mile 4126 - 4488

I can't say I was sad to leave Vegas. Especially because the next stop was Flagstaff and I had never been there before.

The journey was a good one. We crossed the Hoover Dam and saw the new bridge they are building.

We stepped off of I-40 for old Route 66. Now that was fun, the little towns we went through and the way they cling to the Route 66 fame. We stopped in Seligman at one of the general stores. I got Leeny a pet and there was a penny machine! (I know I haven't mentioned penny machines yet, but this was the third of the trip.)

Leeny's new pet! I can be like that too!

So that morning, there were 4 tornadoes in a town just west of Flagstaff. We drove through that town and saw the damage. The power line poles were angled and there was an RV station that was all kinds of torn up. We also saw two overturned 18-wheelers. Luckily the weather had cleared up quite a bit by the time we got there.

Yipes!

That night, we walked around the little town, went into a couple shops, and then went to the Lowell Observatory. We saw a piece of the meteor that made Meteor Crater just east of Flagstaff.

The next day, Tuesday, we drove to Sedona. It's a beautiful drive through forests and canyons. then you get there and it's stunning.

Red rock canyons in every direction. There's pretty much one street where everything is happening and it's just shops and restaurants, but full of local art (and tourist T-shirts).

We had a handy book that told us the geological points of interest so we slowly went down the line, hopping from one to the next. Oh, and to get to some of these we had to do some serious off-roading. I think Leeny won an award for hanging tough.

Okay, so those aren't as geological as the others, but they were neat. And that was just a giant house.

Before heading back to Flagstaff, we walked on an easy trail to a creek with sheer walls a thousand feet high.

We also came across these old structures.

Mom feeling the energy from the vortex. Me being a monkey, or something.

That night we ate Thai food. Mmmm.

When we woke up the next morning to get going it was so cold the car had frosted over and I had to warm it up!

All the photos here!

mile 3854 - 4125

"Bright light city gonna set my soul, gonna set my soul on fire."

That is how I psych myself up for Vegas. (Do you think anyone ever told Elvis just how goofy he looked?) I was going to skip it altogether, but my mom kind of likes to gamble. She'll probably get mad at me for proclaiming that to the interworld, but it's true.

We left L.A. quite early because we had a prearrange engagement* to attend. I don't want to ruin the surprise so I'll tell you in a minute.

I was actually feeling pretty good about this trip because when we stopped for gas, Mom bought some lottery tickets (her method of psyching us up) and I won four dollars! If that's not a good omen, I don't know what is.

This picture tk. I don't have the proper supplies to upload it right now.

Fast forward to cruising down The Strip. As much as I hate it, I get a big kick out of it. If "over the top" had an entry in the dictionary, The Strip would be the definition.

Harrah's

We started at Harrah's where the Jubilee Theatre is. Why did we need to be where the Jubilee Theatre was? Because we were going to *The Price Is Right Live. Okay, so we might have been more excited than necessary before we realized it wasn't the real Price Is Right. But the games were the same and we were registered to be contestants. I was sure my good luck would carry me to the Showcase Showdown. It didn't. But it was still an incredibly funny experience. Especially the part afterward when we stood on line to get our picture taken with the host (the guy who used to do Supermarket Sweep), the announcer, and the models. In our name tags!

Super Market Sweep guy in the middle!

On a side note, we hit the slots for a little while before the show and I turned twenty bucks into fifty. I should have stopped there.

A lame piece of bright light city.

View from our room. (The other building is the Wynn.)

We checked into our hotel/casino, The Palazzo, and hit the floor again. I tried all the machines with my favorite animals: Glitter Kitty, Go Fish, Moolah. (There was not a dinosaur game.) My loses were not significant, but my gains were zilch.

The Venetian. Posers.

We also played the fun game where you walk down The Strip and go into the different casino and gamble five dollars at each one. The winner (the one who makes it last the longest or doesn't lose it) gets to choose the next casino. Store that idea in your back pocket for the next time you're in Vegas.

Can't remember which casino this was a part of

Once is enough and that was my second time. If there has to be a third time, I'm going to Mandalay Bay to see the Shark Reef Aquarium.

A few more pics here.

mile 3736 - 3853

Los Angeles was the farthest away before I had to go back in the direction of home.

That California sure is something. We drove on Highway 1 as much as we could between La Jolla and L.A., and those towns along the way are in a different world. We didn't stop because I'm not sure I would have known how to behave. Fancy.

Proof of our location.

See. Only fancy people cut their hedges in the shape of dolphins.

We had to take care of some business upon arrival in L.A. My trunk (of my car, not my pants) has been full of stuff for this woman who lives out here. My cousin works for her and she was going to ship it all, but I offered to drive as much as I could since I was heading this way. So we found Mary's house (not without Justin, of course) up some giant hills. I thought we were going to topple hood over butt it was so steep. Anyway, beautiful house, job done, empty trunk. It did result in basically scattering all my stuff around the car. So I'm really looking homeless these days and I kind of like it.

Next stop was my cousin Paul's apartment. A great spot right near UCLA. The evening was chill, both in activity and temperature. We went to dinner at a sushi place. Dish lish!

I fell asleep about five seconds after we got home.

Monday morning was drizzle rainy, overcast, and chilly again. Not the L.A. we expected. But I was happy for them for getting to experience some rain.

The day started with a super breakfast.

Some dude. JK. That's cousin Paul.

My breakfast. Mom and Paul's breakfast. (They're not sharing, they just got the same thing.)

Then we went to two different antique stores where Paul used to/still does work on occasion. They both had some really amazing pieces of furniture that were more expensive than your first- and second-born child. I sat in these funny chairs.

The sign behind the first shop.

The elephant chair and me being an elephant. The egg chair and me being a chicken.

Then we drove through the city to get a glimpse of the Hollywood sign. I know that's dorky. First of all, there is a secret neighborhood road that leads you to a good view. Second of all, we could not find said road so drove around really curvy, neat streets in the Hollywood Hills. Third of all, even if we had found said road, we would not have been able to see the sign because it was so foggy.

Fail Number One.

We continued on for the next activity: The Observatory. It's supposed to beautiful and on a hill with a great vista of the city...and the Hollywood sign. That part wasn't looking so good when we pulled up. The fog was so thick you could barely see ten feet in front of you, let alone the valley below. That's okay because what was inside is what mattered. The inside was empty. The door was locked. The sign said closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.

Fail Number Two.

The most we saw was the orbit of Uranus. Call that a slight win, I'm not sure.

That's okay. We had one more destination and we weren't going to let these mishaps get us down. To the Getty Center! Back through town and all the famous L.A. streets we went. We pulled into the drive, said hello to the parking security guy, and he said we could turn around right up there because the Getty Center is closed on Mondays. Seriously! I guess I should have known better having lived in a museum-filled city, but I have not kept track of the days in weeks. We laughed our heads off, turned around, and headed home.

Fail Number Three.

Skip forward a couple lazy hours to dinner. We went to Pace on the Canyon. Dish lish for real!

We tried to watch Coraline afterward, and again, I fell asleep. This time I lasted about 20 minutes though!

Even though it may seem like the day did not work out so well, we had a good time. So L.A., you have not quite won me over yet, but I think I'd be willing to give you another try.

And seeing cousin Paul was worth the crummy weather.

3245 -3735

I took my time leaving Tucson on Tuesday morning. Partially because I was enjoying myself so much and partially because I was waiting for this:

My very own! (I wish it came with natural skills built in.)

Driving from the desert to the ocean is pretty fun. There's a small chunk of mountains separating the two. But these were kind of the weirdest mountains I'd ever seen. They were all rock. Like someone just stood there for a million years and threw stones in a pile.

Once I made it to San Diego, Justin took me to my hotel and I checked in. I got a sweet deal on Price Line, which is becoming my new favorite thing. It's like gambling, but you always win. Well, so far at least. I guess you do always have the possibility of getting stuck somewhere awful. Anyway, I stayed at The Dana on Mission Bay so it was right in the middle of a bunch of water and I had a view of the boats in the harbor from my window.

I didn't stick around but for a second, and then I went over to the Beach Lane studio to see Allyn and Andrea! For S&Sers, you know them. For others, they are two ladies I used to work with. Anyway, I've been hearing about this perfect little oasis they call their office and now I was finally going to see it. It's a good thing I already have an apartment in Richmond. Otherwise I would have stayed on their couch until they just accepted my residency. It's a great little spot, to say the least. And to hang out with them for an evening was wonderful. There was even a twinge of missing it all by the evenings end.

The next day and a half were spent at the desk in my hotel room, working. Literally, I only went outside twice, once in the morning to go to the grocery store and get a few supplies , and secondly, to stretch my legs and at least look at the ocean not through glass. I wanted to finish my assignment before my mom got in town so that's what I did!

I picked Mom up at the airport on Thursday. Again, another atypical road trip addition. I was reading one book before I left, and it gave the do's and don'ts of a road trip. The number one don't: Never bring your mom.

Ha! (I'm happy to report, it's been a couple days and it's going just fine, thank you very much.)

We went to Coronado and had some lunch then explored the old Hotel del Coronado. It was a bit of an off-and-on rainy day so we kept ducking into stores and tried not to get too wet. Apparently, the weather was really weird and everyone kept apologizing to us the next day since we were out-of-towners.

We checked in to our next hotel (another Price Line win) and walked around that neighborhood, the Gaslamp Quarter. It was a little embarrassing having these hotel dudes see my car and all the stuff in it. Everything is in different, small bags so I can't just bring in a suitcase and be done with it. No, I had a suitcase, my back pack, my purse bag, my toiletries in another purse bag, a small ice chest, and another pair of shoes in my hands. I felt pretty silly. It's basically shops, restaurants, and homeless people. But it was good and we found a delicious pizzeria for dinner. I'm a little embarrassed to say that we went to bed at 8:30 that night. In our defense, we had both been up since about 4 am, her traveling and me working.

The next day was sunny and just how it was supposed to be in Southern California. We went to Balboa Park and spent a good portion of the day walking around and exploring all the different things on the grounds. Museums, botanical gardens, cactus garden, rose garden, a penny machine (!), and the Spanish Village. That's where local artists have studios and sell their work. It was really cool and like a museum in itself.

Later on, we drove through the city a bit and made our way to La Jolla for some beach time. It ended up being zigzag walking through fancy neighborhoods until we found a view of the ocean. There's not really beach access because it's all cliffs down to the water. So we sat on a bench up high and watched some surfers.

The next day we moved hotels again! It sounds kind of like a pain in the butt, but it was actually pretty fun getting to see and stay in different parts of the city. This time we found a sleeping spot in La Jolla right on the beach. And not cliff beach, but sandy beach. (We had scoped it out the day before.)

We started the special* day off with breakfast at La Valencia, the pink hotel in La Jolla. (There's waterfront balcony seating and it was beautiful.) I'm going to go ahead and say that it has become a tradition to start *my birthday off with pancakes. They make me quite happy.

After stuffing ourselves, we walked around. Now those are some vistas!

We said hi to the harbor seals. They are so funny to watch even though they just lay there with the occasional tail raise when the water comes up. So cute I wanted to squeal.

We found the Cave Store and walked down the dark, wet staircase to Sunny Jim's Cave.

Then we walked along the cliffs some more.

It was definitely nice to have my mom there. I'm not sure I would have enjoyed myself quite as much if I had been alone.

For the rest of the day, we were in the hotel area. Lunch at this wonderfully Halloween decorated place called Barbarella. Afterward, we stopped at a dive and kayak shop. :)

Reading/napping on the beach.

Bananagrams with brewskies by the pool.

Dinner at The Shores.

yay for being born!

Our waiter, it turns out, used to live in Brooklyn. Not just in Brooklyn, but on Butler!!! Crazy! I thought he was just yanking my chain, but then he was talking about the Met foods, the cinema at the top of the block, and Bagel Delight.

Sunday morning, our last morning in the San Diego area, I went diving! (That smiley face was supposed to indicate something good resulted from walking into that shop. This is it, the good that resulted!) I was nervous about the cold water, but after getting bundled up in my 7 mm suit, hat, gloves, and booties, I was okay. It had been a year exactly since I had last been in the water so I probably would have put up with almost any condition if it meant diving. The highlight was when the instructor handed me a kelp leaf with a baby octopus on it. The octopus scrambled away, and when it did, it inked at me! I felt like I was in Finding Nemo.

pre-dive fuel up!

We ended our visit/started our journey with a stop at Mister Frostie (I wish it was spelled with a "y") for a milkshake.

And that's it! Except, more pictures here.