Canyonlands

We didn't actually get to Canyonlands National Park, but we went to some great National Parks and places around northern AZ and throughout southern Utah.  From Flagstaff we only had about 2 hours to get to the Grand Canyon, unfortunately it was super cold and rainy all day.  When we first walked out to the edge it just looked like the end of the world... the land ended and all you saw was white nothingness.  We walked around the rim for awhile and the wind would come through and blow out the clouds long enough for us to get a glimpse of the magnificent hole in the ground and snap a few pictures.  We hung around for a few hours, but it really was pretty miserable so we were happy to keep driving up to Zion National Park in southern Utah.  

We got to our couch surfers, Keith's place after dark and hung out for a few hours before going to sleep and waking up to an incredible sunrise over massive rocks coming out of the earth.  We went to visit Keith at the brewery that morning and he gave us the tour of his work place... and we started the day out with a delicious beer.  That afternoon we drove around Zion and it is one of our favorite NPs.  It has a Yosemite feel with the canyon walls all around you and the river.  We hiked up to Angel's Landing.  It was a cool hike.  The best part was the last 1/2 mile that they you were climbing up a narrow part of the rock.  They had a chain going along the trail to help give you more security.  There have been 6 people who have fallen and died off the trail since 2004.  It's not really a place to mess around.  We sat and enjoyed the view of the valley for awhile and then the most amazing thing happened.  A California Condor came souring around us.  It's the most graceful bird I've ever seen.  We watched it for 10 minutes soaring above and below us and it only flapped it's huge 9ft wingspan once!  That night back at Keith's he had 6 other couch surfers staying with him; a girl from GA and 5 girls from Poland!

The next morning we went and drove to Gooseberry Mesa which overlooks the park and went mountain bike riding.  It was our first time riding on slick rock!  It was a blast and the desert views with all the colors across the desert landscape was amazing.






















We drove a couple hours up to Bryce Canyon and walked around for an hour or so.  It was snowy and chilly there too.  The hoodoos and landscape in Bryce is incredible and very unique, but there really isn't too much to do there.  That evening we had a really cool drive through the canyons up to Capital Reef area.  There were some snow peaked mountains around the drive too.  We stayed at another couch surfer's place, Lyman.  He had a delicious and much appreciated dinner for us when we showed up.  We toured around Capital Reef National Park.  There is a natural bridge named Hickman Bridge.  It's the coolest thing we've seen all trip.  :)

We had another few hours to drive to get to Moab.  Annie had talked with a couch surfer about staying at his place, and he told us where the key was hidden and everything we needed but he forgot to send his address!  We rolled in about 5pm, and went to a McDonalds to check to see if he'd sent it and he had not.  We sent 5 or 6 urgent messages out to other couch surfers in the area hoping to get a response then we went to a bike shop to get my chain fixed (It had broke riding in Gooseberry Mesa).  Then we went to the brewery for 15 cent wings.  Thankfully while we were there we got a call from another host and we stayed at his place.  We got a call from Sam apologizing and we ended up staying with him our second night.  That's couch surfing though.   Biking in Moab was so much fun.  We were out for 5 hours riding and hiking around the slick rock on Klondike Bluff trail.  We hiked into the back section of Arches National Park and played around on the rocks for an hour break of riding. I could have rode around for days there.  We definitely didn't have enough time! There were some technical spots and some gnarly down hill trails.  It was a blast until I got a flat tire.  That evening we hiked up to the delicate arch and watched the sunset and celebrated our journey with a bottle of champaign!  The rocks with the light from the sunset were brilliant.  It looked like the rocks themselves were giving off the light!












nov

Sedona & Flagstaff

After Phoenix we started climbing altitude and going north. Sedona was our next stop. This was just the start of seeing the diversity of Arizona.  We met up with Jillian who we had met through a mutual couch surf host in Napa Valley. She's been traveling across the country herself and decided to rent out a room and spend the winter in Sedona. The energy from the vortexes sucked her in. The red rocks all around that city are beautiful. High desert is totally different than Phoenix. Small cactuses and snow! We found some cool hikes around the canyons and into some caves. Plus we did some good mountain biking... trails were crowded though with people hiking. They have a fun brewery, Oak Creek Brewing, we hung out there in the evenings. They had a fire outside and one night they had a good drum circle going for a few hours. Jillian has a fun group of friends that we enjoyed spending time with while we were there. Oh we did another timeshare tour in Sedona... for a $75 visa card and 2 nights at one of their resorts. Not too bad for spending a few hours looking a vacation ideas and saying no a lot to the sales guy.

We kept climbing up to Flagstaff which is nearly 7000 ft making it one of the nations highest elevation cities.  It was definitely cold there!  We stayed with Mark & Ali, whom we met in Jackson Hole and gave them a ride to into town & to the airport.  Unfortunately we didn't get to spend much time with them because they were working the night shift at the hospital the few days that we were there.  They have a cool place in the woods and off the grid just outside of downtown.  They even have to bring their own water in!  We had a great time even though they weren't able to hang out with us much.  Victor, from Sedona, came up and introduced us to his friend Jarrod who lives in Flag.  We hung out with them a couple nights.  Flag has a much better night life than Sedona.  Ladies 80s night our first night up there with 25 cent drinks...  We went mountain biking their too, but it was probably our worst ride ever.  lol There was snow and some places super muddy.  It's supposed to be a great place for riding... just not during the time we were there.  Flagstaff has a lot going on.  It's up there with our favorite cities list.

Phoenix

We made it to Phoenix after a beautiful drive out of Vegas. We met up with our friend, Matt Cangemi, from Cranberry PA. He moved out to Scotsdale a couple years ago for a job. We went camping out in Tonto National Forest under some beautiful stars, watched the sunset that looked like the sky was on fire, and hung out around the fire surrounded by caucuses. Annie learned the hard way not to mess with them though. One jumped out and clung to her leg during one of our mountain bike adventures. We checked out some Indian cliff dwellings and learned a lot of the history about the natives that lived in the area and speculated on why they moved on. The park ranger said probably as they became comfortable in the area and populations grew the resources were abused and all used and they had to move on. Then we drove on to Apache reservations which was a pretty sad place to visit. They don't have much going on for them. We climbed Camelback mountain which overlooks all of the Phoenix area (which is huge). It was sunny and hot. Probably in the 80s. This is what we imagined Arizona would be like.

We met up with our 2^nd cousin Brent, he's first cousins with the family in California. He's really into canyoneering and we got introduced to this amazing activity and fell in love with it. We got up early Saturday morning after an amazing dinner the night before at 4 Peaks Brewery (where I randomly ran into Jess Kausits, one of my friends from Westminster, who works there). So we drove out to the canyon, parked and started hiking. We had to hike up to the top and around to the drainage which was about 4 miles before we were able to start the fun part. Climbing and repelling down the rocks. Crazy thing was it was rainy and cold on us that morning! We were really hoping that we wouldn't have to go swimming in any pools of water. There was only one drop that Brent had to drop into the water and then he set up an assisted repel where Annie and I got to zipline over the water. It was so exhilarating. The highest repel was 60 feet, we did 8 all together. Each one had it's own obstacles to get around certain rocks and drops without swinging around and hitting the rocks. Plus you are trusting your life with this rope and just leaning over the edge. It was an amazing 8 hour day of exploring. Then we topped off the amazing day with some prickly pear ice cream! We had a nice dinner with the rest of our Phoenix family, Barb & Steve (Brent's parents), Colleen and her husband, John. We are pretty darn lucky to have such cool family all over the place. We've got to have some good blood going through us or something. We did some gnarly bike riding a couple times while we were there too. Desert trails are pretty fun, some really technical parts and rocky areas too.

Las Vegas

Las Vegas is an amazing place, but definitely only a place to visit once every few years and you don't need to stay longer than 2 -3 days.  Annie & I rolled in Thursday night and stayed with our couch surfer.  We had a relatively low key evening, watched the Cardinals win the world series.  Vanessa & Linda came in Friday around noon so Annie and I found this timeshare that they would give us practically free tickets to a Cirque du Soleil show for going to their 3 hour sales pitch in the morning.  We didn't buy a timeshare, but they did a pretty good job almost convincing us.  We got our vouchers to the show and stopped at the MGM to pick up the tickets before meeting the girls at our hotel.  I jumped out of the car to run in while Annie found a place to park... my phone was left in the car though and Annie & I couldn't find each other.  I found the phone bank in the MGM, but didn't know Annie's number.  (terrible I don't know anyone's phone #).   I did know mom's number so I called her and told her to call Annie and meet me at the theater entrance.

All was good though, we got the tickets and made it to the Holiday Inn and met Vanessa and Linda.  They both flew in from Atlanta.  We had a few mixed drinks there in the hotel and caught up on each others lives then went to the MGM (my favorite Casino) to watch the show.  The show was amazing the tricks and flips gravity defying acts and all types of craziness.


 The rest of the weekend was obviously a blast.  I doubled my gambling money all weekend.  I bet 20 on the Steelers to beat the Patriots and they were underdogs and they dominated the Pats.  Left with $42 in winnings :)  Annie did a few slots, and shot some craps with other peoples money.  We walked around the strip, watched some football, went to some clubs, lived it up and did Vegas.  It was Halloween weekend, we didn't dress up but we had a great time people watching. There were some hilarious and amazing costumes.  We had a blast that weekend and it wasn't enough time to spend with Vanessa and Linda, but it was enough time in Vegas.

Death Valley

I was much more impressed with Death Valley than I was expecting to be.  The desert has such an interesting draw to it.   Sunrise and sunsets are amazing... oh and the stars are incredible too!  Annie and I drove around and hiked all day.  It was cool thinking that we were below sea level and camping at 5 feet elevation looking up at 11,000 ft. mountains.   We woke up at sunrise and did some yoga in the desert after camping under some of the brightest stars we've ever seen.  We played on the Mesquite sand dunes for a few hours.  It was awesome being the first ones on the dunes hiking with all the sand undisturbed.   The desert was just so open and free.  We were there at a good time of the year too.  It wasn't miserably hot! 

Situated within the Mojave Desert,  it features the lowest, driest, and hottest locations in North America. Badwater, a basin located in Death Valley, has of the lowest elevation in North America at 282 feet below sea level. This point is only 84.6 miles from Mount Whitney, the highest point in the contiguous United States with an elevation of 14,505 feet 
In July of 1913, Death Valley recorded five consecutive days of 129 degrees or above. On July the 10th, a reading of 134 degrees Fahrenheit was taken. This world record was held for nine years

Orange County

We stayed with Holly, Rob, and their 4 year old daughter Jordan.  Laura planned a picnic on Sunday for the whole family to get together.  The family is growing at an amazing pace. Between marriages and kids we had a lot of new people to meet and get to know! We've always had fun when we get together with them.  We were working on figuring out if we were 2nd cousins and then how the once removed thing works, but I can't remember exactly anymore.  The once removed has to do with the generation difference. Either way, we are only get to see each other once every few years but we get along great.  They are all so goofy and fun!  We had the picnic with everyone at Rick & Diana's, had drinks with Brian one night, Holly made a delicious chicken chili dinner and Karen, Paulo, and Sue came over.  We went out to eat with Melvin & Helen.  It was a great time with everyone!



Annie & I went up to Hollywood to see if we could pursue our dreams of movie stars.  The closest we got was staring in the crowd of the Price is Right.  We didn't get called up on stage, but we were only 3 rows back and I'm sure we'll be on TV a lot.   The show airs January 17!  It was a long day with a lot of waiting.  Traffic was stupid too. It took us over 2 hours to go 45 miles.  Fortunately we had a lot of cool people in line near us so we had fun chatting with them all day.  Drew Carey is really funny too.  Neither of us had watched a Price is Right in years.  He would make jokes and talk to us in the crowd and danced with people during commercial breaks.   We walked around Venice Beach too one afternoon.  That's an interesting place... Great to people watch.

San Diego

We must have brought the overcast weather from PA to San Diego. All we heard was how it's always sunny and beautiful out here. Of the 3 days we were there we only had one morning and another afternoon of sunshine. My roommate from college, Veronica, moved out to San Diego for grad school a few years ago and fell in love with the city. She has half of her siblings living out there with her now. I finally got to meet her beautiful baby Ilo too! His name means joy and sunshine. He really is such a beautiful baby too. 6 months old bundle of joy for sure! V is living with her sister Molly and her son Jack. We had a blast with them. 

 Went to the local farmers market and got to try some of the delicious local produce. We enjoyed touring the city on our bikes too. They are the best way to get around and see the city. Their apartment is just a short ride from downtown and it was a easy city to navigate around. We went and toured Balboa Park and rode through the city, and saw the Padres stadium. V puts Ilo in the bike and rides. He is such a little trooper. 

We rode for over 20 miles around the San Diego Bay. We stumbled on some type of picnic with a live reggae band and we made ourselves comfortable for awhile. We made it to the Del Hotel on Coronado Island... (which is really just a peninsula). It's a beautiful turn of the century resort hotel right on the beach. We just relaxed for awhile on the beach and then took the ferry back across the bay and enjoyed a beer while  the sunset before riding our bikes back to V's place for dinner. We went out dancing too. V's brother works as security at this bar in Pacific beach so we checked that out for a bit and met up with V's boyfriend Chris later on that night.

V showed us around Shakti Rising where she volunteers a few days a week.  Shakti Rising is this amazing social change organization that helps with empowering women to utilize their personal transformation as a catalyst for positive change in their families and communities. That's right from the website, but I couldn't say it any better.  Helping the women out to make the world a better place one person at a time.  It seems like a really powerful and beneficial organization.  

I always love hanging out with V and it's not much different now that she has a baby, she is still living life and appreciating everyday and that's what I love about her! 

We also got to meet up with James, another friend from Westminster. We went to Cabrillo National Monument which is where the first European set foot in western US in 1542. The coastline is pretty neat with the rocky cliffs right into the ocean. We traversed across the rocks and played around some. Annie stood over at the edge of the rocks for a picture and this anomalous wave came and soaked her. That is some cold pacific water too! James had a Austrian couch surfer that was staying at his place and we had some delicious Mexican dinner before heading back up to Orange County for the night.