Day 23 - Monterey to San Francisco

A couple of really neat stops today, but we'll get to that in a minute. I got a bit of an earlier than planned start this morning, but I needed that extra half an hour in order to make a couple stops. I had to replenish the ice in my cooler and then my car desperately needed to be washed. So I made it up to the Winchester Mystery House pretty much right on schedule.

The Winchester Mystery House was something I had really been looking forward to. If you're not familiar with it's history, it's quite interesting. Sarah Winchester was married to the CEO of the Winchester company. Their daughter died at just 6 weeks old, and then Mr. Winchester died as well. Sarah attributed their deaths to the spirits of those killed by Winchester rifles, and those spirits told her that she needed to expand the house and never stop construction on it, so that's exactly what she did for something like 38 years until the day she died. She was her own architect, but she had no training and was pretty eccentric, so there are all sorts of weird quirks in the house. There is a staircase that leads right into a ceiling, a second floor door that opens right to the outside with no landing, a bathroom with only a door from the outside, and a lot more like that. There is also no rhyme or reason to how the house is laid out - a distinct lack of hallways. In 1906, the great earthquake trapped Mrs Winchester in one of the front rooms and once she was rescued, she ordered all of the front rooms to be boarded up while construction continued on the back rooms.

At the house, I did both the Mansion and the Behind the Scenes tour. The Mansion tour was fine - it was pretty interesting walking through there, I just didn't like my tour guide. He used way too much inflection in his obviously memorized speech. His jokes weren't funny either. After that tour, I wasn't so excited about going on the Behind the Scenes tour, but I'm really glad I did. I really liked our tour guide for that second tour and she had a lot of great info for us. In general, I do wish that I had had a floor plan to follow as we walked through the house - that would have been fascinating to me.

After finishing up at the Winchester House, I traveled up to San Francisco. First stop was Filoli, another mansion. I didn't retain the exact history of this house, but it's a bit more modern (built after the 1906 earthquake), and obviously isn't crazy like the Winchester House. There were 2 owners of the house before it was turned over to the preservation society. The house is beautiful, but I wish I could have seen the bedrooms on the second floor. And the gardens were absolutely amazing.

I made it successfully to my friend's apartment in San Francisco. I'm staying here for a few nights and I'm absolutely exhausted again, so I'm calling it an early night.

Day 22 - Monterey

A great day in Monterey today. Joe was a great host (except he doesn't want me to tell you that). We started out the day going to a local bagel place. Yummy! The we spent a couple of hours walking around historic Monterey. We saw a lot of the original homes and buildings. I really enjoyed all of the gardens throughout the town and also the jail and Colton Hall, where the first constitution of California was signed. Did you know that Monterey was the first capital of California? I didn't.

After seeing all of the historic buildings that I was interested in, we drove down to Carmel. We drove around for a while, and then walked through the shopping district. It was super cute, but totally geared towards tourists. Lots of art galleries and little shops. Very cute.

From there, we made our way over to 17-mile drive in pebble beach. That was absolutely beautiful. Lots to see. We eventually made it to Spanish Bay, where a bagpiper walks in from the beach close to sunset. This was one of those unique experiences that this trip is about (please excuse the grammatical error there). It was just perfect. Fire pit, glass of wine, music, sunset, and good company - what more could a girl ask for?

After that we went back over to The Sardine Factory for dinner where I had filet minon sliders - amazing! Exhausted again from a full day, I made the decision to call it an "early" night. Looking forward to another amazing experience tomorrow!!!!

Day 21 - Big Sur to Monterey

I got a slow start this morning, but that was by plan. I knew that I wanted to go to a specific restaurant for lunch, Nepenthe, and I knew that they opened at 11:30. Checkout time from the hotel was 11:00, and the restaurant was only abut 20 minutes up the road, so that was going to work out well. Unfortunately, my body didn't get the memo about sleeping in, so I still woke up at 6 am. I seriously need to adjust to pacific time soon.

I got breakfast at the hotel at 8 am, got ready in plenty of time, and left the hotel right around 10:45. Made my way up the coast slowly to Nepenthe. A lot of people had recommended this restaurant to me. It was really good. I had a prawn BLT and a slice of triple berry pie. Yummers!

I then continued up the cost further. I'm not sure where the recommendation came from, but, at some point, I had decided to turn off of the PCH and onto Old Coast Road. This is an unpacked road that goes up through the hills and down through some forest areas. It was definitely a tough drive. I saw some really pretty views, but I'm not sure I'd do it again, especially in my car. It needed more of a jeep or something like that. But I made it and it was really pretty.

I arrived in Monterey right at 2:30 and met my friend Joe. We headed over to the aquarium, which I had heard great things about as well. It was by well done. I especially enjoyed the jellyfish exhibits. I had no idea that there were so many different types. After the aquarium, we walked around Cannery Row and then stopped by a local restaurant, The Sardine Factory. I was really impressed by this place. Lots of history and the rooms were supremely decorated. We were fortunate enough to be allowed down to the "Dungeon", a special room for private parties that is right next to the wine cellar and the private wine lockers. Gary was the employee charged with setting up the room and running it, and he told us all about how the room had been built. During construction, a whole tree trunk was lowered into the space and the table and beams were carved out of the tree in the space. Some great antiquities down there as well - a 300 year old candelabra, a 400 year old buffet table, all sorts of stuff. It was really cool.

After we got cleaned up for dinner, we went out to a local place where I had a fantastic heirloom tomato and mozzarella salad and a cup of lobster bisque. So good!!!! We then went back to The Sardine Factory for a drink before calling it a night. Overall, a fantastic day!

Day 20 - Arroyo Grande to Big Sur

The phrase of the day today was "Holy Cannoli." I saw some amazing things today and had some amazing experiences. Even now, I'm sitting in my room, overlooking the Pacific Ocean as the sun is starting to set, drinking a glass of Pinot Noir from Summerland Winery that I visited a couple days ago.

So I started out the morning in Arroyo Grande. The family I was staying with provided a great breakfast to start off the day. Before leaving Arroyo Grande, I had to replace the ice in my cooler (remind me at some point to talk about that process - I'm not sure it's totally working) and fuel up my gas tank and then I headed north up the coast. I stopped at Winery #24 (Harmony Cellars), in this tiny town of Harmony. The guy pouring wine for me told me that the sign that said the population was 18 was incorrect - the real population is actually 25. Honestly. Further north, I stopped at Winery #25 (Moonstone Winery). I was a little early in getting there and they weren't open yet, so I walked up and down Main street of the town (Cambria) a couple times. Super cute town with all sorts of little shops. I loved talking with the people at Moonstone. The woman is a theatre director, so we got to talking all about that. I enjoy people's reaction to my wine tasting journal. It's either confusion, apprehension, or appreciation. It provides a great jumping off point for talking about my road trip too.

Throughout the morning, there was a lot of fog (smog?) low hanging over the hills and the roads as I was driving. It was weird. Anyway, after leaving Cambria, I made my way up towards Hearst Castle. On the way, I saw zebras. What???? Made no sense. I later found out that William Hearst had his own private zoo, and the current zebras there are descendants of those he had in his zoo. They still roam the grounds. Bizarre.

I arrived at Hearst Castle right around 11:45. There are a number of options of what tours you can take. The three available were Grand Rooms, Upstairs Rooms, and Kitchen & Outer Rooms. Each tour is $25 and includes the shuttle ride up to the house, free range to walk throughout the grounds up at the house and a screening of a 40 minute movie about the house. I chose to do both the Grand Rooms and Upstairs Rooms tour. I've mentioned it before, but the benefit of going by myself is fantastic - I'm able to slip into a sooner tour than larger groups. So I didn't have to wait around like a couple of larger groups did for their tours. I took the shuttle up to the house (great views along the way), and started with the Grand Rooms tour. There were about 50 people in our group. We got to see the front entertaining room, the dining room, the morning room, the billiards room, and the home theatre, all part of the original house. Mr. Hearst and his architect (a woman!) spent about 28 years working on the house and it still was not completed by his estimation at the time of his death. It started out as a "little something" and grew and grew and grew. The grand rooms were obviously gorgeous. Mr. Hearst had an incredible collection of paintings, tapestries, statues, ceilings, and all sorts of art. There is very little cohesion within any given room, but it is just loaded with all sorts of STUFF. Priceless artifacts and some more modern items side by side. To purists, it's a little bizarre. This was one of Hearst's many homes - I think at one point he had something like 38 separate homes. He loved to bring a wide array of people up to his house to entertain them. Giant weekend or week-long outings. Clark Gable came to visit something like 45 separate times. Most nights, the evening would end with a movie screening in the home theatre, which is about 5 times larger than my entire apartment.

Immediately after I was done with the Grand Rooms tour, I had my Upstairs Rooms tour. I am always fascinated by the actual people and what day to day life was like, so while the Grand Rooms is great, the Upstairs Rooms was insanely interesting to me. We got to see a ton of guest rooms in many areas of the house, Mr. Hearst's and his companion, Marion Davis's rooms (that were closed to EVERYONE except Mr. Hearst and Ms. Davis while he was alive), the library, and the office. In one room was an Egyptian statue that's estimated to be about 2300 years old. In Mr. Hearst's room is a portrait of the Madonna and child that is estimated to be worth up to $50 million. In the library, there is a collection of maybe 100 vases that are over 2000 years old. This stuff is just incredible. The ceilings are all between 300 and 400 years old and were imported from Spain or Italy. There are tapestries and beautiful artwork everywhere. Seriously amazing. After the second tour was done, I took some time to walk through the grounds. The gardens are beautiful. But what is the most stunning is the pools. There is the large outdoor Neptune Pool and, under the tennis courts, the indoor Roman Pool, which was rarely used. The Neptune Pool is turquoise and white, with statues and columns all around it. The Roman Pool is in a room that is basically one big royal blue mosaic, from the pool floor up to the deck, and climbing up the walls, seamlessly flowing into the yellow and blue ceiling. Holy Cannoli. Seriously.

I don't have much bandwidth here at the lodge where I'm staying, so I can't upload photos, but hopefully I'll be able to upload them soon and I'll put some of the best in a separate post.

I then drove basically right next door to the Hearst Ranch Winery and tasted some great wine there. I also really enjoyed talking with Ray and Ryan about wine, wineries, my trip, charcuterie, and all sorts of stuff. They gave me some great recommendations for further up the road as well. Another couple of miles up the road, I stopped to see the Elephant Seals. At first, I thought there was just a few, but I looked further down the coast, and the beach was just covered with them. They are molting this time of year, and most of them were just laying there, but occasionally, one would throw sand over itself, or stretch, or even move a few feet. It was fascinating. Windy and chilly, but fascinating.

From there, I had about a 45 minute drive up the Pacific Coast Highway. It wasn't nearly as scary as I expected it to be. It was windy, and, at times, right up against the cliff on the coast, but taking it slowly enough, it was fine. We'll see if tomorrow is more of the same or it's more difficult. I do admit, basically any time there was someone behind me, I pulled over and let them pass. I didn't want to feel rushed at all.

Arrived at my lodge for this evening right around 6:00, took some pictures of the ocean, and had dinner at the adjoining restaurant. The sun is about to set (in 7 minutes according to google), and while it's not directly out my window, I'm seeing some really pretty colors blending in with the fog rolling in from the ocean and mingling with the rocky coast line. Absolutely beautiful.

Not very far to go tomorrow, but doing a couple of things that have been highly recommended to me.

Day 19 - Santa Barbara to Arroyo Grande

I keep running into special events at places that I have planned to go to. First was the POW reunion at the Nixon Library, then the Monstrous Summer event at Disneyland, then today the Italian Street Painting Festival at Mission Santa Barbara. I mean, I know it's Memorial Day and I expected there to be crowds, but goodness gracious, how do I keep ending up at places with special events? In some ways, these events are super cool and I'm amazed that I get to see them and take part, but, on the other hand, there are these massive crowds that I didn't plan for.

So I started out the day leaving the apartment I was staying in in Santa Barbara. I stopped at a local bagel place for breakfast - all the fruit I have is great, but I do need something with a little more substance to start the day. I then made my way over towards Mission Santa Barbara. As I got close, I started to realize that this wasn't such an original idea, which confused me. It wasn't until I parked and walked up to the entrance that I realized what was going on. Luckily, the festival was open to the public without any additional admissions fees, so I got to both tour the Mission and then walk through the festival and checkout some of the artwork.
Here's a picture of this amazing 125 year old tree on the grounds of the mission:

And here's a picture of my favorite piece of street art at the festival. The texture on it was amazing: 

After I left the Mission, I drove about an hour up the coast and started hitting up wineries. I first went to Mosby Winery, which was good. Then up to Avant Tapas and wine, where they had a whole wine of wine that you could try:

Had a great cheese plate there as well. Then onto Melville Winery and Babcock Winery. Melville was one of my favorite wineries that I've visited so far. It had a very Tuscan feel to it and the wines were superb. I ended up buying half a case to be shipped back to Austin. I have a friend that's wine-sitting for me for the summer, so I sent the shipment to him and I'll pick it up from him when I get home. I then drove up to La Purisma Mission State Historic Park, but I just wasn't feeling it, so I continued on and headed up to Santa Maria. I hit one more winery, Costa de Oro. Yes, it sounds like I'm hitting a lot of wineries. Don't worry - I'm being super safe. I'm taking my time, not drinking too much, and since I have the ability to talk with basically anyone, I end up spending plenty of time at each location, which gives me the time to digest and process the wine that I am drinking before I drive again. After I finished at Costa de Oro, I picked up a burger from In 'n Out. I'd never had In 'n Out before. It was pretty good - I thought it tasted like P Terry's, but the fries weren't as good.

I'm super excited about tomorrow - I'm going somewhere I've been looking forward to since I started planning this trip!!

Day 18 - Los Angeles to Santa Barbara

I find it amazing how a day that doesn't seem to be so busy can completely wipe me out. It's 7:30 and I'm totally ready to go to sleep.

First stop this morning was the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. Another very well done Presidential Library. It was pretty crowded, probably because it was Sunday and Memorial Day weekend. The major highlight was a walk through of Air Force One.

This one was decommissioned September 8, 2001, disassembled, and moved to its current location. Whereas I wasn't alive for any of Nixon's presidency, and I barely remember his funeral, I grew up with Reagan as President and I very much remember his announcement of Alzheimer's and his death and funeral. I do find it amazing how long he lived after his initial diagnosis and announcement.

After I finished up at the museum, I hit up a couple of local farms and stocked up on lots of fruit and then drove up the Pacific Coast Highway and stopped at 2 wineries along the way. I'm staying the night in Santa Barbara tonight and proceeding further up the coast for the next couple of days.

Day 17 - Los Angeles

You know what would be nice? If everyone followed through on the expectations that they set online. Today was a bit of a difficult day scheduling wise, but I had some amazing experiences.

I left Anaheim this morning at 9 AM and headed to downtown LA. Los Angeles is not known as a walking town, and there were no Volksmarches set up for downtown - there were a couple around LA, but none downtown. Have I explained yet what the Volksmarches are? My aunts do them. They are these set distance walks set up all over the place. There are 2 types of events: traditional and year-round/seasonal. Traditional events are set up similarly to traditional running races: the organizing club sets a course and there is a registration table, check points along the way, and a finish point. Year round events are self-guided tours. You go to a designated location (a hotel, coffee shop, store, etc), register by signing the book, and pick up the map/directions and follow the route. Check points are generally questions you answer about places along the way. When planning this trip, I thought about ways to really get the flavor of the cities that I was visiting, and Volksmarches seemed like an obvious choice. One of my aunts provided me with a New Member Packet that she had and also provided me with some great information regarding walks that I was considering doing. They've generally been going well and I see them as a great way to really explore these cities by foot.

However, like I said, there weren't any downtown LA walks, so instead, I found a self-guided walking tour of downtown historic buildings, which I did. It was just over 3 miles and I got to see some great historic buildings. My favorite was the Bradbury building, where many movies are filmed inside. I bet you'll recognize it. I know it mostly from one of my favorite movies, 500 Days of Summer.

One of the main things I noticed is that basically every building downtown had a sign on it saying "Call this person for Filming." It seems that many buildings support their renovations and expenses by being rented out as filming locations.

After finishing the walk, I went over to a restaurant I had previously scouted called the Lazy Ox Canteen. Had some great Sangria, Rosemary Fried Potatoes, and House-cured Salmon. A great meal. From there I went over to the David B Gamble house in Pasadena. I got there at 1:07, slightly behind schedule, as I had planned to get there for the 1:00 tour. Luckily there was a 1:15 tour and it was advertised as being an hour long. That meant I'd still have plenty of time to get over to the 3:00 tour I had reserved at the Warner Bros Studio. David B Gamble was one of the founders of Proctor & Gamble. He commissioned this house to be built for his family around 1906. It was designed and built in the Arts and Crafts style.

I couldn't take any pictures inside, but it was absolutely beautiful - amazing woodwork and detail. I'm not a fan of the Victorian style, with all its ornate details, and the Arts and Crafts movement appears to be a reaction against the Victorian style - it has clean, simple lines, and beautifully integrated structural details. Unfortunately, our tour guide was really slow (he really liked talking about the different types of wood used, which was interesting, but I was more interested in seeing everything), and there were more stops than fit into an hour. So,at 2:25, I ended up having to leave before we hit the last 2 stops on the tour (at least - I'm not totally sure how many stops I had to skip). I wish I could have stayed, but I did have to leave. At this point, I was also having to deal with scheduling arrangements for my lodging for the evening.

Up to this point, I haven't had much difficulty with the airbnb system. One of the difficulties of staying with people is that you're dependent on them for checking in - it's not like there is a desk open 24/7. Getting into Anaheim, my host for the 2 nights wasn't there when I got there, but she left her son with the key, which totally worked. When I booked this (North Hollywood) stay about 3 weeks ago (later than all of the rest because my friend that I was supposed to stay with was not going to be in town), I did tell him that I expected to arrive around 6PM. He didn't tell me that this would be a problem and instead said, "check in with me 24 hours prior to set up arrival time." As I expected, I totally forgot to do that yesterday while I was at Disneyland. So I contacted him earlier today and said "still expecting to show up at 6PM". At which point, he asked me to arrive earlier as he wouldn't be here at 6PM. I told him that was impossible because I had a Warner Bros Studio tour scheduled. His solution was for me to just come by before the tour. But because the Gamble House tour ran long, I didn't have the time (especially at the last minute) to alter my plans. He then tried to tell me that check in time was supposed to be at 3 PM (the reservation details only said that check in after 6 PM would be by special arrangement only). At this point, I was willing to just give up on it and find a hotel elsewhere, but I knew that I would lose the money I spent. I was frustrated and mad. Finally, just before I started my Warner Bros tour, he told me his friend would meet me at the house with the keys. Thank goodness. Still, so infuriating.

So after those couple of debacles, it took me a bit to get into a good frame of mind for the Warner Bros studio tour, which I was really looking forward to. But once we got onto the tram and drove onto the back lot, I couldn't help but love it. We started out with all sorts of exteriors, our tour guide Beau pointing out what buildings had been used for what movies and tv shows - the stoop that Carrie sat on smoking when they were in LA, exterior to the orphanage for the 1982 Annie, an alley way used in The Big Bang Theory, "Central Park" from where Phoebe and Rachel run in Friends, the town square in Gilmore Girls, Sookie's house in Gilmore Girls, Jack & Judy Geller's house in Friends, Miss Patty's dance studio in Gilmore Girls, the exterior of every embassy ever in The West Wing, ER bays from ER, the list goes on and on. We also got to go on the preserved set of the Friends Central Perk set. Because it is a retired set, even though it's copyrighted, we could take pictures in there and I even got my picture taken on the couch!!

If you know how much of a Friends fan I am, you'll understand how big of a thrill this was for me. Yes, I can still recite most episodes and it is totally my comfort show.

We also went onto the current set of the Ellen show and The Big Bang Theory. Because they're both current shows, we weren't allowed to take pictures, but they were quite cool. Someday, I'd like to come back to LA and go to at least one taping of a show. We also saw a bunch of cars from movies - my favorite was probably the Gran Torino from Gran Torino, but there were also Batmobiles there as well as the car from Harry Potter, the space capsule from The Big Bang Theory, and that car from The Dukes of Hazzard.

We ended the tour with a stop at the Warner Bros museum. The first floor was costumes and props from the entire history of Warner Bros studio. The second floor was all Harry Potter. I never made it to the second floor - I was too fascinated by everything on the first floor. The letter that Rachel wrote to Ross was there! 18 pages - front and back! Costumes worn by John Goodman, Ben Affleck, Joseph Gordon Levitt, Carey Mulligan, Leonardo DiCaprio, Clint Eastwood, Heath Ledger, Christian Bale, Elizabeth Taylor. I was in heaven!!

The tour cost $52 and was totally worth every penny. I would do it again tomorrow if I could. And I'd do other studio tours. More stuff on my to-do list for when I come back to LA.

After the tour concluded, I drove to my place to stay for the night (I'm in a guest house in North Hollywood - nice to have a space completely to myself for the night). I made my dinner from fruit, cheese, wine, and chocolate that I've collected over the past week or so. It's been a nice relaxing evening in catching up on the pictures and blog posts.

More wineries, farms, and history activities tomorrow. Looking forward to it!!

Day 16 - Disneyland

Just when my body was starting to get used to Pacific Time, I shocked it and set my alarm for 5AM to go to Disneyland. "Why so early?", you ask? Well, let's start months ago, with my amazing planning spreadsheet. I don't recall how much I've mentioned about my planning spreadsheet, but I adore it. It started out simply enough, about 3 1/2 years ago, it was just a list of all of the places that I'd like to go to on this theoretical trip. Over time, I added sheets to query Google Maps and calculate drive times between stops. Then I added in the times when establishments were open. I estimated the number of nights that I'd want to spend in each destination, put a couple constraints around dates when I wanted to be in certain locations, and started sketching out arrival and departure dates for each destination. For the "legs", or drives between destinations, I carefully planned out exactly what I could get done each day (one can only visit so many wineries in a given day). As I did this, exact dates came into focus and I started making my reservations.

The date for Disneyland was set as May 24, the Friday immediately prior to Memorial Day. Then, I found the best website ever - www.touringplans.com. I LOVE this site. I'm not sure how I found it, but once I did, it made me so happy. It is a site where you can plan out a schedule in Disneyland and/or Disney World. Yes, there was a membership fee, but it was totally worth it. Without a membership, you can get information regarding expected crowd levels and expected wait times at each attraction throughout any selected day. With a membership, you can also select which attractions you want to visit, what date you will be in the park, and your start and end times and the site will come up with an optimized schedule for you. You can then play around with the schedule and tweak it here and there. Needless to say, I LOVE this site.

So, months ago, when I first was investigating this, the crowd levels for both Disneyland and Disney California Adventure was expected to be about 3 or 4 out of 10 and the expected open times was something like 9 AM to 10 PM. Then, about 6 weeks ago, as I was making somewhat last minute arrangements, I checked again, and the information had totally changed. Crowd levels: 10 out of 10. Open times: 6 AM to 6 AM. And some special events were listed: Monsterous Summer and Grad Night. What the what?!?!? So I go look up details on the Disney site. Yup, they had decided that the day I was coming was going to be a 24-hour park day. I learned later that this is only the 2nd time they've done that. They did it last year for Leap Day and they decided to do it again as a big kick off to summer event. Plus, they were doing their annual grad night so high school graduates would get a certain portion of the park to themselves about 10 PM-3 AM, kind of a sober night out or something like that. Well, I was committed to that date, didn't have much wiggle room either way in my schedule, so I reworked my personalized touring plans on touringplans.com and based on the information they gave me, in order to get everything done that I wanted to, I would indeed have to start my day at the 6 AM opening time. Yikes.

So yesterday (I'm writing this post a day late, as I was too tired at the end of the day yesterday to write it), I got myself out of bed at 5 AM, showered, and drove over to Disneyland - I got to the park entrance by 5:45. The lines were already crazy long. Basically the lines to both Disneyland and Disney California Adventure were long enough that they met in the middle where there was a big stage set up. There were news cameras everywhere and just before they opened the parks, they shot off fireworks.

Then on the way in, there was a band playing right there and all the cast members were lined up along Main Street giving out high fives.

There was definitely an air of celebration. Oh, by the way, I never had ANY intention of making it 24 hours - not even close. My plan was to make it to about 10 PM.

The touringplans.com website has associated iPhone and iPad apps where you can load your personalized plan, check off items as you go and re-optimize on the fly. The plan includes when to get FastPasses and when to use them. What it doesn't take into account is the Single Rider Lines though (which are sometimes great, and sometimes not helpful at all). So armed with my personalized plan, I set off into Disneyland. The first couple hours, there were essentially no lines - I was checking items off quite quickly:
Peter Pan's Flight - ok, but pretty boring
Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters - ok, was starting to get into it
Space Mountain - oh my goodness, this is just as scary as I remember from when I was 10 at Disney World
Matterhorn Bobsleds - I was able to use the single rider line to skip a good portion of the line. Ride was fun
it's a small world - long and slow, but fun to see the engineering that went into it years ago
Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage - pretty slow, and sleep was threatening to take over
Star Tours: The Adventures Continue - I had a FastPass for this, but it didn't do me any good cause the line was still super short. Loved this.
Jungle Cruise - super cheesy.
Haunted Mansion - cool engineering, but not what an adult would call "scary". Oh, and it broke down for a bit in the middle of the ride and we had to just sit there and wait.
Pirates of the Caribbean - I don't actually remember much of this, I guess the animatronics were pretty cool
I then tried to use my FastPass at Indiana Jones Adventure, but it was down. I was nearing the end of the list of things to do in Disneyland (at 9:15 already), so I had to kill some time. I took a ride on the Columbia Steamboat, listened to a band, and finally got some clam chowder for "lunch". I made my way back to Indiana Jones hoping that it would be back up again, and it was. My FastPass paid off here, and I jumped a good portion of the line. I still waited a while and ended up in a car with four 12-year-old boys and 7 high school graduates. Joy. We boarded our car and took off. It was good, but not as great as it had been made out to me. But as we pulled into the unloading area, the operator said, "Do you all want to go again? You didn't get the full experience, your car malfunctioned." So we all said "sure!" They unloaded us, put us on a different car and we went through again. So glad we did. This time, the car rocked from side to side and forward and backward. So much more fun. Even with the young-ens.
On the way out, I went to The Disneyland Story presenting Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln. I wish I could tell you about this, but I'm pretty sure I slept through the whole thing.

About an hour ahead of schedule, at 11:30, I headed over to Disney California Adventure. I had to re-optimize my schedule many times throughout the day as things changed. Although I hit very few lines for the first 5 hours in Disneyland, DCA in the afternoon was much more crowded.
Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue!: was slow and would probably have been more interesting had I seen the movie. Oh, and the parents and daughter behind me in line - I was ready to kill them. The father was antagonizing his daughter for fun and she was getting so upset. And she had no manners at all (I wonder why). It was a mess.
Animation Academy: This was fun! I got to draw Piglet.
It's Tough to Be a Bug!: A 3D show about bugs that is "interactive" - they shoot water at you, your seat pokes you, etc. Somewhat fun, somewhat annoying
Disney's Aladdin - A Musical Spectacular: hmmmmmm. For some reason, I expected better performances. From a production point of view, there were some cool things - the elephant walking through the audience was great, the flying carpet was cool (even though it was completely obvious that it was body doubles up there rather than the actual lead actors). And the singing was good. But the acting was lackluster, except for the Genie, but he was overkill, even for the Genie, with a TON of pop-culture references. Oh, and did I mention that I fell asleep a few times throughout again?
Toy Story Midway Mania!: LONG wait for this, and no FastPass or Single Rider line. When I finally got up to the front (half an hour in line), they were not being very efficient in loading the ride - there were a lot of empty seats. This was a game ride, similar to the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, but this one was 3D with lots of different targets throughout. It was pretty fun (except when it seemingly broke down for a while in the middle of the ride)
California Screamin': I had a FastPass for this, and it helped, but it looked like the Single Rider line would have been even more efficient. There were only 1 or 2 people in the Single Rider Line. And boy, was this one scary. Once you load and get out of the loading area, the car stops and then there is a countdown until the car is propelled forward incredibly quickly and then up a hill and down a steep decline. All the while I was repeating, "Ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod". I like loops and curves and whatnot, but declines are scary as hell.
Twilight Zone Tower of Terror:  the line for this was quite long, so my FastPass really helped here. Once I finally got on the ride, I wasn't sure I was happy about it. They strap you in via a lap belt only - no shoulder restraint or anything. And then you go straight up and freefall down for a bit, back up and down and up and down. I think they randomize it so even if you ride it multiple times, you can't predict when you're going to drop. Scary, especially when you leave your seat at the top of each descent.
At this point, I was starving, and getting close to having everything on my list completed. So I stopped for some food over near Soarin' Over California.
My plan told me to get a Soarin' FastPass, but, like I said, I was ahead of schedule, so I decided to just go right for the Single Rider Line. Now, at this point, it seems like groups, especially groups of high schoolers, had discovered the Single Rider Line, so the Single Rider Line on Soarin' wasn't any faster than waiting in the regular line. The ride was pretty enjoyable once I finally got on though. It's basically an IMAX movie, where you're suspended in your seat with your legs dangling and the seats tilt to and fro.
Then it was up to Radiator Springs Racers. The FastPasses for this ride were completely out for the day at 11:30 when I first entered DCA, so that wasn't an option, so I went straight for the Single Rider Line, which was crazy long. I do think it saved me some time over the standard line, but not much. There were groups ahead of and behind me. Now these groups did get broken up into singles where they were needed, but it was still annoying since I was a true single and they weren't. I waited a long time for this (like 45 minutes or so), but the ride was really fun!
Exhausted, I had made it to about 5:30 PM, having been in the parks for almost 12 hours. Wine was necessary. I made my way over to one of the places where they served wine in order to rest and recharge. Had a glass of wine and some water and wondered if I was going to make it to the World of Color show at 9PM. The only other thing left on my list was The Bakery Tour, which isn't a ride at all, but really a tour of a Boudin Bakery where they make sourdough bread. I sat with my wine for a while and finally, around 6:30, decided that I wasn't going to make it, so I gave up my table and immediately after that found out that the parade was going to come right past there at 7PM. Oops. Oh well. Oh, while I was sitting there people watching, one of the people that I saw? Richard Simmons!

See him there on the left? His hair is thinning.

Anyway, I went through the Bakery Tour, considered going into the Ghiradelli shop, but my stomach was not at all interested in chocolate (crazy, right?), and decided to make my way to the exit. Oh, I forgot something earlier, when I was going from the Soaring over California to Radiator Springs Racers, I happened by a street performance by the Disney Newsies and Mickey. They sang Seize the Day, which made me really happy. Back the end of the day. I made my way back towards the park entrance. At one point, one of the cast members asked me if I was staying for the parade. I said no, I was calling it quits and she asked how long I'd been there. I told her I got there at 6AM, so at this point, I had been there about 13 hours. She gave me mad props.

Anyway, I did make it back to my car, got back to the condo where I was staying the night, and basically immediately collapsed into bed and slept for 12 hours. Long day, but good times all around. I didn't make it until the World of Color show and I do wish I had seen that, but I'm more glad that I got the sleep that I so desperately needed at that point.

Stay tuned - another post coming in imminently about today!

Day 15 - San Diego to Anaheim

Another great day today that featured some random activities and unexpected events. I left a couple hours earlier than I really needed to this morning because the couple I was staying with both had to get to work. So that meant that I got to really take my time coming up the coast. My GPS kept trying to have me take I-5 up, but, instead, I came up whatever road was closest to the coast. There were some great vistas. I stopped for breakfast at the Americana Cafe in Del Mar, which was fantastic - it had this great casual California feel to it.

I stopped at 2 wineries - Witch Creek Winery and Laguna Canyon Winery. Both were good. I finished up listening to Harry Potter book 3, so before I got to the Nixon Presidential Library, I parked outside a Starbucks and used their wi-fi to download book 4. I can download the files via 3G, but it's using up my data.

So from there, I made my way over to the Nixon Presidential Library, where apparently, something was going on. There were buses and news vans everywhere, signs saying that the parking lot was full, and giant banners saying "Welcome POWs." Uh oh. I didn't know about any event going on, so I was pretty hesitant at first, but found a parking spot, went in and confirmed that they were open to the public. I have a friend at home who works at the LBJ Library and she got me an LBJ Library Membership, which gets me into all Presidential Libraries. So great!! I love presidential history. So it took me a while, what with the place being mobbed, but I finally figured out why it was mobbed. At the end of the Vietnam War, one of Nixon's big initiatives was getting all of the POWs home safely. Once they were home, on May 24, 1973, he held a big reception for them and their families at the White House. So today, they were doing a 40th anniversary reunion & ceremony honoring that event. So there were a lot of POWs and their families there. It was really special just to be around them. I almost burst out in tears a few times throughout the day. Despite the fact that it was mobbed, I still got to see everything that I wanted to, including going inside the presidential helicopter that transported President Nixon after his resignation.

I stuck around for the beginning of the ceremony and saw some of the fly overs. I didn't want to stick around too long because I had places I had to be and didn't want to intrude on their ceremony, but I was honored to just be in their presence for a little while. They are truly American heroes.

After I left the library, I checked into the place I'm staying for the next 2 nights and then headed over to Long Beach for dinner with a college friend of mine. That was fantastic. I've said it before, and I'll say it again - it's so nice having friends scattered everywhere that I get the opportunity to see and catch up with.

Tomorrow - I'll give you 1 guess as to what I'm doing. I have to wake up at 5 AM, so I better work on getting some sleep.

Day 14 - San Diego

San Diego has long been on the short list of places where I would consider moving. Don't get me wrong - I adore Austin and have no intention of moving, but San Diego has always had an appeal to me. I got to explore the city today and it did not disappoint. I may have overdone it a bit though - my legs feel like total jelly.

I got a bit of a late start because I had to deal with laundry - mundane tasks like that don't disappear when you're on the road. So I got out of here around 10 AM and headed over to the start point for the walk. I had a little difficulty finding it because the hotel had changed names and there was also construction all around, but once I found it, it was smooth sailing. It was a bit chilly to start out, but warmed up throughout the day - never got unbearably hot though, so that was nice. I walked along the beautiful waterfront and past the maritime museum. Could be interesting, but I bypassed.

The walk took me right by the airport. I guess residents just get used to airplanes flying low over downtown as they make their final approach. It was bizarre for a while. I walked up Laurel street - I thought those types of hills only existed in San Francisco! And into Balboa Park. What a neat place. So many things to explore: lawn bowling, a japanese reflection garden, tons of museums, fountains, open spaces - it was really great.

From there, it was a bit of a long walk over to Petco park, through some uneventful neighborhoods. Petco Park was so cool! On most days between Sunrise and Sunset, they have a portion of the park open as an actual park. You can see the field from there, and it's actually a part of the ballpark. On game days, they close the area 4 1/2 hours before game time because it's then converted into the ballpark grounds and only ticketed fans can come in. So neat!

From the ballpark, I walked through a couple neat shopping & dining districts and went back over to the waterfront for a long walk along there - just so pleasant! Stopped for lunch and then continued on to the USS Midway Museum. I had seen it before and my brother was a helicopter pilot on an aircraft carrier for a while, so I've heard stories. Oh, and there's this fantastic PBS mini series called "Carrier" that shows what life is like on board an aircraft carrier (they were on the Nimitz) - if you haven't seen that documentary, I highly recommend it. I've watched it a couple times and think about it often. So the USS Midway is an actual formerly working aircraft carrier from the US Navy. It was active from 1945 to 1994. After decommissioning, it got moved here and has been converted into a museum showing what life is like on the carrier. They provide you with a self-guided audio tour and you can pick and choose what stops you want to hear about. I thought it was so well done.

I spent more time there than I had planned, so I finally finished up there around 3:15 and then finished up the remainder of the walk by 3:45. My legs were already exhausted, but I still had more to do. I headed over to the San Diego Zoo, which I had heard was really well done. Well, the zoo was scheduled to close at 6 PM, so I had less than 2 hours to see the entire park, which meant power walking the whole thing. So after walking about 8 miles on the "morning" walk and Midway tour, I then did an additional 3 miles power walking through the zoo. Got to see some really cool stuff though.

Then I met up with Jackie for dinner - we went to a restaurant called Lei Lounge. It was fantastic. And I'm now totally exhausted. I don't think I'm going to get all of my pictures uploaded tonight - I'll have to do that tomorrow night. Tomorrow I'm starting my journey north. Stay tuned for details!

Day 13 - Las Vegas to San Diego

Ahhhhhhh...... (that's the sound of relief, not of frustration. Frustration would be AHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!).

So after my less than amazing experience with Las Vegas, this morning I headed into California. I'll be spending a while in this state, so it was nice to finally get here. I left the house where I was staying at exactly 9AM (who's surprised? no one? yeah.). I then set out towards San Diego. The first 3 1/2 hours of the drive were pretty uneventful. I made a couple phone calls, listened to (and sang along to) the Next to Normal soundtrack, and listened to more of Harry Potter Book 3 (I'm about 2/3 of the way through).

Around 12:45, I hit my first winery of the day - Joseph Filippi in Rancho Cucamonga. It was decent. I also hit up Galleano in Mira Loma and Belle Marie in Escondido. Both good - nothing unexpected at either one. I went to a farm stand in Escondido as well - so nice to get some fresh, local fruit - the strawberries are amazing! And then I hit Orfila Winery - my oh my oh my. I want to live there. It is absolutely my favorite winery so far - friendly people, generous tasting portions, and a view to kill for. I took of advantage of being about 45 minutes ahead of schedule to relax and enjoy my time. I also busted out the fruit from the farm stand and the chocolate from Ethel M to try them along with the wine. So amazing! Oh, and they had cheese for sale, so, of course, I couldn't resist buying some. Here's a picture of the view:

After I was done there, I headed down to a restaurant on Shelter Island in San Diego. I met up with a friend of mine who I hadn't seen in about 4 years. I'm staying with her and her husband here in San Diego. She had a Junior League meeting tonight, so being a Junior League of Austin member myself, I was more than happy to tag along to the meeting and see how they do things. The ironic part is that I've never actually been to a May Junior League meeting because I always fulfill my general meeting credits by February. It was quite interesting how similar things are in how the meeting was conducted as compared to Junior League of Austin meetings. The outgoing JLA president said I got a gold star for going to a Junior League meeting while on my trip. :-)

After the meeting concluded, we went to dinner at the restaurant, Bali Hai - food was amazing and it was so great to catch up with an old friend and hear about everything going on in her life. I'm so fortunate to have friends scattered around the country (and world) that I am able to reconnect with, even when it's been years since we've seen each other.

Looking forward to being a tourist tomorrow!

Day 12 - Las Vegas

Better day today than yesterday. I started out with a breakfast at the Bellagio Buffet. It was pretty good, not amazing, but good. From there, I did the South Strip volksmarch, but shifted the start point to the Bellagio (I had pre-registered yesterday, so I already had the directions). As expected, the South Strip was more interesting than the North Strip, but it was still a long walk, especially as it got warmer outside. I went in a ton of casinos and saw the differences between them. You know, like I said yesterday, I'm not a big fan of Vegas. I know this is obvious, but everything here is so artificial. It's a city built out of nothing. I get amazed that people think they're going to hit it big - I mean, the city was built off of all the money that people lose when they're here. The tourism industry here just feels like it's trying to bleed people dry. As you walk down the strip, you're constantly accosted by people trying to sell you things. It's exhausting. Some pictures of the strip:

Anyway, I finished up with the walk around noon, and my massage wasn't scheduled until 3:00, so I decided to go back to the chocolate factory that I went to yesterday. It was up and running a bit today - I think they were making pecan brittle. I was much more interested in being there today than I was yesterday. So I ended up buying a bunch of chocolate.

Then I had my massage at A Touch of Las Vegas. I specifically chose a place that was off the strip, but not too far off the strip and I chose well. After all of this walking that I've been doing, my body is in a bit of a state of shock, especially my legs. Plus, with all the driving, I knew the massage would be good for my circulation. They did a great job there, and it didn't break the bank. Definitely recommend it.

Pretty low key night this evening. The people I'm staying with roped me into a in-home karaoke showcase, so that was fun. Besides that, just the routine evening activities and planning for tomorrow. I'm leaving Vegas in the morning and I'm excited that I get to see some friends again tomorrow evening.

Day 11 - Las Vegas

Oh my goodness, I am so exhausted. It is 12:30 pacific time and I'm just starting this. Maybe this at least will help my body adjust to pacific time, so I'll stop waking up at 6AM.

Today was...interesting. I've basically decided I'm not a big fan of Vegas. I started out the day with the North Strip Volksmarch. That basically entailed walking along the entire strip from Caesar's all the way up to the Stratosphere and going into many of the casinos. I'm hoping tomorrow's walk is better cause today's was pretty boring. Now a lot of that was probably because I started around 9:15 on Sunday morning - not much going on. I guess most everyone was hungover from the previous night, so the casinos were quite empty, the shops were all closed, and not much was going on. And north of about the Encore was just plain icky. It was the first time that I felt uncomfortable being alone at all. The fliers everywhere for strippers, the general litter everywhere - just not where I wanted to be.

I had hoped to go to Bouchon in the Venetian for breakfast, but it was near the end of the walk, so I had to pick up some food elsewhere. So anyway, I finished the walk just fine and then headed over to Ethel M Chocolate Factory. After the walk I had done, I wasn't really in the mood for it, and the factory wasn't up and running (I guess cause it was Sunday), so I didn't stay long at all - I may try again tomorrow, we'll see. From there, a much needed car wash and back to the house where I'm staying for a nap.

Then this evening I went out to the Bellagio. I started out by picking up my ticket for the performance of "O". Now, when I booked the ticket, it didn't occur to me that at this point, my body would still be on Central time. So I chose the 10:00 show rather than the 7:30. But when I picked up the ticket at 6:00, I was really regretting not having the early show. I was hungry - I never had lunch because I had a late breakfast, so found a place for dinner - Fix. It was good, but typical Las Vegas expensive. It seems like there are 2 types of restaurants here - expensive and cheap, nothing in between. So I had a few oysters and the Sea Bass with a shrimp risotto. It was great, but yeah, expensive.

Then it was my time to gamble. I had allocated about 2 1/2 hours and $200. Now, I'm a very practical person (aside from occasional footwear choices), so I can't really see spending much money on what is often a random-number generator. Blackjack there's at least some thought involved. Unfortunately, it took me only about an hour to get through the $200. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. But at that point, I still had an hour and a half before the doors opened and my cell phone battery was getting a little low. Oh, and my feet felt like they were going to explode (see previous comment about footwear choices). So, what to do? I people watched for a little while and then decided to play penny slots. I was able to stretch out $40 into most of the time, so that's good at least. My dad always describes gambling as variable-cost entertainment. Sometimes it costs a little per hour, sometimes a lot. My slot machine time was a lot less expensive than my blackjack time.

Finally, the doors opened for "O". I'm not usually all that interested in Cirque du Soleil shows, but I heard this was one was incredibly cool. And it was. The production values alone were insane. I, of course, was a little distracted by the technical details, but it was difficult not to be enraptured by the performances. There was some type of a story line which I barely followed, but I was more interested in the stunts anyway, which were incredible. So, yeah, go see it if you get a chance. Amazing show.

Must rest up for tomorrow - not as big a day as today, but I still need my rest.

Day 10 - Grand Canyon to Las Vegas

Before I do my minor report from today, I have an addendum from my Grand Canyon visit.


This story actually starts on Day 7, my first night at the Grand Canyon. I am always a very observant person, but when I'm alone, I am even more so. And when dining alone, I spend most of the time just people watching. I also make friends with everyone - the hosts, the wait staff, the bussers, the chefs, the managers, basically anyone that walks by.

So as I mentioned before, Wednesday was opening day of the Grand Canyon North Rim and the associated resort services. Apparently, there had been a glitch with the reservation system, so the dining room was overbooked and the staff was a bit overwhelmed. So during my meal, I watched the semi-chaos occurring around me. At one point near the end, a waitress was busing a table near me and couldn't carry everything, so she left a tray of dirty glasses on a chair, expecting to come back for them. She must have gotten distracted elsewhere because she never came back. 10 minutes or so later, a super handsome waiter picks up the tray, commenting that it was an odd place for it to have been left. I filled him in on exactly what had transpired. He reacted with surprise, "I didn't expect that level of detail." Yeah, well, that's me.

Fast forward to Thursday night dinner. I am waiting to be seated, and super handsome waiter (SHW) sees me and we smile and acknowledge each other. I end up seated right near that kitchen door, a prime spot for observing everything that's going on. SHW comes by and asks,"Are you an employee? Why do you look familiar?" I remind him about the tray from the previous night, and he's like, "Oh yeah, that's right." and he smiled and went back to work. I made lots of friends with the staff that night, chatting with everyone about this and that. They're all so nice.

So last night, the dining room was a bit chaotic again, but I got seated right at my reservation time, this time close to the bar - another prime location for me to chat with everyone. And who do I get as my waiter? SHW. We finally introduce ourselves officially, and he still seems pretty skeptical that I'm not a secret shopper or something, since I dine alone and know the entire staff by name already. And they know me. I've even changed my order because Chef Paul came out and recommended to me something different than what I had already requested. I assure SHW that I am indeed just a regular guest, but that I have just made friends with everyone. And to further emphasis my point, throughout the meal, various staff members come to talk to me about how I am and what my next plans are. Anyway, SHW does a great job with my meal, even though he had 5 tables where all the other waiters only had 4 (yes, I notice things like that). Unfortunately, I was so exhausted that I couldn't stick around much after I finished my meal and instead had to retire to bed. So, in conclusion, to my favorite, and the most handsome waiter at the Grand Canyon Lodge, Timothy, thank you for making my stay memorable.

Not a ton to report from today. I left Grand Canyon Lodge at 10 AM and drove to Vegas. The first portion of the drive was backtracking a good part of the drive in. But then I turned west and drove through Zion National Park. I know I visited Zion as a kid, but I have absolutely no memory of it.

It was really beautiful driving through there today, but pretty crowded. Cars everywhere. I also drove down through Virgin River Gorge. That was pretty as well.

I arrived in Vegas around 4 PM and have just hung out all evening. I had a ton of pictures from the past 5 days that I needed to organize and upload.

Big day tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Day 9 - Grand Canyon

Hey - remember that plan of mine to get out to the hiking trail early today? It didn't really work out. I mean, I woke up at 5:30 - I know, seriously?! But I refused to get out of bed that early. I mean, the dining room doesn't even open for breakfast until 6:30. So I dozed for a while and managed to stream some episodes of The Wonder Years and finally got up around 8:15. Got dressed and went to breakfast. A lot less crowded than yesterday. Had breakfast by myself and then headed out to the Kaibab Trail trailhead. This is the trail that goes down into the canyon from the north rim.

The trail is a total of 14 miles to the bottom. There are a number of landmarks along the way - many of which have water and/or restrooms. So you can plan out how far you want to go before starting down. Having a plan is a necessity because you need to take appropriate provisions. I decided to go down to Supai Tunnel, which is two miles down. I figured I'd take about an hour down and 2 hours back up. I was one of the slowest people out there. About half of the people that I came across were doing rim to rim or rim to rim to rim. Some were even RUNNING rim to rim to rim. Crazy people. I can't even imagine.

Well, as expected, the walk down wasn't too bad. The ground wasn't as packed in some areas as I'd like it and it was almost like walking on a beach. There was a nice breeze and since I started right around 9:30, it wasn't too hot. Yesterday when I hiked, I started with my fleece, but quickly took it off. I'm glad that I didn't take it with me today. It would have just been a pain and gotten me even warmer. The temperature does climb as you descend into the canyon. As a reference, the forecast today on the north rim was a high of about 65, on the south rim 70, and down in the depths of the canyon 95. The first checkpoint was 0.7 miles down - an overlook. Not too bad, but the next checkpoint wasn't until my 2.0 mile destination. As I descended more and more, I was seriously questioning my sanity for continuing. I kept justifying continuing because there was a water station down there. I didn't need a lot of water on the way down, but drank it all in order to prevent dehydration.

So I got to my destination, rested for a bit and filled up my water bottle. I then looked up at where I had to go and wasn't happy. 2.0 miles with an elevation climb of 1400 feet. Yikes. Do you know how long it takes to go 2.0 miles when you have to stop every 100 feet to catch your breath? Two hours and fifteen minutes, that's how long. It was really tough. And with people passing me all the time, I wasn't feeling too great about myself - especially those guys that were going rim to rim. Like I said, crazy people. But, I did make it back up. I guess I didn't really have much of a choice. Well, when I was really close to the top one of the mule guides was leading another mule down to drag out someone who was about 2.5 miles down, so I guess that may have been an option as well, but not a good option.

After I finished the hike, I went straight back to my cabin for a shower - god I was dirty. My shoes are now effectively brown. And then just hung out in my cabin for the rest of the afternoon. I have another dinner reservation tonight in an hour and a half and I'm just hanging out in the sun room until then. It's been really windy today and its supposed to get down to 32 degrees overnight. Yikes.

So one thing that I've noticed about traveling alone, especially staying in a resort like this for a couple of days is that I'm becoming friends with the staff. Last night after dinner, one of the staff members that I had only exchanged a couple of words with previously came up to my table and said,"so I hear you're taking a massive trip." I'm very observant, so I notice process things and talk to the staff about how service is going or whatnot. The executive chef and I have become buddies and he's made personal recommendations to me for all my meals. It is nice that the resort staff is so kind and helpful.

Leaving Grand Canyon tomorrow. It's been nice, but onto the next stop! Plus, I need my wifi back!

Day 8 - Grand Canyon

Lots of pretty pictures today (but you can't see any of them until I get to somewhere that has wifi). I woke up early this morning. I don't know if its just because of the time changes, or because I'm so busy during the days that I'm so tired at night and fall asleep earlier, or if I'm just getting to a point where I need less sleep, but try as I might, I haven't been able to sleep in much at all on this trip. So after a while of using in bed trying unsuccessfully to go back to sleep, I made my way over to the lodge for breakfast. I'm not sure what their seating system was, but it seemed like parties of 3 or 4 were getting seated before parties of 1 or 2, so I hooked up with a mom and son from Tennessee and had breakfast with them. I really ended talking with them.

From there, I got all my water and whatnot together and headed out for the day. First stop: cape final trail. When I got there at 9:30, there were only 2 other cars there. The trail is 2 miles one way (4 miles round trip) and takes you out to a couple beautiful lookout points. It started out with a pretty massive hill, and, honestly, about 2/3 of the way up, I almost gave up. I even turned around and walked a few steps back for a bit until I decided to press on and just take it slowly. It was pretty shady on the way out there and somehow right as I got out to the point, all sorts of people magically appeared. No idea where they all came from. I'm very nervous getting even barely close to the edge, even when there is a railing, and there were no railings out on this point. A group from New Zealand was out there at the same time as I was and they were fearless. Anyway, after a bunch of great pictures, I made my way back along the trail, running into a ton of people on the way. There were about 20 cars at the trailhead when I got back there.

I then went to Cape Royal and Walhalla Overlook. At Cape Royal, there is an overlook called Angel's Point, which was quite scary getting out to, even with the railings. Thought: how the heck did those railings get installed? Whoever installed them must have been crazy. But agin, a lot of great pictures and then I drove over to Point Imperial. Very little walking required at there overlooks. I think I liked the perspective of the canyon the best from Point Imperial. After I was done with all the sightseeing, I made my way back to my cabin for a much needed shower and nap. I'm currently hanging out in the lodge waiting for dinner and then I'm going to call it an early night. Doesn't seem that there are the massive dinner delays tonight like there were last night.

I know that I said that I was going to walk into the canyons today and then stay on the rim tomorrow, but with the elevation up here, I wanted to stay on the rim today to give my body a little bit more time to adjust. Tomorrow, I'll be walking down into the canyon - not too far. I'm planning on going down to Supai Tunnel, which is 2 miles in. I'll take plenty of water and take my time. They say to plan to spend twice as much time coming back up as it takes to go down, so I'm planning an hour down and 2 hours back up. The walk back from Cape Final was definitely starting to get quite warm, so I'll try to get a bit of an early start tomorrow (shouldn't be too difficult since I am apparently incapable of sleeping in).

One week in: reflections

Well, so far it's been a great trip. I was out on a hike this morning and thought to myself, "I'm so glad I'm doing this trip." And I love the fact that I'm doing it alone. I can do exactly what I want to do at every moment. If I want to sleep, I sleep. If I want to be a tourist, I do touristy things. If I want to hike, I hike. I love it.

I've always been independent. For various reasons in various situations, I've basically always had to be. And I love that. I love being independent. I love not being dependent on anyone. I love doing exactly what I want to do when I want to do it. But just cause I like being independent doesn't mean that I like being alone. I'm a very social person. And that's coming out a lot on this trip. I talk to a lot of people. In some ways, I'm getting a little sick of having the same conversation over and over again. I do love talking about my trip though. Most everyone is really surprised, and then supportive, and then sometimes offers suggestions. Some I dismiss cause I know they just won't fit into my plans. Others I take under serious consideration. I know that most people mean well when suggesting things.

I often get asked if I get lonely in the car by myself. So far, I haven't. I am pretty good company to myself. I listen to my audiobooks, talk to myself, give imaginary speeches, sing along to carbon leaf and show tunes, and generally keep myself amused.

You know, I got my heart broken pretty severely about 2 years ago. And in some ways, I feel like I'm still trying to get over that. A lot of people have asked me what the "goal" of this trip is, and I never defined one, other than to experience each moment for what it is and to enjoy everything as much as possible. But I think, in a lot of ways, this journey is a moving forward for me. I described this trip not as a vacation, but as a chapter. And I think that maybe it is simultaneously the final chapter in my last book and the first chapter of my next book. It's the turning of the page and acknowledgement that maybe, possibly, I may be ready for something new. I don't know what my next chapter is, but I do know that, so far, this chapter is pretty great. I think I'll keep writing it and see where it leads.

Day 7 - Grand Junction to Grand Canyon

I'm sitting here in the dining room of the Grand Canyon Lodge at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Today is opening day for the north rim, so there have definitely been some major hiccups (I had a 7:30 dinner reservation and actually got seated around 8:45), but its good to be back after about a 20 year absence. 

I left Brenda's house this morning around 10:00 and made my way over to Two Rivers Winery. They opened for tastings at 10:30, so I was a couple minutes early. I had a great tasting there and spent a while talking to Brittany, one of the owners. She and her husband are from Austin! So of course we had a lot to talk about. 

I left there and continued west on I-70. I drove through some absolutely beautiful hills and canyons. No wifi he at the north rim, so I can't post my pictures yet, but I took a TON. I think I stopped at all but one "view area." So many cool things to see. Once I turned off of I-70 onto US-89, there wasn't as much cool stuff to see, but it wasn't a really difficult drive. I finished listening to Harry Potter book 2, I talked to my mom on the phone for a while, and I listened to some show tunes. Good times. 

Coming into the Grand Canyon, I bought an inter agency annual pass. Even though I'm only going to 3 national parks and a couple national forests, it still makes sense financially. For whatever reason, I was getting nervous as I got closer and closer to the lodge, and when I finally saw the actual cabin, I was close to tears. It was just so....so breathtaking. Check in went pretty smoothly and I found my cabin without issue. After minor unpacking, I came down to the lodge and took a couple pictures of the canyon. I got a glass of wine and attempted to sit out on the porch, but I was in the shade and it was quite chilly, so I waited inside. I checked in at 7:00 for my 7:30 reservation and realized at that point that they were running significantly behind. I heard rumors that there were a few employees that didn't show up or that somehow, they had significantly overbooked, but regardless, they said that they were running about 45 minutes behind. Quite quickly, trays of hors douvres appeared in the sun room and the chef and waiters were encouraging everyone to help themselves. At least they handled it well. Some people were really upset, but what can you do? I finally got seated at 8:45. My table would have a great view if it were still light out (no daylight savings time in Arizona, so the sun goes down earlier). Before I got seated, I chatted briefly with the executive chef and he recommended the tuna. It is quite good. The citrus rice pilaf is fantastic. 

Plan for tomorrow is breakfast here in the lodge and then hiking down into the canyon. I think I'm going to go down 2 miles to Supai tunnel. Elevation is quite high here, so I'm going to take my time and drink lots of water. Then a nice relaxing late afternoon and dinner in the dining room again tomorrow night. Lets hope they learn from tonight's experience. 

Day 6 - Denver to Grand Junction

Well, I'm pretty tired tonight, so I'm not going to write much. I left Denver this morning and drove west. I ping-ponged back and forth between US-6 and I-70. US-6 had some really pretty views, going through Clear Creek Canyon Park and later over Loveland Pass.

I hit Palisade, Colorado around 2:30 and had a number of wineries to hit. I ended up going to 4 wineries and one lavender farm that had all sorts of balsamic vinegars, olive oils, cheese, and jams. I definitely stocked up.

Oh, and as I was driving, I recorded What About Everything, by special request from Buford. I did much better than at karaoke the other night. I can't get the YouTube to embed, so here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDZA20BsE48

Tonight I'm staying in Grand Junction, Colorado with an airbnb reservation, staying in a guest room. It's 6:45 and I'm so ready to go to sleep!

Day 5 - Denver

Today was yet another great day. I must say, I'm pretty proud of my planning - so far everything I've done has been really great.

I started out this morning with a tour of the Hammond's Candy Factory. I forgot to take a picture of the building, and we weren't allowed to take pictures inside, so oops. I got there just before the 9:30 tour. There were 3 of us on the tour. All of Hammond's Candies are handmade at this one factory and they ship all over the world. It's amazing how much they're able to make by hand. They make a TON of various types of candy canes as well as ribbons and lollipops and other assorted sugar based candies. They also make chocolates and truffles. We saw 2 rooms - the cook room and the packaging room. In the cook room, it is always quite warm, about 85-90 degrees all the time. They make a batch of candy in a copper pot and heat it up to 324 degrees. Then they pour it onto a tray and add color and flavoring. They may put it on the pulling machine in order to modify the color if necessary. Then they mold the various colors into a block and it goes over to the twisting station. There, a pair of people will twist, cut, and form the candy into its shape. The candy then proceeds into the packaging room.

The packaging room is much cooler - around 66 degrees. In this room, the candies are individually packaged and sealed by hand. The appropriate stickers are applied to each candy and then the candies are packaged into shipping containers. They work on getting ready for the Christmas season all year round. There were no chocolates being made while I was there. Everything I saw was incredibly interesting. I had a ton of questions about process and forecasting. Also, the tour was free! You can't beat that. Although I did end up buying $20 worth of chocolates afterwards.

I was at the candy factory for about an hour, and then I drove downtown for the capitol volksmarch. This was a really good walk. It started with a loop through the Auraria campus.

Then it went over to Centennial and Confluence Parks. That area reminded me a lot of the Town Lake trail. Lots of trails around the river with a lot of joggers and cyclists. Biggest difference is that the whole path here was paved.

I stopped for lunch at My Brother's Bar and had a jalapeno cream cheese burger with fries and onion rings. Super tasty!!! The hefeweizen helped too. From there, the walk took me over Millennium Bridge:

Where I saw one of my favorite signs ever:

From there, it was up to Coors field, where I was super excited to take a tour. We got to see suites, the press box, the press club, the club level, the visiting clubhouse, and go out to field level through the umpires' tunnel. We weren't allowed on the grass, but we were allowed to go into the dugout and everything. It was amazing!!!! I got so excited to see the visitors' clubhouse especially - knowing that that's where my Phillies are when they're in town.

After the Coors Field tour, I continued on the rest of the Volksmarch, which essentially consisted of getting over to the Capitol building. Once again, I didn't get to take a tour of the Capitol (last tour was at 3:00 and I didn't get there until about 4:30), but I walked around and took a bunch of pictures.

After finishing up the walk (which claimed to be 11km, but according to my calculations was more like 12.5km), I drove over to Michelle's work and met her and her boyfriend there. The three of us went out to dinner, drove back to her house, and walked over for ice cream at Dairy Queen. A really really great day.

Tomorrow, I'm driving to the west of Denver, hitting up a few wineries in Clifton and Palisade and spending the night in Grand junction. It should be a pretty easy day.