Day 13 - CA

So, in the morning we did the very touristy area of San Francisco, Fisherman's Wharf. Erik took us for our very first In n' Out Burger experience, which was really good! We both got Double Doubles with milkshakes.

Then we walked over to the Museum Mechanique, which is a collection of old video games and coin operated machines pretty much since they were invented. The most interesting ones were the executions. You would put in a quarter and a door would open to an execution, like a hanging or a guillotine. I am not sure why something like that would have been made, but they were interesting to see. There was this fortune telling machine there that typed up a fortune for you on an old typewriter that gave really accurate fortunes to Erik, Tommy and myself. It was eerie.

After leaving the museum, we drove Erik to work, where he treated us to homemade lemonade. Then we were off. We decided to take the Golden Gate Bridge, even though it was out of the way. It is crazy how foggy it gets. We took a video going over that we will post soon.

Unfortunately, because of crazy amounts of traffic, we did not make it very far at all. After sitting in traffic for about 3 hours, we decided to pull off the highway and go to the movies. If you ever find yourself in Fairfield, California, I highly recommend the Edwards Cinema. Great theater. We saw Inglourious Basterds, which was a really fun movie. Better than we both expected. After the movie, we drove a little while longer but we didn't get very far before we were both exhausted. We ended up stopping in Rancho Cordova, CA to sleep for the night, which was probably a lot smarter than driving while exhausted.

Onward to Nevada!

Days 11 & 12: San Francisco

San Francisco is a beautiful city! Plenty of cool, independently owned shops, great restaurants, beautiful views.

Yesterday morning, we ventured out into the surrounding neighborhoods after Erik and I altered our beards for maximum stupidity. First stop was the park at Alamo Square across the street from Erik's house. From there you see the famous "Painted Ladies" or as people our age know them as, "The Full House Houses." There was also a cool "shoe garden" where people brought their old pairs of shoes to plant in them. Then, Erik showed us around Haight St., which is the big hippie area in the city and where the whole "flower power" scene started. We checked out all sorts of cool shops and had lunch at a great greasy spoon called The Pork Store, which was very excellent. There was an enormous music store that I could have spent hours in called Amoeba Records, but, luckily for everyone involved, I didn't. We continued our walk through the Pan Handle and then back to the house where we hung out for the evening.

The next day Erik went to work and Alicia and I walked walked in the general direction of the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a long and hilly walk but the weather was very nice like a warm Fall day. We spotted an interesting building in the distance and decided to check it out. It turned out to be the Palace of Fine Arts. It was a beautiful curved structure with statues and columns bordering a pond. We saw a sleeping owl, too. Inside the actual building was a science museum called The Exploratorium.

We finally made our way to the beach and got a good view of the bridge as huge billows of fog rolled in. The way fog hangs over the city is really interesting. When we drove into the city, we drove into a fog cloud. From where we were on the beach we could see the dividing line. The bridge and everything to the left was gray while Alcatraz and the wind surfers were brightly lit by the sun, We walked along the shore of the Bay for a while. From there we walked to Erik's restaurant, Rose's Cafe, for dinner. The food was awesome and we were treated very well. We tried beets and prosciutto with melon, fresh spaghetti and steak. With full bellies we leisurely walked back to the apartment, checking out a few stores along the way. We walked down Fillmore Street and they were playing Iron Man in Fillmore Center, so we sat down to watch for a few. By the time we got back we were so beat, we couldn't keep our eyes open.

So, without further ado, here are the pictures (including the beard before and afters): San Francisco

Days 9 & 10 - Arizona to California

So, on our last day in the Grand Canyon we took a walk down to see the mules and took one last look at the Canyon. We were pretty sad to leave it, but also very excited about the rest of the adventure.

So, we left the Grand Canyon and pointed the car towards San Francisco. On the way, we drove down the longest stretch of Route 66 that has survived. There were plenty of kitschy, cheesy stores and diners that were left in the few towns that existed on this stretch.

We decided to stop at The Grand Canyon Caverns, which is an underground dry cavern. When you pull up, you are greeted by a giant T-Rex sculpture (which has nothing to do with the Caverns since they never found any dinosaur fossils there). They had a great greasy spoon restaurant inside, cowboy gunfights on horseback, a motel and a curio shop. It was exactly what you would expect from a roadside attraction on Route 66. We decided to take a tour of the caverns and we ended up with the best tour guide, Ron. Ron has probably worked at the Caverns for 50 years and given the same tour a million times, but he definitely still enjoys it and cracks up at his own jokes. The caverns themselves were beautiful. As soon as you got out of the elevator, the change in pressure was instantly evident. If I spent a week down there I would probably come out a foot shorter. There were tons of entertaining tidbits, like it's call the Grand Canyon Caverns because the air actually comes in from the Grand Canyon, which is almost 150 miles away. I highly recommend stopping at the Grand Canyon Caverns if you find yourself on Route 66.  The rest of Route 66 was exactly what you would expect, lots of nothing with a few curio shops, gas stations and an Indian Reservation. It was beautiful.

We spent the rest of the day driving towards California. One thing I have to say about Arizona is that it was probably our favorite place to drive through so far on our journey. It was beautiful and had everything from forests that looked like Vermont to deep deserts to craggy mountains to rolling, grassy hills. I can understand why so many people are moving there.

We didn't drive for as long as we intended towards San Francisco because we were pretty exhausted. We ended up stopping in Barstow, California and staying at the Quality Inn there. I know I am probably going to sound like an ad, but the staff at the Quality Inn was the most friendly and accommodating I have ever encountered. They must have thought we were undercover hotel reviewers or something. The hotel had a great courtyard with grills, outdoor fireplaces, picnic tables, fountains and a pool. It was pretty swank and pretty cheap.

We left Barstow first thing in the morning after our sweet free breakfast and started towards San Francisco. Unfortunately, our drive through California was not quite as scenic as some of our other drives. Everything seemed to be farmland or industrial plants. Although, on the California hilltops we saw lots of wind farms and some of the winding roads through the hills were very nice.

We arrived in San Francisco around 7:00 and spent about a half hour trying to find a parking spot, which seems like an authentic San Francisco experience. We are staying with Tommy's brother, Erik, who lives in a fantastic neighborhood right near the house and park from Full House. We went to a great pizza place, Little Star, and got a few delicious deep dish pizzas. We went down the street to a bar where we got to meet some of Erik's friends, who all had great suggestions for the drive back east.

Now we are about to head out to see the sights in San Francisco, but first I have to wait for Tommy and Erik to finish shaving because they decided they wanted funny beards. I will be sure to post before and after pictures later for your amusement.

To tide you over, here are some pics from Arizona, Route 66 and Eastern California.

Days 7,8 and 9 - TX to AZ

So, we haven’t updated in a few days, mainly because we haven’t really had access to wireless internet and because we’ve been pretty busy seeing the sights!

After staying in El Paso, we drove to Las Cruces, NM which was only about an hour’s drive. In Las Cruces we stayed with Chrissy and Dallas Rodriguez with their adorable 3 year-old daughter, Maddie. While there, we pretty much crashed. They made us great burgers and let us crash at their house. All this driving has exhausted us, so it was good to have a relaxed day. 

We left Las Cruces early Saturday morning to head to the Grand Canyon.  We made a quick pit stop in Truth or Consequences, NM (isn’t that a great name for a town!) to have Sonic for breakfast after a recommendation from Chrissy. It was pretty good. If you go to Sonic, get the tater tots instead of fries!

Anyways, the drive through New Mexico was pretty cool. The GPS took us way off the beaten track to get us onto 40 west from 25 north. We took route 6 for about 30 miles through these amazing farmlands and we were the only car on the road for the most part (with the exception of a white minivan that was driving dangerously close to us for the last few miles). Route 6 was part of Route 66, which we could have continued on, but we were really hankering to get to the Grand Canyon. As we were leaving New Mexico, we started to see these signs for an Indian village right over the Arizona border that kept boasting about the great photo opportunities. Like idiots, we didn’t stop and we totally regret it. It was these small Indian shops right off the highway built about 20 feet in front of the foot of a mountain. There were all sorts of caves and beautiful scenery, but we only got to see it from the car because we missed the exit. Heed this advice: if you are driving from New Mexico to Arizona on Route 40, get off at that first exit to see this village. It will be worth it, we assume.  We drove by a few more reservations and villages, but that one looked like the best.

So, after a few hours, we were off the highway and on another isolated road leading us to the Grand Canyon. I’m surprised we didn’t explode with anticipation on this last 55-mile leg. At long last, we found our hotel, checked in and made the way to our cabin.  When they said that we had a view of the rim of the Grand Canyon when I booked this cabin, they forgot to mention that it was probably the best view in the whole park. I kid you not when I tell you that we are about 20 feet from the rim.  For the first half hour we just sat there and stared out the window and played with our fireplace (Tommy is very easily amused by our electric fireplace). The cabin is really amazing. After we got over the initial shock, we deciding to take a hike so we walked a few miles around the rim to the west of the hotel. We probably could have made it further, but it was hard to not stop every 5 feet to take a picture. When people have said that pictures don’t do the Grand Canyon justice, they really meant it. As the sun went down, the shadows changed, giving you a completely different view every few minutes. And every few feet you walked, you could see some new angle or new detail you didn’t see before. It sounds corny, but it really is breathtaking. We went to dinner at one of the many restaurants in the village. It was cafeteria style and packed. We have also probably heard every language spoken on earth since we’ve been here. On the walk back, I am surprised I didn’t fall into the Grand Canyon because I could not stop staring up at the stars. We could see the whole Milky Way. I even saw a meteor. It was great!

In the middle of the night Tommy got up to get a drink of water and was looking out the window at the stars.  After a few minutes he realized there was a deer in the darkness about three feet away from him eating from the tree outside the window.  He woke me as quietly as he could and I sleepily watched it as it walked away.

Today, we woke up at around 8:00 and had a quick breakfast before heading out onto the trail. We loaded up a backpack with water and Gatorade and headed east along the rim trail. It was just as breathtaking today and the weather has been perfect. There hasn’t been a cloud in the sky since we arrived and the breeze really keeps it cooler than you’d expect. I made Tommy nervous a few times by getting too close to the edge, but it is hard not to. There are so many things to see so you want to take it all in from every angle. Again, we stopped every few feet to take a picture.

We even saw some animals, namely lizards, deer, hawks, friendly squirrels, chipmunks, and I even saw a mountain goat while I was standing too close to the edge for Tommy’s liking. There was one point where there was a rock that jutted out over a huge deep precipice so we went right to the edge on our hands and knees and looked over. It was super scary, but was a great view. Also, of course even though we were both wearing SPF 50 sunblock, I got a horrible sunburn on my shoulders and my forehead. Oh yeah, and apparently President Obama was here today, but we didn’t get to see him. We could have walked right past him and not realized it because our eyes barely strayed from the canyon itself. After coming back to the cabin and having lunch, we rested for a bit watching reruns of Alf. Then we caught the shuttle to Hopi Point to watch the sunset. There were tons of people there, because apparently that is the best place to see it, but we hiked down a little and found a great spot right on the edge. We even recorded it and I will try to upload it on YouTube. The video can’t do justice to how beautiful it was. From Hopi Point we were also finally able to get our first real view of the Colorado River at the bottom of the canyon. It is so hard to believe how far down it really is.

Now we are off to dinner and to stare at the stars some more. If we could move into this cabin I think we would.

Here are all the pics for the past few days: West Texas, New Mexico and Arizona (keep your eyes peeled for a mountain that looks just like Jabba the Hutt) and Grand Canyon.

RANDOM POINTS OF INTEREST:

-we saw the fence between Mexico and USA.  I could hop it in a wheel chair.

-we passed a border patrol inspection station, but our blinding white skin and MA plates made us a low threat.  We didn’t appear to be illegal Mexican immigrants or drug mules.

-speaking of mules, “MULE X-ING” signs are hilarious

-there are some great town names like Truth or Consequences, Two Guns, and Elephant Butte.

-Flagstaff, AZ looks like Vermont

-Cactus Jack does not great you as you drive into Truth or Consequences.

-Almost a thousand miles of desert terrain and no live armadillo sightings.

-since we saved a couple of hours by bypassing Albuquerque we couldn’t say we “took a left at Albuquerque” like Bugs Bunny.

-you can buy a brand new two floor, four bedroom house in New Mexico for $177,000

-squirrels are either very vain, or they know there will be a food reward if they pose for pictures.

-Even though there were signs warning of “controlled fires” in the area, we have seen nonstop smoke and flames on the North Rim across from our cabin since we got here, which makes me think that these fires aren’t as “controlled” as they say.