Coast to Coast and everywhere in between

I just got back from my two week trek across the states. It was the best of times and it was the
worst of times, ha, actually it was just the best of times. However I don't recommend four airports in one day, even to my worst enemy. Flying, exiting, security, boarding, flying from 6am-midnight sucks. period. And landing to find out they lost my luggage, wowowea.



I started out in Indiana with Adam who was moving to Los Angeles. The trip went smoothly thanks to his Garmin!! What a lifesaver! We started our drive to Colorado that morning and took I-70 Westward. I had never seen Illinois, Missouri, Kansas (you can imagine how excited I was about Kansas!! Wizard of Oz) or Colorado so my face was glued to the window the whole time. ETA was midnight according the evil Garmin lady. We kept thinking the time was going to change with the time zones so when we thought we had two hours left, really we had four. That was a bit of a challenge, but we took it in stride.


We got to our friend Carrie's in Denver sometime in the middle of the night and got to visit for a little while. Adam got to see Dude (Carrie and Elliot's dog) and I don't think I have ever seen him that happy before. Dude seemed pretty excited to see Adam as well. After a short nights sleep we got up at the crack of dawn and kept on keeping on. The people in Colorado were exceptionally friendly, btw. Kudos to you for winning the best customer service experience of my entire trip.

The second half of the trip was so much more beautiful! We went thru Southern Utah and the platues and red rocks were absolutely gorgeous. The whole drive across the state was desolate with the exception of the occasional RLDS exits full of friendly inbreeds. We almost ran completely out of gas out there in the middle of no where and I'm convinced the Garmin lady was trying to kill us. We luckily made it to a gas station just in time.



The rest of the states we traveled thru were Arizona, Nevada, and California. I got to see Vegas!!! I even drove thru. Scary. It was at night and all the neon signs were beautiful. Vegas was a lot smaller than I had imagined it to be. Also it's weird to be driving in the desert with nothing around then all of a sudden BAM Vegas then nothing again. I had so much fun playing car games like I did when I was a kid. I still remember the whole thing A-Z, amazingly.

We got to Los Angeles sometime in the wee hours of the morning and got Adam all unpacked and had a nice short rest. I got to meet his roommates the next morning and they are sweet as pie. Adam's new digs aren't too shabby either. I especially like the private deck with the little cabana.


Adam showed me around SoCal the next day and I got to see Bel Air, I was thinking of Fresh Prince the entire time. We went to the Third Street Promenade, where again, the Garmin lady tried to kill us. It was so fun to walk around and see the street performers and all the shops. I loved it! We kept walking around looking for somewhere to eat and I saw a Hooters. I had always wanted to eat there and so we went. The food is as good as everyone says. The girls, not so cute.

Then we headed south to Laguna to see Elliot which was great! I hadn't seen him in a while. The view from Ben's apartment was breath taking. We hung out for a while and then I made Grandpa's pancake recipe for everyone and off to bed for another short rest. We were up at 5am to drive me to the airport to catch my flight and the goodbye was much shorter than I had wanted, no thanks to the lady in the Mercedes.

For as much as I was a hater on Vegas and California I think everyone will be surprised to hear that I loved both places and can't wait to go back to both. I'll be in Vegas in October, if you want to meet up with me there and share the hotel let me know on the quick. Let's do this! I'll be in California in November.

Next stop was the Denver Airport then the Indy Airport. I flew on Frontier and I really liked that airline. In Indy I changed to Delta, the ghetto of the sky, and flew to the ATL then finally down to Ft. Lauderdale to meet Andybob, Naomi, and Emilie. Emilie and I both ended up flying right thru Tropical Storm Fay. We both genuinely though we were going to die. What a ride!

We woke up the next day to Grandma making us the pancakes!! Melt in my mouth. We went swimming in the ocean in the storm, but the waves were a little too strong so we headed back to the pool. We decided to get out all the old pool toys and Emilie popped the bean. hehe We ate dinner with Grandma and Ben at Duffy's and it was sooo goood then we headed over the Pier in Deerfield and watched the sunset. That night we watched the best movie ever!! (note sarcasm) It was called "Shutter". It's not on my recommendation list.


The next day we went to Gumbo Limbo and did the nature walk. The tour guide was very animated and lively which made it so fun. There were tons of banana spiders everywhere and they were huge! We headed to beach afterward and enjoyed some sun and surf. Andy had bought a skim board and I gave it a go. HA! DO NOT jump on with both feet. The sand is not as soft as it looks and my hip is still bruised. That night I ate Moe's on the beach and we raced up and down the sand and made goofy videos on my cell phone and Any and Naomi tried to fly kites.

The next day we went to Lion Country Safari with Grandma and got to see all the animals. We headed over to the giraffe's and I let one eat a cracker from my mouth. GAH! Giraffe kisses! Then Emilie and I hit up the petting zoo and a carousel. We all met back up at the boats and took out some paddle boats then took a tour on the pontoon boat to see the monkeys. The day was so fun and Grandma, Emilie and I got corndogs for lunch!!! :) Then for dinner grandma made us her yorkshire pudding, roast, potatoes, etc. We scarfed it down like vultures.


The next day we headed to the beach and decided to go snorkeling in the Red Reefs. Em and I geared up with our $2.99 kids goggles and our body boards and Andy and Naomi headed out with their real snorkels and flippers. Ha! We saw zebra fish, bright yellow fish and some ugly fish. Em and I decided to board back into shore and somehow she ended up crashing and burning on the reefs and I didn't. She was bleeding all over the place and the lifeguards patched her up the best they could. Her foot looked like a shark attack. Andy and Naomi were leaving that night so I drove them to the airport with Em and we ended up getting lost, imagine that, somewhere near Alligator Alley for an hour.

The next day Em, Grams and I headed to South Beach/Bayside via train like we used to do as kids. Well apparently a lot has changed. If I smell vagrant urine one more time, and I mean ONE more time, I'm going to have a major freak out! On the metrorail there was a bum passed out and we sat down next to him and it smelled so bad!! Then this "little person" bum got on the train and told us the man had peed himself and he's crazy and if he jumps on you then you wont be able to get him off. So we moved to the other side of the train. Later we missed our train in Hialeah and got stranded in the ghetto for two hours. Thinking it'd be a great idea to step off the TriRail property and into the streets we headed down this narrow walkway. Then the smell hit us and we looked around and realized there were puddles but it wasn't raining!!! We found the bum urinal. GROSS! We booked it out of there and into a little corner shop. It was so cute in the shop and nothing was in english. We stood out like a sore thumb. Then we headed next door to a diner and to our surprise it was filled with men and a prostitute. Grams booked it out of there and Em and I stayed for a minute out of curiosity. Never a dull moment. Then we spent the remainder of the time taking "myspace style" photo's of ourselves making every face we could think of until the train came.



The next day we decided to hit the beach and just relaxed for a while. Then we went swimming in the pool and had a cookout on the back enclosure area. Emilie grilled up hotdogs and hamburgers and they were sooooooooo good!! We finished the night watching the Olympics Closing Ceremony.

Then the last day we decided to hit up a flea market/swap shop we used to go to as kids. It wasn't what we remembered at all!! We got there and it was a bum garage sale basically. AGAIN WITH THE URINE! What is that about?! Find a bathroom! Then Em and I got hungry and pulled into Little Cesar's and got a large pizza and each ate half sitting there in the parking lot. We had eaten soooo much food during our trip. Sooo much food! Grandma kept us well fed on home baked sweets and food in general. Then we went shopping for the rest of the day.

Pictures to come...