From LA to Colorado

This post is not much. It is more of a grocery list of days and stuff from the trip. My wireless here is slow so sorry no pictures. However, we have 300 photos and a 2 hr movie of everything so if you want to see any of this let me know. Heres what has happened.

So we left Carson City and strolled down the winding road to San Francisco. On the way down, we tried to stop at the Redwood forest just north of San Francisco. However seeing that it was 9 PM when we arrived the park was closed and we went to the beach to get our first taste of the Pacific Ocean. Even at night the waves and the crash of the surf was breath taking. Next we drove across the Golden gate bridge to Oakland where we stayed with Brad. He was pretty much one of the coolest friend of IJ that we met.

The next day we woke up bright and early to catch the BART that is San Francisco’s rapid transit thing. That was definitely a fun ride. The day was bombastic. Brad knew all the best spots in the Bay area. We saw the ugly smelly sea lions that just sat on one of the piers. That was definitely my least favorite part of the journey. Then we strolled down the pier and ordered some amazing sourdough bread with clam chowder inside. It was absolutely scrumcerlecent. We walked further and bought chocolate at the Ghirardelli Chocolate factory. That too was a taste bud fiesta. The strolling continued as we saw so much that it is hard to list. We went to Chinatown. There we found the some sweet gift for so cheap, but we didn’t want to carry them so we figured we would come back on our way out that evening. The stuff in Chinatown is dirt cheap. They were selling 4 packs of AA batteries for $1. Not to mention you could also buy dried eel for two dollars. I wanted to get one just because they were the weirdest thing I ever did see. We walked in San Francisco’s big park all the way down to the ocean. Then on our way back we stopted again in Chinatown for dinner. That was great it was so filling. However, when we were done it became clear that the shop where we wanted to buy those cheap souvenirs had closed. We wandered the city looking for and open shop and came to one that was full of cheap samurai swords. One thing lead to another and Ian and I walked back to the BART with swords at our hips, just waiting for someone to try to mug us. Brad, to say the least, was a little concerned.

The next morning we woke up and finally got to see the Red Wood forest. Those trees were freaking amazing. We took some photos I stole some Red Wood bark and we left. The next thing in store was the long drive down to LA. We hit traffic in the middle of farm country right next to three fresh cherry stands. Coincidence? I think not. When we finally drove up to origin of the bad traffic we realized that nothing was causing the bad traffic. I think the cherry sellers were just trying to turn an enormous profit. Those diabolical farmers, what are you going to do? We finally arrived at our next house of slumber. It was the home of Sarah. She was a very fun girl who, like all of IJ’s friends, loves to give IJ a hard time about anything they can think of.

The next day we went to the beach and rode some waves on surf boards and boogie boards. It was such an enjoyable time until we got back and realized that we got some major sun. IJ looked like he had a tomato stomach. And the back of my legs had a distinguished line between red and white. The rest of the night consisted of laying low. We saw X-men 3 and just hung out talking about this that and everything under the sun. The next day in La pretty much consisted of Sarah driving me and IJ around while we sampled her favorite restaurants. They really like their food down there. Most of our conversations were about food. We ate at three different places and in between we got ice cream and other snacks. Then after all being tired out from so much food we went back and watched the food network as we talked about what good meals we had lately. That night we left to stay at CMC. As we arrived on campus we saw our friend Brad again from San Francisco. I was thinking in my head that Brad was like one of those characters in the movies who you think is gone for the rest of the movie but then randomly shows where you least expect him. We basically went to bed in one of the CMC apartments and woke up the next morning to drive to Las Vegas.
I drove to Las Vegas it was ok. However, when we got there we just drove down the strip and then stopped for lunch. As we walked out a homeless woman began to ask us for money and stuff so we left. We got lost on the way to Hoover Dam but eventually got there. That is one damn big dam damn it. (I could not resist the pun opportunity) From the good ole HD we drove to the Grand Canyon which is where we are staying tonight. It was too dark coming in to see the canyon so we are going to head out tomorrow and check it out then. These next two days will be our longest of driving thus far, 700 miles and 1000 miles each day accordingly. I am definitely very excited. Whoot!
Last night we camped at the grand canyon. Then in the morning we woke up and drove to an outlook point. We found an amazing spot. The grand canyon is magnificent. It is definitely the biggest hole I have ever seen. The view was breathtaking especially with all of the wonderful color we could see early in the morning. I decided that it would be a sweet picture if I climbed off the trail and took a picture from a far ledge. Some Japanese middle aged women saw what I was doing and began taking pictures of me. Next IJ went down to the little ledge on the rock and the Japanese people followed him down and asked if they could take his picture. It was strange. The rest of the day consisted of driving until we arrived in Colorado Springs. Tomorrow we will drive 18 hrs back to Minnesota.