Days 16-23

I would like to apologize for the delay in the blog updates, it's been awhile since we've had internet access, but anyway, we've had a lot of adventures these past 7 days. The first stop of this past week was San Francisco. This is my second favorite city next to San Diego. The hills in this city are one of a kind. We drove down the steepest hill in the world and the curviest street in the world all in one city. We saw landmarks such as Alcatraz from a distance and Pier 39. Pier 39 is a place where sea lions hang out, for a lack of better term. San Francisco has the largest Chinatown in North America, which was my favorite part of San Francisco. Everything in Chinatown is cheap, very cheap. I bought a souvenier shirt for $2 and a cool samauri sword for $50, but it's worth it. After San Francisco, we took the scenic drive on Highway 1 up to Redwoods National Forest. The drive was gorgeous, just look at the pictures. We had to drive about 30 minutes in order to get to highway 1, and we almost didn't make it there, literally. There was a mountain with about 30 miles of road winding and curving around it, and the gas gage was on empty, and we were 45 minutes away from the nearest gas station. We rode the car down the mountain in neutral for 10 or 15 miles, but we finally made it out and to a gas station. The west coast is very different from the east. The ocean is below these huge cliffs overlooking the Pacific and right behind it are these forests with huge Redwoods. You literally can be in the forest and then take a few steps and you will be on the beach. The Pacific is filled with huge rocks, and the clear blue water is constantly crashing over them. This ocean experience is completely different from an east coast one. Later on the drive, we arrived at Redwoods, where we saw a herd of Roosevelt elk, that were grazing in a nearby field. We camped on the beautiful and windy beach.

Our next stop was Crater Lake, OR. Before we started driving up to the top, the themometer read 54 degrees; by the time we were up at the top of the mountain where the lake was, it was 34 degrees and there was about 3 feet of snow. This lake is mysterious, none like any other. It is about 2,000 feet deep, maybe more; explorers have only made it to these depths. It's cold, windy, has dark, blue water, and a small snow covered island in the middle of the lake.

The next day, we stayed at Portland, OR. This city reminds me of Greenville, SC. It's not a very big city, but it's a nice, quiet, and clean place to live. There wasn't much going on in Portland, and after Portland, we drove up to Washington to see Mount Saint Helen's. Mount Saint Helens is know for obviously the volcanic explosion, and secondly, for its bigfoot country. Mount Saint Helens was closed due to 10 feet of snow, but we were able to take some pictures of surrounding snowcapped mountains. The bigfoot conspiracy was more interesting to me than the Roswell, NM conspiracy. There's just something intriguing about the possibility of an 8 foot sasquatch wondering around the woods.

Since Mount Saint Helens was closed, we drove further north in Washington to a campsite on the Puget Bay, but it wasn't anything special, just another campsite. But on the way up to the site, we drove past a drive-in movie theater and watched the movie Iron Man. This was a fulfilled goal for me on the road trip; I've always wanted to go in a drive-in theater, and the experience was great. Our next stop is Seattle, WA...

Day 14-15 Pictures

Days 14-15

During these days, we visited Yosemite National Park--by far, my most favorite place we visited. The mountains, the praries, the waterfalls, the wildlife, everything about this park makes it a must see place. We saw some giant sequoia trees and I have a picture in front of the bottom of a stump on one of these beasts. As far as Yosemite goes, my writing won't do it justice, just look at the pictures.

By the way, I updated the settings on my blog to where anyone can make comments, you now don't need an account to post them! Just click on the comments part, click anonymous and do the word verification!

Day 11-13 Pictures

Days 11-13

During these days, we went to Los Angeles, CA. One word to describe this city: HOT. During our stay here, we visited the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball stadium, toured downtown, toured Hollywood, visited Rodeo Drive, and stayed at a really shady motel. Hollywood, CA was an interesting place; the streets were alive and well and the sidewalk was covered with the Hollywood stars and at the famous Chinese theater in Hollywood had the cement blocks with the handprints, signatures, and footprints of famous people. Rodeo Drive was all glitz and glamour; I saw 1 lambourghin, 1 Ferrari, and about 10 Porsche cars, and every store was high, high class. I've been buying T-shirts from all the places we've been to, and I definitely didn't buy the one for LA on Rodeo Drive. My favorite part of LA was the downtown area--it is pure Hispanic. Every store and every person except the 3 of us were Hispanic. The Spanish language was spoken everywhere in the downtown area, great stuff. No matter how long I'm immersed in this language, I can't seem to become tired of it, there is just something so intriguing and beautiful about it. Now about the motel we stayed at; it was the cheapest motel in the area for a reason. It was in a bad neighborhood and it was called the Gibson Inn. We made many jokes about this place. It was operated by some oriental person who constantly walked up and down the motel parking lot the whole night with his shirt unbuttoned, almost like he was ready to pounce on any trespasser, but I appreciate his efforts, our cargo on top of the van wasn't touched nor harmed. Every now and then he would run in place, like he was preparing for a boxing match. I'm telling you, this motel was dangerous, but we saved money. The curtains had small holes in them and the joke was that there were bullet holes. I also encountered a roach in my bed, but nonetheless many priceless memories were made at this motel. We also visited the famous Santa Monica pier, which has it's own amusement park extending into the Pacific Ocean. Next stop, Yosemite National Park...

Day 9-10 Pictures

Days 9-10

During these two days we toured San Diego, CA. This is by far the most beautiful city I've ever been to. The weather here is perfect, the people are great, and it is one of the cleanest cities I've seen as well. We toured downtown and visited the San Diego Padres stadium. We went to a small hill overlooking the bay and the city, where the weather was perfect and a place where photographers could make bank. We also meet some interesting people as well. Matthew, Luke, and I were walking downtown, Matthew asked a rhetorical question, and it was answered by a random homeless guy on the street. We laughed with the guy and continued down the street, and later he ran us down and started talking to us about his drug problems. He also showed us the heroine that he was carrying, nasty looking stuff. This guy said his name was Dale Sullivan and claimed to be the drummer of numerous bands from the Flock of Seagulls to Glitch; interesting person. Not much happened in San Diego, but it is a great place to be nonetheless...

Day 8

Today we checked in to the MGM hotel. We were supposed to get just a regular room with a huge jaccuzzi and a living room, but I was surprised upon checking in. I went up to the counter and told the lady who I was and she told me that today was my lucky day. "Why?" I asked. She said that she was going to upgrade my room to a sky loft, and oh my goodness, I never have seen anything like this. We had our own VIP room, our own floor that was only accessible by a keycard, a 24/7 butler, and our room was a 2 story loft with about 30 foot ceilings, plasma TV's built into the mirror and above the bathtub, and the room was 1400 square feet. I have no clue why the lady decided to upgrade us to this room, but I wasn't complaining, I doubt I will ever have another room like this in my life. We originally paid $300 for our room that we thought we were going to have, and out of curiosity, I checked online to see how much the skylofts were per night--$735; so the MGM gave us a $435 upgrade for free; crazy, but fun. Other than soaking up the room for all it was, we just simply walked through the other hotels and checked them out. Each had its own theme; for example, there was Caesar's Palace (Roman oriented), New York, New York hotel, Paris hotel, and so on. Vegas is definitely an interesting place, but I doubt I will ever return, just isn't my type of place. Tomorrow, we head to San Diego, CA...

Day 7 Pictures

Day 7

Today we arrived at the fabulous Las Vegas, NV and on the way, we stopped by the Hoover Dam. It was extremely hot here, 95 degrees to be exact, but it also was a man made wonder. The Hoover Dam is enormous surrounded by the Colorado River and small mountains. We didn't tour the inside, but we got a good feel for the place. We also ate at a Taco Bell for lunch that gave some good advice for Easter, as you will see in the pictures. Upon arriving at Las Vegas, there must have been at least 3 or 4 wedding chapels on the first street we drove on. We stayed at Luke's "cousin/uncle" (according to him, he's both) whose name is Michael Myers, no joke. He lives in downtown Las Vegas in a high rise overlooking the city. His place gave a gorgeous view of the city and I took some nighttime pictures of the Las Vegas strip on top of the apartment building. Mike Myers showed us around the city tonight, showing us some local dining places, where I had a great BBQ sandwich. He also took us to the old part of Las Vegas, which used to be the main attraction area. Here, we watched the world's largest TV and watched 3 people on motorcycles drive 30 MPH in a sphere steel cage that was only 15 feet high at the highest point; this was a big adrenaline rush, just one wrong calculation in speed, and these bikers would have been toast. It was breathtaking to watch this. Tomorrow, we will stay at the MGM Grand Casino hotel on the Las Vegas strip.

Day 4-6 Pictures

Day 6

Today we hiked down into the Grand Canyon. We would have liked to hike all the way down to the Colorado River and camp, but it was a 12 mile hike, and according to park rangers, even the best in shape cannot complete this hike in one day without being injured or dehydrated, so we hiked about 1 1/2 miles down. It was a gorgeous walk, and we saw some wildlife from squirrels to goats right on the side of the canyon. In fact, there was one goat right off the trail and I got within 2 feet of it as seen in the picture. Even though this was just a short hike, it was an all day affair because going back up took awhile in the heat and it was extremely steep. Once again we camped outside and it was 29 degrees. Next stop, Las Vegas, NV...

Day 5

Today we finally arrived at the Grand Canyon. Upon reaching the canyon, my breath was simply taken away. If you've never been to the Grand Canyon, go; it's amazing. Looking out into the vast canyons, I could only think of the creativeness and splendor of the Lord God Almighty, only He could create something as majestic and inexpressable as this. The wind, the weather, the sun, everything in this atmosphere, makes it an unforgettable experience. It definetly is in the desert, with hot weather during the day, and at night, the temperature was 27 degrees. I slept with 2 jackets, pants, socks, and a toboggan, and was still cold. Before going to bed, we were sure to put the food in the van. The Grand Canyon also is a town, believe it or not. Directly on top of the flat plains that lead to the deep massive canyons, is a grocery store (the place where I bought a massive 16 ounce steak for the camping), a post office, and its only small community with churches and its own train system, so if you ever get tired of the wilderness, just know that civilization is just at the top of the canyon...

Day 4

Today we toured Carlsbad Caverns and what a wonder it is. Words cannot express how awesome this place is. It took 2 full hours to tour the cave, and we still didn't see everything in it. It was really dark, and it was difficult to take photography, but I managed to take one inside, which describes the amount of bat activity in the cave. This is all we did today, along with a lot of driving because right after the caverns we drove for the Grand Canyon, which was an 11 hour drive.

Day 3 cont.

Last night, we stayed at a campsite outside of Roswell, NM and there were hardly any people around at this place. We had a secluded campsite around a pond and there was a small canyon wrapped around it. We had a great adventure here, from the bonding time to just experiencing the secluded wilderness. I sprained my thumb pretty badly today by tripping down the canyon, it swelled up to the point where it looked like I was borrowing Fat Albert's thumb; it is pretty painful too. We left our food outside and when we woke up, we discovered that it was all gone; raccoons got into it. I was pretty angered; they ate all of my beef jerky and all of the brownies (about 10), which were in a sealed container. Next stop, Carlsbad Caverns, NM.

Day 3 Pictures