Pictures

Here are more pictures from the ltrip. These are from Arches National Park, a beautiful desert park with rock formations carved out by various things... I don't remember. You can look it up if you truly are interested. Anyway, it's in Utah, and it was the only redeeming thing about that hot, dry, and barren state. In case you were interested, I had blood in my nose for the last 6 days of my trip or so. It was very unpleasant. The Pacific Ocean and the Pacific Coast truly is the oasis from the western desert.

If You're Going to Los Angeles, Be Sure to Wear...?

We have arrived. 3600 miles after we started, we are finally in La La Land. The weather has been bizarre here, cloudy and chilly at times during the day, but it might be just the fact that I'm not used to living by the beach anymore since my parents moved inland, away from the Jersey Shore. I just always expect LA to be hot, clear, and dry.

So, where did I leave off? Ah yes, Tonopah, Nevada. Well, after our free hotel room experience, which was great, because we loved the room in addition to having it be free, we drove the treacherous passage up to Yosemite National Park and arrived in Curry Village. We stayed in a tent cabin, which was way nicer than I had anticipated it being. However, the campsite was loud, with many small, obnoxious children running about. One child was climbing on my bike, but when I asked various parents to put a leash on him, they initially denied the child was theirs, but then conceded. He had also thrown a slushie on the ground by our tent. This normally would not be a problem, but in a national park, there is wildlife. We were so paranoid and cautious about bears that we locked our food away in lockers and threw our trash out in bear-proof trash cans. Thus, I was sure the slushie would attract a bear and convince him to eat us in our little tent cabin. Needless to say, that did not happen, and we lived to tell the tale.

Beyond our little camping village, the scenery was beautiful. There was a great deal of the two main ingredients in a national park: water and trees. I feel that every national park should have water and trees. When we went to Arches National Park, it was beautiful, but it got old quickly because it was hot and we were surrounded by red rocks. I never get tired of water and trees. It could be that green and blue are my two favorite colors, but mostly, it's the contrast of green trees with blue water and a light blue sky that really makes me happy.

In our time at Yosemite, we saw a bear cub, caribou, a moose, and thankfully, not many bugs to detract from my time there. On the main day we were there, July 3, we took a 7-mile hike up to Vernal Falls and Nevada Falls beyond that. It was long and parts were quite challenging, but it was totally worth it at the top of Nevada Falls. Pictures are coming tomorrow or the next day. The weather was spectacular, and the water from the falls kept us cool. When we got to the top of Nevada Falls, I dunked my head in the pristine - and frigid - waters, and it felt amazing. It was the only thing keeping me alive for the long hike down. We went a different way, so it was shorter than I had worried it might be, and much easier than the 4 hours up, but still, we were exhausted and hot by the time we got back to Curry Village. We ate an entire pizza in silence and then did showers after relaxing a little in the cabins. It was great to use our bodies again after 8 days in the car.

After Yosemite, I went straight to the wedding rehearsal in preparation for my best friend from high school's wedding. A and S were married on July 5, and I played during the ceremony with the organist/pianist. It was good to see my friend again, and the organist and I and my better half got along very well. Instead of going to the rehearsal dinner after 5 hours of practice, we went to a taco place to have beer and tacos instead, which was great. Good bonding time for the three of us. The gf sat through our rehearsing and the actual rehearsal, so she knew the whole procedure, and in fact, she got a chance to lead the congregation in song during the bride's favorite hymn, How Beautiful. Thus, my atheist girlfriend led a Lutheran congregation in the singing of a hymn about the beauty of the body of Christ. It was hilarious and amazing.

The wedding itself was a great deal of fun - I'll have pictures of that to come as well. It was fun, everyone was smiling and loving and happy, and no one was drunk and acting like an idiot. Thus, the perfect wedding. (~: It was mostly my friend's college friends (who knew the bride and groom together), with a few of us who had gone to high school with A. The maid of honor was a good friend of mine from high school with whom I had sort of lost touch in the recent years. She and I caught up and spent a decent amount of time together. She met my girlfriend and said she liked her a lot, which was nice to hear. We decided to be better at this communication thing, so we can't fall out of touch again.

After the wedding, we had brunch with the bride's family and the wedding party, which was even more fun than the wedding reception (at least for me - fewer people, more attention paid to me and my wit, haha), and then we drove home to Los Angeles. We were going to take the Pacific Coast Highway (Route 1), but sadly, there are forest fires all along the highway and it is closed by Santa Barbara and Big Sur. Apparently, they are quite out of control, which is sad. Anyway, after a hot, trafficky drive, we got here in one piece.

So, overall, a lovely trip, few fights, we're still together and lovey, no tickets, no flat tires, and all of my stuff is in good shape. No casualties of any sort. So, now the two of us have done the two hardest tests of relationships: extended travel and long distance. What could possibly get in our way now in our future lives together???

Alright, that is all for now. Like I said, pictures to come.

Free Hotel Rooms Rock!

We are now in Nevada, and there is gambling everywhere. The hotel has a casino in it. At first, we thought the place was just super cheesy, but as it turns out, we gambled for a free stay, and we won! I rolled a three of a kind in the giant dice cage thing, and we didn't have to spend $70 on a hotel. It was cool. Feeling lucky, we played the slot machines and promptly lost $4. Oh well. That's life.

We have a great room, and I'm looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow and heading out to Yosemite tomorrow.

Oh, and I'm completely happy and in love. We had a great day today, even though it was a long one.

Altitude and Attitude

Today we drove through Rocky Mountain National Park after spending a wonderful night with a friend and her various family and visiting friends in Fort Collins, Colorado. We had a great time, but we did not anticipate it taking 5 hours to drive through grueling and altitudinous Rocky Mountain National Park. Now, don't get me wrong, it's gorgeous, and there are lots of cool animals, great views, and spectacular cliffs, but does it really have to be that high? Both the gf and I got sick or faint-y, so we took it slow, drank lots of water, took pee breaks, and finally made it to the 12,183 ft mark in the park. It was cold up there. On the way down, we saw a bighorn sheep, a moose or two, some caribou, and pretty birds. We also saw lots and lots of trees (but we kept our sights on the forest, ha ha).

Originally, our plan was to make it to Fillmore, Utah, but that fell through when we realized how late it was and that we had over 400 miles to drive and it was not going to happen. We did, however, have a great drive through canyons and over the Colorado River many times. After eating, I came out of my hissy fit and woke up a little. That helped all around.

By the way: do we really need signs denoting the same river each bridge you encounter? Can't you figure out that the massive river you passed 10 miles back is the same massive river? Silly local governments wasting our hard-earned tax monies. (Now I sound like a Republican.)

Ok, a few more pictures, and I'll write more tomorrow or whenever I can. Farewell.

I'm All Over the Place!

Here's us driving past Mount Rushmore. That's half of Teddy Roosevelt. Not his best picture, I'd say.













Here's me by Washington's profile.























Here's me in the Badlands.








Here, I'm at Pactola Lake in the Black Hills.

















And here is some animal's butt in Rocky Mountain National Park.

Badlands and Black Hills

Today we "hiked" through the Badlands on Castle Trail, which was a glorified walk in truth. I was tired afterwards only because I had previously been sitting for at least 14 hours a day. Then, I slept for the rest of the time. Thus, the toughness. Anyway, it was pretty, and we took pictures, but then we got bored and ignored the rest of the 5-mile trail to go to the Black Hills.

On our way to the Black Hills, we took the driving tour of the rest of the Badlands, called the Badlands Loop. On that, we drove down a super dusty dirt road for 25 miles, covering everything inside and out in a fine, red dirt. The upside though was that we got some great views and we saw bison!! They are HUGE, so that was cool.

After that, the combination of too much sun, too little food, and dirt got the best of us, and my better half and I didn't really have many nice things to say to each other. I was pissier, so it's really my fault - but I really hate being dirty.

Beyond that, we saw some beautiful views of the Black Hills. Sadly, the camera had run out of batteries by early on in the park, so we neglected to get pictures of Mount Rushmore, Custer State Park, or Jewel Cave. However, we will be taking a loop back through the forest tomorrow and I will be putting the camera to work overtime.

We braved the mass of mosquitos to get the camera charger tonight, so now it is charging, and we will have cool pictures to show tomorrow.

Currently, blogger is sucking and will not let me upload pictures to this post, so I'll make more pictures available tomorrow if I can. If not, I'll put everything up on Facebook when I get a chance. Hang in there, peeps!

Welcome to the Badlands

So quick post before I go to bed, exhausted and having killed about 7,000 mosquitos with the bottom of my flip flop.

Yesterday, we took a tour of Cleveland, which was neat, and we saw the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Cleveland Clinic (which is HUGE), and Lake Erie. Of course, before that, we enjoyed watching the open skate at the Cleveland Heights Rec Center. The gf's friend taught a skating lesson there to some girl, which was fun to watch and presumably fun for him to do as well.

After Cleveland, we headed for Chicago, getting there during rush hour. But, we made it, and we had a lovely time with my friend C in Chicago. We had dinner, talked, caught up, and exchanged stories of people from college and what they were doing now.

Since C goes to work at 6:40 in the morning, my better half and I left Chicago then also. We originally were going to head to St. Paul to stay with a friend, but for various reasons, that fell through. It worked out for the better, though, since because of our early start this morning, we made it all the way to the BEAUTIFUL Badlands of South Dakota after a great dinner and wonderful day of driving. We drove through one time zone into the next in 26 hours, so about 900 miles of driving tonight.

The Badlands are amazing. Whomever told me there was nothing to see in South Dakota, mainly my brother, who has never been, was dead wrong. This park is gorgeous, adn after some hiking, we're goingt o check out the Black Hills as well, which I'm sure will be just as beautiful. I also enjoyed the drive through the state tremendously. It's beautiful and vastly different from anything I've ever seen before. Wide open, green, and you can see thunderstorms coming from 50 miles away. Amazing. I'm telling you: go.

Pictures tomorrow, I promise. I can't open my door right now because we'd be invaded by mosquitos. For reals. Ta ta.