Sunny San Diego

In desperate need of laundry, good sleep, and family time, we made it to sunny San Diego. The weather alone seemed like a refuge after the oppressive heat in Vegas and surrounds – with temps about 20-30 degrees cooler during the day, we were in heaven. On top of that, a beautiful sunset of oranges, yellows, and purples greeted us, and we let our guards down to have another vacation from our vacation.

Our timing brought us to the Thomson house in Rancho Bernardo in the final few days of summer vacation for our nieces and nephew. After sleeping in, we all packed into the van to head to Oceanside Harbor for some brief beach time (also doubling as a birthday party for a friend of the two eldest girls). It was great to sample a part of the Pacific Coast that isn’t quite as numbing as some spots up north (ahem, Oregon).

Loren and Hunter

Hunter destroying a sandcastle

Hunter on the beach

Despite the chilly water, we made our way into the waves... but didn’t completely submerge! We warmed up on the beach while watching our talented nieces, all gymnasts who can easily do back walkovers and handsprings at the water’s edge. Also entertaining was our nephew’s insisting on building a sandcastle, then promptly destroying it, with uncle Loren.

Evangeline

Loren, Marchelle, Kristen

The next day, we made it to Point Loma, which is a peninsula to the west of San Diego. With views of the cityscape and Coronado Island to the east, and to the west, views of the Pacific which are probably prime during whale watching season (Feb). A stop at the lighthouse and some tidepool exploration capped off our visit.

Hermit crab hunting

This rock looks like a camera.

From there, we broke with the group and went for lunch at a bar/restaurant near the park called Sessions Public, where we enjoyed happy hour specials on food and drink. A bit of indulgence (read: duck summer rolls) and overindulgence (read: calamari) put us over the edge, forcing us to nap before heading out on the town again for dinner.

Duck summer rolls

After our breather, we headed back downtown to Little Italy, where we happened upon a tasty restaurant, Buon Appetito, and later met up with friends at the most hipster bar we’d ever seen, Craft and Commerce. Taxidermy animals hung from the walls and ceilings, the bartenders wore suspenders, and they have a strict no-vodka and no-ketchup rule throughout the establishment. We ate it right up, even if it was a little overkill here and there.

Despite staying out late, we kept to our plan of visiting the nieces’ gymnastics practice before heading next door for some gym time of our own, to climb. Our youngest niece accompanied us and eventually became the focus of most of the gym, because she was both small and fearless! To say we were proud is an understatement. Once the older girls finished their gym session, they also joined in on the action, again with an audience exclaiming their natural ability and fearlessness. If they ever decide to stop with gymnastics, they could definitely pick up climbing!

Morgan showing off her chalking-up skills

That evening we grilled burgs and drank margs with a mishmash crowd, which included Loren’s high school geometry teacher (the short story is that the teacher’s daughter is Loren’s sister’s best friend from high school, who was also visiting).

We wrapped up our stay with a lazy morning, including watching the most recent episode of Project Runway and painting nails. It was such a relaxed visit, and so good to see the Thomsons, that leaving seemed unthinkable. But we turned North to head up the coast, taking solace in the fact that we'll soon return.

Leaving Las Vegas

After losing some money, a credit card, and a small bit of our souls in Las Vegas, we set out to get back on track. Our first stop on the way out of the city was a quick breakfast. We found Egg Works, an okay little diner that is apparently a suburban Vegas staple with a high Yelp rating. It was good enough for mild hangover breakfast, but not that memorable.

Our second stop was the infamous Hoover Dam, which neither of us had ever seen. It was magnificent in all its concrete and art deco glory, but what got in the way of our enjoyment was the absurd blazing heat bearing down on us. We opted to make it a quick visit, snapped a few photos, and ducked out to hit the road toward San Diego, where good weather, a free place to stay, and wonderful company awaited.

Looking down the Hoover Dam

Low water level at intakes

What Happened in Vegas

Always up for good counterpoint, we jumped from Zion to Las Vegas, where the scenery changed from sheer rocky cliffs to towering hotels, from river to fountains, from nighttime sky to neon flashing lights.

Dashboard temperature reading as we entered Vegas

Adjusting to the extreme heat and general sensory overload, we checked into the Hotel Monte Carlo, which turned out to be cheaper in cost than our digs in Sedona. From there, we threw on our “nice” clothes and set out on the strip for the long walk through what seemed like miles of hotel lobbies, casino rooms, high-end malls, and finally landed at The Venetian for dinner.

Good food is super easy to find in Vegas (among other things). Reasonably-priced good food is tougher... so we landed at Bouchon, which is somewhere in the middle of the price range but at the top of the quality range. (The chef, Thomas Keller, has been named “America’s Best Chef” by Time Magazine.) With classic french bistro decor, a relaxed ambiance, and some jedi mind tricks that made us feel like we were on the ground floor (rather than the actual 10th floor), we sank into our table eager to have something other than camp cooking.

The bar at Bouchon

We devoured the warm-up course: bread and pistachios with some of the best butter we’d ever tried. For a main course, Loren opted for the Sole Marinière (sautéed fillet of sole, caramelized baby artichokes, manila clams, oyster mushrooms, coco beans, and a delicious seafood broth). For Kristen, the Veal Chateaubriand (seared veal loin, crispy polenta, jingle bell peppers, glazed figs, fennel bulb & sauce soubise).

It was really hard to peel us out of our happy-belly stupor, especially knowing that we definitely had to make our way, in the heat, all the way back down to the Monte Carlo. Turns out Vegas at night trumps Vegas by day. While it was still super hot, and while there were tons of people still out on the streets, things seemed marginally less hectic. And at least we had the neon lights to keep our focus from the heat!

We weaved our way through the nudie card slappers (who are in some way trying to generate business for escorts but as far as we could tell, couldn’t pass out any cards) to the Eiffel Tower restaurant, which is a part of Paris hotel. Unable to eat anything more, we chose liquid dessert of Margarita and Strawberry-Basil Mojito. The view from the bar was pretty spectacular: the Bellagio’s fountain. (In fact, the drinks at Eiffel Tower were so good, Kristen somehow managed to pay the bill but leave her credit card at the bar. Luckily she realized it a few hours after the fact and was able to freeze that account... she eventually cancelled it after the restaurant reported back they hadn't found it the next morning. And of course, 45 minutes later, they found it at the hostess stand. Too late. What you spend in Vegas stays in Vegas!)

After leaving the Eiffel Tower bar, we made it just in time to catch another showing of the Bellagio Fountain show, which was a bit overshadowed by the terrible choice in music ("God Bless the USA"... why didn't Bellagio stick with Clair de Lune, like in Ocean's Eleven?) but still worth seeing. Our next stop was a spot close to our own hotel, the Cosmopolitan's Chandelier bar, where we topped off our liquor buzz with another drink each, though the ambiance far outweighed the drinks this time. After that liquid confidence, we made it back to the Monte Carlo where we decided to try our luck in the casino. First stop: slots. We each lost one dollar immediately, expecting it'd last for at least a few "spins". That sucked. Kristen swore off gambling, Loren tried Fast Roulette and digital Blackjack, and both turned in fairly early by Vegas standards. Total money lost at casino: $25.

All in all, we spent our money where we wanted to: on food and drink. Dinner was literally more expensive than our hotel room for the night. Vegas is certainly a spectacle, and we'll be back at some point at least to try more restaurants, to catch a Cirque du Soleil performance, and to visit the currently-under-renovation but soon-to-reopen Neon Graveyard in North vegas. Until then, we'll save up.

Park Perfection at Zion

Instead of heading around to the Grand Canyon’s north rim (to which we said “next time”), we continued north past Lake Powell, stopping at the Glen Canyon Dam, where we were afforded some prime people watching. From there we made our way into Utah in order to check out at least one of the famous desert National Parks.

Glen Canyon Dam, behind which Lake Powell extends for miles

Sister wives, a sight almost as interesting as the dam

We opted for Zion National Park, conveniently in the southeastern corner of the state so not too much driving was required. We definitely plan to explore the other Utah parks once we're living in Colorado, with Arches and Canyonlands at the top of our list.

The drive through the east gate to the south gate, where the campgrounds are, is absolutely breathtaking. The eastern half of the park is lined with rocky hills that are home to big horn sheep (which we tried to coax out of hiding by calling “Here, biggie hornie!”, but no dice). Some of the rocky hills have patterns on them akin to paintings: it looks like someone dragged a gigantic brush along the stone while it was still malleable. One of the most interesting spots is a rock called “checkerboard mesa.”

The dividing point in the park is a mile-long tunnel, dug in the 1930s, which has three “windows” that slow down traffic a bit as car passengers strain to get a first glimpse of the fantastic views. The tunnel opens out to beautiful mountain vistas and switchback roads, bringing wide-eyed drivers down into the canyon.

West of the tunnel

We headed straight to the nearest campground to stake our claim, and while there were a good deal of campers in the 100+ sites, we didn’t have a problem (and we suspect the campground never filled). So, we set up camp and headed off to explore the park before nightfall.

Zion Campsite

Compared to the Grand Canyon, Zion is perfection. It is the kind of park that literally forces you out of your car in order to explore the grounds: the main road down the canyon is limited to the free park shuttles which pick up and drop off at about a dozen spots throughout the park and run well into the night. Also, the park is totally manageable: whereas it takes hours to drive to different spots along the Grand Canyon (5 hours from the south rim to the west glass overlook, which we couldn't do), it took us about 30 minutes to get from the visitors center to the riverwalk path at the end of the shuttle’s road. It’s a great place. On top of that, as with any park out west, the place is teeming with wildlife. We saw at least a dozen deer out eating before dark, including the mamas and their spotted fawns. “Little guys” -aka lizards- were parked near paths, keeping close watch on the visitors. We even saw a tarantula (thanks to the shuttle bus driver, who nearly ran the little thing over)!

Fawn

Orange wildflowers

Squirrely

Our daylight was pretty limited, so we ended up doing probably the most popular hike in the park, but it wasn’t overly crowded. The out-and-back hike was mostly paved, a little to our dismay at first, but it ended up being great because the flora and fauna held our focus. The squirrels, which looked more like a combination of prairie dog and squirrel, were hilarious and completely unafraid of people, holding down their ground in the middle of the path in a sort of man vs. beast game of "chicken". At the end of the hike is the start of The Narrows, another “trail” which literally uses the river instead of a pathway, and is so-called because the cliff walls close in on the river creating a more and more narrow river. We did a bit of The Narrows, enjoying tromping through the cold river water until it got a little too deep for us to risk damaging our expensive cameras. Plus we weren’t prepared...next time we will wear swimsuits!

The Narrows

It felt great to come "home" to our campsite, and we could definitely see ourselves returning to Zion, staying at the campground for multiple days, taking the shuttle to trailheads, and exploring more of the park by foot. Instead we moved on, to the call of flashy (and maybe a bit trashy?) Las Vegas.

The Grand Canyon: National [Amusement] Park

Located a couple of hours from Sedona, the Grand Canyon’s south rim has been turned into an amusement park of sorts. With parking lots full and people clogging the sidewalks and vistas, it’s a little overwhelming. We stopped in a few spots to snap photos, and while the immense canyon was incredible, we were a bit more focused on getting to the campground.

Kristen at the edge

Grand Canyon campsite

Luckily, we arrived in time to grab one of three campsites that hadn’t yet been claimed. By the time we set up everything and started on dinner, the sun was setting and there was a steady stream of cars looking for open campsites. The weather was cool enough to require long sleeves and pants, a first for us so far, so we cozied up next to our first fire on the trip, staying up in the dark hoping for another chance at the Perseids meteor shower before turning in for the night.

Fire starting

Camp dinner

We woke up after a fairly restful night and headed to the Desert View Overlook, which is normally choked with people but we arrived early enough to have a few minutes to get some good photos. Taking mental note that the next time we visit the Canyon, we want to a). see the less-traveled North Rim, and b). hike in and around the Canyon. Then we moved on.

Surprising Sedona

We left Albuquerque in a whirlwind with our sights set on Sedona, Arizona. We made two notable stops along the way. First was Gallup, NM, a small town near the NM/AZ border which Hollywood put on the map thanks to the many westerns which were filmed near there. The town is famous for the El Rancho Hotel (and motel), located on historic route 66 and built in the 1930s specifically for traveling film crews and silver screen stars. The main lobby area of the hotel is beautiful and unique, with an enormous stone fireplace flanked on either side by twisting staircases to the overlooking second floor. Rooms are named for the stars who frequented them. And the food smelled delicious, though we opted for our own cheaper fare.

El Rancho

The second stop we made was Petrified Forest National Park. Highlights of the park were the vistas overlooking the Painted Desert, and learning about how the fallen logs turned to stone over the years. The park is one of those over-managed places, where you can’t walk anywhere off the path (at least in the parts we saw). It was sort of disappointing in that way because you couldn’t get a good look at the majority of the petrified wood. But after 30 minutes of walking around and stopping at as many pieces as possible, we were ready to move on.

Crows at Painted Desert

Petrified wood

Petrified wood detail

We could feel a repeat of the Carlsbad experience creeping up on us as we drove past Flagstaff and into the forest that leads to Sedona. As the sun was setting, we passed three campgrounds with no vacancy (it was Saturday night...), and the only RV park in Sedona did not allow tent camping. Outlook not so good.

After driving the resort-style main strip of Sedona, we landed at a motel called the King’s Ransom. The room was more expensive than we’d wanted but in the spirit of preventing another Carslbad bad motel experience, we bit the bullet and took their last room. Loren was quick to check out the attached restaurant, Elote Cafe, on Yelp and as it happened we’d landed at one of the best places to eat in Sedona! After a long wait which included sampling some of the leftover wine from ABQ and some of Elote Cafe's fresh margs, we soothed our growling stomachs around 10pm mountain time/9pm Arizona time. [Q: Why doesn’t Arizona follow Daylight Savings?]

Elote Cafe

We were also fortunate that our room had a walk out patio from which we could wander into the courtyard-ish area to watch the Perseids meteor shower. It wasn’t the best stargazing we’d seen (thanks, West Texas, for spoiling us!), but we each saw at least 5 shooting stars. We passed out after fighting to stay up to see the rumored hundreds per hour, which never delivered.

King’s Ransom Hotel

The next morning, filling up our bags with continental breakfast fruit and having a couple of boiled eggs, we set off again to see more of beautiful Sedona. We made a mental note that this place could be a candidate city for retiring: beautiful red rock mountain vistas, nearby Slippery Rock State Park (which we didn’t have time to see), a nearby National Forest, emphasis on outdoorsy activities, and a ton of spa resorts. Kristen revised her take once she realized she’d gotten heat rash after only spending about 5 minutes outside to take some mountain photos. That place gets HOT! All in all, though, Sedona is a place we plan to at least visit again.

Albuquerque: Vacation from our vacation

Albuquerque was such a good rest stop for us, offering a soft bed, cool house, warm shower, full kitchen, wireless, and a chance to see more of the Olympics. After sleeping ourselves out of the sleep debt we’d accrued while tent camping/acclimating to the high elevation, we made breakfast and set off for the climbing gym to start “training” for our upcoming outdoorsy lifestyle in Colorado.

From the gym, we met Loren’s mom for sparkling wine tasting at Gruet Winery, where we loosened up, and then to REI for some camping supplies. To top off the spoiling, Kristen was treated to a mani-pedi.

Gruet

For dinner, the group went to the quirky and fun Range Cafe for delicious food and clever drinks. Below are some highlights.

Appetizer: Green Chili Strips w/creamy cilantro sauce (a must-try!)

Margs. Can you guess which one was Loren's? (hint: it's pink)

Coconut-cranberry mojito, a perfect combination of the best flavors ever.

Loren's adorable grandparents, aka Mom and Papi

Day two started with renewed energy. The Subaru (aka Subie) got its oil change, Kristen practiced yoga for the first time since setting off on the trip, and we made it to Petroglyph National Monument just before the visitor center closed. Because of the sun glare, the glyphs were a little trickier to find! Afterwards, the whole group made it out to dinner at Pasion Latin Fusion, where we shared 2 bottles of wine and some delicious plates for dinner.

Petroglyphs

Us and glyphs

Good company, good weather, good food, good drink. Thanks so much to Vilma and Jim for being our generous hosts!

The Road to Lesser-Known NM

Okay, who would’ve thought that the lush, verdant spot featured in the photo above is New Mexico? Our decision to take the “scenic” road from Southern NM up to Albuquerque may have been our best idea yet. With wildflowers of purple, pink, orange, white, and yellow lining the road, we were surprised again and again.

Roadside wildflowers

We stopped in Silver City, a small town which reminded us of a mix of Richmond VA and Santa Fe, where we got delicious lunch and happened upon a great coffee shop. The road we took from there, Route 180, is sandwiched by two national forests and dotted with small towns along the way. We beelined from there to Pie Town (no joke), which was a bust because the two cafes in town that serve pie were CLOSED!

Lunch at Diane's in Silver City - Spicy chicken and green chile sandwich

Three Dog Cafe, Silver City

Silver City Strip

Luckily we had enough time to make it to the Very Large Array, a network of large dishes that work together to listen into deep space, which was famously featured in the movie Contact (a favorite of Kristen’s). Another two and a half hours of driving landed us in Albuquerque at Loren’s Mom’s house by dinner time!

The Very Large Array, part of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory...Think "Contact".

UFOs, White Sands and a glimpse at Factory Farming

Roswell UFO Museum

Turns out, Roswell is a decent-sized city! We’d both been expecting a sleepy, dusty ranch town, but were pleasantly surprised to find creature comforts, including Wi-Fi at Starbucks for blog posting. We paid a visit to the UFO museum, which started out feeling kind of legit but degraded into jokester territory soon after, especially with the “artistic depictions” of extra terrestrials based on “witness accounts”. Unsure of what we really believe about that fateful day in 1947 when a rancher may or may not have come across a UFO crash site, we set off again on the road with thoughts of Independence Day and the X-Files.

The drive included our first glimpses of large-scale cattle yards. At first, they almost looked like junk yards, because all we could see were black, white, and brown tones squished together so tight you couldn’t make one end from the other. It was pretty disturbing when we realized what we were looking at, especially contrasting that with the big green open fields we’re used to seeing with cows leisurely strolling along and curled up under a tree. While we didn't get any photos, below is a map we found showing the density of factory farms by county across the country. We were in the deep red zone you can see in southeast NM.

Factory farming map

We made it to White Sands National Park with a couple of hours to spare before sunset, and got to explore some of the famous gypsum sand dunes. It’s strange but incredibly beautiful to see the starkly white sand, which contrasts so strongly with the natural tones surrounding it: blue from the sky and mountains of orange and purple. Next time we’ll follow the lead of some of the families we saw, who’d been smart enough to bring sleds and saucers to ride the dunes.

White Sands

Sand angel

Instead of sticking around for the full sunset at White Sands, we jumped at the opportunity to scope out the campsites at a nearby state park in daylight. Racing to Oliver Lee State Park, which is at the foot of the Sacramento Mountains, we experienced our first casualty: a swallow dive bombed right in front of the car, hitting with a bang. The poor little thing was in the grill of the car when we stopped at the campsite. Sad.

On a happier note, the State Park was great. We got to watch the last colors of sunset, a bit of lightning in the distance, and a couple of shooting stars all from our spot. Camping in state parks has not disappointed so far.

Oliver Lee State Park, NM

We brought with us a cold bottle of Chardonnay from our gas station pit stop and enjoyed it with our Mountain House dinner (just add boiling water). In the absence of a proper lantern to light our camp area, we hung a little flashlight from a nail, until Loren had the idea to place it in front of a jug of water, which worked out pretty well to illuminate our space.

Campsite, Oliver Lee State Park

Camping with Wine

Incredible Caverns at Carlsbad... Bats, not so much

We broke in our shiny new National Parks Pass at Carlsbad Caverns, and the splendor that unfolds during the hour-long self-guided walking tour is otherworldly. We were continually struck by the vastness of it all. Next time we may up the ante to try for a guided tour of a lesser-known cavern.

Carlsbad Caverns

Loren spelunking

Carlsbad is also famous for the population of Mexican Freetail Bats, which set out in search for their dinner every night at dusk. Crowds gather at the area facing the entrance of the main cavern, which has been made into a stadium of sorts (called the Bat Amphitheater). A nervous park ranger talked to the crowd for the 30 minutes preceding the bat flight, and we all waited in silence (sans cameras by law, because they disturb the bats) for the huge cloud of bats. Ultimately, it was a huge disappointment: the most we saw was a slow trickle of bats probably amounting to a few hundred? maybe a thousand? which was sort of cool. We never got an explanation from the nervous park ranger, who didn’t even really acknowledge the letdown, so we remain baffled. Maybe the bats knew something we didn’t? Maybe they weren’t hungry? Who knows. Guess we’ll just have to come back some other time...

Waiting for bats

Since we’d waited until dark for the bat cloud which never came, we set off even later than expected in search of a campsite in downtown Carlsbad, which turned into a search for a hotel in downtown Carlsbad. We ended up staying at a cheap motel, which was possibly the most disgusting place ever...Lesson learned: opt to set up camp in a State Park (even in dark) rather than staying in a crusty, cheap motel.

Caverns Motel - If this motel were even on Yelp I'd rate it a 1.