Well we are headed west and almost at the ocean! At the moment we are passing what looks like a UPS truck convention at the gas station...twelve double-trailer UPS trucks! We will be passing through Paso Robles, past Cambria (where we are staying tonight) and then to San Simeon to see Hearst Castle.
Yesterday was fun - after four straight hours of conference calls (thanks for driving, Will!) we got to Sequoia National Park - wow, was it beautiful. The trees were amazing. The views were amazing. The cliffs and rock faces were amazing. The fun curves in the road in my fun car with our fun tunes were amazing. The bears were amazing. Yes. bears. We accidentally ran into one on a trail and politely backtracked while he stared us down. Will can elaborate more...
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Monday, July 9, 2007
Day 8: Week 2! California Here we Come!
Well out mom asked us if we were able to "escape from Las Vegas" - the answer is yes, and we have made it to my new home State of California! Oddly enough, I actually have really enjoyed Vegas both times I have been there. Once you get past the overall problem of a large city consuming mammoth amounts of water and electricity in the middle of a desert (if you can ever get past that...) it is an interesting place.
Most visitors to LV seem to fit into one of two groups (at least based on how they dress in 100-degree-heat): "white trash", or those who go to evening dinners dressed in their american flag/nascar tee shirts, and "socialites", those who dress up in eveningwear and full-blown make up and hair for everything (even a morning coffee run). Of course, there are lots of "normal" people too...whatever that means...but they don't really grab your attention.
Will went on a walk while I did some work with some interesting affirmations of what he thought he would find: slot machines along the walkways and no places to sit so that people who are tired will just sit at the slots (and hopefully play). Change given in really large bills so you tip bigger or are more likely to change out more money for chips at a time that you would have otherwise. Casinos designed like black holes so you can't find your way out to another one, thus your money is held captive.
Will and I had a fantastic time though...I got a ton of work done in the afternoon while it was still hot, then we walked around the shops and tried to find the baby dolphin at the Mirage (turns out you have to pay a lot to see it....we should have seen that one coming). We took the fun little tram over to Treasure Island and caught the very begining of the fantastically (or awfully depending on your mood) cheesy pirate show and won $5 in blackjack before eating a super delicious awesome yummy dinner at the c. The food there was just as good as I had remembered. One of my favorite things in Las Vegas is not just the food, but the service - which is almost always outstanding. It puts every other city in the world to shame. Man are they on top of their game! Anyways, our meal at social house consisted of a lot lot lot of delicious sashimi including white king salmon (which i didn't know existed!). We finished our meal in the perfect time to walk to the Bellagio, get drinks (don't worry mom, will had Ginger Ale), and sit in our FRONT ROW tickets to Cirque du Soleil's "O". Our tickets say "splash zone." Wow.
First of all, the theatre itself is an amazing piece of art. Second of all, the show was...."Wow!"
For those of you who are not familiar with the dozens of shows that are put on by Cirque Du Soleil, "O" is the one that is done partially in a giant pool of water (thus employing not just former olympic gymnasts, but former olympic divers and synchronized swimmers as well!). By the end of the show I still had 3/4 of my drink left because my attention was so glued to what was going on. I don't think I have EVER seen a performance that complex, nor executed so smoothly. I kept thinking about all the stuff that went on backstage at my shows or when I worked with Carolina Ballet - what went on at "O" was so complex that I had nothing to compare it to. It was beautiful. Even Will thought it was "OMG AMAZING" and "highly entertaining"....he also (being a former Techie) was super impressed by the set and execution. His other rave was "it was impossible to fall asleep in"...which I'm sure he never said about any of his sister's dance performances. I wont give anything more away about the show because I highly recommend that you go see it. Yes, the tickets are super expensive. Yes, when we bought them I highly doubted that it would be worth it. But....it was. Wow. After the show we toured the Bellagio gardens and checked out the flowers. We also saw a store that was selling a ton of Chihuli that was pretty freakin beautiful as well.
So that was it, our Vegas experience. It was delicious.
We just passed through Barstow California. That's right North Carolinians....I-40 does truly end in California...in the middle of basically nowhere! We are on our way to eat at the In n Out Burger in Bakersfield (we figured this was fitting for our first meal in California) and then to Sequoia National Park.
Most visitors to LV seem to fit into one of two groups (at least based on how they dress in 100-degree-heat): "white trash", or those who go to evening dinners dressed in their american flag/nascar tee shirts, and "socialites", those who dress up in eveningwear and full-blown make up and hair for everything (even a morning coffee run). Of course, there are lots of "normal" people too...whatever that means...but they don't really grab your attention.
Will went on a walk while I did some work with some interesting affirmations of what he thought he would find: slot machines along the walkways and no places to sit so that people who are tired will just sit at the slots (and hopefully play). Change given in really large bills so you tip bigger or are more likely to change out more money for chips at a time that you would have otherwise. Casinos designed like black holes so you can't find your way out to another one, thus your money is held captive.
Will and I had a fantastic time though...I got a ton of work done in the afternoon while it was still hot, then we walked around the shops and tried to find the baby dolphin at the Mirage (turns out you have to pay a lot to see it....we should have seen that one coming). We took the fun little tram over to Treasure Island and caught the very begining of the fantastically (or awfully depending on your mood) cheesy pirate show and won $5 in blackjack before eating a super delicious awesome yummy dinner at the c. The food there was just as good as I had remembered. One of my favorite things in Las Vegas is not just the food, but the service - which is almost always outstanding. It puts every other city in the world to shame. Man are they on top of their game! Anyways, our meal at social house consisted of a lot lot lot of delicious sashimi including white king salmon (which i didn't know existed!). We finished our meal in the perfect time to walk to the Bellagio, get drinks (don't worry mom, will had Ginger Ale), and sit in our FRONT ROW tickets to Cirque du Soleil's "O". Our tickets say "splash zone." Wow.
First of all, the theatre itself is an amazing piece of art. Second of all, the show was...."Wow!"
For those of you who are not familiar with the dozens of shows that are put on by Cirque Du Soleil, "O" is the one that is done partially in a giant pool of water (thus employing not just former olympic gymnasts, but former olympic divers and synchronized swimmers as well!). By the end of the show I still had 3/4 of my drink left because my attention was so glued to what was going on. I don't think I have EVER seen a performance that complex, nor executed so smoothly. I kept thinking about all the stuff that went on backstage at my shows or when I worked with Carolina Ballet - what went on at "O" was so complex that I had nothing to compare it to. It was beautiful. Even Will thought it was "OMG AMAZING" and "highly entertaining"....he also (being a former Techie) was super impressed by the set and execution. His other rave was "it was impossible to fall asleep in"...which I'm sure he never said about any of his sister's dance performances. I wont give anything more away about the show because I highly recommend that you go see it. Yes, the tickets are super expensive. Yes, when we bought them I highly doubted that it would be worth it. But....it was. Wow. After the show we toured the Bellagio gardens and checked out the flowers. We also saw a store that was selling a ton of Chihuli that was pretty freakin beautiful as well.
So that was it, our Vegas experience. It was delicious.
We just passed through Barstow California. That's right North Carolinians....I-40 does truly end in California...in the middle of basically nowhere! We are on our way to eat at the In n Out Burger in Bakersfield (we figured this was fitting for our first meal in California) and then to Sequoia National Park.
Sunday, July 8, 2007
Day 7: Zion to Hoover Dam to Las Vegas
We just finished the Hoover Dam tour and are headed to Las Vegas for good sushi.
Observations:
-The price of Prime Rib Dinners is proportional to the distance from downtown Las Vegas
-It is 112 degrees outside. My car's interior is black leather. After turning our bodies into salt licks from the quick evaporation here we decided for this segment of the trip (Hoover Dam to Las Vegas) we would roll in with the top up despite losing our cool factor. We are cool enough already.
-Will is awesome at roulette. All the cash would not fit in the car with our luggage so we hired une bande de chamoux to carry his winnings.
Family members - remember our family's fondness for speaking in different languages/accents in public places? Will and I made the mistake of doing this in one of the shuttle busses in Zion but soon realized that everyone around us in the bus was also speaking french. Will says that they were sure to be impressed with his l'accent tres bon (we can't remember if l'accent is masculine of feminine...its aways hard to do that with "L" apostrophe vowel begining words...oh well).
We are turning on Flamingo Road now - mmmm, jalapeno tuna sashimi here I come!
Observations:
-The price of Prime Rib Dinners is proportional to the distance from downtown Las Vegas
-It is 112 degrees outside. My car's interior is black leather. After turning our bodies into salt licks from the quick evaporation here we decided for this segment of the trip (Hoover Dam to Las Vegas) we would roll in with the top up despite losing our cool factor. We are cool enough already.
-Will is awesome at roulette. All the cash would not fit in the car with our luggage so we hired une bande de chamoux to carry his winnings.
Family members - remember our family's fondness for speaking in different languages/accents in public places? Will and I made the mistake of doing this in one of the shuttle busses in Zion but soon realized that everyone around us in the bus was also speaking french. Will says that they were sure to be impressed with his l'accent tres bon (we can't remember if l'accent is masculine of feminine...its aways hard to do that with "L" apostrophe vowel begining words...oh well).
We are turning on Flamingo Road now - mmmm, jalapeno tuna sashimi here I come!
So now for my perspective on the past few days...
One of the coolest parts about driving out west is how far you can see. The map we have has topographic landmarks on it - we could see many of the landmarks from over a hundred miles away such as various mesas, Navajo Mountain, etc. When we were driving through Arizona many of the landmarks we saw were even in a different state! This was certainly a treat considering that we didn't take some of the back roads through Mexican Hat and Monument Valley due to time constraints - but still got to see most of the monuments (which were amazingly awesome). Another cool thing about being able to see so far is that we see ALL the weather that is going on - even if it is in no danger of getting close to us. This provided us with such treats as "natural fireworks" on July 4th as well as driving everywhere the past few days. It is really really cool to be driving with the top down and see a giant thunderstorm that seems like it is right next to you but in reality is in no danger of getting you wet. Nature puts on quite a show out here! However, we have had our share of bad weather when driving - two hail storms so far and some rough rain. When the rain is not too hard we just leave the top down because we can drive through it and not get wet.
Will informed me a few days ago when we were driving that on this trip I MUST take a picture of every power plant we pass...so far we have passed 3 power plants of three varieties: a nuke plant in Arkansas, a coal plant in Arizona, and a hydro plant at glen canyon dam at the end of Lake Powell in Arizona. An interesting note about the coal plant.... A while before we passed the plant, we passed a topographic feature named "black mesa". While dark in color, it was not exactly dark enough to warrant it to be called "black." Then we passed a "coal slide" that went from black mesa, over the road, and down to an electrified rail line that we had been noticing had been running alongside us for many miles. Close to Page, AZ we passed the coal plant, which we figured outwas operated by the Navajo, on the coal that they mined on their land and then transported with the electric rail. Our uncle had told us about how many of the Native American tribes had been trying to start having their power production "in-house" instead of just selling the mineral rights on their land - thus giving them cheap energy as well as jobs so it was interesting that we got to see an example of this (although coal...pflebpbp!). So anyways - today we are headed to yet another power plant...although this time it is on purpose. The Hoover Dam! The woman sitting beside us at breakfast this morning at the B & B was from Southern California and said her cousin was the plant manager there...and if it hadn't been a sunday she would have called him to give us a behind-the-seens tour. Oh well, we will have to deal with normal scenes.
The difference between Bryce Canyon and Zion to mee seemed like the difference between Hillsborough, NC and Cary, NC. Bryce was full of adventurers and farms...people who enjoyed living on what the land gave them. The town in Zion is full of bleached blonde hair, manicured lawns, glass galleries, McMansions, and elaborate sprinkler systems. I conjured a theory that it was full of Southern Californians that was affirmed by many of the people that we met. Southern Californians moved from LA to Las Vegas to St George to....Zion?? Well, it seems that way, anyway. St. George (which is where we are about to drive through and is on I-15) is supposedly (according to our breakfast buddy sources who are looking for real estate in the area) the fastest growing municipality in the state. Well I have to say that even though Zion was freaking amazing, I liked the cute town, and the shuttle syustem was great....that I had a lot more respect for what was happening at Bryce. I think that Bryce has not suffered from the Southern Californiacation because to get there you have to drive THROUGH Zion (and pay a aprk entrance fee and wait to go through a tunnel for a zillion years)...its just not convenient enough to an interstate for those crazies...they wouldn't know what to do! :-) What is amusing about this is that I got this impression even though the woman who owned the B&B in Zion was FROM Santa Barbara. She was a curator at the LA County Art Museum - but some how she had adapter her lifestyle to fit in with what Bryce had to offer. They owned Goats, which they milked and made cheese from - they allowed their lawn to grow "naturally" (which in this part of the country means little 'growth' at all and mostly dirt and some bushes), their home was furnished in humble, locally-made furniture. In contrast, our B&B at Zion had a square, sprinklered, flowered, green green grass lawn. The house was a greek style mcmansion with fountains and topiaries and a three-car garage. It was furnished in the sort of upscale furniture that you are afraid to sit on. This morning we drank french press coffee with our stuffed brioche french toast. Don't get me wrong, everybody we met there was super nice - it just didn't feel real. MOre so, it seemed wrong to be living such an irresponsible lifestyle (the manicured lawns were what really set me off) right next to soo much natural beauty.....who needs a pretty green lawn when the views from both your front and back yard are the cliffs of Zion Canyon??? Who is going to be looking at your lawn anyways? Another note - Zion has Cell service....Bryce does not :-)
It really is odd to feel so connected out in the middle of nowhere...to the internet, Live Earth and news on XM radio, cell phones, etc.
Anyways...we are headed down I-15 now on our way to some good power plant viewing at the Hoover Dam. Then, we will go to the craziness that is Las Vegas in order to eat the best suhi in the world at The SOcial House and see some crazy gymnastics and dance/swimming at Cirque du Soleil. Tomorrow we are going to Sequoia National Park as long as it doesn't burn down before we get there....California here we come!
One of the coolest parts about driving out west is how far you can see. The map we have has topographic landmarks on it - we could see many of the landmarks from over a hundred miles away such as various mesas, Navajo Mountain, etc. When we were driving through Arizona many of the landmarks we saw were even in a different state! This was certainly a treat considering that we didn't take some of the back roads through Mexican Hat and Monument Valley due to time constraints - but still got to see most of the monuments (which were amazingly awesome). Another cool thing about being able to see so far is that we see ALL the weather that is going on - even if it is in no danger of getting close to us. This provided us with such treats as "natural fireworks" on July 4th as well as driving everywhere the past few days. It is really really cool to be driving with the top down and see a giant thunderstorm that seems like it is right next to you but in reality is in no danger of getting you wet. Nature puts on quite a show out here! However, we have had our share of bad weather when driving - two hail storms so far and some rough rain. When the rain is not too hard we just leave the top down because we can drive through it and not get wet.
Will informed me a few days ago when we were driving that on this trip I MUST take a picture of every power plant we pass...so far we have passed 3 power plants of three varieties: a nuke plant in Arkansas, a coal plant in Arizona, and a hydro plant at glen canyon dam at the end of Lake Powell in Arizona. An interesting note about the coal plant.... A while before we passed the plant, we passed a topographic feature named "black mesa". While dark in color, it was not exactly dark enough to warrant it to be called "black." Then we passed a "coal slide" that went from black mesa, over the road, and down to an electrified rail line that we had been noticing had been running alongside us for many miles. Close to Page, AZ we passed the coal plant, which we figured outwas operated by the Navajo, on the coal that they mined on their land and then transported with the electric rail. Our uncle had told us about how many of the Native American tribes had been trying to start having their power production "in-house" instead of just selling the mineral rights on their land - thus giving them cheap energy as well as jobs so it was interesting that we got to see an example of this (although coal...pflebpbp!). So anyways - today we are headed to yet another power plant...although this time it is on purpose. The Hoover Dam! The woman sitting beside us at breakfast this morning at the B & B was from Southern California and said her cousin was the plant manager there...and if it hadn't been a sunday she would have called him to give us a behind-the-seens tour. Oh well, we will have to deal with normal scenes.
The difference between Bryce Canyon and Zion to mee seemed like the difference between Hillsborough, NC and Cary, NC. Bryce was full of adventurers and farms...people who enjoyed living on what the land gave them. The town in Zion is full of bleached blonde hair, manicured lawns, glass galleries, McMansions, and elaborate sprinkler systems. I conjured a theory that it was full of Southern Californians that was affirmed by many of the people that we met. Southern Californians moved from LA to Las Vegas to St George to....Zion?? Well, it seems that way, anyway. St. George (which is where we are about to drive through and is on I-15) is supposedly (according to our breakfast buddy sources who are looking for real estate in the area) the fastest growing municipality in the state. Well I have to say that even though Zion was freaking amazing, I liked the cute town, and the shuttle syustem was great....that I had a lot more respect for what was happening at Bryce. I think that Bryce has not suffered from the Southern Californiacation because to get there you have to drive THROUGH Zion (and pay a aprk entrance fee and wait to go through a tunnel for a zillion years)...its just not convenient enough to an interstate for those crazies...they wouldn't know what to do! :-) What is amusing about this is that I got this impression even though the woman who owned the B&B in Zion was FROM Santa Barbara. She was a curator at the LA County Art Museum - but some how she had adapter her lifestyle to fit in with what Bryce had to offer. They owned Goats, which they milked and made cheese from - they allowed their lawn to grow "naturally" (which in this part of the country means little 'growth' at all and mostly dirt and some bushes), their home was furnished in humble, locally-made furniture. In contrast, our B&B at Zion had a square, sprinklered, flowered, green green grass lawn. The house was a greek style mcmansion with fountains and topiaries and a three-car garage. It was furnished in the sort of upscale furniture that you are afraid to sit on. This morning we drank french press coffee with our stuffed brioche french toast. Don't get me wrong, everybody we met there was super nice - it just didn't feel real. MOre so, it seemed wrong to be living such an irresponsible lifestyle (the manicured lawns were what really set me off) right next to soo much natural beauty.....who needs a pretty green lawn when the views from both your front and back yard are the cliffs of Zion Canyon??? Who is going to be looking at your lawn anyways? Another note - Zion has Cell service....Bryce does not :-)
It really is odd to feel so connected out in the middle of nowhere...to the internet, Live Earth and news on XM radio, cell phones, etc.
Anyways...we are headed down I-15 now on our way to some good power plant viewing at the Hoover Dam. Then, we will go to the craziness that is Las Vegas in order to eat the best suhi in the world at The SOcial House and see some crazy gymnastics and dance/swimming at Cirque du Soleil. Tomorrow we are going to Sequoia National Park as long as it doesn't burn down before we get there....California here we come!
Saturday, July 7, 2007
pictues from zion
here i am in the narrows of zion with my rented stick.
heres elizabeth in the narrows
a view of the canyon, there was alot of greenry.
the water carved canyon had alot of v arious features that were stunning.
Day 6: Bryce and zion national parks
today we woke up and ate at the buffalo sage bed and breakfast. the owner had a real sweet dog named zoe who was a rescue lab from hurricane katrina. after breakfast, we drove to bryce canyon national park and decided to take a trail called the navajo loop which connected to peekaboo loop, since both parks had free shuttles, we took the trail to the other end of the park where we took teh shuttle back to the car. the rock was all differnt colors from very red to almost pure white. there were also streaks of purpleish blue which we later figured out were from manganese. the park was beautiful. after we got settled back into the car we drove to zion national park. at zion we got a park pass and parked near the visitors center, after much debate, we decided to hike the narrrows which is a very narrow canyon. rick had told us tha tif we hiked the narrows that we would need boots and a walking stick becuase it is mostly walking through the river. we asked the ranger to driect us toward a rental shop and we took the shuttle down to town. we rented the boots and got a 5 minute safety lesson. the only problem was that we had to return the rental by 8 so we had to get a move on. we took the shuttle up to the very end of the line where the shuttles run. we hiked for a while on a trail and then went into the river for a while. we didnt have enough time to get to the waterfall at the very end but what we saw was spectacular. we got back in time to return the rentals and ate dinner at a mexican cafe which was delicious. the rock at zion had horizpntal cracks most of the time while at bryce they were vertical ones. al in all it was a very exhasting but fun day.
Will
Will
Friday, July 6, 2007
day 5: durango and drive to bryce
At the moment we are driving through a rainstorm right outside of Durango, we have jsut left for Bryce canyon. This morning we woke up and had breakfast with Rick, Lori and of course, cousin Fred (the beagle). We then went on a horseback ride through trails near where Rick and Lori live. everyone's horse had its qualities, elizabeth's had a tendancy to bite the horse in front of it if it got too slow, rick's liked to eat and take its time to smell the roses, and then eat them. we rode out to a cave and went spelunking with lights to the end of the cave. it was a very cool cave, in both senses of the word. We then rode back to where we started the ride and drove back to the house where we showered. Poor fred wasnt allowed to come with us on the horse ride. E-lo jsut told me that we are averaging 30.9 MPG on our trip, even after going up mountians. our trip has led us just over 2000 miles so far. after we all got cleaned up, we packed up the car and drove to downtown durango to eat lunch with Ricka and Lori. downtown we passed a picture store where one gets dressed up in western garb to have portrites made. in teh window there was a picture of Gayle and Opera all dressed up! we had mexican at francisco's. it was delicious. and now we are on our way to bryce, just entering montazuma county, we are not sure if we will have internet for a while so we wanted to rush to get a blog in. at our current mpg our range is 700 miles!! since i started to blog, the temperature has changed 30 degrees, from 54 to 84 degrees, in about 5 minutes
Will
Will
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