Salt Lake City

Salt Lake City was next after our night in Carson City. We stayed less than 24 hours in Carson City, but got a good appreciation for the dump it is. Salt Lake on the other hand was pretty cool. We arrived fairly late and hungry, so we got dinner at a restaurant called the Red Iguana. Their specialty was mole. I got the mole negro which was made form mexican chocolate, bananas, chilies, and spices, with chicken. Not the best choice I could have made. Butros got the mole verde which was made from green chilies, spices, and avocado(a better choice). Matt got the Red Iguana sampler which was also delicious, rumor has it. We then went back to the hotel where we observed a scene by the pool reminiscent again of a Mel Gibson classic, Thunderdome. Chaos was erupting along the concrete as two children went nuts in the water. It was as if the forty guests staying at the hotel with us had never seen a swimming pool before.

The next morning (a Sunday) we went to an aviary in Liberty Park. There were many native and exotic birds, but the shimmering gem of the morning was The Bird Show. Arguably the best bird show in Salt Lake City. Birds would fly one direction, and before you knew it, they would fly another!

We then got a delicious lunch at Squatters Brewery. I highly recommend it if you're in Salt Lake City, but if you go and don't like it you only blame yourself since you went based solely on my very inexpert and unqualified recommendation.

We then went to Temple Square. Obviously there was a heavy Mormon overtone throughout the Temple Square area(the headquarters for the LDS church). We saw the cathedral and the Bee house( where Brigham young lived). We then went into the tabernacle, where the Mormon choir rehearses and preforms and met Sister Austin and Sister Woo, missionaries in Salt Lake City. They explained about the tabernacle and the church of Latter-day Saints and tried to help us join. We explained that we had dinner reservations and couldn't stay.

We traveled next to the Clark Planetarium. This was recommended by most travel sites. It looked like a fun and interesting place for younger children. While there we found a kiosk for a movie theater next door. We got tickets to see the Hangover 2, which was really funny, but a lot like the first one as far as plot twists and layout.

We had dinner at another brewery, called the red rock brewery(far worse than Squatters).

We wanted to got the the family heritage library to research our genealogies but since it was a Sunday this was closed.

We left the next morning after getting another oil change for Yellowstone.

Yosemite

After San Francisco we went to Yosemite National Park. They have a shuttle system here and we were able to take it around to all of the different highlights. We first saw the Lower and Upper falls, combined they are( I think) the second highest waterfalls in the world. We were able to see Half Dome from this shuttle station, which is a fairly iconic mountain for this park. We then went to see El Capitan, which was huge. I was able to see some mountain climbers in their ascent. Our bus driver mentioned that climbs to the top usually take between 3-4 days, with the climbers sleeping on the side of the mountain hanging from their ropes. We then "hiked" the Happy Islet Trail which brought us to three islands in the middle of a river. We planned to hike up Glacier Point that night to stargaze, but tours for that trail did not run on Fridays. We had also planned to camp an hour to the east of Yosemite but decided to cancel the night before and get a hotel in Carson City, NV. The roads headed east out of the park were closed due to ice. Overall a good decision not to camp.

I forgot to upload pictures from my camera tonight, but will do so tomorrow. I will post a bunch tomorrow night from Chicago.

LA, Big Basin, and San Francisco

We left Kingman, AZ and traveled to LA. We went to the Kodak Theater and Grauman's Chinese Theater. It was interesting to see. We had lunch nearby and then went to a hill where we could see the Hollywood sign. After that we went to the Los Angeles Farmer's Market. I wish there was something like this in Syracuse, it put the regional market to shame haha.

We spent the night in Santa Barbara.

To get to our next location, which was Big Basin Redwood State Park (about an hour and a half south of San Francisco) we took Highway 1. Highway 1 travels along the coast in a windy and mountainous path. We stopped at some Vista Points to take pictures, and saw elephant seals at one. about 100 seals were basking in the sun on the beach. Halfway up Highway 1 the road was closed. This meant that we had to travel an hour+ south along the road we had just traveled to transfer to Highway 101.

Big Basin was unbelievable. The campsite we had was deep within the giant Sequoia forest. It was pretty cold, but we made a fire and enjoyed the night. The campsite had a definite raccoon problem. Imagine the biker gang from Mad Max except instead of gasoline, the gang of raccoons were after anything they could eat.

We spent the next day in San Francisco. So far, this is my favorite city. Everything was clean, there wasn't really a huge homeless population. We went to Fisherman's Wharf where we got lunch at Boudin Bakery. This bakery has kept the same sourdough starter for over 150 years. This means that the same lactobacillus culture has been kept alive as a colony since 1849. You can understand why it was called sourdough.

We then went to see the sea lions near pier 39. On our way to the Golden Gate Bridge. We walked halfway across the bridge and then back. We then went to a tower, the name of which slips my mind, and got a great view of the city. We ate at Sun Tung a Chinese restaurant. They brought out a very spicy cabbage disk that burned our mouths.

We stopped in Sausalito and got coffee before leaving for our hotel in Stockton, CA.

Las Vegas and Grand Canyon

After camping outside of Zion we headed to Las Vegas for the night. The short 3+hour drive wasn't bad. Our hotel about 15 min off the strip, so it wasn't too bad. We ate at the Rio Carnival World Buffet, which was as you could imagine, way too much food. After eating at Rio(a casino off the strip) we took a shuttle over to Ballys on Las Vegas Boulevard. We decided to walk up the strip stopping at the various hotels and casinos. Caesars palace was impressive as a resort, but the casino was average. The Bellagio was the most impressive inside and out. Paris definitely had the coolest casino. The ceiling is painted and designed to look as if you are outside in the open air, with the Eiffel Tower replica's base inside the casino. Overall, Las Vegas was much seedier and less like the Hangover than I expected. Not too much to do if you aren't interested in gambling, prostitution, or Barry Manilow.

The next day we went to the Hover Damn. We parked near the newly constructed bridge spanning from AZ to NV and walked to the center of it to take pictures. It was impressive to see the size of the dam, but we didn't stay long. There are only so many pictures you can take of a dam. The Grand Canyon was our next stop. We decided to go to the Skywalk on the West end of the canyon. The skywalk is a glass platform that overhangs the canyon, which was really cool to look through. After seeing the other national parks in the area, the Grand Canyon seemed slightly less impressive that we would have liked. Maybe it is because the canyon is so large that one little section does not give you a good appreciation for its magnitude. We stayed in Kingman, AZ that night in a hotel room with 3 queen beds, which was amazing.

We went to LA yesterday and stayed in Santa Barbara last night. I would write about them now, but we have to check out of our hotel in 20 min. We most likely won't have internet until we reach Salt Lake City this weekend. Until then, we are going to stay in a redwood forest near San Fransisco for one night and camp near Yosemite National Park for 2 nights. Maybe we'll stop at a cafe to tap into the interwebs.

Bryce and Zion

I haven't been able to write for a few days since we have been camping near these two national parks.

Bryce Canyon was unbelievable. We descended for about 5 minutes into the canyon and proceeded to take the Navajo Trail, which led us through high walled forested areas. We then took the Peek-a-boo Loop. This is a three mile hike that changes continuously in elevation 1,700ft. The from the top of the peaks you could see for miles.

Zion Was very different from the other two national parks. The high gray mountains covered in green forestry are separated by the Virgin River, which flows through them. The trails here were not as impressive as the other national parks, but the sights overall were cool.

Each of the national parks we went too were different from one another and I liked all of them for their own qualities.

Two days ago we went to Las Vegas and yesterday we went to the Hover Dam and the Grand Canyon. Today we are headed to LA and Santa Barbara. I will write about them later tonight or tomorrow morning.

Arches National Park

I ate scrambled eggs for breakfast at the diner next to our hotel and I liked them. This is a really big deal, because normally eggs and the thought of eating them make me want to vomit. They didn't have cheese in them and were very plain, so that might be why I liked them. Also, they were cut into strips rather than chunks. I think that this played a role in my approval as well.

We spent the day at Arches National Park yesterday. We started with a 2 mile hike up to delicate arch, which sits atop a mountain. The wind was so strong it felt like you might get pushed off the side of the mountain. Near the arch itself though the wind died down a bit. It was absolutely amazing.

We then went to Devil's Garden hiking area where we went on a 4 mile hike to see several arches. We had to scale several rock formations and cross an enormous rock fin. We had about 4 feet of rock on either side as we crossed the 300 yard rock fin. There was a drop off over 50+ feet on one side and 150+ feet on the other. The strong winds made this stretch of the hike intense.

We went to the Moab Brewery for dinner, where we all evaluated our sunburns. I diligently applied sunscreen and avoided sunburn everywhere, except for the back of my legs which quite red this morning. Butros and Matt chose to live life on the edge and not apply sunscreen. They were extremely red last night, but Butros assures me that they will both be "bronze and statuesque " by the weekend...we'll see.

We're leaving for Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park this morning, where we will be camping for the next two nights. After that We are headed to Las Vegas.

San Antonio, Roswell and Road to Utah Pictures