today.

After a hearty lunch, we headed north to the Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument. It's a vast park located in the middle of the Cochiti Pueblo, a Native American tribal city. The people of the Pueblo allow visitors onto their land to visit Kasha-Katuwe, but they forbid visitors from taking pictures or drawing sketches of anything on their land. Luckily, the U.S. Government made Kasha-Katuwe a National Monument in 2001 (thank you, Bill Clinton), so once we got into the park, we were allowed to take pictures.

This tree was in the middle of walking away when we took the picture.

A slot canyon on the hike up to the peak.

Tent rocks...

More tent rocks...

A cactus near the peak

The view from the peak

We left Kasha-Katuwe and continued to head north to Santa Fe (tumbleweeds and whatnot). Santa Fe is a beautiful town - lots of adobe buildings, lots of churches, and LOTS of tourists. We had a delicious dinner at Rooftop Cantina - Emily had the Navajo taco and Adam had the chicken enchilada... we split the guacamole :)


After dinner we took a walk through Santa Fe and enjoyed another New Mexico sunset (they never get old). We walked down to the old church in the heart of town (the Saint Francis Cathedral) which looked great lit up at night.

The side streets of Santa Fe

Sunset over Santa Fe

The Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi

We are now relaxing in our room in Grants, New Mexico. We had a tough time finding a room because there was a big rodeo in nearby Gallup, NM, and the hotels of Grants were getting all the overflow. A rodeo filled up hotels in TWO towns. Gotta love the Southwest.