RoadTrip: The Bay Area

Driving the Golden Gate Bridge to Marin Co.

We woke the following morning and had coffee with Goods as he got ready to head to class.  We also got to chat with his parents who were very friendly and gave us some good tips on what to do in Marin County.  We were going to do Muir Woods first and then hopefully have time for Point Reyes.


It ended up only being a 30 minute drive to Muir Woods National Monument which was good because the parking lot was already filling up.  The main trail was crowded and filled with slow walking tourists so we talked with the ranger and found the Ocean View trail that was less crowded.  The hike was perfect; we were up close to some giant sequoias and the forest was so lush and lively.  Our Ocean View trail took us back around to the main trail and we got to see all the main attractions as we made our way back to the car.  We also joined on the back of a ranger lead tour which was a great way to learn about the history of the park.

Spotted a Spotted Owl in Muir Woods

The story that stuck with me was that John Muir, who the park is named after, had never been there before the park was named for him.  The owner of the land, William Kent, had bought it because he loved the giant redwoods and logging companies had been destroying many of the forest in the area.  When a water company tried to force eminent domain upon his land, Kent went to the government requesting that the land be made into a National Park. However at the time, making a national park would take too long as the water company was taking Kent to court the following week.  So Kent lobbied President Theodore Roosevelt to preserve the land as a national monument.  Kent donated most of his land over to the US Government in order to preserve it from the water company and it was dubbed a national monument.  Originally, it was to be named Kent National Monument but he claimed that he was a simple man and didn't deserve to put his name on anything other than his own sons and asked to be named for one of his heroes, John Muir. 

Redwoods/Sequoias in Muir Woods

Hiking Through Muir Woods National Monument

When we reached our car, the parking lot was a mad house! As we drove away we felt even more lucky to have started our day early, as people visiting Muir Woods were forced to park their cars 2 miles down the entrance road.  We noticed on the map that Muir Beach wasn't too far out of the way so we made a little detour over to the coast and found that this wasn't a white sandy beach, it was almost black sand.  There were also some large boulders strewn across the beach which added to the scenery.  It wasn't beach weather as it was only about 60 or 65 degrees but it was a very cool place to stop off at.  As we continued out towards Point Reyes we drove through a cute little town called Stinson Beach.  We grabbed some fish tacos and quesadillas from a Mexican joint and ate outside in the sun.

The Dark Sand of Muir Beach

At Point Reyes National Seashore we saw more elephant seals swimming around the ocean.  It was so incredibly windy at the point that it was hard to stand and even hard to breath.  Notwithstanding the lack of oxygen entering our lungs, the views were stunning.  It was a straight beach as far as the clouds would allow us to see without anything interrupting the sand and the waves.  From the parking lot we ran the last 800 yards to reach the lighthouse which denotes the northern point of San Francisco bay entrance.  It was quite a lot of up hill running but with the wind and the ocean air, we were chilly in our jeans and long sleeves.  After our jog up to Point Reyes lighthouse we were disappointed to find out that the lighthouse wasn't open on Wednesdays, just our luck, so we enjoyed the comfort of the wind being blocked by the structure before jogging back to our car.

Seriously Windy at Point Reyes National Seashore

Amazingly Long Untouched Beach

Where The Sea and Sky Meet

We then headed back to town to meet up with Goods and find some dinner.  We hopped on the bus and headed back to the Mission district, which is the edgy/eclectic/hippsterish neighborhood.  We wandered around checking out some sights and sounds, which included a couple alleys that were filled with amazing street art (a.k.a. graffiti).  We grabbed some burritos from a taqueria and grabbed a couple beers and brought our urban picnic to Dolores Park.  We found a comfy spot on a hill and as we ate our burritos watched some hippies make giant bubbles.  At first we wondered aloud why giant bubbles were 'cool' to make but soon after we found ourselves enthralled with the glimmering giant balls of soapy air.  We also witnessed an old lady with a neck brace chase after her tiny dog which gave us a good chuckle.  As the sun set on the city by the bay we found our way back to a bus to take us back home but not before one more great encounter with the locals.

Hanging with The Locals at Dolores Park in The Mission

We grabbed some seats on the bus near the back.  There were three guys in their early twenties riding near us and passing around a disgustingly cheap bottle of whiskey.  The driver of the bus had a radio up front with the San Francisco Giants game playing.  It wasn't long before I realized that Matt Cain was deep into pitching a perfect game and when he got the final out the driver, the three guys drinking, Goods and I all gave a little cheer.  This was soon followed by one of the drinking guys to open the bus emergency window and puke onto the street for a few moments.  He then came to his senses just in time to realize they were about to miss their stop.  After this series of events, it is likely that no bus ride of mine will ever top this one.

The next morning, we said our goodbyes to Goods as we were heading down to San Jose to meet up with a college buddy of mine that is going to school there.  He had class until the afternoon so we had some time to kill and we planned on going to the San Francisco Giants baseball game at 12:45.  We decided to check out the city park called Lands End.  We were exceptionally surprised with how great this park is; very close to the city, great views of the bay and the Golden Gate bridge, plus some history, and a cool name, being the most western point of San Francisco where the land ends.

Golden Gate Haze from Lands End Park

Lands End Scenery

After our journey around Lands End including a good amount of time watching the waves crashing against the base of the wall, we drove through Golden Gate Park and noticed a few sunbathers in speedos on a day when it was only about 65 degrees outside.  This deterred us from exiting our vehicle and decided to head towards AT&T Park to find some lunch and scalp some tickets for the Giants game. 

Watching Through the Fence in Right Field

We found ourselves driving by some parking lots that were charging $25, $30, even $40 to park and we were destined to park 3 miles away from the stadium because we were not paying that much.  Until we started driving away from the stadium a few blocks and there was some parking meters along the street, no one else was parking there but we jumped out of the car and read that it was legal parking.  We quickly paid the meter for a few hours and started the trend to park on the street for only $1.50/hour.  We ate a deli sandwich at a place just across the street from AT&T Park and wandered around the stadium trying to find a pair of cheap tickets.  We were fine waiting until after the game started so we walked out towards right field where you can watch the game from outside the stadium through a chain link fence.

One of the Prettiest Baseball Stadiums

We bought two tickets after the first inning and I was able to check off another stadium from my list that now includes, Wrigley Field (Chicago Cubs), Comiskey Field and US Cellular Field (Chicago White Sox), Miller Park (Milwaukee Brewers), Dodger Stadium (LA Dodgers), Great American Ballpark (Cincinnati Reds), Busch Stadium (St. Louis Cardinals), Safeco Field (Seattle Mariners) and the Old Yankee Stadium (New York Yankees).  The game was not very memorable, they were playing the Astros and the perfect game was the night before.   There was one memorable thing, a Splash Hit.  This is when a player hits a home run into the Bay over the right field wall.  These do not happen very often, in fact in the history of the park since 2000, there have only been 85 total, 61 by Giants players and 24 by opponents. 

Wearing the Orange Bandana to Support the Giants

We left the game before it was over and started our short drive down to San Jose to meet up with a college friend, Mike Smith, an Indiana boy living the life out in Cali.

RoadTrip: Pacific Coast Highway

We started up the Pacific Coast Highway on Monday morning with the idea that we would make it to San Fran by Wednesday evening to meet up with Mr. Alex Goodson, a.k.a. Goods.  We stopped for some donuts and milk, chocolate milk for me, on the way out of town. That was pretty much the most exciting thing until lunch when we stopped in Santa Barbara to grab some food.

As we pulled off of the PCH into town there was a guy standing on the street corner twirling a sign.  Nothing different than what you would see in front of a pawn shop trying to buy gold except this was for a place to buy legalized marijuana...a little different than the conservative midwest.  We found a little Greek Cafe and ordered a couple gyros and cokes to go because we wanted to eat on the beach.  As we enjoyed our gyros there were a few guys on the beach that had definitely enjoyed some of the marijuana, as they had a discussion about a kite claiming that they had been flying it for 'half an hour dude' when in reality it was maybe 4 minutes.  After lunch, we strolled down the beach and found the BeachSide Cafe and wished we would have had lunch there but we were satisfied with our Greek cuisine.

The next part of the day was boring yet again with a drive towards San Luis Obispo and the coast.  We were expecting Pacific Coast Highway, Highway 1, coastal views and ocean along this drive but instead it was boring without much to look at.  We reached Morro Bay and decided to stay here because we were tired of driving with the hopes that tomorrow would be the PCH driving we had heard about as one of the "best drives" in America.

We had very little idea about Morro Bay but there was a giant rock that was shrouded in fog that looked very mystical.  Also the campsite was right on the beach even though it was relatively chilly, we were going to be camping on the beach.  The place was pretty much empty so we had our pick of the sites and found one that was by itself with only a small sand hill separating the tent from the Pacific Ocean.

Morro Bay

We wanted to get a better look at this mystical looking giant rock so we started on a walk down the beach towards it.  After awhile we noticed that there were a bunch of sand dollars on the beach and we began picking up the ones that were still intact.  We walked the entire mile and half down the beach to reach Morro Rock and found that there were a good number of people surfing and others playing on the sand.  The water was way too cold, especially with the air not any warmer, to do anything other than dip your toes in so we walked back to camp.

Morro Rock

For dinner in Morro Bay we couldn't decide between Tognazzini's Dockside Restaurant and The Gallery.  We worked out the plan that we would do dinner at Tognazzini's and dessert at The Gallery.  We split the Mexican shrimp cocktail, clam chowder, and halibut for dinner.  The shrimp cocktail was unimpressive with avocado and lacked the spiciness that we wanted.  The clam chowder was delicious and we quickly devoured that part of the meal.  The halibut was quite good but Megan was saving herself for dessert at this point.

Fire on the Beach

At The Gallery, we had some wine and ordered the Molten Chocolate Cake, which Megan was craving.  The Gallery was a more modern place and had a view of Morro Rock.  We also got to watch a few seals play in the bay as we had our chocolatey dessert.  We had to have a fire on the beach because fires on the beach is such a TV/Movie thing to do and it was cold so the warmth was almost necessary.  We slept soundly as we could hear the wind and waves and the cool air surround us.

The next morning it was more slow PCH driving as we inched our way towards the city by the bay, San Fran.  But today was much more scenic and many stops along the way.

Elephant Seal

Our first such stop was at the elephant seals as they were lounging on the beach.  It was overcast and cool and the giant seals were playing around and making barking noises on the beach.  We also stopped at Hearst Castle, which we had no idea what it was until we pulled into the parking lot.  The giant house was ornate, elegant, and way over the top, as were the tour prices and since we had no need to tour the house we were happy walking across the grounds, peaking in the gift shop and heading back out.  I do remember seeing postcards of the Neptune Pool and thinking that I could definitely get used to this type of living.

Elephant Seals Fighting

Pacific Coast Highway Views

We made multiple stops along the PCH as we saw glimpses through the clouds of the blue Pacific Ocean and sky and at one stop we witnessed two condors flying around.  We reached Big Sur by early afternoon and stopped for lunch at Big Sur Deli along the road.  We got our sandwiches, bag of chips, and cokes to go, I also got a sampling of the chicken wings and we took our lunch to Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park.  We found a picnic spot along a creek and ate lunch as some interesting birds danced around looking for crumbs.  We started a hike along the Ocean View trail but got detoured back to Pfieffer Falls.  The hike was quick and easy with the waterfall being a bit of a disappointment as we were hoping for the ocean vistas. 

Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park

More PCH with 2 California Condors

Big Sur

Now I understand why this drive is amazing!

We continued on with some more PCH before turning off near Santa Cruz to head towards Big Basin Redwoods State Park.  We did the main loop hike which took us near the Mother and Father of the Forest, two of the largest and oldest trees in the World.  These trees were enormous and there was nobody around.  The Mother of the Forest has been burned by fire but is still standing strong, over 300 feet tall.  We were able to sneak over the fence and climb inside the trunk as there was a giant hole going up the tree.  In another tree there was a hole up the trunk that you could see all the way out the top yet the tree was still living.

Standing Inside a Giant Redwood

After our time with the giants, we drove on towards Half Moon Bay and continued up the PCH to San Fran.  This part of the drive was very windy and when we stopped at Half Moon Bay, we were not prepared for the chill in the air.  We finished up our drive by meeting my friend from my old job at Bunge, Alex Goodson.  He amazingly quit Bunge on the same day I did and is starting to work towards medical school in San Francisco.  We met at Little Star Pizza in the Mission in San Fran for some deep dish pizza and beers.  As someone that grew up on Chicago style deep dish, I was pleasantly surprised with the pizza at Little Star.  We went back to Goods' parent's place in the heart of San Francisco and went to bed in the guest bedroom.

RoadTrip: SoCal

This was my first time spending any significant time in LA and I came away feeling like I missed something.  I understand the weather is great all the time but the City of Angels didn't do anything for me.  I will probably give it another try down the road or maybe need a better tour guide or something.  I felt like we were set up to do pretty good and just weren't able to pull off the greatness that I expected out of LA.

We drove in from Las Vegas and our first stop was the Warner Brothers studio tour.  Megan and I are both fans of movies and hanging around WB for the afternoon seemed like a great time to check out some behind the scenes stuff.  Our tour group had about 8 people, and we seemed to be the only ones that had watched TV or even talked before so our tour guide spent a large portion of time talking directly to us.

BatMobile

Flying Car from Harry Potter

We walked the streets of WB, there was the city street with paint splattered on the sidewalk to make it look like dirty old gum, and there was "Main Street" with houses, town square, school and small shops.  We also took a ride on the golf cart through the swamp used in shows like True Blood and Hart of Dixie.  We also got to spend some time in the Warner Brothers car museum with batmobiles, Austin Powers' car, the flying car from Harry Potter, etc.  In the costumes museum there was a large collection of Harry Potter and then a bunch of other stuff that doesn't seem to have left much of an impression on me.


We were able to check out the props storage which had one of about everything including a set of crystal standing chandeliers that were valued at something like $1,000,000.  The props used for movies and TV shows are stored here and can be rented out by productions but sometimes it just makes sense for productions to buy their own props and then they can sell them back to the studio.

Central Perk from Friends

The highlight of the tour for Megan was without a doubt when we walked into the Central Perk, the coffee shop from Friends.  The cool thing in the coffee shop was that all the stuff that was important, the couch, the coffee table, and the bar were all regular size but because the room was a tad smaller than you would have thought the stuff in the back was all a little small to make the room seem bigger.  Oh the tricks Hollywood pulls on us all.



The highlight of the tour for me was when we got to walk through the set of the TV show, The Mentalist.  The set was going to be used the following week for filming so it was all set up and ready to film.  A few tricks that they use, there are no ceilings, nothing up or down stairs, outside the windows are just pictures, and all the walls move to allow for cameras and crew to be anywhere they need to be.

After our tour, we went to the hotel in Redondo Beach.  I had found a great deal on TravelZoo a few weeks earlier for an oceanview room, breakfast, and bike rentals for $100.  We quickly checked-in and headed back outside to watch the sun set over the Pacific Ocean.  We then found a sushi place that was highly touted on Urbanspoon, and rightfully so.  The sushi was spot on and the service was impeccable.  They let us try a couple different sides without charge and a portion of edamame to enjoy.  After dinner, we found our way down to the Manhattan Beach Pier and had a beer before realizing that we had had too much sushi and our stomachs couldn't take any more.

Uncle Bill's Cafe at Manhattan Beach

The next morning we slept in and just missed our free breakfast which thoroughly ticked me off but we decided to enjoy a bike ride down the beach to cheer me up.  After riding from Redondo to Hermosa all the way to Manhattan Beach we decided to stop and find some breakfast.  This is when Megan realized that she remembered her cousin might live in this area so she texted her.  Brooke, did in fact live in the area and was at the gym working out on her day off from work.  She actually lived a block away from where we had decided to sit down for a late breakfast.  When we told Brooke where we had decided to go, she left her workout and came to meet us at Uncle Bill's because she said it was her favorite place.  What are the chances!

Manhattan Beach

We enjoyed some delicious breakfast as we sat looking out over the Pacific Ocean and decided that we were going to chill on the beach.  We grabbed a few beers and the three of us chilled out in the sun all afternoon.  We finally had enough beach and decided to shower back at Brooke's place before Megan and I went up to Santa Monica to check out the stores and the pier.  We weren't feeling the rides on the pier but did find a margarita that we enjoyed while we watched the crowds wander by.  Brooke had mentioned the name of an Italian place in Santa Monica, Spumoni, that she knew the owner and gave us a gift card, so we went there for dinner and enjoyed some salads, pasta and red wine.

Santa Monica Pier

We then headed up to Malibu where we had found a campsite that was overlooking the ocean from the hillside.  It was a beautiful view and as we fell asleep, we could head the ocean waves down the hill.  The next morning, we originally were planning on driving North towards San Francisco but Megan has a cousin that just moved to San Diego and I have an old college friend that lives in Newport Beach, south of LA so we changed our plans and went back south.

Hollywood Sign Picture

First we stopped off in Hollywood to see the stars and the sign before realizing that this part of town was dirty and touristy.  So we headed off to Seal Beach to meet my college friend Angie, whom I met freshman year in the dorms and have stayed friends with ever since.  We had some salads and sandwiches at Beechwood BBQ on the main drag in Seal Beach and caught up on everything that has been going on since the last time we ran into each a few years back.

After lunch, we were already well on our way to San Diego and made it down to see Megan's cousin, Laurie Beth, her husband, Graham, and their three year old daughter, Mackenzie. We enjoyed catching up with Laurie Beth and Graham and got to do all sorts of fun things with Mackenzie.  We painted some pictures, colored, played with toys and then had some Fajitas for dinner.  After Megan read Mackenzie a bedtime story, we watched the movie Drive, which I loved and Megan not surprisingly fell asleep.

Lion Paw at the Safari Park

The next morning we were decided that we would go to the Safari Park, as they had just been to the World famous San Diego Zoo the weekend before.  I think the San Diego Safari Park was better because the animals had so much room to roam around and were able to interact with each other. Obviously no lions attacking antelope but most of the animals were in the same giant area and we took the safari cart right through it all.  Megan grew tired because of the sun and heat, sorry Mackenzie grew tired because of the sun and the heat so we went back home for nap time.

Megan and I decided to go to downtown San Diego to wander around and see what was happening around the Gaslamp District.  We checked out Petco Park, where the Padres play baseball and had some tequila drinks and snacks at a bar that I had seen on Drinking Made Easy, La Puerta. 

When we made it back home we took Mackenzie and their dog, Bodhi to the park to play on the slides and swings.  We went back home had dinner and went to bed early as everyone had work and school the next day and we were going to start driving North on the Pacific Coast Highway.

Petco Park

RoadTrip: Las Vegas

We somewhat planned this part of the trip in that we wanted to get to Las Vegas in the middle of the week because we were able to get 2 nights at the Flamingo Hotel for $86.  Total.  That would probably be $130/night if we were to be in Las Vegas on the weekend.

Hoover Dam

We made the 3 hour drive to Las Vegas and after a quick stop at Hoover Dam to take some Dam pictures, we passed on the Dam tour, we made it to the Flamingo.  Checking in was an incredible hassle as the computerized self check-in stations were down.  The line was about 100 people long the front desk people were only getting through them at about 1 person a minute.  We waited about an hour to check-in and right as we finally got our room, the computer stations were up and running again.






It was still early afternoon so we dropped our stuff and changed into our swim suits and found our way to the enormous Flamingo Resort pool.  After some searching, we found two vacated chairs and plopped down.  There were so many people there drinking, relaxing, partying and it was Wednesday at 3 p.m.  We had some beers but I wasn't going to be paying $5 for a bud light all day and night if I could just go inside and gamble while drinking for free.  I also really wanted to play some blackjack as I have been known to do.

Welcome to Las Vegas

We were very glad that we decided to stay in Vegas for two nights which allowed us to do some major relaxing after hiking and driving and camping for the past two weeks.  We also had book club on our first night in Vegas so we called in from our hotel room and discussed the book with my family as we were a little buzzed after beers by the pool and drinks at the blackjack table.

We showered and got ready to the hit town without any plan for the evening.  We found some food at Johnny Rockets, which the chili cheese fries were a huge hit.  I then decided that I was going to teach Megan to do Vegas how I was taught by my father.  We wanted to see the strip, gamble, and drink, so we would sit down and play a few hands, get a drink from the waitress and then move on to the next casino.  We worked our way down the strip, from casino to casino, and I also taught Megan how to play some blackjack, pai gow, and Let it Ride.

Megan quickly picked up on all three games and after I played a few hands of Let it Ride at Bill's Gamblin Hall, Megan tried her luck. As I turned around to tip the waitress, the dealer passes out the cards and I hear Megan say "I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do, but I want to stay."  I quickly jerk my head around as she was dealt a pair of aces which means she is an automatic winner and is able to leave all three of her $10 bets out on the table.  With a huge smile on her face she picks up her $60 in chips and walks away.  We also played a few rounds of roulette with Megan winning a couple more dollars betting on red or black.

All in, Megan turned her $20 bill into a Benjamin and couldn't have been happier when she told the cashier, "hundred's fine," and is handed a crisp $100 bill.

Happy Megan with Her Winnings

The next day we were going to do much of the same, we got out to the pool what we thought was early but almost all of the chairs were already taken and we finally found two together way in the back corner.  What do all these people do for a living that they can hang by the Flamingo pool all day during the week.  I figured they all weren't like Megan and I on a 5 week roadtrip vacation, but maybe they were.

So Many People at the Pool

Megan wasn't feeling 100% and I wasn't 100% enjoying the sitting by the pool when I could hear all the winning going on inside the casino.  I was switching back and forth between sun by the pool and free drinks in the casino as Megan napped and relaxed with a bloody mary all day.  By the evening Megan was toasty and I was toasted but we had tickets to go to Cirque du Soleil: Mystere at Treasure Island.

We showered and on our walk to Treasure Island stopped to grab dinner at Chipotle, the only time we had a meal at a national chain the entire trip and Vegas shouldn't count because what happens there stays there.  Mystere was crazy weird but the acrobats were amazing.  I was loving it and could not believe some of the crazy cool things they were doing, like the giant teeter-totter with guys doing flips on.  After the show, we were both a little burned out and a couple rounds of roulette didn't bring any energy to us so we went back to bed.  This was the only day on our trip that we didn't drive anywhere.

The next morning I had to place one more bet, for IU to win this year's NCAA championship, which will hopefully pay off come April 2013!  And we were done with Vegas.

RoadTrip: National Parks Day

How was today National Parks Day?! We've already been to so many Great Sand Dunes, Mesa Verde, Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Arches, Canyonlands, and Capitol Reef.  What made this day so special?  Three National Parks in 1 day.  I know, crazy, but by the end of the day we were going to be exhausted and thrilled by some of the most amazing views this earth has to offer.

I know what you are thinking, I'm not even sure Karl Malone spent this much time in Utah and it's true we have been in Utah for a long time.  But let me tell you, the state has some amazing things going on, including a seemingly endless supply of National Parks.

We started this morning unlike many before, waking up with the sole purpose of watching the sunrise.  I've done the 'stay up all night to watch the sun come up,' usually with a cohort of mine, Brad Jones, which have included Coney Island and the St. Louis Arch, not on the same night sadly, but maybe one day those stories will be told, but I have yet to do the wake up and watch the sunrise.

It was chilly and we didn't feel like changing out of our pajamas to go watch the sun come up so I kept my Guinness pants on as we found our way over to the Sunset Point we had been to the previous evening.  We were not the only ones that had this idea to watch the sunrise from Sunset Point and there were about 8 other people, camera in tow, jockeying for the best spot to watch the sun come up.  We had the camera ready, snapping pictures as the colors turned from gray to light orange and began turning brighter.  Then of course, this is when my camera decides to burn out of batteries. We had more readily available...in the car...10 minutes back down the trail.  We didn't turn our backs on the sunrise though and figured that not every moment needed to be captured on camera.

Sunrise over Bryce Canyon - Last picture before the batteries ran out

Now that the sun was burning brightly in the sky we decided to go back to bed.  It was only a little after 6 and figured a nap wouldn't hurt so we went back to our teepee and snuggled back up in the darkness that the canvas shelter created.  We could have slept all day in the teepee and not known it.  It was like midnight inside it was so dark.  But after a little cat nap we were off to head towards the Grand Canyon.  As we were driving west through Utah we were discussing if we should go to Zion National Park today or tomorrow.  We were going drive by it this morning but then also on our way back out of the Grand Canyon we were going to double back.  Decisions. Decisions.

Big Horn Sheep in Zion

We decided to go to Zion today and I'm not even sure what our reasoning was behind the decision.  Megan had been to Zion only the year before with her family but I had never been to the park and really had no idea what to expect.  Megan wouldn't stop talking about how amazing it was with giant canyon walls and endless cliffs.  Even before we really got into the canyon part we received a treat; there was a pack of big horn sheep resting on top of a rock formation.  The horns were amazing to see as the sheep rested in the shade.  Plus the road itself is quite a sight to see.  At some points the road is essentially a tunnel through the rock face but with openings and windows looking out over the canyon.  The engineering involved is amazing and it is incredibly exciting when you catch a glimpse of the canyon through the tunnel wall.

Scenery on the Drive in to Zion

We arrived down in the bottom of the canyon at the visitors center to find out that you can't drive anywhere and have to take a bus to all the locations inside Zion.  Megan supposedly told me this fact but I knew nothing of it.  We packed a backpack with some snacks, water bottles, and camera and went inside the visitors center to figure out what we wanted to do.  After some deliberation, Megan decided that Angels Landing would be too long and difficult and that we didn't need to hike through the river because it wasn't all that much fun last summer.  We did find a short hike up to a little waterfall and then we thought we could take the tour bus around to the other places and if we wanted to jump off we could and if we weren't feeling it we could see the canyon from the bus.

Zion National Park

Zion National Park

Our first hike was quick and easy, the waterfall was lame and I can't remember more than that.  So we jumped back on the bus and took it towards the end of the canyon.  As we were riding, we got to see some great views of the cliffs and Megan decided that we should at least climb half way up Angels Landing to see Zion canyon from that angle.  So we jumped back off the bus and started the strenuous climb up the canyon wall. After countless switchbacks and what felt like a 7 mile hike, we turned back around a corner and had an incredible sight.  Zion Canyon, stunning and mighty, is quite an amazing place.

Zion National Park

We were hot and tired by the time we made it back down to the canyon floor and we were very glad that the lodge, restaurant, and gift shop was only a quick walk down the trail.  We found the food court to not appeal all that much to our growling stomachs but decided that splitting a salad would tide us over until we found something more.  The salad ended up being fresh, colorful, large and filling.  We devoured the whole thing and felt very healthy afterwards.  A quick stop in the gift shop to pick up some nick-knacks and then we were going to head towards our campsite just outside the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, and move on past the state of Utah.

We had reserved this campsite a few weeks earlier as the North Rim doesn't have a lot of places to stay near by and the campground inside the park was already booked up.  We originally thought about staying two days at the Grand Canyon but last minute decided we should spend an extra night in Las Vegas.  Our plan was then to reach our campsite and then the next morning check out the Grand Canyon!

We reached our campsite in Kaibab, Arizona.  I'm not sure if there was a town or anything more than the campground but it was a great place.  Lots of pine trees and our site was down next to a pasture where there were a few horses roaming around.  By the time we set up camp and it was late in the afternoon.  We didn't have anything to do the rest of the day and after playing a few hands of cards and discussing the Grand Canyon we said screw it, let's go see it now.  So we jumped in the car and drove the last 45 minutes to the North Rim, our third national park of the day.

First View of the Grand Canyon

We found our way our towards the edge and bam! the view becomes endless.  At first, I was unimpressed.  This was my first time at the Grand Canyon and had heard all those amazing things, it's breathtaking, you'll never see anything like it, yada yada yada. Well when I first looked out into the canyon I thought, "eh, it doesn't seem as deep as the Black Canyon, and Canyonlands is more visually stunning."  Maybe that was the downside to all the amazing things we had already seen, we were becoming numb to things that are grand.  I stand by what I think about the Black Canyon and Canyonlands and Zion that they are all incredible and maybe because I had lower expectations of those places and wanted the Grand Canyon to be ten times cooler than those other place that I wasn't blown away by the Grand Canyon.  However, as I stood next to this canyon it grew on me, I noticed how dark it was in some valleys and that I was standing 15 miles from the south rim and just how massive this canyon really is.  I will sum it up with this, initially I was underwhelmed and now looking at the pictures I wonder how I could ever have felt like that.

Grand Canyon

I have never been to the south rim, but I have heard that it is tourism at its worst.  The North Rim was nothing like that.  I understand that the south rim is way easier to get to from Phoenix but I would definitely advise the 3 hour drive around the canyon to reach the North Rim because it is a beautiful place.  There is a gorgeous lodge, cabins, a restaurant, bar, and a gift shop.  We decided that we didn't need to drive back again in the morning since it was about an hour to get here from our campsite.  The lodge has a wonderful stone patio overlooking the canyon, so we found the bar, got a couple beers and sat out on the patio as the sun set over the Grand Canyon.  It was very windy and we were glad that we had a car full of clothes because we needed pants and long sleeves to enjoy the views.  As we were sitting on the patio, the views really got me, the sun was making the canyon look purple or blue and they were starting to take my breath away.

Grand Canyon at Dusk

We knew we had an hour drive back to camp and once the sun went down the road was pitch black so we didn't stay long after sun down.  On the drive, we took some great pictures as the wilderness beautiful bathed in moon light.  We reached our camp safely and decided to make some tuna melts for a late dinner before hitting the hay with intentions of driving to Sin City in the morning. 

Driving towards Kaibab

Dead Tree Night

RoadTrip: Who Knew There Was So Much To Do In Utah

Hopefully you aren't tired of reading this story yet, we are on day 13 of our roadtrip, just another 3 weeks to go.

We woke to a wonderful Sunday morning in Torrey, Utah.  Torrey is named for Jay Torrey of Pittsfield, IL who came up with the idea of the Rough Riders, which of course helped create the famous career of Teddy Roosevelt.  Now 172 people know that fact about Torrey, assuming the entire population of 171 know the roots of their town's name.  (To be honest I used wikipedia. I also want my editor to read that last sentence to make sure it is grammatically correct.)

After we found out that amazing fact about Torrey, we picked up our fresh muffins and snarfed them down for breakfast.  Really my muffins were more like cupcakes being that they were chocolate and chocolate chip but really what is the difference between a muffin and cupcake.  Rhetorical question, we can discuss the differences at another time.

We only had a few miles to cover before reaching the little known place of Grand Staircase - Escalante National Monument.  I have no idea what any of those words mean when pieced together like that but we just called it Escalante.  We were told to visit this place way back in St Louis one night when we were telling some friends our idea to drive west for a month.  This girl said she had done something similar a few years earlier and Escalante was amazing. She said "you can swim in a waterfall!" and Megan's eyes lit up.  We were going there come hell or high water, and actually high water might make the waterfall more majestic.



We knew we had about a 3.5 mile hike to reach Lower Calf Creek Falls but that was nothing.  After a short detour off trail which included some rock climbing which should have been the first clue that we were off the trail, we started to hear some water splashing.  Then the air temperature went from about 95 to 85 degrees as the cool water was being sprayed into the air.  We came around the final bend and we were greeted with an incredible 125 ft waterfall.  Just a small ribbon tumbling through the air splashing down into a large pool.

Lower Calf Creek Falls in Escalante

We had brought some swim wear to change in to so we could play in the water which was going to feel wonderful as we had worked up a sweat with our rock climbing detour.  There were a few others playing near the water but not many people were getting in and we quickly found out why when we dipped our toes in, Brrrrrr! That water was freezing!  It wasn't going to stop us though so we inched our way in and tried our best to get all the way to the waterfall but the water was damned cold to get under the splash.  I finally built up enough courage to dive in, I almost had a heart attack as I went under and felt my heart begin to race.

Megan Swimming Through the Falls

Looking Up at the Falls

We sat on the beach and enjoyed the water on our feet and the sun on our faces.  Then to fill our bellies we ate some homemade chicken quesadillas that we had been working on the previous night before finding out about the brick oven pizzas.  We had packed the quesadillas in our backpack with a couple packets of tabasco sauce and devoured them next to the water.  The hike back to the car was quick and painless and we noticed the spot where we lost our way and laughed at how we could have ever thought the trail went in that direction.



We had about an hour drive to our next stop, Bryce Canyon, where we were hoping to find a place to stay.  We stopped half way in to the drive to get some gas and found a little ice cream shop attached, so we definitely weren't passing that by.  We also talked with the owner about Bryce Canyon and she said that we should try to stay at Ruby's Inn, it is just outside the entrance of the park and they have a huge camping area.  We called Ruby's Inn and they had availability so we were set.

As we drove on to the grounds at Ruby's Inn we noticed a few teepees along the road; when we were at the check-in desk I asked what the deal was with them.  They told me that we could rent them and sleep in a teepee, so again we weren't missing out on an opportunity like that, plus they gave us the one that wasn't right next to the road, in fact it was back on the far edge of the grounds away from everything else.

Our Home for the Night

Setting up camp this night was a breeze; all we had to do was unroll the sleeping pads and bags and we were set.  The teepee was huge inside; we could have easily slept another 6-8 people in it.  Ruby's Inn was perfect for us, there was a pool that we took advantage of.  If you hadn't noticed we were starting to really enjoy the relaxation time at the end of the day.  After our relaxing pool time, we went back to our teepee and played some cards, I remember winning at rummy or gin or gin rummy whatever it was but I bet Megan probably remembers it differently.  Who will ever know for sure. 

Hoodoos of Bryce Canyon National Park

Then we decided we wanted to check out some of the park at sunset so we hoped in Jeep and drove in to the park to a few of the vista points, one of group being called Sunset Point, which seemed promising.  Bryce Canyon has these things called hoodoos that look like those drip sand castles but are orange.  They have a very interesting look to them and it was cool to be up close and between them.  The views were all facing east which confused me as the sun was setting in the west here.  I was underwhelmed by the Sunset Point but felt that if we came back for sunrise it could redeem itself.

Hoodoos of Bryce Canyon National Park

We scurried back to our car as the temperature was no longer "shorts and t-shirt weather" and headed towards a restaurant where we found a buffet to fill our stomachs to capacity.  After gorging ourselves all we wanted to do was sleep and since we were getting up predawn, sleep was welcome.