Santa Fe, NM and Aspen, CO

Here we are in the mountains again, and we couldn't be happier. Something about being up high and the abundance of hiking trails keeps us (well, me at least) happy. Santa Fe was a little smaller and a little more mature than we had anticipated, but it was nice nonetheless, and Aspen is a nice little haven for the insanely rich or the avid outdoorsman. Luckily, we've had the good fortune to have met a few of the down-to-earth members of the community rather than the aggravatingly frivolous members.

We are staying the the parents of Laura's friend Maggie, who is one lucky girl. While I've never met her before, I get a good sense that Maggie is a practical, good natured woman, strictly from calculations I've made after hanging out with her family. Ann and Mike have been extremely generous since we arrived yesterday, and it's always nice to meet progressive, like-minded people along our travels. The second half of our trip is shaping up just right if you ask me!









Mike and Yuki

















Laura on the trail up to Maroon Bells, just outside of Aspen. Again, a mountain next to a lake. An American West essential.














Me with three of the seven dogs that reside here. They're all very nice and six of the seven have curly hair, just like a human grandmother.









The Woody Creek Community Center, which Ann is in charge of, is being renovated into a gallery space, coffee shop, commercial kitchen, and office space and Laura and I helped with a little bit of volunteer work!
Actually, we just painted around some trim. But nevertheless, we had our hands in the project.









Laura eats and apple at Crater Lake.
















Me, throwing a Rocky Mountain snowball at Laura, which, just after this photo was taken, hit her shoulder. Apparently it felt like a rock. I'm sorry.














Excited/Lazy Eye
















You can see one (of three) of the Maroon Bells here.











Before we got to Aspen:






Colorado is boring!















I think this is New Mexico. It's also boring.










Laura in front of the something or other about Native American (American Indian) Artwork in Santa Fe.













Me in front of some church, which was less than exciting for me, but I was forced to look excited.












It's currently snowing outside and we're going to have to wait until morning to see if we can make it out of here, but if not, I suppose it's no big loss, huh? We'll keep you posted on our whereabouts, as always!

San Diego, the Grand Canyon, and onward.

Hey guys, yes, we know it's been a while, and we've been having plenty of fun in the meantime.
Right now, we're at our hotel in Santa Fe, NM, and we can't wait to wake up and get some southwestern food. Here's what's been going on:





A mesa!!
















We've been seeing a lot of controlled burns along the way, but this one was pretty big!








The following pictures are the Grand Canyon. It was really pretty, and yet somehow underwhelming in my opinion. I think Laura liked it a little more than I did. Don't get me wrong, it was definitely cool and I'm glad we went there (it would have been a real shame to have missed it on a trans-continental road trip), but I think I just knew what we would see and I guess I wasn't blown away. Oh well!







GRAND

















CANYON












Laura and me.
Laura was really afraid I'd push her off.
In my defense, my mom told me, "The Grand Canyon is a really good place if you want to get rid of someone."
Thanks, mom!
Actually, Laura's just afraid of heights. I'd never push her off.









TAKING PICTURES




















Laura kept begging me not to get close to the edge. My philosophy is that even if the cliff were twenty feet high, I could still be horribly disfigured, so what's 7000ft?









The night before the Grand Canyon trip:

Laura and I were inexplicably excited to go to the Olive Garden when we got to Flagstaff. Couldn't tell you why. I think we might have been craving the extra calories since we've been a little under-eating.





I got some good lemon cake to go. However, they didn't include utensils. So I went caveman.














MEXICO?













We were really close to Mexico. REALLY CLOSE. We had to go through a border security checkpoint. We could have easily smuggled a small Mexican child under our bags.





Before Flagstaff: San Diego







This is an important picture. I'm packing up my things.










This guy is awesome. His name is Alex and he is the Grand Shah of hosts. Laura knew him from high school and he just happens to be living in San Diego, while working for the orchestra there. I'm really happy to have met him, and visiting with him will definitely remain a highlight of our trip, in my eyes.

I'm sure Laura was happy to see him, too.

He's eating seaweed salad.








Here, I'm bored while Laura is forcing me to walk around Balboa Park.















Still bored.














These gargoyles are not scary.




















"Jump like the fountain!"

















In the rose garden.













Laura loves flowers.















good picture.

This is a Queensland Bottle Tree.















CACTUS

















CACTI.





























THERE IS LITERALLY NOTHING INTERESTING HERE!
















in the Spanish Village. (still in Balboa Park)
















uh huh












This place is great!









Out to dinner with Mary Beth, at a Mexican restaurant, which was tasty. Mary Beth was also an amazing host. If only it had been warmer, we definitely would have taken advantage of her apartment building pool! Mary Beth was thoroughly supportive of our transient aspirations. I love her for it. When I met Mary Beth, I still had my stache. She was a little creeped out, but still accepted me for who I was at the time. So thank you, MB!










At the beach.
















Oh, there's a military air field at the end of the beach.










Coronado jump.















Baywatch.



















This is more like a bounce.












I don't remember what this picture is about.











We drove along Route 1 (Pacific Coast Highway) for like an hour, before we decided it was taking too long. But it was pretty. And also it made us a little nauseous.











And finally, we get back to when we left California. We were sad to leave, and as always, Elizabeth's whole life fell to pieces after we left.

*note: this is the last picture in existence of my man-stache. so enjoy.





Sorry all these things are in reverse order... We're too lazy to fix it.

California, USA

As always, visiting Liz and Toby in California has been relaxing and almost too much fun to handle. Everyone in the world is moving to California, if only to please Elizabeth. We spent a couple days in Oakland, and a couple days at her family's beach house on Stinson Beach. Here are pictures of both:





Liz and Laura reunited.













Camera flashes are bright in the movie theater. We were getting ready to watch "Into the Wild," which we have mixed feelings about. I liked it, overall though.









Toby with lime teeth (at a Mexican place)














Toby and me digging into Korean banchan.













Laura and Elizabeth love Korean BBQ.
*note: actually, Laura thinks Korean food is similar to the worst parts of Chinese food. What an Asian cuisine snob.









At the beach. LizBeth, Lyssa, and Beth (with Phoenix) trot along the shoreline.











Laura at the PACIFIC Ocean!













Beth (with Phoenix), Lyssa, and Laura on the beach.

The girls were bonding together.











BIRDS (California has wildlife to compete with South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana)














Sand Pipers












Lyssa in my Mandana.

Lyssa and I go way back and have been friends since before she was a mom!














Bill (Beth's Boyfriend), Beth (Bill's Girlfriend), and Shane (Carrie's Boyfriend).

Carrie is unpictured, yet smart, funny, and beautiful.







Toby, being phenomenally smart and handsome at the same time!














Toby needs human contact from time to time.














Phoenix is a really nice kid.
Phoenix is Lyssa's son. Very cute.












Something happened.
My hair got long and my beard was big. So I got tired of being itchy and Elizabeth is always bugging me to cut my hair, so I decided to let her do the honors:





I got a man-stache and a weird mohawk/mullet.
I've been rocking it all day.












Lady's Paint Brushes!













Laura at LizBeth's dream house!











Me at Liz's dream house!










A dead bat at Elizabeth's dream house!















LizBeth's dream house!












Me and Laura on a knocked-over tree at LIZBETH'S DREAM HOUSE!!!!








Our stopover in California has been a really great respite from the road. We've been eating good food and having some much-needed downtime with some great people. It's always nice to see Elizabeth and Toby, and it always makes a great vacation to come visit them. NOT TO MENTION ALL THE COOL PEOPLE WE ALWAYS MEET WHEN WE'RE HERE! Getting to meet Beth, Bill, Shane and Carrie was great--they're all cool people and it has been so easy to hang out with them even though we just met them! And seeing Lyssa always makes me happy--she might as well be my long-lost sister (no offense, Jenna).

Goodbye, Northern California, we're off to San Diego!