Andrea did a great job summing up how amazing this trip was, and how much fun we had....it really was a life changing trip for both of us. I'm feeling inspired to take on so many new challenges with a renewed vigor!! Which is good, b/c my new job starts up in a week!!
To summarize the experience, I put together a little list of superlatives...fitting coming from a teacher, right???
Here goes...
BEST DRIVE: Big Sur
**Honorable mention for the ride from Grand Canyon to Zion thru the Navajo Reservation (this is where Andrea is giving a holla to Lake Powell...)
WORST DRIVE: freakin Nevada...the Extraterrestrial Highway...during an electrical storm, running low on gas, no other humans for miles...we actually discussed that we would welcome an alien abduction at a certain point in the ride...
BEST NIGHT SLEEP: The Nissen Family guest room in Mission Viejo--I'm still dreaming about that bed...
WORST NIGHT SLEEP: Night 2 at Zion Nat Park...so windy we thought that our tent might take flight...not to mention is was 95 degrees...
BEST ROAD TRIP SONGS: "Good Night" by Black Eyed Peas and "Make a Little Birdhouse in Your Soul" by They Might Be Giants.
DUMBEST HUMAN: Brittany from Tag-Along Rafting (you can ask "Adrianne" for more deets on that one...)
BEST BLOG FOLLOWER: Tasha and the kids!! Thanks for all the comments!!
BEST FISH TACO: this was actually the most challenging...it's still up for debate b/c we were never able to have a side-by-side taste test, ALTHOUGH Andrea is crafting a letter to send to the Food Network to see if we can arrange something with Bobby Flay...BUT, I'll have to say it's a tie, for now, between Lahaina's in San Diego and Wake & Bake Cafe in Moab....YUM!
BEST ICED COFFEE: (and we tested ALOT): Wake & Back Cafe in Moab...shout out to our boy Shane!!
BEST BEER: Alaskan Amber
MOST POPULAR CALI NAME: Bryce
BEST RENTAL CAR EVER: the Pimp Mobile (she really did corner like she was on rails...)
COOLEST NEW WORD: Hoodoo
CREEPIEST BAR CROWD: Woodys Tavern, Moab, UT...although I did get a kick out of the guy in the man-skirt.
FAVE CAMEOS (aka, peeps we met): Greg (Wikipedia) and the Swedes!!
FAVE MUNICIPAL BUILDING: the City Library in Salt Lake City....sooooooooooo jealous.
CITY WITH THE HIGHEST NUMBER OF WOMEN WEARING ANKLE-LENGTH SKIRTS AND WEIRDLY COLLARED SHIRTS: SLC
BEST BUG OVERREACTION: Andrea on our way to Yosemite...almost jumped into the backseat when one flew in thru the window...I almost crashed I was laughing so hard...Greg had to take care of the bug.
FAVE ACTIVITY: Mountain biking in Moab!!
BEST HIKE: Emerald Pools in Zion
**Honorable Mention to Spruce Tree Cliff Walk in Mesa Verde, CO....it did make me want to live in a cliff dwelling...
PLACE I WOULD MOST LIKELY MOVE: Toss up b/w Flagstaff, AZ and Tahoe City, CA!!
PLACE ANG WOULD MOST LIKELY MOVE: NOW--Santa Barbara, CA...but she does plan to retire in Springdale, UT where she will be a park ranger in Zion Nat Park, and most certainly devote plenty of time to her illustrious mountain biking career.
PLACE WE CAN'T BELIEVE ANYONE LIVES: Nevada.
BEST ANIMAL SITING: the Elk in Grand Canyon
**Honorable mention: the wild donkey "mirage" on the side of a weird desert highway
FAVE LICENSE PLATE: Wyoming
AND NOW, for your amusement, I must include the 10 bottom lowlights of the trip...we knew they would happen *in no particular order*:
--locking they keys in the trunk at 7am
--showing up,soooo excited to go rafting, and finding out that our trip was scheduled for the day before.
--pulling out a filling, and then consuming said filling, while eating a S'more
--the day it rained and we left our tent window open...uuuuuugggggggggghhhhhhhhhhh
--the ants that almost carried us away at Zion, I swear they could fly.
--being the only English speaking tourists in 3 out of 4 National Parks in Utah
--getting our ENORMOUS sleeping bags into their TINY little sacks for the plane ride home...Andrea finally broke a nail!!
--Andrea's bubbling shins...no more spray sunscreen after that episode.
--finding 49 states worth of license plate sitings and never finding STUPID KENTUCKY. boo to kentucky, you should get out more.
--walking out of the airport at JFK and being instantly reminded of what humidity is....good to be home.
That being said, most everything was amazing and perfect---and I need to mention a few things we could not have done without:
1) Brain and Shannon for lending us all their camping gear, our tent rocked!!! Thank you soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much.
2) the I-trip. Mr Mayernik, that you so much for the loan--one listen to Utah talk radio and I knew we would have been screwed without it...
3) Balance Bars!! Andrea is now addicted...
4) Sunscreen and Bugspray...we were very responsible...well, at least after the San Diego fiasco
5) Caffeine!!! Many hour on the road = Many consumed ICs and DCs!
But most of all, I am thankful to have gotten the chance to spend an amazing 3 weeks with such a wonderful friend...we had SO much fun, laughed our way thru 5 states, toughed it out and never missed out on a chance to try a new outdoor activity, even in 100 degree heat!! (except the hot air balloon ride...I pulled the plug on that one...) Andrea's photojournalism was truly impressive, but more so was her adventurous spirit!!! Thank you for making this a trip I'll never forget...and for never kicking me in the face :) TOWANDA!!!!!!!!!!!!
Adios everyone, thanks for keeping up with us---we loved reading all your comments!! I'm off to go sit on the couch and crash for a few days...we haven't stopped moving in 21 days.
~Susie
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
All good things must come to an end...
It's almost 8 o'clock and I'm home...Susie has left and braved the trek up to the Cape, and I just re-read all of our blog entries trying to hold onto this trip as long as I can!
So to give a quick re-cap of our last days on the West Coast, we arrived in Salt Lake City (referred to as SLC) and braved the task of re-packing, which went much better than we had anticipated. We went out to eat at The Pie, this really cool, yummy pizza joint near the University of Utah (thanks for the suggestion Wikipedia...it was delish!), and enjoyed our last night out on the town. Made friends with this guy Mike who got stranded in SLC for the night, sang karaoke, and I was reminded why I don't do tequila shots anymore-- they go down so smooth, and then kick me in the arse later. :)
We spent the day yesterday touring around SLC...went to Temple Square to see the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, visited this chocolatier who Susie's family friend knows-- lucky for us because she gave us 3 pounds of free chocolate!! And made the decision to drive up to Park City and explore there for a bit. Got to see Olympic Park and walked up and down Main Street, checking out all the cute little shops. Definitely somewhere I would love to go back to in the winter or during Sundance. :) We headed back towards SLC and drove over to finally see the Great (stinky) Salt Lake. As beautiful as it was, the smell was enough to make me almost throw up in my mouth, so we left as quickly as possible! We did see all these spider webs though that had these huge-ass spiders on them. Pretty amazing and gross all at the same time! After that, we headed back into downtown SLC and went to the COOLEST library on the planet! If the City Library were in my town, I think I'd spend every free second in it, it was THAT cool! We wrapped up our day by going out to dinner at this yummy Greek restaurant and headed over to Fox to part ways with the pimp mobile. Again, the whole process went over without a hitch! Hooray Fox Rental Car!
Our flight was great...no real complaints except for the screaming child in the front of the plane (who takes a small child on a red eye??) I'm about ready to go to bed to try and catch up on my sleep, to then wake up and do a gazillion loads of the dirtiest laundry I've ever had. Fun stuff. But if there is one thing I have learned these past 3 weeks, it's that life is too short to not take trips like this...see the amazing sites this world (or just this country) has to offer, meet a plethora of characters along the way, all the while laughing and living it up! From beginning to end, this trip has been filled with great memories, many many laughs, and unfathomable experiences.
Things I will miss most:
* the pimp mobile- you treated us well, little lady!
* fish tacos- specifically the ones from Wake and Bake in Moab
* the amazing landscape of the West Coast- so beautiful
* the lack of humidity along the West Coast (it's so humid here today, it's disgusting!)
* the Utah night sky- I've never seen so many stars in my life
* the laughs...I felt that it was non-stop!
* the freedom to go where we wanted to go and do what we wanted to do, without a care in the world!!
But most importantly, the thing I will miss most is Susie. It has been such an amazing 3 weeks...we spent every waking second together and had a blast the ENTIRE time! I thank you so much for lighting the fire of this trip under me, and I can't wait for our adventures in the future! :)
So to give a quick re-cap of our last days on the West Coast, we arrived in Salt Lake City (referred to as SLC) and braved the task of re-packing, which went much better than we had anticipated. We went out to eat at The Pie, this really cool, yummy pizza joint near the University of Utah (thanks for the suggestion Wikipedia...it was delish!), and enjoyed our last night out on the town. Made friends with this guy Mike who got stranded in SLC for the night, sang karaoke, and I was reminded why I don't do tequila shots anymore-- they go down so smooth, and then kick me in the arse later. :)
We spent the day yesterday touring around SLC...went to Temple Square to see the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, visited this chocolatier who Susie's family friend knows-- lucky for us because she gave us 3 pounds of free chocolate!! And made the decision to drive up to Park City and explore there for a bit. Got to see Olympic Park and walked up and down Main Street, checking out all the cute little shops. Definitely somewhere I would love to go back to in the winter or during Sundance. :) We headed back towards SLC and drove over to finally see the Great (stinky) Salt Lake. As beautiful as it was, the smell was enough to make me almost throw up in my mouth, so we left as quickly as possible! We did see all these spider webs though that had these huge-ass spiders on them. Pretty amazing and gross all at the same time! After that, we headed back into downtown SLC and went to the COOLEST library on the planet! If the City Library were in my town, I think I'd spend every free second in it, it was THAT cool! We wrapped up our day by going out to dinner at this yummy Greek restaurant and headed over to Fox to part ways with the pimp mobile. Again, the whole process went over without a hitch! Hooray Fox Rental Car!
Our flight was great...no real complaints except for the screaming child in the front of the plane (who takes a small child on a red eye??) I'm about ready to go to bed to try and catch up on my sleep, to then wake up and do a gazillion loads of the dirtiest laundry I've ever had. Fun stuff. But if there is one thing I have learned these past 3 weeks, it's that life is too short to not take trips like this...see the amazing sites this world (or just this country) has to offer, meet a plethora of characters along the way, all the while laughing and living it up! From beginning to end, this trip has been filled with great memories, many many laughs, and unfathomable experiences.
Things I will miss most:
* the pimp mobile- you treated us well, little lady!
* fish tacos- specifically the ones from Wake and Bake in Moab
* the amazing landscape of the West Coast- so beautiful
* the lack of humidity along the West Coast (it's so humid here today, it's disgusting!)
* the Utah night sky- I've never seen so many stars in my life
* the laughs...I felt that it was non-stop!
* the freedom to go where we wanted to go and do what we wanted to do, without a care in the world!!
But most importantly, the thing I will miss most is Susie. It has been such an amazing 3 weeks...we spent every waking second together and had a blast the ENTIRE time! I thank you so much for lighting the fire of this trip under me, and I can't wait for our adventures in the future! :)
Monday, July 27, 2009
Mad Mountain Biking in Moab...
Andrea and I currently feel like the coolest girls ever! We just totally tore it up on the slickrock trails on a couple of full suspension bikes that this cool guy delivered to us right at the trail. We followed along this rocky trail for a while, and then it just opened up into rocks and jumps and rock faces everywhere---soooooooooooooo fun!!! I had a little trouble staying on my bike, one time I went to ride up this rock cliff thing and I guess I didn't have enough speed going, b/c the bike flipped back on me and the pedal gashed my leg...INSTANT crazy hematoma (good thing we left the med kit in the car!), I was too busy to care though...and the swelling eventually went down, I had my hands full trying to keep up with Andrea! She was not a big fan of the 4 mile uphill climb on the rocky road that we had to ride to get to the cool stuff, but she found her inner demon once we got to the slickrocks and she went nuts...there were times when I couldn't even see her!!! She's publically declared that she is taking up mountain biking when we get home!! We've already planned out what trails we're going to ride when we come back to Moab :)
So anyway, we can say we rode in the "Mecca of Mountain Biking"--which is what Moab claims to be...and we loved it! What a great way to end the active sporting part of our adventure!!!!!
We're off to Salt Lake City now...probably will be a little tamer than what we've seen the last couple weeks, but it will be nice to sleep in a bed for a change!!! One more day :( BOO! BUT, we are so happy to see you all again soooooon!
~Susie
So anyway, we can say we rode in the "Mecca of Mountain Biking"--which is what Moab claims to be...and we loved it! What a great way to end the active sporting part of our adventure!!!!!
We're off to Salt Lake City now...probably will be a little tamer than what we've seen the last couple weeks, but it will be nice to sleep in a bed for a change!!! One more day :( BOO! BUT, we are so happy to see you all again soooooon!
~Susie
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Saturday July 24th...
When Susie and I first left for our trip 18 days ago, we prepared ourselves to experience at least one blunder along the way. Initially we thought that it would be our rental car experience at Fox, but that turned out to work in our benefit! So it was bound to happen sooner than later, and unfortunately it finally struck yesterday. While in Santa Barbara we decided to book a white water rafting trip for when we were here in Moab. When I called a company we found, I asked if they had any room for Saturday the 24th, and the woman/idiot I spoke to told me they did! So we immediately jumped on ship and booked our spot to take a day trip to Westwater Canyon and experience the Class III/IV rapids they have here along the Colorado River. We woke up at an early 6am yesterday and got geared up for our day of adventure, only to arrive at the place and be told that the trip was in fact FRIDAY the 24th and we missed it. :( We were clearly disappointed and quite angry since the woman I booked it with was on board with me that the 24th was a Saturday-- we knew we wouldn't get here before then, therefore wouldn't have booked anything earlier (grr). But we were determined to not let this get the best of us, and therefore found another company that had room for us on a day trip down the Colorado River through Fisher Towers...they were only Class I/II rapids (which is peanuts compared to the Class V we've experienced up in Maine), but nonetheless we spent a very relaxing day floating along the river and swimming in it occasionally. :)
This morning we got up and made our way to our 5th state...Colorado...to visit Mesa Verde. It was another grueling drive up the hairpin turns to get to the top (and of course I was driving), but so worth it. They had these amazing Cliff houses that we got to explore, and we also took an impromptu hike to see some petroglyphs along one of the trails. I was on a mission to see these, despite the fact that I was in a tube top! ha! The trail was amazing...all these small crevices we had to crawl through, some very narrow steps that the CCC made (which was quite difficult for Susie and her feet to navigate down), but it was SO worth it. Of course we were so enamored by the petroglyphs that we missed the sign directing us back, therefore we found ourselves off-roading for a bit, but managed to find our way back on track and made it safely back for our tour of one of the Cliff houses. :)
We rushed back to Moab in time to cook up some hot dogs and set out for a sunset hike to see the Delicate Arch in Arches National Park. Time was not on our side, so I had to put some pedal to the medal...unfortunately that led to it being MY turn to get pulled over in a national park. But luckily the officer was young and VERY cute, so I flashed him my smile and turned up my charm, and escaped a ticket! :) After that minor glitch, we continued along the road towards the trail, to turn a corner and see a DOUBLE RAINBOW!!! It was THE MOST BEAUTIFUL thing I've ever seen! It was so vibrant-- you could see every distinct color from red to orange to yellow to green to blue to purple. Absolutely breathtaking.
We reached the start of our trail and hiked up 440 feet across sheer rock, the last 200 yards of it being on a narrow ledge, to our destination...the infamous Delicate Arch. It was amazing. And it just got better and better...on our way back the sun had set and the colors of the desert just jumped out at you from all around. Truly majestic...
So now we're back at our campground getting ready for our last night of camping out (YEAH!!) and anxiously waiting for the Utah night sky to take it's form. Unfortunately all of our nights since Zion have been dampered with clouds, so we have yet to experience the vast starry sky again, but we are DETERMINED to see it again tonight and take in all of its glory. :)
Before I end another one of my novels, I want to touch upon Zion again...I know that Susie wrote about it in her last blog, but I want everyone I know to go there! The things I saw were like nothing I've ever seen before. It was a true siting of the Forces of Nature, and it gave you a sense of how powerful and magnificant they are. I have never felt so small and insignificant in my life...and it was wonderful!
Ok, off to star gaze and then hit the sack...we're going mountain biking tomorrow morning and then heading up to Salt Lake City for the final stop of our trip. It's flown by and I'm so saddened to see it come to an end. :(
~Andrea :)
This morning we got up and made our way to our 5th state...Colorado...to visit Mesa Verde. It was another grueling drive up the hairpin turns to get to the top (and of course I was driving), but so worth it. They had these amazing Cliff houses that we got to explore, and we also took an impromptu hike to see some petroglyphs along one of the trails. I was on a mission to see these, despite the fact that I was in a tube top! ha! The trail was amazing...all these small crevices we had to crawl through, some very narrow steps that the CCC made (which was quite difficult for Susie and her feet to navigate down), but it was SO worth it. Of course we were so enamored by the petroglyphs that we missed the sign directing us back, therefore we found ourselves off-roading for a bit, but managed to find our way back on track and made it safely back for our tour of one of the Cliff houses. :)
We rushed back to Moab in time to cook up some hot dogs and set out for a sunset hike to see the Delicate Arch in Arches National Park. Time was not on our side, so I had to put some pedal to the medal...unfortunately that led to it being MY turn to get pulled over in a national park. But luckily the officer was young and VERY cute, so I flashed him my smile and turned up my charm, and escaped a ticket! :) After that minor glitch, we continued along the road towards the trail, to turn a corner and see a DOUBLE RAINBOW!!! It was THE MOST BEAUTIFUL thing I've ever seen! It was so vibrant-- you could see every distinct color from red to orange to yellow to green to blue to purple. Absolutely breathtaking.
We reached the start of our trail and hiked up 440 feet across sheer rock, the last 200 yards of it being on a narrow ledge, to our destination...the infamous Delicate Arch. It was amazing. And it just got better and better...on our way back the sun had set and the colors of the desert just jumped out at you from all around. Truly majestic...
So now we're back at our campground getting ready for our last night of camping out (YEAH!!) and anxiously waiting for the Utah night sky to take it's form. Unfortunately all of our nights since Zion have been dampered with clouds, so we have yet to experience the vast starry sky again, but we are DETERMINED to see it again tonight and take in all of its glory. :)
Before I end another one of my novels, I want to touch upon Zion again...I know that Susie wrote about it in her last blog, but I want everyone I know to go there! The things I saw were like nothing I've ever seen before. It was a true siting of the Forces of Nature, and it gave you a sense of how powerful and magnificant they are. I have never felt so small and insignificant in my life...and it was wonderful!
Ok, off to star gaze and then hit the sack...we're going mountain biking tomorrow morning and then heading up to Salt Lake City for the final stop of our trip. It's flown by and I'm so saddened to see it come to an end. :(
~Andrea :)
Friday, July 24, 2009
"All the joy of my world is in Zion..."
Sooo, we've seen LOTS of Utah at this point, and it's amazing. The drive from the Grand Canyon to Zion was almost the most beautiful ride of the trip, second only to Big Sur. The colors and land formations are so unusual and cool...we stopped at a Navajo reservation to check out the jewlery, and then we happened upon Andrea's fave place of the trip--Lake Powell. It's this gorgeous blue lake just plopped in the desert, and it has a dam just as big as the Hoover Dam, you just never hear about it. She's already decided that her next vacation is going to be to rent a house boat on Lake Powell for a week, so she's looking for volunteers to join in...
Once we actually got to Zion, it was breathtaking. The mountains make you feel like you are an ant, and you drive thru this mile long, narrow pitch black tunnel that is super creepy, but made me feel like I was playing a video game. We went to a ranger talk to learn about the wildlife in the park---we saw bighorn sheep and ravens, and I dragged Andrea on a hike early Wed morning up this trail that wasn't that cool, in hopes of spying the desert tortoise under all these rock crevases, but alas, I've named it the "illusive desert tortoise" b/c the rangers say it's really hard to find. Oh well....she got to pick the second hike that day (after we drove into town for iced coffees of course!) and we found this amazing trail that connected 3 waterfalls....and they made you WORK to enjoy these waterfalls, by the time we got to each one we fully immersed ourselves in water (btw...the water was THOUSANDS of years old because it trickled through the rocks), but it was gorgeous, and really fun....some random family took a pic of us giggling under a waterfall together...haha...
The only down fall to Zion was the CRAZINESS of our campground. No one mentioned to us that in the summer time, the southwest of the US is invaded by french people....like thousands of them...wherever we go there are at least 3 student tours and 5 families, if it weren't for park rangers and shuttle bus drivers, we could go for almost a day without hearing someone else speak english! It's weird....but, apparently, it's the thing to do in France. But they are really loud at night, they can't read signs that say "no dishwashing" in the spicket (which was right by our tent) so they flooded the area in our campsite, and Zion was really hot at night, sooo neither one of us slept a wink...BUT, we did get up in the middle of the night to star gaze b/c the sky was like nothing I've ever seen before, it was incredible...
After Zion we moved along to check out Bryce Canyon--super cool Hoodoos, these spire-like things that have been carved out by years of freezing and thawing water, coupled with the wind...it was realllllllly neat, but we only stayed for a couple hours and did some strolling along the canyon, and then we headed out for Capitol Reef. In order to get to Capitol Reef, however, we had to drive along this crazy winding road through these eerie mountains, and at one point I commented to Andrea that I felt like we were on Mars. It was pretty surreal...but Capitol Reef was great. A free park, a $10 campsite with GRASS and a hiking trail right by the campsite. We checked out the park via car first, and oh-my-god was it scary to drive thru these "washes" where there are just HUGE boulders that have fallen from cliffs on either side of you....both of us were convinced that we were going to get squashed, but we reasoned that if we did get squashed, that we would die instantaneously, so we wouldn't ever really know about it....so we trekked on and checked out some pretty amazing canyons. This morning we got up and hiked a canyon trail...Andrea's least fave hike yet b/c it was pretty freakin hot, BUT they laid out these cool little rock pile sculptures for you to follow the trail, so it was kind of like a game...that was fun, despite the heat. After our hike we cleaned up and headed for Moab, our last camping destination. And WHAT a campsite, it makes the others look like child's play...we have a pool, wi-fi, showers, ac in the bathroom (!!), a covered campsite, and a general store at our fingertips!! Fear not though, we have 4 tentsites of french students behind us...should be another late night...BOO b/c we are getting up super early tomorrow to go White Water Rafting on the Colorado River!! We're so pumped...a 10 hr tour (kind of intense), but we both love rafting, and I'm excited to do a river other than the Penobscot or the Dead for a change!!!
Today we also checked out Arches national park, which is reallllllly neat as well, it's so amazing to see what wind and a little tectonic plate action can do in a few million years :) We're hoping to head back there tonight for a sunset hike out to "delicate arch"--the famous one that is in all the Utah pics, even on their license plates....it's threatening to rain right now, so we'll see, but hopefully we can fit it in....
That's all for now, I'm off to go eat a salad---SUCH a luxury! (we have a grocery store one block away!!!) I'm sure we'll be checking in again after rafting tomorrow, we're in Moab for 3 nights, so we'll have wifi at our fingertips!
Adios for now, hope everyone is having a great summer!! Flying by...
~Susie
Once we actually got to Zion, it was breathtaking. The mountains make you feel like you are an ant, and you drive thru this mile long, narrow pitch black tunnel that is super creepy, but made me feel like I was playing a video game. We went to a ranger talk to learn about the wildlife in the park---we saw bighorn sheep and ravens, and I dragged Andrea on a hike early Wed morning up this trail that wasn't that cool, in hopes of spying the desert tortoise under all these rock crevases, but alas, I've named it the "illusive desert tortoise" b/c the rangers say it's really hard to find. Oh well....she got to pick the second hike that day (after we drove into town for iced coffees of course!) and we found this amazing trail that connected 3 waterfalls....and they made you WORK to enjoy these waterfalls, by the time we got to each one we fully immersed ourselves in water (btw...the water was THOUSANDS of years old because it trickled through the rocks), but it was gorgeous, and really fun....some random family took a pic of us giggling under a waterfall together...haha...
The only down fall to Zion was the CRAZINESS of our campground. No one mentioned to us that in the summer time, the southwest of the US is invaded by french people....like thousands of them...wherever we go there are at least 3 student tours and 5 families, if it weren't for park rangers and shuttle bus drivers, we could go for almost a day without hearing someone else speak english! It's weird....but, apparently, it's the thing to do in France. But they are really loud at night, they can't read signs that say "no dishwashing" in the spicket (which was right by our tent) so they flooded the area in our campsite, and Zion was really hot at night, sooo neither one of us slept a wink...BUT, we did get up in the middle of the night to star gaze b/c the sky was like nothing I've ever seen before, it was incredible...
After Zion we moved along to check out Bryce Canyon--super cool Hoodoos, these spire-like things that have been carved out by years of freezing and thawing water, coupled with the wind...it was realllllllly neat, but we only stayed for a couple hours and did some strolling along the canyon, and then we headed out for Capitol Reef. In order to get to Capitol Reef, however, we had to drive along this crazy winding road through these eerie mountains, and at one point I commented to Andrea that I felt like we were on Mars. It was pretty surreal...but Capitol Reef was great. A free park, a $10 campsite with GRASS and a hiking trail right by the campsite. We checked out the park via car first, and oh-my-god was it scary to drive thru these "washes" where there are just HUGE boulders that have fallen from cliffs on either side of you....both of us were convinced that we were going to get squashed, but we reasoned that if we did get squashed, that we would die instantaneously, so we wouldn't ever really know about it....so we trekked on and checked out some pretty amazing canyons. This morning we got up and hiked a canyon trail...Andrea's least fave hike yet b/c it was pretty freakin hot, BUT they laid out these cool little rock pile sculptures for you to follow the trail, so it was kind of like a game...that was fun, despite the heat. After our hike we cleaned up and headed for Moab, our last camping destination. And WHAT a campsite, it makes the others look like child's play...we have a pool, wi-fi, showers, ac in the bathroom (!!), a covered campsite, and a general store at our fingertips!! Fear not though, we have 4 tentsites of french students behind us...should be another late night...BOO b/c we are getting up super early tomorrow to go White Water Rafting on the Colorado River!! We're so pumped...a 10 hr tour (kind of intense), but we both love rafting, and I'm excited to do a river other than the Penobscot or the Dead for a change!!!
Today we also checked out Arches national park, which is reallllllly neat as well, it's so amazing to see what wind and a little tectonic plate action can do in a few million years :) We're hoping to head back there tonight for a sunset hike out to "delicate arch"--the famous one that is in all the Utah pics, even on their license plates....it's threatening to rain right now, so we'll see, but hopefully we can fit it in....
That's all for now, I'm off to go eat a salad---SUCH a luxury! (we have a grocery store one block away!!!) I'm sure we'll be checking in again after rafting tomorrow, we're in Moab for 3 nights, so we'll have wifi at our fingertips!
Adios for now, hope everyone is having a great summer!! Flying by...
~Susie
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Rain drops keep falling on my head...
Well...our hopes of coming back to a dry camp site were unfortunately not met. After posting our last blog, we stopped at the General Store to pick up some fixin's for s'mores and firewood, and returned to our tent, where we found PUDDLES of water inside of it. Awesome. We took out the sleeping bags and air mattress and draped them over rocks hoping that would help them dry before bedtime, but considering the fact that it was still crazy cloudy and cold, that didn't work so well! :(
Our second attempt at a fire was pretty under par as well. We liked to believe that we had bought "bad firewood", but something tells me that it's just our lack in fire building skill, seeing that everyone around us had a ROARING fire last night. Aren't we supposed to be naturally inclined to start fire??? It makes me feel somewhat inadequate as a human....I'm hoping we'll have more luck in the future. Again, I blame the rain and the fact that our fire pit was soaked! :)
Saw a bit more of the canyon this morning, including ELK and almost hitting a deer. Now we're off to Zion, but wanted to give a couple of shout outs before we left...not sure what the WiFi situaiton will be out there:
Shout out to the new parents, Cynthia and Ron...CONGRATS on Liam...can't wait to meet the little guy when I get home. :)
Shout out to Katie for passing her Boards first try!! CONGRATS, the CDs worked!
And finally, a shout out to my sisters, Tash and Liz....I have reverted back to my past and have made Susie and I play the "License Plate Game", and to date, we have seen 45 states, including Alaska and Hawaii!!!
We are grabbing iced coffees and hitting the road, hoping for sunny skies in Utah!
~Andrea :)
Our second attempt at a fire was pretty under par as well. We liked to believe that we had bought "bad firewood", but something tells me that it's just our lack in fire building skill, seeing that everyone around us had a ROARING fire last night. Aren't we supposed to be naturally inclined to start fire??? It makes me feel somewhat inadequate as a human....I'm hoping we'll have more luck in the future. Again, I blame the rain and the fact that our fire pit was soaked! :)
Saw a bit more of the canyon this morning, including ELK and almost hitting a deer. Now we're off to Zion, but wanted to give a couple of shout outs before we left...not sure what the WiFi situaiton will be out there:
Shout out to the new parents, Cynthia and Ron...CONGRATS on Liam...can't wait to meet the little guy when I get home. :)
Shout out to Katie for passing her Boards first try!! CONGRATS, the CDs worked!
And finally, a shout out to my sisters, Tash and Liz....I have reverted back to my past and have made Susie and I play the "License Plate Game", and to date, we have seen 45 states, including Alaska and Hawaii!!!
We are grabbing iced coffees and hitting the road, hoping for sunny skies in Utah!
~Andrea :)
Monday, July 20, 2009
ET phoning home...
Hello again!!! We've ventured into the land of no internet access, so it's been a while since we could write...LOTS to talk about now!!
Let's see, we left off when we were on our way to Napa...such a cute place! We decided to rent bikes and go on our own little bike tour of the region, SO fun. It was a super hot, yet very nice day, and we rode ourselves to 5 different wineries for tastings (we decided to split tastings so that we would be able to stay on our bikes!) Only a few bike-related mishaps...Andrea managed to have her chain fall off within 5 minutes of riding, Susie had a little trouble around a sharp bend with cows all around distracting her...but overall, we did quite well and had a great time. Not a big suprise to anyone--Andrea's fave wine was a $150 merlot (Pauhl Mayer, should anyone ever want to buy it for her!! haha...), while Susie's fave was a fraction of the price, a bargain really at $65, a zinfandel called HOOPS!!! so appropriate...
The next day we got up nice and early to drive to Tahoe, only for Susie to lock the ONE key in the trunk of the car. Thank Goodness for AAA, they had a tow truck guy over to us in 15 minutes!! Disaster averted and we barely noticed...but now, we double check where the keys are every time we close the trunk :) We drove over to Lake Tahoe and took in the beautiful vistas of the lake--the water is insanely blue! It looks like the Carribbean, but with mountains all around...and it's colder! We found our way to a nice sandy beach, rented kayaks for the day and played around on the lake for a while, and then made our way to a beach bar that had a live band, and "world famous rum runners". We had to try a world famous rum rummer...or two. We soon made friends with a couple of local gents who were kind enough to hang with us all evening discussing the "rad" ski mountains of the west, and then we followed them to a local dive bar at the promise of free hotdogs (they were gone--boo!)...don't worry, we drove while they biked with headlamps on...seems to be the "thing" that people do there...we think Andrea would look killer in a headlamp...
We had a fun night with Greg and Matty and the other Tahoe-ians, and quickly realized that our plan to stay over in Yosemite without a reservation the next night would be foolish, so we hatched a plan to go there for a day trip. Thankfully, Greg wasn't sick of us yet and he offered to be our tour guide for the day. After a hot, mountainous, and somewhat hair-raising ride to Yosemite (we had a little issue with our car breaks on the steep mountain roads...fear not, all is fine) we had a great day checking out the crazy beautiful mountains, lakes, even a volcanic lake, and watching the crazy peeps climb pure sheet rock thousands of feet in the air. We went on about a 2 hour hike and were really hoping to see a bear (mostly b/c we had an escort with us, and it would be much better to have our first bear siting with a Y-chromosome around...), but alas, it wasn't meant to be--no bears, just a yellow bellied marmut, cool, right?? We were all pretty tired after our hike...mostly from swatting tons of flies all day...so we headed back for Tahoe and a night of pizza, beer, and trivial pursuit with Greg, aka "Wikipedia"....Greg, if you are reading this, we think you should start your own summer touring business where you tell all the tourists about the 9 million nature facts you know!!! Thanks for hosting us Fri night, we truly appreciate the hospitality and the company!! Hopefully you'll get your keys soon (long story, another key mishap..)
We left Tahoe saturday morning and make the loooooooooooooooooooong trek to Las Vegas. This was most assuredly the scariest part of our trip thus far. We left Tahoe in good spirits, cruising the mountains and about 3 hours later found ourselves fighting the "desert trance" b/c everything was flat and exactly the same. A note of excitement, though, Andrea almost hit a wild c'yote and we saw wild donkeys on the side of the road. About half way there, we hit traffic that was dead stopped...awesome, we were in the middle of nowhere, and there had been a fatal head on collision (which thoroughly bugged Andrea out, as she is just getting used to passing people on one lane roads!!). Rather than wait for the estimated 2 hours, we made a U-turn and ventured off onto the Extraterrestrial Highway...I kid you not. This was the most desolate, ridiculous road ever, and to make it even creepier---we got trapped in a thunderstorm with CRAZY lightning. Well, being the only metal thing for miles, we thought for sure that we'd get zapped, but somehow we made it out the other side unscathed and headed for VEGAS!!
Our vegas hotel was not what one would call impressive, but we had a bed and a shower, so it did the trick. We spent about 3 hours trekking the strip and exploring the hotels in the INTENSE HEAT, but we made it back in time to beautify for an 11pm dinner, followed by checking out a few of the hotel bars. We made friends with a fighter pilot from Oklahoma who decided to teach Susie how to play BlackJack while Andrea studied up on her Roulette skills for Atlantic City...and gambling with other people's money is always soooooooooo much more fun!!!! We can easily say that checkout time came way too soon, but we piled ourselves into the car....feeling miserable in the heat...but our spirits lifted when we found a bank of america AND a Dunk side by side, felt like home....
After about a 3 hour drive, with a quick "fly over" the Hoover Dam, we arrived in Flagstaff, AZ in time for lunch at this great outdoor pubby-type place that had live music and super yummy food. We explored the town a little bit---great place, feels like it should have a Greatful Dead soundtrack playing at all times---and then made the quick drive to Sedona to be WOWED by the red rock sculpted mountains everywhere. Soooooooo worth the trip, it was really gorgeous, and the town of Sedona was super cute too...if only we hadn't been so full from lunch!!
As the sun started to set, we decided it was time to hit the road and head to our campsite at the Grand Canyon. Only took us about an hour---we saw an Elk!!--and then Susie managed to get pulled over IN Grand Canyon National Park, 30 feet from our campground, for swerving around...the guy thought I was drunk, or high, but alas, it was just totally dark and we had no idea where we were going, so he let us go without a problem...We got our tent up in the dark without a hitch and spent our first night sleeping in Arizona!
We awakened this morning to bright sunshine at 8am and made our way to the Canyon....Holy Amazing. It's so beautiful and breathtaking. We chose a day hike that was moderate, and supposed to be about 3 hours....except that as soon as we got down into the canyon to our destination, it started thunderstorming and HAILING, so we had to take cover in a latrine...seriously, well--half in the bathroom, half under a roof...for an hour. So we ate lunch and got prepared for the ascent out of the canyon, which we did quite well despite thinking it would totally suck. We lucked out with the rain, b/c on our way down it was 90 and sunny, and on the way up it was 70, cloudy and breezy...sooooooooooo much better for hiking!!! The only down side...we left one of the tent flaps that covers the window of our tent today, certainly not anticipating rain...and now our sleeping bags are probably wet...we will see shortly!! We're off to go attempt a campfire, if everything isn't too wet....and then we'll sleep like babies tonight b/c both of us feel like our legs might fall off right now!!!
Tomorrow we're taking a morning "fossil hike" b/c we're both dorks who totally dig that stuff...haha, pun not intended...and then we're onto our 4th state, Utah, to see Zion!
Thinking of all of you...
~Susie and Andrea
Let's see, we left off when we were on our way to Napa...such a cute place! We decided to rent bikes and go on our own little bike tour of the region, SO fun. It was a super hot, yet very nice day, and we rode ourselves to 5 different wineries for tastings (we decided to split tastings so that we would be able to stay on our bikes!) Only a few bike-related mishaps...Andrea managed to have her chain fall off within 5 minutes of riding, Susie had a little trouble around a sharp bend with cows all around distracting her...but overall, we did quite well and had a great time. Not a big suprise to anyone--Andrea's fave wine was a $150 merlot (Pauhl Mayer, should anyone ever want to buy it for her!! haha...), while Susie's fave was a fraction of the price, a bargain really at $65, a zinfandel called HOOPS!!! so appropriate...
The next day we got up nice and early to drive to Tahoe, only for Susie to lock the ONE key in the trunk of the car. Thank Goodness for AAA, they had a tow truck guy over to us in 15 minutes!! Disaster averted and we barely noticed...but now, we double check where the keys are every time we close the trunk :) We drove over to Lake Tahoe and took in the beautiful vistas of the lake--the water is insanely blue! It looks like the Carribbean, but with mountains all around...and it's colder! We found our way to a nice sandy beach, rented kayaks for the day and played around on the lake for a while, and then made our way to a beach bar that had a live band, and "world famous rum runners". We had to try a world famous rum rummer...or two. We soon made friends with a couple of local gents who were kind enough to hang with us all evening discussing the "rad" ski mountains of the west, and then we followed them to a local dive bar at the promise of free hotdogs (they were gone--boo!)...don't worry, we drove while they biked with headlamps on...seems to be the "thing" that people do there...we think Andrea would look killer in a headlamp...
We had a fun night with Greg and Matty and the other Tahoe-ians, and quickly realized that our plan to stay over in Yosemite without a reservation the next night would be foolish, so we hatched a plan to go there for a day trip. Thankfully, Greg wasn't sick of us yet and he offered to be our tour guide for the day. After a hot, mountainous, and somewhat hair-raising ride to Yosemite (we had a little issue with our car breaks on the steep mountain roads...fear not, all is fine) we had a great day checking out the crazy beautiful mountains, lakes, even a volcanic lake, and watching the crazy peeps climb pure sheet rock thousands of feet in the air. We went on about a 2 hour hike and were really hoping to see a bear (mostly b/c we had an escort with us, and it would be much better to have our first bear siting with a Y-chromosome around...), but alas, it wasn't meant to be--no bears, just a yellow bellied marmut, cool, right?? We were all pretty tired after our hike...mostly from swatting tons of flies all day...so we headed back for Tahoe and a night of pizza, beer, and trivial pursuit with Greg, aka "Wikipedia"....Greg, if you are reading this, we think you should start your own summer touring business where you tell all the tourists about the 9 million nature facts you know!!! Thanks for hosting us Fri night, we truly appreciate the hospitality and the company!! Hopefully you'll get your keys soon (long story, another key mishap..)
We left Tahoe saturday morning and make the loooooooooooooooooooong trek to Las Vegas. This was most assuredly the scariest part of our trip thus far. We left Tahoe in good spirits, cruising the mountains and about 3 hours later found ourselves fighting the "desert trance" b/c everything was flat and exactly the same. A note of excitement, though, Andrea almost hit a wild c'yote and we saw wild donkeys on the side of the road. About half way there, we hit traffic that was dead stopped...awesome, we were in the middle of nowhere, and there had been a fatal head on collision (which thoroughly bugged Andrea out, as she is just getting used to passing people on one lane roads!!). Rather than wait for the estimated 2 hours, we made a U-turn and ventured off onto the Extraterrestrial Highway...I kid you not. This was the most desolate, ridiculous road ever, and to make it even creepier---we got trapped in a thunderstorm with CRAZY lightning. Well, being the only metal thing for miles, we thought for sure that we'd get zapped, but somehow we made it out the other side unscathed and headed for VEGAS!!
Our vegas hotel was not what one would call impressive, but we had a bed and a shower, so it did the trick. We spent about 3 hours trekking the strip and exploring the hotels in the INTENSE HEAT, but we made it back in time to beautify for an 11pm dinner, followed by checking out a few of the hotel bars. We made friends with a fighter pilot from Oklahoma who decided to teach Susie how to play BlackJack while Andrea studied up on her Roulette skills for Atlantic City...and gambling with other people's money is always soooooooooo much more fun!!!! We can easily say that checkout time came way too soon, but we piled ourselves into the car....feeling miserable in the heat...but our spirits lifted when we found a bank of america AND a Dunk side by side, felt like home....
After about a 3 hour drive, with a quick "fly over" the Hoover Dam, we arrived in Flagstaff, AZ in time for lunch at this great outdoor pubby-type place that had live music and super yummy food. We explored the town a little bit---great place, feels like it should have a Greatful Dead soundtrack playing at all times---and then made the quick drive to Sedona to be WOWED by the red rock sculpted mountains everywhere. Soooooooo worth the trip, it was really gorgeous, and the town of Sedona was super cute too...if only we hadn't been so full from lunch!!
As the sun started to set, we decided it was time to hit the road and head to our campsite at the Grand Canyon. Only took us about an hour---we saw an Elk!!--and then Susie managed to get pulled over IN Grand Canyon National Park, 30 feet from our campground, for swerving around...the guy thought I was drunk, or high, but alas, it was just totally dark and we had no idea where we were going, so he let us go without a problem...We got our tent up in the dark without a hitch and spent our first night sleeping in Arizona!
We awakened this morning to bright sunshine at 8am and made our way to the Canyon....Holy Amazing. It's so beautiful and breathtaking. We chose a day hike that was moderate, and supposed to be about 3 hours....except that as soon as we got down into the canyon to our destination, it started thunderstorming and HAILING, so we had to take cover in a latrine...seriously, well--half in the bathroom, half under a roof...for an hour. So we ate lunch and got prepared for the ascent out of the canyon, which we did quite well despite thinking it would totally suck. We lucked out with the rain, b/c on our way down it was 90 and sunny, and on the way up it was 70, cloudy and breezy...sooooooooooo much better for hiking!!! The only down side...we left one of the tent flaps that covers the window of our tent today, certainly not anticipating rain...and now our sleeping bags are probably wet...we will see shortly!! We're off to go attempt a campfire, if everything isn't too wet....and then we'll sleep like babies tonight b/c both of us feel like our legs might fall off right now!!!
Tomorrow we're taking a morning "fossil hike" b/c we're both dorks who totally dig that stuff...haha, pun not intended...and then we're onto our 4th state, Utah, to see Zion!
Thinking of all of you...
~Susie and Andrea
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Life is so much better with a wine buzz...
So there are a few things I have realized thus far on this trip... 1) I don't really enjoy camping all that much (which is great considering that's what we'll be doing for a week in the DESERT!) 2) apparently whenever it's my turn to drive on this trip I get stuck with the windy, snake-like roads along the cliff where I feel like I'm going to plummet us to our death that also make Susie have to take a Bonine (motion sickness medication) and 3) life is SO much better with a wine buzz...
We have officially been on the West Coast for one week! Yesterday we left Oakland (after I FINALLY had a good night's sleep in a BED) and headed north to Muir Woods. WOW. That's all I can say about that one...giant Redwoods and Sequoia's everywhere you look along this 2 mile trail...unbelievable. Pictures do no justice. We continued north along route 1 to Bodega Bay for out last leg of the Pacific Coast Highway. Sad to know that that was it...no more coastal driving for us. :( Bodega Bay was beautiful as well....this giant bay with boats and crab shacks all around it. Unfortunately it was too cold to go to the beach there, so we decided to drive inland to Sonoma instead. BAD move. The temperature literally rose by like 30 degrees, maybe 40. We were sweat hogs in the pimp mobile for about an hour. Rumor has it it reached 104 here yesterday. Lovely. So we continue, or I should say I continue, to drive us up this huge, windy mountain (shocker) in hopes of staying at the Sugar Loaf State Park campground, only to find that it's "closed". So Susie takes over the wheel and bombs us down the mountain in search of some fine wine tasting...and oh did we find it! The only winery that we could find that was still open (all of them close around here at like 5, and it was 5:15...naturally) was Paradise Ridge and it was oh so delish! We got to taste a sparkling Shiraz which was definitely the highlight! We purchased a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc and headed off into town, where we found this cute little hotel called the Pueblo Inn and went immediately to the pool and spent the evenining swimming and drinking our wine. Life doesn't get any better than that.
Today we're off to Napa for some a bike-riding wine tasting tour (YUM!) and then heading out to Tahoe (last minute decision). It seems like this trip just keeps getting better!! Love and miss you all! Talk to you soon!
~Andrea :)
We have officially been on the West Coast for one week! Yesterday we left Oakland (after I FINALLY had a good night's sleep in a BED) and headed north to Muir Woods. WOW. That's all I can say about that one...giant Redwoods and Sequoia's everywhere you look along this 2 mile trail...unbelievable. Pictures do no justice. We continued north along route 1 to Bodega Bay for out last leg of the Pacific Coast Highway. Sad to know that that was it...no more coastal driving for us. :( Bodega Bay was beautiful as well....this giant bay with boats and crab shacks all around it. Unfortunately it was too cold to go to the beach there, so we decided to drive inland to Sonoma instead. BAD move. The temperature literally rose by like 30 degrees, maybe 40. We were sweat hogs in the pimp mobile for about an hour. Rumor has it it reached 104 here yesterday. Lovely. So we continue, or I should say I continue, to drive us up this huge, windy mountain (shocker) in hopes of staying at the Sugar Loaf State Park campground, only to find that it's "closed". So Susie takes over the wheel and bombs us down the mountain in search of some fine wine tasting...and oh did we find it! The only winery that we could find that was still open (all of them close around here at like 5, and it was 5:15...naturally) was Paradise Ridge and it was oh so delish! We got to taste a sparkling Shiraz which was definitely the highlight! We purchased a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc and headed off into town, where we found this cute little hotel called the Pueblo Inn and went immediately to the pool and spent the evenining swimming and drinking our wine. Life doesn't get any better than that.
Today we're off to Napa for some a bike-riding wine tasting tour (YUM!) and then heading out to Tahoe (last minute decision). It seems like this trip just keeps getting better!! Love and miss you all! Talk to you soon!
~Andrea :)
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
North Coast and SilvaK!!!
Well, Ang and I had our first successful (well, semi successful) fire going at our campsite in Big Sur...we roasted hotdogs and made a can of the grossest baked beans ever. I then found myself a nice stick and roasted marshmellows by myself--Andrea doesn't like them?!?! WHO goes camping and doesn't roast marshmellows!!??!! I guess I'll be eating the whole bag myself...
So anyway, on the road pretty early yesterday and this time I got to be the lucky one to cling to the windy road cliffs. But seriously, driving in Big Sur is like opening Christmas presents---you're so excited to see what's around the next turn!! The mountainous central coast eventually turned into the sandy dunes of the north coast---different, but just as gorgeous...we stopped and got coffee in Monterrey, a town we both liked a lot...then off to be wowed by the expanse of San Fransisco!!
We spent the day as total tourist divas....negotiating the CRAZY hills, saw china town, walked down Haight street and gawked at all the hippies and weirdos, saw 2 people get arrested, walked around Fisherman's Wharf, ate a crab salad sandwich (me) and fried shrimp (ang) from the grotto, went on a harbor tour that took us under the Golden Gate bridge and past Alcatraz---btw, tour was complete with the best sound track EVER--you felt like superman flying around saving people as you approached the bridge, and then like Lex Luther slinking around menacingly as we cruised around Alacatraz. Of course our day in SF was finished up with a split ice cream and dark ghiardelli hot fudge from the square...YUM!
We decided it was best to leave San Fran right around 6, so we could witness a little of the city commute (nice), and made our way to Oakland to visit with Kristen and Josh. Kristen warned that they live in a little oasis in the middle of "the ghetto", so Andrea and I felt right at home in our pimp mobile....Josh was just a smidge worried that it wouldn't be there in the morning :) They took us out to downtown Oakland to this great Vietnamese restaurant and we got our MSG fill, followed up by lots of chatting and Kristen getting to bed waaaaaaaaaaaay too late for someone who gets up at 4:30am to go to work!!! BUT, alas, it was so great to see them---Thanks so much Kristen and Josh for being such wonderful hosts, and proving to me that Oakland is not just a city filled with people weilding weapons and wearing Raiders starter jackets about 3 sizes too big...
Today we are off to do the last leg of our coastal trip---up to Sonoma county and Bodega Bay, perhaps some wine tasting and def some beach time is coming our way!!!
OH---and I need to give a shout out to Katelyn for those awesome CDs, we rocked thru middle school yesterday, and listened to the "greatest song of all time" 3 times!!!
Second shout out--HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRENDA!!!! Today is the 14th, right? We keep losing track of days...
Third shout out---Erin, welcome to Tennessee!!! Salem is sad already...hope the flight with the D-man went okay and that he played with his weeble!! :)
Adios friends, we'll catch up with more stories once we get to Napa!
~Susie
So anyway, on the road pretty early yesterday and this time I got to be the lucky one to cling to the windy road cliffs. But seriously, driving in Big Sur is like opening Christmas presents---you're so excited to see what's around the next turn!! The mountainous central coast eventually turned into the sandy dunes of the north coast---different, but just as gorgeous...we stopped and got coffee in Monterrey, a town we both liked a lot...then off to be wowed by the expanse of San Fransisco!!
We spent the day as total tourist divas....negotiating the CRAZY hills, saw china town, walked down Haight street and gawked at all the hippies and weirdos, saw 2 people get arrested, walked around Fisherman's Wharf, ate a crab salad sandwich (me) and fried shrimp (ang) from the grotto, went on a harbor tour that took us under the Golden Gate bridge and past Alcatraz---btw, tour was complete with the best sound track EVER--you felt like superman flying around saving people as you approached the bridge, and then like Lex Luther slinking around menacingly as we cruised around Alacatraz. Of course our day in SF was finished up with a split ice cream and dark ghiardelli hot fudge from the square...YUM!
We decided it was best to leave San Fran right around 6, so we could witness a little of the city commute (nice), and made our way to Oakland to visit with Kristen and Josh. Kristen warned that they live in a little oasis in the middle of "the ghetto", so Andrea and I felt right at home in our pimp mobile....Josh was just a smidge worried that it wouldn't be there in the morning :) They took us out to downtown Oakland to this great Vietnamese restaurant and we got our MSG fill, followed up by lots of chatting and Kristen getting to bed waaaaaaaaaaaay too late for someone who gets up at 4:30am to go to work!!! BUT, alas, it was so great to see them---Thanks so much Kristen and Josh for being such wonderful hosts, and proving to me that Oakland is not just a city filled with people weilding weapons and wearing Raiders starter jackets about 3 sizes too big...
Today we are off to do the last leg of our coastal trip---up to Sonoma county and Bodega Bay, perhaps some wine tasting and def some beach time is coming our way!!!
OH---and I need to give a shout out to Katelyn for those awesome CDs, we rocked thru middle school yesterday, and listened to the "greatest song of all time" 3 times!!!
Second shout out--HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRENDA!!!! Today is the 14th, right? We keep losing track of days...
Third shout out---Erin, welcome to Tennessee!!! Salem is sad already...hope the flight with the D-man went okay and that he played with his weeble!! :)
Adios friends, we'll catch up with more stories once we get to Napa!
~Susie
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Big Pimpin in Big Sur...
Oh My Gorgeous...we have just spent the past day absolutely breathless---this place is unbelievable. OH WAIT---first, our first camping experience!!! To start, the campground we planned to stay at was full *even though they wouldn't take our reservations ahead of time!!*, but we found another one about 20 minutes from San Luis Obispo (from here on out called SLO)...we will also refer to our campground from here on out as "deliverance". Holy Moly, this place was in the middle of nowhere and it was Africa hot!! We got there around 3:30 and were given a campsite that was about 15cm from our lovely neighbors--"cough-all-night-guy", "camper-full-of-kids-including-screaming-baby-family", and "crazy-mexican-clan-that-blares-spanish-music-at-8am"...a unique learning experience for us. We are very impressed with ourselves, our tent went up in a FLASH and the air mattress eventually got filled, so once we sweat our asses off putting our site together, off we went to SLO to check out the sites! The town is super cute, LOTS of adorable boutiques...we did our best not to spend too much money, the size of our suitcases helped...we treated ourselves to yummy Thai food (the perfect rustic thing for the first night of camping, right???) and hit a bar downtown that had a live band. Another funny night, meeting the locals, our faves being 24 year-olds, Bo and Taylor, who did their best to woo us back to their lair and, as usual, smoke pot...but again, we passed and got ourselves home to deliverance by midnight so that Andrea could spend the night awake and convinced that either we would get eaten by bears or cough-all-night guy would asphixiate in his sleep....but, we did it--we slept in a tent and it wasn't so bad :)
Got up this morning and headed out to Big Sur--a 90 mile strech of the most gorgeous terrain either of us have ever seen....pics GALORE!...and Ang has perfected the art of taking photos thru the windsheild...it took us about 3 hrs to negotiate the windy highway, and Andrea wins the power-thru-the-fatigue-of-driving-on-windy-cliffs award for the day. Side Bar--we found this beach of elephant seals that were awesome, they were barking at each other and fighting and Susie was in heaven b/c they are her favorite animal and they were the coolest things on the beach. Onto our campsite in Big Sur--Once we got here, we set up our campsite--again, a BREEZE! and this time, it's much nicer and shady and by a river....off we went to Big Sur state park to do a little hiking, another park to see this AMAZING beach, and yet another state park to see a cool, just not AS cool as the last one beach....now we're pooped, sitting in the lodge, drinking a cold local brew and utilizing the free WiFi. Soon, we'll go attempt our first campfire and roast some hotdogs and baked beans! We are actually going to break out our mess kits!
In the morning, we're off to see Carmel and San Fran and visit with Susie's friend SilvaK!!! Should be another great day....and hopefully a better night sleep tonight b/c we are both exhausted!!! Early departure tomorrow b/c we've got lotttttttttttts to see!
Love you all!!! Oh--and btw, no cell service here, so sorry if you called in the past couple days, but we've got nothing...
~Susie and Andrea
Got up this morning and headed out to Big Sur--a 90 mile strech of the most gorgeous terrain either of us have ever seen....pics GALORE!...and Ang has perfected the art of taking photos thru the windsheild...it took us about 3 hrs to negotiate the windy highway, and Andrea wins the power-thru-the-fatigue-of-driving-on-windy-cliffs award for the day. Side Bar--we found this beach of elephant seals that were awesome, they were barking at each other and fighting and Susie was in heaven b/c they are her favorite animal and they were the coolest things on the beach. Onto our campsite in Big Sur--Once we got here, we set up our campsite--again, a BREEZE! and this time, it's much nicer and shady and by a river....off we went to Big Sur state park to do a little hiking, another park to see this AMAZING beach, and yet another state park to see a cool, just not AS cool as the last one beach....now we're pooped, sitting in the lodge, drinking a cold local brew and utilizing the free WiFi. Soon, we'll go attempt our first campfire and roast some hotdogs and baked beans! We are actually going to break out our mess kits!
In the morning, we're off to see Carmel and San Fran and visit with Susie's friend SilvaK!!! Should be another great day....and hopefully a better night sleep tonight b/c we are both exhausted!!! Early departure tomorrow b/c we've got lotttttttttttts to see!
Love you all!!! Oh--and btw, no cell service here, so sorry if you called in the past couple days, but we've got nothing...
~Susie and Andrea
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Welcome to Hollywood, What's your Dream??
Thus far we've had a wonderful time visiting our west coast friends. Andrew J Nissen, soon to be Daddy-Nissen, was even kind enough to teach me how to play Wii tennis (which I quickly excelled at, obviously) Haha, I had a bit more trouble with Wii bowling--but Andy and Andrea were seasoned vets and they kicked my butt, but I made sure to partake in the "Turkey" celebrations (for those of you who are new to the world of Wii like me, that's three strikes in a row) with shots of Johnnie Walkers finest...
We had a wonderful night sleep, yummy bagels and absolutely enormous ice coffees and hit the road once the Nissens had to deal with their 9-5 committments. Wellllll, I've always said that I had zero desire to go to LA, but since we were here and about to drive from Laguna to Santa Barbara, we figured we should check out what all the fuss is about...BAD move on our part. I've heard about LA traffic, but we planned well and didn't try to enter the city until 10, and tried to leave by 2, and with 5 lane highways, you would think it would have been relatively smooth sailing---but this place is seriously a parking lot. EVERYWHERE in a 20 mile radius of the city was infuriating to me, but we powered thru and made our way to Beverly Hills, checked out Rodeo drive, drove thru the city for a while...very slowly...and made our way to Santa Monica to check out the pier. All in all, I was pretty psyched to get back in the car and head north---don't want to insult anyone who lives there or loves it, but LA was not for me.....dirty, smoggy, too crowded, people wear inappropriately short and tight clothing, and really not very impressive...so, on we go!! Another slow crawl out of LA and on to Santa Barbara...
The drive along the coast was beautiful, and SB even more so---there are gorgeous mountains here that end in these big cliffs right over the beach. Makes for gorgeous views just about everywhere you go--including from our hotel window!! This place is definitly my speed...we cruised around for a bit yesterday and decided to spend the night, so we tried to find the cheapest place--obviously. One thing about SB, no free WiFi ANYWHERE, so we let our fingers do the walking and found a payphone with a phonebook--who knew those even still existed?!?! But we found a great little place in the middle of town and we set off for yet another dose of Mexican food....I love the mexican food of Souther California, but I'm not going to lie, I'm looking forward to the trip north and getting away from my overwhelming need to try the fish tacos everywhere I go. After dinner Ang and I decided to do our own little pub crawl and try as many places as we could to really get a feel for the place....fun little town, something for everyone! We finally settled at an English pub and immediately made friends with a couple of guys from Boston--who, strangely enough, were both named Bryce...which was made even stranger when I made friends with a Christian bachelor party (?!?!? bizarre), but the guy I was talking with was named Bryce!!! I've never met anyone with that name, and last night I was chatting with 3...anyway, Andrea and I collected 2 more business cards, I was offered a tour at a microbrewery in town today if we would like to go, and best of all, the third Bryce actually owns a medical marijuana company....Vitamin M, hahha....and I had like a billion questions--it was just like Weeds!!! For the second time in 3 days, random boys invited us to their apartments to smoke weed, and for the second time we turned them down....maybe it's an east coast thing, but going to strange men's apts to do drugs just doesn't seem like a smart idea, but perhaps we're just too uptight...
Today we're off to San Luis Obispo, and our official first day of camping. We're both super excited to check out the sights, take in the fresh air (especially after spending a total of 1.5 hrs out of the car in LA yesterday) and perhaps detox a little...I'm sad to leave Santa Barbara though, fun little town...
Can't wait to see how the camping excursion goes...stories to come...
~Susie
We had a wonderful night sleep, yummy bagels and absolutely enormous ice coffees and hit the road once the Nissens had to deal with their 9-5 committments. Wellllll, I've always said that I had zero desire to go to LA, but since we were here and about to drive from Laguna to Santa Barbara, we figured we should check out what all the fuss is about...BAD move on our part. I've heard about LA traffic, but we planned well and didn't try to enter the city until 10, and tried to leave by 2, and with 5 lane highways, you would think it would have been relatively smooth sailing---but this place is seriously a parking lot. EVERYWHERE in a 20 mile radius of the city was infuriating to me, but we powered thru and made our way to Beverly Hills, checked out Rodeo drive, drove thru the city for a while...very slowly...and made our way to Santa Monica to check out the pier. All in all, I was pretty psyched to get back in the car and head north---don't want to insult anyone who lives there or loves it, but LA was not for me.....dirty, smoggy, too crowded, people wear inappropriately short and tight clothing, and really not very impressive...so, on we go!! Another slow crawl out of LA and on to Santa Barbara...
The drive along the coast was beautiful, and SB even more so---there are gorgeous mountains here that end in these big cliffs right over the beach. Makes for gorgeous views just about everywhere you go--including from our hotel window!! This place is definitly my speed...we cruised around for a bit yesterday and decided to spend the night, so we tried to find the cheapest place--obviously. One thing about SB, no free WiFi ANYWHERE, so we let our fingers do the walking and found a payphone with a phonebook--who knew those even still existed?!?! But we found a great little place in the middle of town and we set off for yet another dose of Mexican food....I love the mexican food of Souther California, but I'm not going to lie, I'm looking forward to the trip north and getting away from my overwhelming need to try the fish tacos everywhere I go. After dinner Ang and I decided to do our own little pub crawl and try as many places as we could to really get a feel for the place....fun little town, something for everyone! We finally settled at an English pub and immediately made friends with a couple of guys from Boston--who, strangely enough, were both named Bryce...which was made even stranger when I made friends with a Christian bachelor party (?!?!? bizarre), but the guy I was talking with was named Bryce!!! I've never met anyone with that name, and last night I was chatting with 3...anyway, Andrea and I collected 2 more business cards, I was offered a tour at a microbrewery in town today if we would like to go, and best of all, the third Bryce actually owns a medical marijuana company....Vitamin M, hahha....and I had like a billion questions--it was just like Weeds!!! For the second time in 3 days, random boys invited us to their apartments to smoke weed, and for the second time we turned them down....maybe it's an east coast thing, but going to strange men's apts to do drugs just doesn't seem like a smart idea, but perhaps we're just too uptight...
Today we're off to San Luis Obispo, and our official first day of camping. We're both super excited to check out the sights, take in the fresh air (especially after spending a total of 1.5 hrs out of the car in LA yesterday) and perhaps detox a little...I'm sad to leave Santa Barbara though, fun little town...
Can't wait to see how the camping excursion goes...stories to come...
~Susie
Thursday, July 9, 2009
San Diego, Coronado, Mission Viego (& Laguna)
So we landed safely yesterday after our flight got delayed an hour due to turtles crossing over the runway at JFK (go figure?!?) and trekked our ridiculously heavy bags and boarded the shuttle to Fox Rental Car. To our surprise, it was actually clean, service was prompt, and we got a free upgrade to a....Chrysler 300!! Oh you are so jealous!! (I'll attach pictures later when I figure out how). We have been playing around with names for it, and I've decided to go with "pimp mobile"... and funny enough we saw one pass us by on the highway with tinted out windows and like 17 inch rims! Hahaha...riding in style!!
Moving right along...once we got the pimp mobile, we plugged in Jay's address and made our way straight to Pacific Beach, stopping in a Burger King to change into our bathing suits where we had to pay $0.25 to use it. Got our suits on and headed straight to Lahaina's...a cute bar on the boardwalk. We started off with some margarhita's and fish tacos, but then moved on to Pacifico's. We soaked up the sun, sipped on our drinks, and made many new friends, 2 of the guys being from Sweden- Carl and Daniel. We also encountered Jim and Sam...Jim a sous chef in San Diego who is hoping to move to Boston, who was bald, tattooed, and gave me my first business card of the trip. Ha! Jay and his fiancee Brooke met up with us and we grabbed a bite with them and headed back to their apartment to watch the fireworks being set off from Sea World. Shout out to Jay and Brooke....thanks so much for your hospitality!!!
Unfortunately Jay and Brooke were heading to the east coast this morning, so we dropped them off at the airport and took a driving tour of downtown San Diego before we headed out to Coronado to spend the day soaking up the sun on the beach. We enter Coronado and unfortunately "beach" is not a destination Susie's GPS understands, so we followed a main road hoping to stumble upon one. As we're cruising we see a toll booth ahead. Next thing we know there's a sign that says "Proper ID required". Dumbfounded, we continue to proceed towards the security station ahead of us. Little did we know that we were at the entrance to the Naval base, and military ID was required to proceed! We u-turned out of there and finally headed in the right direction and found ourselves a convenient public parking spot right next to the beach. We treated ourselves to a divine breakfast buffet at the Hotel del Coronado, and spent the rest of the day on the beach, getting sunburnt due to the lack of skill we both have with spray-on sunscreen. My shins, knees and thighs are streaked with red, as Susie's hips are close to purple. :(
After the beach, we hopped on Interstate 5 and trekked up to Andy and Shannon's house in Mission Viego. We got to meet the adorable Gus-- their golden retriever-- and play with him in the pool for a bit. (Although he got a bit fiesty during a game of catch and swam on top of me, clawing my chest and practically pulling off my bathing suit! I have marks to prove it! Haha) After our fun-time in the pool, we decided to grab burritos for dinner and go to Laguna Beach to eat them and watch the sunset. It was absolutely gorgeous!! The waves were crashing up on the rocks, the sun slowly setting in the distance. Surreal! On our way home we stopped for frozen yogurt and brought it back to their house, eating it while relaxing in their "pool that got really hot". A perfect end to a perfect day!! Thank you to Andy and Shannon (and Gus)!!!
Oh but before I finally finish this novel, I have to add that as we were leaving the frozen yogurt shop and walking to our pimp mobile, we saw this 12 year old boy on his bike totally checking the car out! Hahahahaha
Tomorrow we are off to LA...going for a ride along Rodeo Drive, hitting up 90210, Santa Monica, and heading into Hollywood. We'll be in touch if there are any celebrity sitings and to update you with the tons of stories I'm sure we're bound to have! Hope you are all doing well...signing out from sunny So-Cal!
~Andrea :)
Moving right along...once we got the pimp mobile, we plugged in Jay's address and made our way straight to Pacific Beach, stopping in a Burger King to change into our bathing suits where we had to pay $0.25 to use it. Got our suits on and headed straight to Lahaina's...a cute bar on the boardwalk. We started off with some margarhita's and fish tacos, but then moved on to Pacifico's. We soaked up the sun, sipped on our drinks, and made many new friends, 2 of the guys being from Sweden- Carl and Daniel. We also encountered Jim and Sam...Jim a sous chef in San Diego who is hoping to move to Boston, who was bald, tattooed, and gave me my first business card of the trip. Ha! Jay and his fiancee Brooke met up with us and we grabbed a bite with them and headed back to their apartment to watch the fireworks being set off from Sea World. Shout out to Jay and Brooke....thanks so much for your hospitality!!!
Unfortunately Jay and Brooke were heading to the east coast this morning, so we dropped them off at the airport and took a driving tour of downtown San Diego before we headed out to Coronado to spend the day soaking up the sun on the beach. We enter Coronado and unfortunately "beach" is not a destination Susie's GPS understands, so we followed a main road hoping to stumble upon one. As we're cruising we see a toll booth ahead. Next thing we know there's a sign that says "Proper ID required". Dumbfounded, we continue to proceed towards the security station ahead of us. Little did we know that we were at the entrance to the Naval base, and military ID was required to proceed! We u-turned out of there and finally headed in the right direction and found ourselves a convenient public parking spot right next to the beach. We treated ourselves to a divine breakfast buffet at the Hotel del Coronado, and spent the rest of the day on the beach, getting sunburnt due to the lack of skill we both have with spray-on sunscreen. My shins, knees and thighs are streaked with red, as Susie's hips are close to purple. :(
After the beach, we hopped on Interstate 5 and trekked up to Andy and Shannon's house in Mission Viego. We got to meet the adorable Gus-- their golden retriever-- and play with him in the pool for a bit. (Although he got a bit fiesty during a game of catch and swam on top of me, clawing my chest and practically pulling off my bathing suit! I have marks to prove it! Haha) After our fun-time in the pool, we decided to grab burritos for dinner and go to Laguna Beach to eat them and watch the sunset. It was absolutely gorgeous!! The waves were crashing up on the rocks, the sun slowly setting in the distance. Surreal! On our way home we stopped for frozen yogurt and brought it back to their house, eating it while relaxing in their "pool that got really hot". A perfect end to a perfect day!! Thank you to Andy and Shannon (and Gus)!!!
Oh but before I finally finish this novel, I have to add that as we were leaving the frozen yogurt shop and walking to our pimp mobile, we saw this 12 year old boy on his bike totally checking the car out! Hahahahaha
Tomorrow we are off to LA...going for a ride along Rodeo Drive, hitting up 90210, Santa Monica, and heading into Hollywood. We'll be in touch if there are any celebrity sitings and to update you with the tons of stories I'm sure we're bound to have! Hope you are all doing well...signing out from sunny So-Cal!
~Andrea :)
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
We are officially getting ready to go....Tuesday night...in Jersey. We've had one too many glasses of wine to celebrate our looming freedom. We hit Target tonight, bought travel pillows, stole camping gear to complete my air mattress pump (they didn't sell it separately, so really they were asking for it!), and sweet talked the creepy optical shop guy into giving me 2 free pairs of contacts in case they dried up in my eyes in the desert...so, nothing left to do but get one last night of sleep in a real bed and get up to fight the commuting traffic into JFK tomorrow. We're off to bother Jay and eat fish tacos on the beach...there might be a pacifico or two (or margs??) thrown in for good measure...wish us luck with the SHADY rental car place!!! I'm sure stories will follow...
~Susie
~Susie
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