Los Angeles, CA

The final destination! So sad! We definately don't want this trip to be over it was too much fun.

Los Angeles was a really short trip for Sara, far too short so she'll just have to come back very soon. As soon as we got into the city we drove straight to The Culver Studios lot where Gale's sister Heather and stepmom Janne are working on a very cool play called Winter.

After watching the quick and entertaining play (about one hour, Heather called it a play for guys ha!) we walked around the lot a little bit and took pictures. Then we drove to Gale's dad Jack's beachhouse which is very beautiful. He took us out to dinner and it was delicious. Then it was time for bed. I know, one night in LA and we go to bed. Lame!

The next morning Gale and I woke up bright and early and walked down to Venice Beach which was awesome! The boardwalk area has pretty much the biggest collection of weirdos I've ever seen in such a concentrated space. I was happy to add to the freak show. Muscle Beach is a trip!

Jack and Janne took us out to a really nice breakfast right on the beach and then all of a sudden, just like that, it was time for Sara to get on a plane to head back to New York City.

:( big time.

Stopover - Joshua Tree

At this point we're on the tail end of our trip as we make our way to Los Angeles. It's a little sad that the fun is winding down. But before we visited with Gale's family we made one last stop for adventure.

Joshua Tree National Park is very cool! It's another park that you can drive through and stop along the way to take pictures. Joshua Trees are awesome! They look like Dr. Seuss trees. Apparently like snowflakes or fingerprints no two Joshua Trees are exactly the same. There were also beautiful rock formations.

Hot Shots!

So, as you've seen we got some great pictures on our vacation. From the sites of DC to the streets of New Orleans and the Grand Canyon & Sedona (even though no picture does them justice) we did a fine job. Not to mention the food!

But some of our photographic endeavors didn't turn out so well, and we thought we'd share a small smattering of the hilarity that ensues when trying to take a picture while driving, listening to an audio tour or using a new camera.

Pictures from the car seemed like such a good idea...

Carlsbad Caverns & the magnificent audio tour device.

Pants!

At least I know the timer setting works...now if only I could do it when I actually wanted to!

Sigh. Another finger shot.

Random Thoughts - Food Edition Part 2

FOOD!

Albuquerque had some delicious food. For breakfast we ate at Frontier. Amazing cinnamon rolls ("Frontier Cakes") the size of a baby's head:

Our new BFF in Albuquerque, Marcus, fed us well. Below are Gale's delicious tacos with blue corn enchiladas and more queso dip (the official dip of the 2008 Sara/Gale Roadtrip) in the background.

Then he gave us this awesome squash stuff. I questioned it at first, I mean squash that's a vegetable right? I don't know if I feel the need to eat vegetables on this trip, it was surprisingly tasty.

THEN he gave us sopapillas which are these little doughy pillows of delish. And we drizzled those bad boys with honey. That is a total win!

Finally the moon and stars aligned and the time was right for a Waffle House. Apparently it wasn't right when we passed thousands of them on the previous days of our adventure. We searched high and low and found the last one in Albuquerque. I say the last one because we didn't encounter anymore after that. How sad!



In Flagstaff we recommend Granny's Closet. Normally we wouldn't recommend poking into your Grandmother's closet, but this Granny has cheap wings and good bbq and tons of TV's showing both baseball and the Olympics.

Stopover - Meteor Crater

Our last stop before Flagstaff was to see a really big Meteor Crater. Pretty self-explanatory, but it was big and cool.



We walked around the rim a little bit and learned that a small plane crashed in there once and we also learned that astronauts trained in there to get used to the craters on the moon. Since they don't let you go in the crater, they set up a backdrop in the museum you can take pictures in front of. Look through your Christmas cards, some of you may have a picture of a family walking along the bottom of a giant crater. Don't believe them it's not real!

Stopover - A Corner

Time to discuss our second (of three) stopovers on our way to Flagstaff. After the Petrified Forest we went to Winslow, Arizona. Of course the specific location was a corner in Winslow, not just any corner but THE corner mentioned in the famous Eagle's song, "Take it Easy." We took a page from Sara's Aunt Renee's book and found the corner on Route 66. It wasn't hard to find since it's very clearly marked with a mural and statue and Eagles' songs ringing out onto the intersection.



We thought, "this is cheesy," but it was actually fun to take pictures on that corner. Sara actually danced on the corner in Winslow, AR no standing for her and they didn't run her out of town or anything. We heard a few rumors that there were other corners competing to be the actual corner mentioned in the song. We did not see those rival corners.

Flagstaff

In Arizona we decided to stay in Flagstaff because it's close to the Grand Canyon and Sedona. It's an ok town, nice little restaurant called Granny's (good wings, lots of TV screens), amazing pancakes at the Galaxy Diner and a Dairy Queen (yes!). We didn't spend much time in the town itself because we were here to see the surrounding nature.

First stop, the Grand Canyon and it certainly is...grand. There is a reason the entrance fee ticket is good for seven days. You could spend 7 days here and barely get through any of it. There is hiking and mules and helicopter rides and a million ways to explore this place. How about the people that just kinda want to see it, but not be entrenched in it? It took us a little time to figure out our approach. We drove and parked along the South Rim and hiked about a mile in the area along the canyon. It was spectacular and to be quite honest a little overwhelming in its magnificence. It looked like a picture or the backdrop to a really strange glamour shot.

Some dark clouds started to pass through and although it didn't rain we weren't taking any chances. It's a good thing our guts told us it was time to go considering the horrible flooding that occured the next day and the 250+ people that needed to be evacuated and the 11 missing tourists they just found. Wow, that would've sucked!

The Grand Canyon will be one of the places on this trip I vow to return to another time.

Since we had time some time we decided to take everyone's advice and go to Sedona. The drive into Sedona was breathtaking! You drive down this winding mountain to get into the town and it was unbelievable. I know I keep using these extreme adjectives to describe things like the Painted Desert or the Grand Canyon or Sedona, but there are so few words. You really have to see it to believe it. Sedona has it all; foresty wildnerness, red rock, grand buttes, towers and carved out sandstone. The town is really cute too. They have cute souvenir shops and restaurants and spas. Apparently there was a discovery of "energy vortexes" in the rocks here so in addition to being pretty, it has a big new-age population. We don't necessarily buy into all that stuff, we're not even sure what it means exactly, but Sara's sinuses had never been clearer.

We drove around and checked out this really cool chapel that was built right into the Red Rock and looked like a part of the mountain. We weren't sure our little "escalante" (which Sara has also called an "excalibur" and an "escada" again, no idea why) would make it back up the big mountain, but it did wonderfully.

Back into Flagstaff, Dairy Queen awaits!