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And they said Sacramento wasn’t cool

Published by Cassie

Today we made the haul from SoCal to Sacramento to visit my aunt and uncle. But before I get to everything we did, I want to share the story about how I met them.

Almost 10 years ago, I met my Uncle Russ, Aunt Charisse and their daughters Charisse Ann and Carole for the first time. Uncle Russ, or Ken as he’s know by everyone else in the world, is my Grandpa’s son from a previous marriage. After Russ’s mother left my Grandpa, she took Russ to California and he didn’t know that he had even lived in Cincinnati, or even what his real name was, until he was a teenager.

Russ’s mom sent pictures to Grandpa over the years, so my mom and her sisters grew up knowing they had a brother somewhere in California. Beginning when they were teenagers, they tried to find him. All during this time, Russ never knew about his family in Ohio. As Russ got older and began learning more about his early childhood, he started looking for his lost family too. Finally, in 2002, with the help of an ancestry website, we were reunited with Russ. He flew to Cincinnati shortly after to meet his father for the first time in about 40 years, and to meet his mom and sisters for the first time in his life.

I’ve boiled this story down considerably for the sake of space. Its just amazing that we were able to visit relatives that, until about eight years ago, no one ever thought we’d find.

Uncle Russ recently started a new business repossessing property in the Sacramento area. In the process of repossessing buildings, he’s had people come after him with machetes and hammers and had the SWAT team called after he went to a property. Charisse Ann, my cousin, thinks he needs a reality show made after his business. I’d totally watch it!

We went to Old Town Sacramento, where it all began in the first gold rush in the country. The streets are fashioned after an old western town, but the shops and restaurants are eclectic and modern. There is an awesome costume shop with just about anything you could ever want to dress up as just about anything. The city as a whole is very pretty and I’d love to be able to spend more time there.

If this entry seems less than sparkling, it has nothing to do with how I feel about Sacramento. It has everything to do with the fact that it is 2:40 a.m. and I’m about to pass out. I LOVED Sacramento, even its tiny little river. 🙂

The Sacramento version of the Golden Gate Bridge.

We stumbled onto this amazingness looking for a Pauly Shore wig. Don’t ask.

At World’s End

Published by Cassie

Finally, we made it to Manhattan Beach. The town was adorable at night, and positively stunning in the daylight. We had to make a pit stop at a McDonald’s on the way; we’ve had a bad habit of not stopping to eat on this trip. By 11 p.m. the most any of us had to eat was some peanut butter crackers and chocolate donuts. I tell you that was the best quarter pounder in the history of my life.

We stayed at the Sea View Inn on Highland Avenue. It consisted of a cluster of three or four buildings surrounding a small, bean-shaped pool. We climbed a couple of steep flights of stairs to get to our room. Our front wall was solid windows, giving us a view of the pool and a glimpse of the ocean. Amanda and I were in the room long enough to change and then we headed to the beach.

Now, when I think about Southern California beaches, I think of sun and the associated heat. We spent from about 11:30 p.m. until almost 2 a.m. walking and sitting on the beach and I was near hypothermia before we left. But it was worth it.

I’ve never been a water person. I swam in pools when I was younger, but I prefer to not be soaked head to toe anymore and not to sit and sweat on the side of a beach. The Pacific Ocean changed all that.
The first glimpse of the ocean I got last night absolutely terrified me. There is something about seeing the dark, smoldering grey of the cloudy night sky meet the inky black of the water on the horizon. When the only thing breaking up the shades of black are the white caps of waves crashing up on the shore, the ocean is a beautiful, terrible sight. There was no moon, no stars. The only light on the beach came from lighting along the bike path and the flashlights we brought with us.

We could have stayed there all night watching the waves break on the beach, but we were getting soaked from sea spray and frozen. I think it was around 60 degrees outside, but it felt much colder.

We intended to get up to watch the sun rise, but my Blackberry’s alarm didn’t sound (have I mentioned that I’m really over this phone?) and Amanda snoozed through her alarm. We got up at 8 a.m. and had about three hours before we had to check out of the hotel and be on our way.

It was warmer, but still cool. I really never thought we’d be sitting in the beach in our sweats shivering. But we got to watch surfers, sea gulls, fishermen and runners along the beach. I never wanted to leave. The morning was still overcast, we didn’t get out of the cloud cover until we were almost to Santa Monica. Instead of the ocean being shades of black, the water took on a greenish color that complemented the grey sky. The white caps of the waves started out brown as they picked up sand on their way up the beach.

I need to get back to this beach.

We finally left with the intention of following the Pacific Coast Highway to San Francisco but we underestimated how much time it would take to get up the coast. Not far past Santa Monica we diverted and headed straight to Sacramento. We aren’t sure yet what we’re doing tomorrow, but we’ll be figuring it out soon!

We made it!!

Whirlwind tour

Published by Cassie

We got the first good night of sleep of probably our entire trip in Vegas. The beds were amazing, and it probably helped that we were all worn out anyway. I woke up after a good eight hours of sleep feeling like a new woman.

It was a good thing too, because we had two National Parks to hit up before visiting LA and then stopping at Manhattan Beach for the night. We briefly considered cutting out the parks to be able to sleep longer and see more of LA and the beach. But, as much as I want to be able to stay on the beach forever, I don’t want to look back on the trip and regret missing something. I’m already planning a trip for next summer to come back to spend more time in the Southwestern Colorado/Utah area.

Death Valley was the first park we saw. We paused only at Zebriskie Point to reenact a scene from the 70’s film of the same name. I sincerely doubt you’ve seen this movie; I’ve never seen this movie, just heard about it. One of Amanda’s jobs with the Cincinnati Art Museum was to show films, and this was one of them. The movie includes, among other things, a guy stealing a plane, meeting a girl in a convertible in Death Valley, leaving her, then crashing his plane. And I believe the movie ends with pretty much everything in the world blowing up.

The only thing Amanda wanted to do is reenact the scene where boy in plane and girl in convertible meet in the desert. Originally, we were supposed to buy Barbie and Ken dolls with toy airplanes. we didn’t realize until we were in Death Valley that we forgot our reenactment supplies.

All was not lost! I still had some of the papers from the various KOAs we had stayed in, and was able to fashion a paper airplane, a box-shaped convertible and two stick people drawn on paper. Cory acted the part of the guy, Amanda did the girl and the plane crash was perfect. I’ll have another version posted here once I get back home. (I couldn’t bring myself to stay in the hotel room to upload with the beach just a block away!

I attached a picture to this post of Death Valley. It was a very beautiful place — that I would not want to be left in for too long.

Our next stop was Sequoia National Monument. In an effort to cut down on some time so we could check in at an earlier time, I used the atlas to plot an anternate route. Originally we were going to go up to the National Park and take a short tour. Instead we didn’t go as far north, and we missed a lot. We did get to follow the Trail of 100 Giants, but we missed the best of the sights of the park. The worst part of my alternate route was that this was the one thing Cory specifically asked if we’d see, and we completely missed everything he wanted to see.

Once we got out of the park, we were about three hours from LA. We managed to find the walk of fame easily enough, but we missed the Hollywood sign entirely. Can someone tell me why that’s not lit up at night?

We searched for some names we knew on the Walk of Fame, but short of some older stars, we were unsuccessful. We searched over three blocks or so, but the best star I could find (to me, anyway) was Gregory Peck, one of my favorite classic film stars.

Before we could get back to the car we had a run-in with the paparazzi. I tell you, I can’t go anywhere without those guys following me. Haha. 🙂 Actually, we just missed a celebrity darting from their car door to the door of Katsuya, a restaurant frequented by starlets, according to Amanda. The last of the flash bulbs were popping as we wound our way through some very well-dressed young women waiting to go inside.

Our next stop was Manhattan Beach, and our first sighting of the Pacific Ocean.

Sam’s Town

Published by Cassie

I have managed to get two blogs up in the last 24 hours and they’re both from a couple of days ago. I’m waaay behind on everything, and I still can’t get my Monument Valley blog to post.

I think the last topic I blogged about was our journey to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, which was the last entry before we made it to Vegas. It would look like I got lost in Vegas and spent the last two days at a Blackjack table riding a lucky streak. Sadly, that’s not the case. We’re all too poor to gamble too much, so we held on to our money in Vegas for the most part.

Even if you don’t gamble or gamble much, Vegas is entertaining. I was amazed by the casinos and hotels. We stayed in the Paris hotel on the strip, and, to someone who hasn’t ever been to Paris, it looked like a street in France. I remember enough French to know that the name of streets and restaurants were mostly not even French words, but they sounded pretty!

Once we got there, the first order of business was finding something to eat. We’d all been told that most things are pretty cheap in Vegas, because casino owners expect to make most of their money in slots or at the tables. Before we even left the room, we realized that the definition of “cheap” in Vegas was about $25 a person for a buffet. However, we were all sick of turkey wraps, so $25 was OK with us.

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We decided to just eat at the buffet in our hotel and go from there. Boy, did we get a shock when we got back downstairs and found the line wrapping all the way down the cute faux-Parisian street. I’m pretty sure we might have died of starvation if we waited in that line, so we decided to go to the buffet at Caesar’s Palace. This was when I realized what a maze Vegas really is.

Every casino is a self-contained city, for all practical purposes. You don’t have to leave to do anything, and many of them are connected to each other. The maps posted on the wall were our best friends. Restaurants were spread out among different segments of the casinos and slot machines filled every available corner. We walked around the corner, across the street and went up an escalator to get to an elevated terrace that connected Ceasar’s Palace to everything else, it seemed, and then went through the maze of the casino to find that this buffet was not lined down the corridor like at the Paris.

Just as I said, “No line … The food must not be any good,” I caught a glimpse of the sign that read, “Buffet closed for dinner Tuesday and Wednesday.” Disappointed doesn’t begin to cover how we felt. We hadn’t eaten since 10 or 11 a.m. — we weren’t sure because the time zone kept switching and we never knew which one we were in. It was now going on 7 p.m. and we wanted to eat. We went back to the map and found the Mesa Grill, something it sounded like we’d all eat something at. (Cory and I are pretty all-American fare eaters, while Amanda is a chicken and fish eating vegetarian.)

We worked back through the maze, passing the statue of David, found the grill, and failed again. It was about $45 for dinner, which, to be honest, I would have paid if it was something I was sure I would enjoy. But most of the menu was seafood and I wasn’t sure I’d like how the food was prepared. So we decided to just go back to the Paris and go through the buffet. We found our way to an exit, and started going back across the terrace.

And that’s when we saw it. Serendipity 3. Coincidentally, I titled the blog I wrote that day “Serendipity.” We were meant to eat there all along.

We checked the menu: a wide selection and reasonable prices. We waited 20 minutes to be seated, waited a while for our food, and just when we thought the end was near, they brought our appetizer. I highly recommend the buffalo chicken wings as an appetizer (just ask for extra blue cheese) and the buffalo and blue burger.

Bellies finally full from something other than hot dogs for dinner, we set off on the strip. At this point the sun had set and everything was ablaze with color. Everywhere you looked were flashing lights and people wandering between casinos.

We saw the fountain show at the Bellagio from the ground, and again from the top of the Eiffel Tower-spectacular both times. We even saw showgirls, Captain Jack Sparrow, and Stu and Alan – sunglass wearing baby and all – standing on a corner. (For anyone who may not know, these are characters from “The Hangover.”) And seeing those two completed my trip to Vegas. 🙂

Now, if we can just figure out where all the glitter on Sailor Moon came from.

Monument Valley

Published by Cassie

(Writer’s note: I wrote this blog on the afternoon of Aug. 10, immediately after going through Monument Valley. Unfortunately, the failures of my wireless network kept me from sharing this with you until now. I’ve also been having some issues posting with pictures, so I may have to add more later.)

First off, I would like to say that if you have anything less than a full-sized car, driving through Monument Valley is a bad idea. They offer guided tours; take one of those. Trust me. I’m bruised head to toe and I’m pretty sure we might have to buy our rental car.

With that out of the way, I’m going to let some pictures do the talking for me. Monument Valley was one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. Words fail me. It is situated on Arizona’s border with Utah and is part of Navajo Nation. The sad thing is that I could have seen this years ago on vacation with my parents. But the thing is, vacations with my parents were a lot like the one I’m taking now, just with more time to rest. We went to several places and spent a lot of time in the car. The difference is that I started whining about five days into the trip and by the time Mom and Dad decided go through Monument Valley, I whined enough to stop them. It really isn’t fair that they still haven’t made it and I have.

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Here are some additional pictures:

The mittens

Elephant Rock (right)

Three Sisters

My beautiful picture

I just can’t get enough of this scenery!

My beautiful picture

What I’m doing right now

Published by Cassie

Sitting here. 🙂

Serendipity

Published by Cassie

If you haven’t realized from my previous blogs, I’m a planner. Everything I do is premeditated, with backup plans for my backup plans. Well today that all went right out the window.

Our diversion occurred first thing in the morning when I directed Cory to go the wrong way on 89A out of Flagstaff. And then I passed out. (These early mornings and long days are beginning to wear on us all.) We intended to go to the South Rim. I woke up about an hour later, just before we passed a sign directing us to the North Rim.

I immediately panicked. Cory and I have been to the South Rim a couple of times before, and it is mind-bogglingly beautiful. My mind has a difficult time processing the depth of the canyon, the distance it spans and just the sheer magnitude of the entire canyon. I knew what to expect at the South Rim, and I knew Amanda wouldn’t be disappointed there. But by misdirecting us to the North Rim and then falling asleep before I realized my mistake, I was worried I had ruined the experience for us all.

My worry was in vain. The North Rim is arguably more beautiful than the south. Geared more for hikers than your average tourists, the North Rim is considerably less crowded. The temperature was much cooler than the South Rim (I dehydrated at the South Rim once) and the landscape was much more green. You pass through Kaibab National Forest on the way into the park and get to see the remnants of a forest fire and pass through a long meadow full of tiny purple, yellow and white flowers.

There are no trams or trains or any transportation past trailheads; you’re hoofin’ it anywhere you want to go. The difficulty of the hiking trails vary greatly; there was something for the average person in flip-flops (me) all the way up to eight-hour hikes for the professional outdoorsperson.

We took the Angel Fire Trail. We were all amazed by the canyons, and could have spent all day just sitting on a rock staring. But we have a reservation in Vegas waiting, so we couldn’t stay.

Sheila took us out of the Grand Canyon along 89A, then up into Utah to catch Highway 9. It turned out that Hwy. 9 runs through a corner of Zion National Park, a collection of mammoth rock formations on the Colorado Pueblo. We took the Zion-Mount Carmel Highway and had our minds blown as we snaked around the mountains of rock.

Days like this remind me what this trip is all about. It was definitely not meant to plan every step of the way. It was meant to see, explore and go where the road takes us.

The remnants of a fire.

Where’s my network now?

Published by Cassie

Monument Valley

(Writer’s note: This blog was written on the morning of Aug. 11, after I had been out of internet service for almost 24 hours. I posted it once I was back within the confines of the Verizon Wireless network.)

You remember the Verizon commercials with the guy in the black jacket going all over the country saying, “Can you hear me now?” Well, Verizon really needs to get their internet coverage up to the size of their calling network. I lost my internet not far out of Santa Fe yesterday morning and haven’t regained it. Amanda has Sprint, and has had coverage most of the time we’ve been out here, allowing her to keep up on her blog a little more. I think this just goes along with my general technology challenges while I’ve been on this trip.

I just can’t get enough of this scenery!

After Monument Valley, we cruised on over to Sedona, taking in some amazing red rock scenery along the way. We camped in Flagstaff, taking full advantage of the 24-hour laundry facility. Let me tell you, doing laundry at a campground is a pain. Load up the car, drive over, put in the wash. Drive back. Put the wash in the dryer. When the dryers only work for 12 minutes at a time, you repeat the driving up to the laundry three or four times until everything is dry. It might not sound so irritating to you now, but, let me tell you, at 10 p.m. when all you want to do is crash, its about the most irritating thing there is.

We left Flagstaff this morning and are headed to the Grand Canyon. If we were smart and had looked at a map more, we could have just stopped there yesterday and went to Sedona today. But we didn’t realize how close we were until it was too late to turn back.

After we finish at the Grand Canyon, we’re headed to Vegas, baby! And once there, I plan to make full use of internet.

Blogger’s Note: For video and more information about Monument Valley, check out my #TBT post on this leg of our trip.

Back on the grid!

Published by Cassie

My beautiful picture

I’ve been off the grid for almost 24 hours now. My Blackberry went dead yesterday and, in a continuance of my electronic problems this trip, my car charger has gone missing. But I have backup! My regular wall charger works in the car when I plug an a/c converter into the power port. 🙂 We just can’t put the car in park until I unplug my contraption.

After Amanda and I posted our first vlog entry yesterday morning, we departed Colorado for New Mexico. I really thought I would be more broken up to leave so quickly, but I’m so excited to see new things on this trip that I was over it before we hit he state line. Someday I’ll buy my mountain and build my glass house so I can see the breathtaking beauty of the Rocky Mountains 24/7/365. Of course, I’ll have piped in oxygen so Amanda won’t have to deal with altitude sickness.

Our first stop in New Mexico was Capulin Volcano. Can you say you’ve walked into the mouth of a volcano? I can.

The road to the crater wound up the sides of the cinder cone, giving us absolutely amazing views of the scenery below. At the top, a park ranger’s lecture of the different type if volcanic rock had me flashing back to my freshman geology class with Professor Brackman.

Let me tell you, walking into the mouth of a volcano is a lot easier than walking out. But you cannot appreciate the full power of Capulin until you walk down to the center to see the walls completely surrounding you and igneous rock in piles, reminding you that molten rock is bubbling somewhere below the surface. Its enough to make your hair stand on end, even if Capulin hasn’t erupted in about 65,000 years.

On the way out, we saw an abandoned house that would be perfect for our fugitives out on the loose. Except, it appears one of them was caught because he went to church. According to news reports, the escapee was relieved to have been captured; I guess he got the answer to his prayers.
Here’s a gem from Gawker about the capture and incestuous cousins. And lastly, ABC is reporting that the escapees are white supremacists.

The last convict standing and his fiancee/cousin are believed to be in Glacier National Park (somewhere I want to go), so we should be safe in Yellowstone when we arrive there next week.

After Capulin, we visited Taos. We saw the Taos Pueblo, another UNESCO World Heritage site. I’m sure Amanda’s blog can give you much better information about it, but I was impressed by the buildings. One of them was several stories high. We could only have one camera in, so once I steal some of Amanda’s pictures, I’ll post some for you.

I think the high point of this trip was when we had to stop to eat lunch in the Wal-mart parking lot. By the time we got through the Pueblo, it was around 3 p.m. We had been up since 4:30 a.m. and hadn’t eaten since about six. We looked everywhere for a rest stop or a park or something, but we found nothing. We were about to the point we were when we stopped in Lynnville, Ind. so the Wal-mart was good enough for us.

The last leg of our trip was seeing Santa Fe. Coolest. City. Ever. Amanda loves New Mexico like I love Colorado, and she was thrilled to finally get to see the city she wants to move to. I loved how the buildings were designed to look like adobe; there was no modern architecture anywhere. We made a stop at the old Town Square, after it took us an hour to find it (thanks again, Sheila) and got some beautiful pictures of the church there.

We’re on our way to Monument Valley now. I attached a couple of pictures I’ve taken from the car this morning to the New Mexico countryside. 🙂