Purchases

My Canon Rebel K2 is supposed to be delivered to my parents house today which means I'll have it Saturday. I can't wait. Hopefully the weather will be interesting on Saturday because I am planning to go out right after class and take a roll of pictures, getting to know the camera and all. Don't know where I'll go yet though.

Also, my first netflix dvd should arrive tomorrow. I rented "The Island." Not sure if it's any good but we'll see. I love the way you can set up a queue in it, and rearrange it at any time. Kelli has the password to the account as well, and so far it looks like she has picked out 3 good movies.

I'm looking at getting a fisheye lens for my camera as well but I want to do a little bit more research on it before making that purchase.

The Final Leg of The Trip

There isn't too much to remember from the final leg of the trip. We drove in to Chicago mid afternoon and found the hostel where we would be staying. Got our room, which was poor, but I know if we tried to stay in any hotel close by it would have been mass more and we were done camping. Kelli had gone and taken a shower first and when she came back, she could finally smell me, since she didn't smell herself anymore. HAHA, we were sooo dirty! Not that it's a good thing.. just funny.

The first thing we did was go to the top of the Sears tower to take a look. It was nice, different than I remember it as a kid though. Then, we walked around and found a nice Mexican restaurant to eat.

We sat outside and I guess I kind of thought of it as a mini-celebration, we had just gone and seen a bunch of awesome things throughout our great west. We had been to the Pacific Ocean, we had seen the giant sequoias, and Yosemite valley. We had seen man made structures like Mt. Rushmore and natural structures like Devil's Tower and the arches in Utah. It had always been a childhood dream to head out west to see these things, and I finally got to do it. And with none other than Kelli. She was great for the whole trip.

So, we went out that night to experience the Chicago night scene. Went and saw some bands play, and then went dancing at a bar/club. The next morning we headed home. Kelli drove the whole way, while I read aloud some Orson Scott Card short stories. It was a nice drive home...

We had set up an agreement that if either one of us needed time alone, that the other would be ok with that; no hard feelings. But what was funny is that neither one of us really got to that point. I think there were times when things were a little hectic, when we were running from place to place, or different things causing stress were getting to us but we were able to handle these situations with polite, calm manners (for the most part). And not once, for the entire 17 days (408 hours) we were one the road, did we need to get away from the other. I guess that tells you something... cheesy huh?

Devil's Tower and Mt. Rushmore

Rounding the bend and heading home. That's what it felt like after leaving Yellowstone. No more national parks to check out, just a few little stops on the way to Chicago and then on home. It was a mixture of feelings. I loved seeing all the sites but there was also a part of me that was ready to be able to wake up take a shower and do my normal things during the day.

After the fiasco at Yellowstone, sleeping in near freezing temperatures and then the next day taking over an hour to pack up just the tent, we were done camping out. The next night on our way back east we opted to pull over in to a rest stop and sleep in the car. I don't know why but I always get a little paranoid doing things like that. I guess it's just all the stories you'll hear, so I remember having a knife by my side, "just in case."

So, we still had Devil's Tower and Mt. Rushmore to check out. Devil's Tower was a neat stop, it's not too far off of i-80 and it's worth it to see. There isn't much to do there except for walk around it, which we did. One thing that was nice about getting there early in the morning was being able to see all the prairie dogs eat breakfast. They were so cute! haha. As we were heading back to the car, we saw a group of people arriving. They asked us how the trail was, and if it was cold enough that they should bring their jackets. They were a nice group of people and evidently they were on the same route as us...

From Devil's Tower we made our way to Mt. Rushmore. This is another site not too far off of i-80 and I was very glad to see it. Ever since I was a young kid I've wanted to see Mt. Rushmore in person but I always saw how far it was, up in South Dakota, I figured I would never get the chance to see it, since when would I ever be that far north? But, I did get to see it!

Then, on to Chicago. But not without taking an unplanned stop at Wall-Drug. Oh man, I'm not sure whether I would recommend this stop to anyone or not... Starting back a hundred miles or so you begin to see all kinds of billboards. Almost every single billboard from that point on tells you how many more miles it is to Wall-Drug. It reminded me of the old cartoons that used to have the same joke. It is right off of the highway so it's not too inconvenient. It's just I'm still confused about what the point of this place is. It's basically an over sized convenient-drug-flea market-store. One funny thing though is that we ran in to the same people we saw hundreds of miles west at Devil's Tower. They were having fun with us, telling Kelli to tell her husband (me) to climb up on this huge fake jack-rabbit so she could take a picture. haha. I'm pretty sure we stayed there way too long, and so we headed out from there, spending the night at a rest stop somewhere in Iowa, and to Chicago mid-afternoon the next day.

We Are All Danes Now

Here is an interesting Op-Ed by Jeff Jacoby in the Boston Globe, We Are All Danes Now. Though it's not bringing anything new to the discussion, it is voicing the opinion of many Europeans and North Americans who are adament believers in the freedom of speech and fed up with ultra sensitive people willing to riot and cause destruction over satire and valid criticism.

Yellowstone National Park

So we left the San Francisco area around 3 or 4 and headed east on i-80. And began our 18 hour journey through Sacramento, Reno, Salt Lake City and then north on i-15 to Yellowstone National Park. Kelli started the first leg of the trip, until around 11:30 or 12:00 if I can remember correctly. Then I took over and drove until about 7:00 or 8:00, with Kelli taking over again until around 10:00 or so when we made it in to Yellowstone. That was the first time I had driven all night and it was something... There would be just miles that would go by before seeing a car. At one point a tumbleweed as big as my car crossed the highway, fortunately I only hit the tail end of it so was able to keep on going...

I'm sure that Reno has its better points but from what we saw of it, it was the worst place ever. Granted we stopped at some gas station in what must have been the seediest place in town but first impressions are the most important impression. It was nice being able to see Salt Lake City even if it was at 5:00 in the morning. I knew I was getting close when I could smell a 'sulfur/salty' smell. My guess is that it was from the lake. I saw the Mormon Tabernacle from a distance...

Then, that morning as Kelli was driving, I woke up in time to see one of the most beautiful Sun rises I had ever seen. Unfortunately the picture doesn't quite do it justice:

When we finally got to Yellowstone, it was FREEZING! I couldn't believe how cold it was. Here is us after driving all night and getting out to take the obligatory National Park sign picture:

I enjoyed Yellowstone but I believe my visit was marred by it being so cold. We set up tent but it just wasn't enjoyable. Hardly any sun to help out. That night was surely the coldest it had ever been the whole trip. I believe it got down in to the 30's. It was our last night camping for the trip, the rest of the nights would be spent in the car or in the hostel we stayed at, in Chicago.

It was neat seeing all the crazy things at Yellowstone but I think that I found I would much rather be in the woods, where trees loom over your head, with waterfalls and lakes and all that. So after Yellowstone we were officially on our way back home.

San Francisco

It seemed too soon that we had to leave Yosemite and continue on with our trip to the farthest point we had planned, San Francisco and the Pacific Ocean. It was only a couple hours drive and compared to some of the drives we had been doing before, this was pretty easy.

We both knew nothing of the city really but we knew that we would need to find somewhere to stay the night, that was our first task. So we stopped at a random Mexican restaurant not unlike Chipotle but family owned where we began to eat and wait until someone nice looking came in that might be able to help us. There were two older men that came in and they were a great help. They told us to which street to head to and to go up and down the street and to not settle for any of the prices that they gave. Since it was a Sunday night and nothing big going on in the city we had the bargaining power.

So after stopping at a couple of hotels, Kelli was able to secure a very nice hotel room for 60 dollars, he started out much higher but she got him to give us a good discount. It had a great little view out from it and I thought it was a great find. Good job Kelli!

It was my birthday (twenty-four and so much more) so we decided that we would go out to eat somewhere nice, Kelli's treat. For some reason I was a little weary about the restaurants that we were looking at but finally we stopped at "Home" and ate there. It was really nice and the steak was excellent. We then walked across the street to some bar where we got in a dancing mood. Since this wasn't a dancing place we figured we would go find one. Haha, we ended up walking for miles and miles without finding any place and then finally walked back to our room...

The next morning we went to the Haight-Ashbury, the ocean, and Golden Gate Park. I was glad to see all of these spots, and then we met up with some of Kelli's relatives; her cousin and great Aunt and Uncle. They were all very nice people and offered us a place to stay for the night but because we had a long drive ahead of us we thought it best to leave later that afternoon and get a move on. In hindsight I think we could have stayed another night and I regret that we didn't. But, in the words of a great leader, "Hindsight is not wisdom..." hehehe...

So, we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge and got out to take a look and then on to Muir Woods. Which is where Kelli had the epiphany that it wasn't "mirror" woods, but Muir woods, as in John Muir. That was very funny. Muir Woods was very nice, a calm place where redwoods tower over your head. We walked the trail and headed out to begin our 18 hour non-stop drive to Yellowstone National Park.

Click Image for Full Size View of San Franciso Bay

Yosemite National Park

I will attempt to remember Yosemite National Park:

Yosemite was the highest tourist destination of the whole trip. Knowing that, I think we would have rather had spent our days there during the week but sometimes you can't plan it out perfectly and we ended up staying there over a weekend. It actually ended up being ok, we were able to get a nice camping spot, and enjoy the scenery.

Our first stop was Glacier Point. It was right up the road from our campsite and I highly recommend it as the first thing you do when you enter Yosemite. You can pretty much see the entire Yosemite valley from this vantage point and it comes in handy knowing where everything is when you want to go in for closer views.

On our way up to Glacier Point, the first thing we noticed was Half-Dome. For some reason Kelli didn't think it was Half-Dome and after a little debating about it, we placed a bet on it. If it was half dome she would owe me a back rub, if it wasn't half dome then I would give her one. I have to admit, I wasn't entirely sure if it was half dome because my only knowledge of it was pictures, which were most often from one viewpoint. When you see it from a different side it looks completely different. But, as we soon discovered, it certainly was half dome. What is not so certain was whether I actually received that back rub...

It was about a 45 minute drive from our campsite to the valley floor. Driving along the valley floor can be very dangerous it seems. You, along with every other driver, isn't looking at the road at all because you can't help but look up at the immense landscape rising above you on both sides. El Capitan on your left, and half dome up in the distance on your right, and waterfalls here and there. It truly is beautiful.

The shuttle system is really confusing. Haha, we got on the first bus we saw, and it proceeded to take us about 100 yards before the next stop, where everyone had to get off the bus because that was its last stop on the route... So we got off thinking, "what do we do now?"

The sights we went to see were the Nevada Falls and the Lower Yosemite Falls. It takes a long time to get anywhere, and the trails can be very long and hard. Even with 3 days at the park we were not able to get as much done as I would have hoped but after doing a trail or two, you simply just don't have the energy to keep going.

One of the neatest things though, was the star-gazing night. If this is going on when you're there, it is a must-see. It's held at Glacier Point, and its where a bunch of amateur astronomers bring their huge telescopes to check out the celestial sights. The thing is, you don't even need a telescope to be amazed at the night sky over Yosemite. Because you are far away from any cities and high up in thinner air, the viewing is great. You can see the Milkway Galaxy spread out before you with such detail. And then, when the astronomers start lining up their telescopes you get to check out all kinds of clusters, galaxies way out there, with all kinds of different set-ups. It's crazy to think how big the universe really is. Another neat thing was one of the astronomers had a strong laser that could actually point up in the sky at stars. I don't know exactly how it worked but it was amazing. When one of the tourists took a picture (with flash) the place went nuts! haha, the astronomers were all yelling "woah, woah woah!" and we overheard one of the lady astronomers declaring, "People don't realize that you have a natural night vision ...." haha, it was so funny.

Another funny incident was when we wanted so badly to have a campfire that night but no fire wood anywhere to start it with, except for a huge log that was left there. Crazy Kelli knew we could get it to light, and so did I but I was worried it might get too big for us to handle. But, how could I say no to Kelli?

My only regret, and its not a complete regret, is that I wish that I would have been able to hike to the top of half-dome. It is a 17 mile trail, very strenuous, and it would take some training to be able to do. It takes about 2 days to do the complete trail. I think someday I would like to be able to do that.

Sequoia National Park

Departing Zion National Park, we headed southwest to Las Vegas. When we got to the main strip I was very impressed with the hotels and how crazy they were but I was even more impressed when we got our room and were able to take showers. It was the first shower in 5 days, after hiking through dry dusty deserts. It was such a renewing experience I thought we should spend 2 days in Vegas. But it didn't take long for that idea to change. While it was neat seeing the different sites, I don't really like casinos all that much and it became blatantly obvious that everything was designed to get you to spend more money but nothing was really fulfilling. After coming away from seeing natural arches that were created by nothing more than the wind, and witnessing a beautiful desert sunset that ended with a calm quiet night, this was chaos. We left the next morning and headed to what would become my favorite destination for the entire trip: Sequoia National Park.

From what I have seen so far, if you're deciding between seeing the Sequoias or the Redwoods, go for the Sequoias. While not quite as tall as the Redwoods, they are much more impressive in size. No picture that I had seen of a sequoia before seeing them in person has done them justice. And the pictures I took, still don't seem to do them justice. I guess it's just something that you cannot capture in a picture.

We actually arrived in the park close to sundown and did not see our first Sequoia until the next morning. We were driving along when all the sudden a couple came in to our view. Immediately we stopped the car and jumped out. They were HUGE!

We spent two full days in the park, walking every trail we could find. There are so many Sequoias in the Giant Forest and they are all unique.

I'll try not to put as many pictures of me and Kelli, I know that can get annoying but who's seeing this blog anyway??