Home Sweet Home

We're back in Brooklyn and it feels great! It's been nearly a week since my last post, so before I do the trip recap I'll catch you all up with our last week's activities.

We left Siloam Springs on Monday and headed to the Buffalo National River. This was the first river to be declared a national river and the only one we visited on our trip. The Buffalo River has a ton to offer and was absolutely beautiful in the Fall. We did 2 hikes on Monday: Hawk's Bill (the most photographed site in Arkansas) and Beaver Jim's Cabin. That night we stayed in a cabin in the Ozark Forest. The hikes and the cabin were awesome. I'd love to cozy up there for an entire winter.

Tuesday we did one more hike, Lost Valley. There was so much to see and do on this hike even though it was only 2 miles round trip. There were lots of rocks to climb around on (very fun) and caves you could walk through. (There were other caves you could crawl into, but we opted not to try this.) Paul and I agreed the Lost Valley hike was our favorite hike of the entire road trip.

The rest of Tuesday we drove to Pine Bluff, AR where my grandparents lived. We saw their old house and did some other touring of the town. It was nice to see that the house and the neighborhood looked pretty much the same.

Next day we toured Graceland! We got there nice and early and there were no crowds. We saw the mansion, Elvis' car collection and private jets. It was pretty neat, and now we can say we've been there. For lunch I had some traditional Memphis barbecue. It was excellent, although I still like the Carolina sauce best.

We left Memphis headed for the Natchez State Park because we wanted to get in one more night of good camping before returning to Brooklyn. On our way we had our only police encounter of the entire trip. Paul got pulled over on Hwy 40, we were only going about 7 miles over the speed limit. He had Paul get out of the car and asked him a bunch of questions like where were we coming from, where were we going, is that your wife, where were you the night before last, etc. Then he came over to me, still in the car, and more or less confirmed that we had the same answers. Then he let us go. We're not sure if we avoided a speeding ticket or perhaps he was looking for someone and we fit the profile.

We made it to the Natchez State Park which turned out to be an excellent choice for our last night of camping. Our tent site was right on a lake, the leaves were all beautiful, we played horseshoes, walked around the lake, met a nice chocolate lab. A great last night of camping, which it needed to be to keep us going thru the winter until we can camp again.

At this point we had about 1000 miles until Brooklyn, which we decided to do in 2 days. Thursday we headed out of Tennessee via Nashville and into Kentucky. In Kentucky we stopped at the Maker's Mark distillery. This is Paul's favorite drink and was a super fun tour. Paul got to dip his own bottle in wax to bring home. That night we stayed over in Huntington, WV. Not the ideal place for a final night celebration, but what can you do. We made the best of it with dinner at Pizzeria Uno's (honestly the best choice in that town).

Then it was our last day on the road! 500+ miles to Brooklyn via West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. In West Virginia we were sort of in the mountains and the actually had snow on the ground! Then it started to snow on us, but not for long.

We made it back to our Brooklyn abode about 6:30pm last night (Friday) and it feels wonderful. I'll post a trip summary in the next few days.

Update from Siloam Springs, AR

I feel like I'm on a end-of-trip posting spree, but its great to be able to post so frequently. Today I guess we passed our < 1 week until we return to NYC mark. Hard to believe that all of our 6 weeks have nearly passed. But there's still some fun stuff ahead.

Yesterday we took a morning tour a few hotspots in Tulsa, OK. The first stop was the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame. You'd be surprised how many big jazz names were born in Oklahoma. Including Charlie Christian and Chet Baker (and more that Paul could name for you.) After the jazz hall we headed to the University of Tulsa where my parents went to school and met. It was a football game day so we couldn't park for very long but we managed to check out a bit of the campus. It was pretty nice. Next stop was the Tulsa Oktoberfest. This was interesting, but not overly exciting. We had some food and some beer and headed on to my Aunt's in Siloam Springs, AR.

Last night my Aunt cooked us a great homecooked meal and we just visited, catching up. Today we got a tour of historic downtown Siloam Springs and over to Fayetteville, where the University of Arkansas is located. This is definitely the prettiest selection of fall trees we've seen. I've always loved the fall colors, but these are really astounding. Hopefully I'll get some pretty pictures tomorrow when we head to Jasper for a day of hiking and overnight in a cabin along the Buffalo River. It should be very beautiful.

After Jasper we move on to Pine Bluff and Memphis. I probably won't post photos for a few more days, until I have a few more. 7 days left!

Update from Sepulpa, OK (right outside Tulsa!)

Since we last spoke Paul and I had a great time in Albuquerque, NM. I think I've even managed to learn the proper spelling of the town name. We stayed in Albuquerque at a friend of the Sanwald's home. It was a beautiful little adobe type house within walking distance of the Rio Grande. It was very nice to spend some time in a comfortable non-camping/non-hotel environment. And there was a ton of stuff to do in Albuquerque. The first day we were there we checked out the Old Town which was pretty neat and the sculpture garden nearby at the Albuquerque Museum. For both lunch and dinner that day we had traditional "New Mexican" food, and that was about all I needed, I don't want to see another red or green chili for a very long time. Although Paul was quite happy with all the chilis and could continue eating them for weeks.

On day 2 in Albuquerque we drove a short drive from our adobe to the Petroglyph National Monument. This was awesome. We did about a 2.5 mile walk along this mesa where there are "ancient" stone drawings (see photos). Some are a few hundred years old, but some are much older. They were very neat and I took pictures of the best examples. After that we went to a hike around some volcanoes in the same National Monument area. This was really fun, we got to hike on top of these dormant volacanoes and climb around on the rocks.

After all that morning hiking we went down to the University of New Mexico area which has a neighborhood nearby called Nob Hill. This was pretty neat because it's on the old Route 66 and they try to maintain that retro feel of the Route 66 days. There we just walked around and took a look at shops and stopped for a couple beers. That night we opted for non-New Mexican food (which was hard to find.)

Today we had an all out driving day, trying to get us a bit ahead of our schedule. We made it from Albuquerque to Tulsa, but then we had to backtrack a bit because all of the hotels are sold out near Tulsa. Our hotel clerk told us it's either because of the Octoberfest going on in Downtown Tulsa or because a few funerals this weekend (??).

The goal is to be at my Aunt's tomorrow evening (in Siloam Springs, AK) and it looks like we'll make that in plenty of time, so tomorrow I think we're going to do a little touring of Tulsa. Tulsa is where my parents went to college and met eachother! I think we'll check out U of T, the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame, and possible the Octoberfest depending on time.

Barely over a week til we're home, I can't believe its going to end! I think I won't feel near to home until we cross back over the Mississippi, that is the line between East and West right? I hope everyone is doing well.

Update from Gallup, NM - Episode 2

We made it to Las Vegas on schedule with no more car issues. We stayed at Mandalay Bay. Mandalay Bay has a really great pool/beach and this was the first time I've actually been to Vegas where it was warm enough to swim. So in addition to the usual gambling and touring of casinos we swam in the Lazy River and the Wave Pool. We also had dinner at the Bellagio buffet, this was my first Vegas buffet and we both agreed it was pretty great. Vegas was really fun, but we were both ready to get back to camping. (Everything in Vegas costs lots of money, we needed to decompress.)

We left Vegas Sunday morning and headed towards the Grand Canyon. On the way we drove through the Hoover dam. We didn't actually stop because it was quite crowded, but I got some pictures anyway. We reached the Grand Canyon only an hour or so before nightfall, plenty of time to setup camp, but we didn't actually get to see the canyon until the next day. We had only planned to camp 1 night at the Grand Canyon, but we realized the Canyon was going to be beautiful and we wanted to hike it, so we signed up for a second night of camping. During the day we did about a 4 mile hike from the South Kaibab trailhead. The park tries to warn you, but they really can't warn you enough... you need water, you need to allow twice as much time to hike back up as you did going down. It was very rigorous. Although it was shorter than our other hikes, it was definitely difficult. But the views were awesome and we got to see a few Condors flying around pretty close to where we were (I have a few pics).

After the descending hike we did another 2 miles of the flat South Rim trail. This is a really nice walk with views of the Canyon the entire way. This is possibly the first place on our trip that I feel I need to return to. We'd both love to do a more serious hike where you camp in the backcountry, carrying all your food, water, tent, etc. But we'll need some time to get into shape before we do hikes like that, especially in the Grand Canyon.

We left the Grand Canyon this morning for Flagstaff. It was raining and by the time we reached Flagstaff it was downpouring. We had lunch at a diner in Flagstaff and the waitresses there were talking about how the winds and the rain was just going to get worse, definitely not good camping weather. So we spent a few hours at the Lowell Observatory there in Flagstaff and decided to move out. The observatory was neat, neither one of us had ever been to one before and this one had some pretty old telescopes. It is actually where they discovered the planet Pluto.

From Flagstaff we drove to Gallup, NM. (We can't get the Route 66 song out of our heads with all these towns were in!) The drive from Flagstaff to Gallup was awesome. Something about the rain clouds we were passing thru and the flat land where you can see more sky than you've ever seen at once before. I must've seen at least a dozen rainbows along the way, I even got a pictures of one of them.

Now we're in Gallup for the night, had some yummy Mexican food for dinner, and tomorrow we head to Albuquerque. Will post again next time we have internet. Don't forget to check out all the new pics.

Update from Gallup, NM - Episode 1

Sorry again for the long delay. I tried to post one night a few days ago and the internet crapped out after I'd written this long thing, so I got frustrated and gave up. I'll try to catch you up on everything since Mexico and hopefully the internet will hold up its end.

In case I didn't say in my last posting, Mexico was awesome. We had a really fun time with perfect weather and perfect food. Every day was Huevos Rancheros for breakfast, guacamole for afternoon snack and some other kind of Mexican food for dinner. (Not to mention the margaritas and cervezas.) The thing I love most about Mexico is that you can have Mexican food 3 meals a day, every day, and it'll be the best you'll find. Other than that the wedding was beautiful and hanging with a bunch of friends in a warm beach resort was a ton of fun.

From Mexico we flew back to San Francisco and stayed one more night with Paul's friend Phil. We left the next morning for Monterey. In Monterey we went straight to the Aquarium which is rated #1 in the world or something, and it was great. I guess on weekends in the summer the place is totally crowded, but compared to that it was practically empty for us. Everything in the Aquarium was super cool, but here's my favorites: sea otters, rays (which I pet, see photos), jellyfish, octopus. It is a very very good aquarium and I highly recommend going there if you can.

We spent the night in Calistoga (near Monterey) in a really cute B&B, the Seven Gables. It was very luxurious compared to all of our camping. They served wine and snacks in the afternoon, then cookies and milk before bed, and the breakfast in the morning was excellent. Our room had views of the bay and of the sea otters. I can't get enough of the otters, seals, and sea lions. I also can't tell the difference between them all.

From Calistoga we did the 17-mile scenic drive around Pebble Beach to Carmel which offered more sea otter views and fun ocean rocks to climb around. From there we headed down the Pacific Coast Highway. The views were great, but after about 30 miles I'd had enough. Lots of twists, turns, up-hills, down-hills... I wasn't feeling too well so we turned off at the first opportunity (about 70 miles later!)

From there we were very very close to heading down to Los Angeles, even though it wasn't on our itinerary. We were craving the Mexican food at the Farmer's Market there. A few miles into it we thought better of it and headed East towards our next destination, Las Vegas. Which reminds me... we're headed East. That means we're headed home. I'm both sad and excited about this.

That night we attempted to find a campground in Tehachapi, CA (middle of nowhere). The attempted campground location was at the top of a mountain near the State Correctional Institution. Very deserted, so we decided not to stay there. As I was racing down the mountain to get away from the scary campground I guess I was a little heavy on the brakes and they nearly stopped working at the bottom and there was a horrible burning smell. Luckily we got a room in town at a Best Western across the street from a mechanic and were able to have the brakes checked out the next morning. The mechanic only took about 3-4 hours and determined there was no major car issue and we were able to get onto the road to Vegas.

(Gotta take a dinner break, more on Vegas and Grand Canyon and Flagstaff in the next Episode.)

Update from La Paz, Mexico

Hi all! We are here in Mexico and it is absolutely beautiful. The wedding went off great and everyone is having a terrific time. I have lots of pictures to post, which I can't really do from here, but I will as soon as we get back. Since I last posted we spent 3 nights camping in Napa Valley, near Calistoga. Wine country is beautiful, I love all the rows of grapes. And for 20 bucks a night, camping is definitely a great way to do Napa.

After Napa we spend 2 days in San Francisco. Definitely a very cool city. I knew it was hilly, but I had no idea how many hills and how steep. We went to the Mission district and had the best burritos of our lives, we saw the crookedest street, and I fulfilled a lifelong dream to go to Alcatraz! I definitely recommend the Alcatraz tour. We only had time to see the prison portion of the island, but there's tons of stuff to see all over the island, I need to go back again. Another really cool thing is that this weekend in San Francisco it's Fleet Week, so the day we were there the Blue Angels were practicing. They are incredible to watch. And since we were hiking up one of the many steep streets we got a chance to see them pretty up close as they were flying over the city. I got a little carried away with the photos, so when I post them you'll be seeing lots of pictures of sky and hopefully I actually caught the planes in there a few times as well.

From San Francisco we headed to Mexico. Paul and I love Mexico, but we'd never been to Baja before. It's really beautiful with mountains and things all around, not to mention the sun and the water. The sunsets are beautiful where we are too, even though we're not on the western side of Baja, we're still facing West for some reason.

We fly back to San Francisco on Tuesday, then Wednesday it's off to Monterey. Hopefully I'll be able to post all of the pictures soon.

Attack of the Yurts!

We're currently in Arcata, CA, just south of the Redwoods. Since we last posted we've done a lot of hiking and camping on the Oregon coast. The weather's been pretty bad, very cold and foggy. It sucks driving down the coast which is supposed to be so scenic when you can't see four feet in front of you because of the fog. However, the fog can be beautiful too, see all the foggy photos. And to keep us warm at night, we have discovered Yurts! Yurts are semi-permanent structures that can be found at most Oregon state campgrounds. They have heat and electric and are perfect if you don't want to put your tent up when its wet or sit by the fire all night to stay warm. They are very fun, and only cost a little more than a tent-site. Here's a link on the Oregon State Parks homepage about Yurts.

Yesterday we left Oregon and came down into the Redwoods of California. The trees are absolutely incredible. I thought Oregon's trees were big, but that was nothing. (See photos of Redwoods!)

I've added all of our pics from the Oregon coast with comments, so if you're interested in all of our detailed activities you can read the comments and view the photos. Mostly its just been hiking and camping and relaxing.

Next stop is Wine Country. We're headed to Calistoga, CA where we're going to cheat the over $100/night rates by camping. The weather's supposed to be great and we're looking forward to some relaxing camping mixed with wine tasting. I'll let you all know how it goes.

Update from Lincoln City, OR

Sarah has been writing these but I figured I should write some too, so this is our update from the Oregon coast. We should probably backtrack a bit to our day in Portland, where we hung out in the japanese garden (a very cool collection of 5 different styles of japanese gardens). We spent some time in the nob hill area of portland which was cool, and then spent the afternoon reading and drying out all the wet camping gear from yellowstone in the sun.

all in all we thought portland was ok, but maybe had too high a expectations for it.

on to the coast! The portland coast is definitely the most badass vegetation we have seen on the trip, the forests are very mossy and seem like ancient medievel forests, although I have no idea if those even exists. anyways they're great.

yesterday we stopped by the cape mears lighthouse, which is a short (34 feet!) but cool lighthouse. on this walk we got our first view of the pacific coast, which is really awesome and beautiful! then we walked up to the octopus tree, which is a giant sitka spruce you'll see in our pictures (coming soon!). then we checked into our campsite, cape lookout, which was right next to the beach. we drove a few miles up the road to a trailhead and did a very very scenic 5 mile hike out along a peninsula. we looked for whales and sea lions but didn't see any :(.

after that we just went back to camp and watched the sun set from the beach (sarah says this is her first pacific sunset!) and had a good dinner and a nice fire. camping was a little cold but nowhere near as cold as yellowstone. in a way it's good we did some below freezing camping first, everything else doesn't seem nearly so bad that way :).

we are going to be traveling down the oregon coast over the next few days, staying at state parks and going on lots of hikes along the way. sarah was not sure at first if she would enjoy camping/hiking but now says she really likes it and this morning asked me if we could go camping in prospect park (wtf!?!?).

anyways everything is going great and from OR we are heading down to the redwood forest and then to napa valley.

Some Housekeeping

Thanks for all the positive responses to the blog, I'm glad everyone is enjoying it. I have some good news for everyone that liked the Yellowstone pictures. When I was uploading them I had VERY slow internet, so not even half of them got out. I'm uploading the rest now, so be sure to check them out.

(BTW I'm very sorry about all the sideways photos. When I get the chance to use internet it isn't usually for very long, so I just load them up as they are. Hope it's not too annoying!)

Also, in my last posting, I forgot to give a shout out to Boise Idaho. We stayed there overnight between Yellowstone and Portland and it was shockingly hip. We found a nice downtown area and had a great dinner at this restaurant Bardenays. It's the only distillery/restaurant in the nation. I had trout (I'd been seeing trout fisherman all day, so how could I resist?) So Boise definitely excited our expectations, but I don't think we're going to move there or anything.