I went on vacation. Webster and I were originally going to Sacromento to see Bobby Lau. Bobby Lau had to come back to the East Coast before Webster and I had a chance to visit, so we decided the best possible thing to do was go out there anyways. We would land in Vegas and drive up California, stopping at some great National Parks along the way. We knew some people out there ( San Diego, LA, San Fran ), and there was plenty to do out there. So the plan was to fly into Vegas, where coincidentally a friend of mine from work was also going to be attending “conferences” and doing “work”. Does anyone actually go to a conference in Vegas and expect to stay inside all day doing conference stuff? Oh yeah, trekkies… well, do normal people do this?
The Grand Canyon
So we flew out on a Tuesday night. You know the vacation started off right when at 330PM we were told we were going to miss our 830PM connecting flight in Ohio because of bad weather in Sri Lanka or some such nonsense. All the more reason why we need better air traffic control system in this country ( Story Here ). So we were rerouted to Minneapolis, naturally. Boston – Minne – Vegas, clearly the best possible route. We rolled into the rental car place at about midnight, and were out of there in a mere 1.5 hours. Screw you Thrifty via Dollar Rental! If you are going to be the only car rental place open, how about you hire more than 2 people to take orders? It was there we got our ride for the next 2 weeks, the sweetest, slickest, silverest PT Cruiser you ever did see. We debated getting something with a trunk for about 3 seconds, decided against it. 2 weeks later, that choice would haunt us.
Read on… it gets good.
We were in Vegas for a couple of days. There’s an interesting place. The entire town depends on the casinos. If they left, no one would come there. So if you are a native there, you work for the casinos. Maybe your job is one or two steps out from the casinos, but you depend on them. It’s sad really. But the casinos are nice, the strip is cool, and good times were had by all.
From there it was on to the Hoover Dam and Grand Canyon. Hoover Dam was pretty damn cool actually. Almost my favorite part was a dedication monument they had setup. On the ground was a scale model of the night sky as seen from that spot on the night they dedicated the Dam. It was intricately designed so that if people saw nothing but that, they could figure out the exact date and time the monument was put there, based on the position of the stars on the ground. Kinda like that movie Timeline, the book was better.
The Grand Canyon was my favorite of all the sites. We got there about an hour before sunset and stayed about 1.5 hours. We were able to climb out on to the canyon face and just hang over the edge. Very cool.
After that was the Mojave! Webster and I brought camping equipment and camped out for a night in the desert. It was only June, so it wasnt quite as hot as it normally gets. The day was about 75, the night was in the 60s. We climbed a mountain the next morning! Took about an hour, but the views and the echoes were amazing. We were the only people in at least 2 miles, and on the way out, we set our new land record, 95mph. Go Chrysler!
We drove on into San Diego the next night and went to a party at a friend of a friend’s ( Theresa ) house. Very cool, very relaxing. A decent amount of laid back hip/yuppie types, there were singalongs, banjos, Johnny Cash, Janis Joplin, the Beatles and the Queen live from Montreal DVD playing on the TV all night, muted, just made sense. Damn Freddie Mercury had some teeth on him! It was a very good time and was well needed after driving all day.
The next day we drove up to LA to visit Mikey. He’s in Burbank, which is not far from LA, but far enough for me. I am not impressed with LA in general. It’s a concrete sprawlfest with very little character. But we did some light sightseeing, laundry, lounged in the pool at Mikey’s appartment. Mikey seems to be doing well, and has a closet he can rent out to you at very reasonable rates.
From there it was Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks. Though we only spent half a day at each, over 2 days, you could easily spend 3 or 4 days at each, with all the hiking and trails they have. Saw some of the largest, oldest trees in the world. Pretty crazy. Had some great BBQ at the Yosemite Tri Trip Express. Look for the giant smoker that looks like a Train! Tasty.
From there it was on to San Francisco, the last leg of the trip. From Sequoia, we drove inland so we could drive up Rt 1, hug the coast into San Fran. Worth the extra time. Though it was foggy some of the time, when it cleared, it was well worth it.
In San Fran, we saw the Golden Gate, Alcatraz, a SF Giants game ( Randy Johnson started! ), and some of those most ridiculous hills they have there. We also visited another friend named Mike at his job in Santa Rosa. It was a total surprise and he got a big kick out of it. He had never actually met Joe or I before, but we had talked on the phone for literally years, as part of Joe and mine’s (?) time at the pharmacy.
Then. It happened. Our last night in San Fran, the car got broken into. They took both our backpacks, which included ALL of Joe’s camera stuff ( except his photos ) and my laptop, which had 80% of my photos on it. 8/10 days worth. The one pic I have is the above one of the Grand Canyon. Just a few hours before we were going to go to the airport and leave.
But it’s all part of the trip. That’s the vacation in a nutshell. If I ever get any photos back… I’ll post them.
0 Responses to “The West Coast Tour”