Thursday, May 15- En Route to Elko, Nevada

Back on the road.  On our way to Las Vegas right now.  We had dinner with Nick’s grandparents last night and breakfast there this morning.  It’s nice to be leaving.  We are en route to Elko, Nevada.  Bleh.   Nevada isn’t much nicer as far as getting out of the desert/hell.  Elko is still pretty hellish.  It will be nice to see my grandmother though.  I haven’t seen her in a long time!  She is 84 now.  She’s the sweet little old lady grandmother.  See, Granny?  Nope.  She’s as feisty as they come! 

We had to set mouse traps in our car last night.  We had a car buddy move in on us in Joshua Tree.  We hadn’t actually seen this little guy, but we saw the evidence of his presence that he left behind.  He got into our hot dog buns and hot chocolate, and he even managed to find his way into the glove box to eat my Tums!!  What?!  I guess eating all those carbs gave him some indigestion or heart burn or something.  Nick baited 3 mouse traps with a doughnut and left them in the car last night.  I went to check the traps this morning and he had eaten the food off the first two traps.  I guess he got a little cocky and went for the third trap but he wasn’t so lucky that time.  Now he gets to hang out in Granny’s so-called garden (gardens don’t exist in the desert…).  He had been living in our dash board for the past week.  I think he was eating up our seat foam or insulation and building a nest in the dash.  Every time that we would start up the car and the A/C a whole bunch of shit would blow out the vents!  I’m just glad he didn’t die in there!  It would smell to high hell whenever it would get hot or when we turn on the heater.  Gross.  I almost want to gag just thinking about it.  But seriously?  WHO has a mouse move into their CAR?!?!  It just makes me want to start laughing, it seems so ridiculous!! 

Speaking of ridiculous.  I was talking on the phone with my mom as I walked across the street to the Family Dollar store to pick up some mouse traps.  There was a woman at the register talking to the cashier about a calling card.  She was so confused because the kept insisting that she had to scratch off that spot on the back of the card and the cashier was just trying to tell her that all she had to do was swipe it and be done.  It was such a stupid argument and my mom and I were listening in and couldn’t help but start laughing when we got out of ear shot. 

We stopped at an auto shop in Parker, AZ to pick up some tape.  Apparently it’s too hot here for electrical tape, which is what we use to tape our driver side mirror on.  Nick picked up some heavy duty stuff to tape it back on since our electrical tape melted.  Damn!  Hopefully this stuff works better.  We have such an awesome car.  It used to belong to my friend Radar.  Well, his name is Andrew but we all call him Radar since he looks almost exactly like Radar from MASH.  Radar joined the Air Force about a year and a half ago.  He left the day after my 19^th birthday.  L  I miss that boy and I wish I had some internet or his phone number since we are only a few hours away from where he is stationed.  I guess it just wasn’t meant to happen this trip.  Lame.

We did make it to see the nudist book store owner yesterday.  We got a picture with him with all three of us doing the Captain Morgan’s pose.  The pose where you lift your left leg up as if it’s on a barrel and then holding your arm out as if you are holding a bottle of the Cap’n Mo.  If that makes any sense at all.  He’s a nice little old guy.  He doesn’t have an ounce of fat on his body.  At all.  Nothing.  He wears a little bag over his doodles and a string around his waist to hold it there.  That’s all he wears!  He’s got the right idea in this heat though.  Hell, if I had a nicer body (like… no stretch marks and flabby skin from my pregnancy, ugh) and I lived down here, I might consider being a nudist!  I could just move to Papua New Guinea and then I would fit in with the natives!  Only I would be incredibly white compared to all of them.  Well… and I don’t speak their language.  That might make things a little difficult! 

We just drove past a larger woman that was wearing grey spandex leggings.  She had butt crack sweat!  Unless you are Twiggy, you shouldn’t be wearing spandex.  No matter how tight, it’s not going to hold in the rolls.  Nope, it’s going to roll right along with you.  I won’t even wear spandex!  I’m not a fat girl, I just have a little more to love.  I’m curvy, and I put on a few pounds with my pregnancy (but I’m still breast feeding, so shut up!) and I can’t say I’m all that happy with my body at the moment.  I’m slowly losing the weight though.  I just wish my skin hadn’t gotten so stretched out.  I have stretch marks EVERYWHERE.  On my boobs, my stomach, thighs and even a couple on my upper calves.  Ugh!  It grosses me out.  Time for lipo and tummy tucks and all that weird shit.  Okay- enough self-wallowing for today. 

Afternoon-

So Nick is getting on my ass since I only started writing about our trip when we were in LA.  Hmmm, so where to start then, eh? 

We left Portland and made our way over to Lincoln City, OR and then wound down the coast to Newport.  Nick’s best friend’s dad, Jeff, owns a sailboat in Newport.  He gave us the code to the lock and let us stay the night on the boat.  It’s a pretty neat boat.  Built in the 1970’s with 4 crew berths and a cool aft cabin, the boat is really cozy.  The boat was definitely fun to hang out on but it’s not a boat I would want to go cruising on.  The layout isn’t quite prime for cruising.  Too many berths and a lot of wasted space.  I really liked the boat though. 

That night (Tuesday, May 6), we watched some movies and caught some crab off the dock (shhhh).  We cooked up the crab and ate, mmm it was tasty!  Then we went to bed and slept like babies.  I think Addison woke up only once that night, if at all.  (I don’t really remember.)   In the morning we woke up and drove down the coast a bit and found a diner on the side of the road.  I think it was called Leroy’s Blue Whale Diner or something along those lines.  The food was pretty awesome.  Nothing quenches hunger like some diner pancakes and coffee!!!  (I’m a hopeless breakfast lover.) 

So we drive down and made it into California and find a campground in the Redwood Forest.  That was SO COOL!  Those trees are enormous and oh-so beautiful.  We forgot to take cash out of the atm though and we didn’t have enough on hand to pay for the campsite.  The lady at the campground told us that we had 8 minutes to get to this store in a little town about 4 miles away, but they were closed when we got there.  It was the LONGEST 4 miles EVER.  So we back tracked and got to the town that we went through right before the campground and there was nothing there either.  We didn’t even see any other people.  It was creepy.  We drove south a ways and tried to find a place with an atm, or even just a place that was open.  These people live out in the middle of nowhere and there isn’t a gas station to be found anywhere.  About 45 minutes later we finally get back to the campground with some cash in hand and stay there for the night.  Nick and I proceeded to get a bit sloshed while Addison was sleeping.  You really don’t feel as drunk as you are when it’s pitch black and there aren’t any reference points! 

The next day we drove through the Redwoods and stopped at the tourist trap that is the “Drive-Thru Tree”.

  I got a picture of the Suby halfway through the tree.  It couldn’t go all the way though since the bikes were on top of the car.  We also stopped at this restaurant and ate the most amazing sandwiches… drool.  We got off Highway 101 and got onto Highway 1 which wound down the coast instead of going inland.  It was gorgeous but it too way to damn long!!  The road was narrow and winding and kept going up and down, up and down.  So we got back onto Highway 101 and made our way through San Francisco.  San Francisco is an amazing town but I would NOT want to live there.  There’s so much damn traffic!!  We stopped at the Golden Gate National Recreational Area and changed a blown-out diaper.  (Don’t give your child a lot of apple juice- it causes extreme poop explosions.)  We would have walked around a bit, but the wind was a bit nippy, and we probably would have gotten run over by one of the 230,876,540 runners.  There were runners EVERYWHERE!!  I instantly felt fat and lazy.  And poor.  The town houses across from the park were incredibly swanky.  It was neat to see Alcatraz from the park though. 

We caught San Francisco right in the middle of rush hour, although I have the sneaking suspicion that it’s never NOT rush hour in the city of San Fran.  We blew through and made our way back to the coast.  We were hoping to find a camp site around the Big Sur area, but yet again we forgot to get cash out.  We had to drive all the way down to San Simeon to find a campsite that was less than our measly $13.  We searched for an open store with an atm the entire way down but there was nothing.  All of the tent sites were going for 20-25 bucks too.  The campground outside San Simeon was $11 so we pitched our tent as soon as we got there and crashed.  In the morning Nick woke up early and looked out the tent door and saw a deer standing right in front of the tent.  Nick made a surprised noise and his first words to me were “If that deer hadn’t moved, I could have reached out the tent and punched it in the face.”  J  Then he corrected himself and said that maybe he wouldn’t punch it in the face, but he could have touched it.  (Hahahah, I laughed.)  We got up and Nick started the car at 6:47 am and when we backed out of the site, it was 7:03 am.  Record time!!  We hadn’t been able to pay on the way in since there was nobody working at the booth, so we were planning on paying on our way out but there was still nobody working and there was a sign that said not to use the drop box!  Okay, well… it told us not to pay!  We poached a camp site.  But hey, it was their fault, right?  They weren’t very clear about how to pay, and we had every intention of paying!  

We stopped in Morro Bay for some McDonalds breakfast and a cup of coffee from the local coffee shop and headed on our way to LA!  We drove down through Santa Barbara and Malibu and all those rich towns that just made us sick (and bitter).  We stopped at one of the beaches somewhere along the road and took a walk.  We made it down to LA that afternoon and that’s when we met Bob Bitchin’ and yadda yadda yadda.  You are now updated about that bit of the trip. 

 So now back to present.  We crossed the Hoover Dam and drove through Las Vegas not too long ago.  Vegas is a lot bigger in person than it looks on the map!!  The Hoover Dam was pretty cool though.  I got a couple of pictures, but nothing that will stop you in your tracks.  Nothing worthy of an award or prize money or fame or anything.  I talked to my mom again today and she thinks (but isn’t sure) that my great grandfather’s company, Barrett & Co. worked on building the Hoover Dam.  I will have to ask my grandma when we get up to her place.  We have a picture of Barrett & Co. working on the Golden Gate Bridge.  That means I practically own part of it, right?  (Hahaha I WISH!!)  I think I should demand royalties.  A dollar for every toll paid to cross.  Yessss, then I can be all rich and what not.  Sounds like a decent plan to me!!  Bwahahahah, then I can take over the world!!  But then I might just be getting carried away. 

Nah.  

Wednesday, May 14- Still Quartzsite, Arizona

And the Bad Mommy of the Year Award goes to?  Me.  I woke up this morning to Addison falling off the bed.  L  AHH!  I felt so horrible.  My little girl now has some carpet burn on the side of her face.  Bad mommy!!!  I even thought about putting a pillow on the other side of her, but I didn’t.  Would have, should have, could have.  Damn it. 

We are now at Nick’s grandparents place waiting for breakfast!  Coffee time!!  Breakfast is by far the greatest meal on the face of the earth.  I don’t know why some people don’t eat breakfast.  I mean, come ON!!  Pancakes, eggs, bacon, waffles, French toast, fruit, coffee, cereal, what’s NOT to like?  I got onto a breakfast kick when I was pregnant and now I just can’t get enough of it!  Same with sushi.  I didn’t eat anything raw when I was pregnant, but now that I can… OH MY GOD!  It’s so amazing.  Peter’s Sushi Spot in Anchorage, Alaska.  The BEST sushi I have ever had.  Nothing else has topped it thus far.  We went to a place in Gresham, OR and it was horrible.  It was the kind where they make it and put it up on this track that runs around to all the tables.  They change out the food on the track every three hours.  Ew.  If I want to eat a roll, it needs to be made right before my eyes!  I don’t want a roll that’s been running around on a track for three hours!  Gross.  I love sushi though.  When it is GOOD sushi.  There was this one at Peter’s called the Mindy Roll.  I couldn’t even tell you what is on it, but it was so tasty!  It was the most delectable thing I think I have ever put in my mouth!  I’m starting to drool just thinking about it.  Too bad it was a special roll.  When we go back to Alaska in August it probably won’t be on the menu anymore.  Damn! 

I finally got Addison to go to sleep.  She has been fighting it for the past hour or so.  Maybe longer.  It’s so frustrating when just about everything you do won’t get them to go to sleep.  I finally had to strap her into her car seat and go for a drive.  Luckily that worked.  I don’t know what I would have done if she was still awake right now.  Probably hand her over to her father so I could go outside and scream.  And then proceed to start crying.  FRUSTRATIONNNNNNN!!!  I love the little bugger though.  She’s so adorable when she’s happy!  She’s just starting whining through a yawn.  It’s pretty amusing.  She will be crying because she’s tired and then she lets out a big yawn (which is sort of new, she never yawns!) and she keeps trying to cry through her yawn.  Ha!!  It makes me chuckle! 

So Granny has these little rat dogs.  Pekinese, I think?  They are so ugly!  I guess one of them has a back problem and so he walks around like he has no front legs.  He just sits there and licks the air.  Labs are MUCH cooler dogs.  Nick wants another Newfoundland (which I love- and he grew up with them) and I want a Lab.  I’ve always wanted a black Lab named Atticus.  That seems like such a fitting name for a black Lab!  Or a chocolate Lab.  I don’t know what I’d name a chocolate though.  Definitely not Hershey like everyone else names them.  Hershey doesn’t even have good chocolate, so that would be a rather demeaning name for a chocolate lab!  Absolutely not Godiva, or Dove or any of those dim-witted names either.  Just because it’s a chocolate Lab doesn’t mean you have to name it after a chocolate company!  I like the name Hank.  Hank has a lot of character wrapped up into that name.  My cousin has a dog named Hank though, so that’s crossed off the list.  It’s definitely something to sit on and think about.  Giving a dog the wrong name is completely irreverent! 

I just read in the National Geographic May 2008 issue (about China) that people in Beijing are allowed no more than one dog and they prohibit pets more than 14 inches tall/high.  Whoa!  There is also the law that you can have no more than one child.  The one-child policy created a generation of about 90 million only-children.  That’s a LOT of only children!  I want Addison to have a sibling.  In about a year and a half we will be trying to have another baby.  It’s going to be hard to go through it all again, but I’m looking forward to it.  I hope the next kid is as good as Addison is!  We really lucked out with this little girl.  She is happy as can be and really only cries when she’s tired, hungry or just cranky.  Only one more though.  And then Nick is getting snipped and I’m probably going to get my shit scrambled in there (if I’m getting a c-section anyways).  We can’t afford a boat for a family of 5! 

Yes, that is our plan.  To buy a sail boat and live on it after Nick retires from the Coast Guard in about 12 years.  Then we are going cruising!  Around the world we go!  Not like AROUND, but around.  (Know what I mean, eh?)  Everybody looks at us like we are crazy when we tell them about this plan.  Some people think we are completely out of touch with reality.  Quite a few people have done this!  Living on a boat is SO much cheaper than living on land.  Especially if you are traveling to places where the dollar is worth a lot (like Indonesia, the South Pacific, etc).  With a sailboat, you can get by using one tank of gas for a long time, especially if you are an excellent sailor that doesn’t need to use the engine to get out of the marina.  Most times people only use the engine to charge batteries.  If  you outfit the boat with enough solar panels then you hopefully won’t even have to use the engine!  There are ways to do it.  And having kids on the boat?  No problem!  From every thing we have read, and all the stories that are from the kid’s perspectives, they love being on the water and traveling.  Most of them grow up to be very successful in business and international relations and the like.  And then they aren’t going to public school every day, getting pregnant when they are 13 and getting picked up at the bus stop and sold into prostitution rings (yes, all this happened at the middle school my mother-in-law works at, and that’s a decent part of town!).  Fuck that!!  My daughter is going to be well versed in the ways of the world!  So anyone that thinks we are off our rocker can suck it!

Tuesday, May 13 Quartzsite, Arizona

It’s 7:53 am and it looks like it’s about noon outside.  The sun is up and I was woken by Addison at about 6.  I guess it was time to get up whether I wanted to or not.  So now we are watching the Sopranos (all the Sopranos reminds me of is being 8-9 months pregnant, sitting in our apartment in Alaska with McFlurries watching all 6 seasons of this show- it’s completely addicting, especially when you are über pregnant and can’t really do anything) and hoping to not do much of anything today.  God, it’s SO hot here.  I complain a lot about it.  Damn it.  I try not to, but it just sort of happens.  How can you NOT complain about the heat?  Especially when you just moved from Alaska to the Lower 48.  Yes, I said it.  The LOWER 48!  Bwahaahahha.  I’ve come to learn that most lower 48’ers don’t like it when I call the “mainland” the “lower 48”.  Yeah, whatever.  Get over it!  A lot of people think Alaska is part of Canada!  Hell, the military considers Alaska to be “overseas”.  I’m thinking people are kind of dumb. 

Ah, speaking of dumb people.  On our way to the Grand Canyon we stopped at a gas station and proceeded to break the computer system with our credit card.  Apparently gas stations out in the sticks don’t like Alaska Airline credit cards.  So while we are sitting there waiting for the payment to go through, the car was left at the pump with the keys turned in the ignition, but the engine wasn’t running.  So the payment finally goes through and we bought some sandwiches and get back to the car only to find that the battery is dead.  Not AGAIN!  (Yeah, this same exact thing also happened while we were driving down the California coast… damn it.)  So I pop the hood and hook up the jump cables and walk inside to see if anyone can give us a jump.  The guy at the counter gives me this confused look and says that he can call someone to come get us.  Uhm… all we need is a car that will start!  I told him this and he looked confused again and then told me that we probably wouldn’t want to use his car because it has electrical problems.  What?  Like it’s contagious and going to infect our car?  Finally, one of the women that worked there brought her truck around gave us a jump.  But seriously… is it THAT difficult to jump start a battery??

I think we are going to go to the bookstore today.  I finished reading my book, so now I need something else to keep me preoccupied whilst driving through wastelands and feeding my daughter.  Or for when I’m just bored.  I love books. J  The Quartzsite book store is owned by a nudist.  I am SO going to get my picture taken with him!!!  He has an amazing tan and he’s super skinny.  He wears a banana hammock during the day while he is working though.  So that’s a relief.  I don’t really feel like looking at his ba-COCK, his scrum-diddly-um-tious, his cash-and-prizes.  (Yes, I was just channeling Dane Cook.)  I guess some people were in his store a while ago and he bent over, exposing his back door and they got really offended.  What do you expect when you are in the company of a nudist?  I think it’s pretty awesome that he can do that!  It’s his store, it’s his private property, and the town is behind him!  So either go in there with an open mind, or leave, it’s no place for you.  According to Granny, people come from all over to see him.  There is a video about him on youtube.com somewhere.  Granny showed it to us when she went up to Alaska for our wedding.  I never thought I’d get a chance to meet him!  Excellent… I’m going to meet a real-life nudist!  Well, I best be off to take my shower.  It’s nice and windy outside so hopefully it won’t be too hot today.  Or maybe that is just wishful thinking.  Probably.

Tuesday evening-

Okay, so we had a change of plans.  It was cooler today so Nick, Addison and I made our way down to Mexico.  Granny was still hung over from Sunday night so she stayed home.  We parked and walked across the border only to see more dentists than I have ever seen in my life!!  We walked through the town of Algodones and bartered with some of the vendors.  We bought a dress and a little vest for Addison that will be excellent for playing Cowboys and Indians!

We went to one of the restaurants.  We were looking for Italian but didn’t find any.  (HA!  No, not really.)  So we come to find out that Mexico has some really good Mexican food!  J  Nick and I shared a pitcher of margaritas and felt pretty damn good afterwards!  Then we walked around and looked at all the shit they were trying to sell.  Nothing was of very good quality.  At all.  I almost bought some fake Chanel sunglasses but they were so cheaply made that I couldn’t justify it. 

Everybody was touching Addison.  The only reason I didn’t smack every person that touched her was because I knew it was a cultural thing.  It still bugged me though.  I don’t like strangers touching my baby!  They don’t see little red headed babies all that often.  When I was a baby I had some exceptionally blonde hair (platinum).  We lived in Texas and I was sitting in the HEB (the Uvalde grocery store) shopping cart while my mom was buying groceries. According to my mother, a Hispanic woman came up to me and she started putting her hands all over my face.  My mom was wholly appalled when she saw this, I don’t know what she did but later on she learned that Hispanics do this to bless the light haired babies.  Don’t ask me why, I don’t know, but this was the only reason I was able to relax a bit when everyone was trying to manhandle my daughter!  I can’t really blame them for wanting to touch her though, she’s just THAT adorable!  

On our way back from Mexico we stopped on some road out in the middle of nowhere and flew the kite for a bit.  It’s one of those big 9 foot kites that in the right wind will drag you along.  It was so neat!  I had never flown one of those big ones before!  I crashed it a lot, heh… oops.  We drove to the end of the road and ended up in the “mountains”, if you can call them that.  It reminded me of that movie The Hills Have Eyes and it really crept me out.  All I could really think of was a tire blowing while we were out in the middle of nowhere with no cell phone service and these weird deformed people coming out of the hills trying to rape and eat us.  AHH!  Yes, I do have an overactive imagination… (but we can go into that later).

We got back on the road.  It was straight as an arrow and had the sort of dips in it where your stomach flips/tickles and you can really feel the G’s!  So Nick was driving along at about 90 mph to hit those dips (they are way more fun at high speeds).  We made it over one dip and oh look!  Here comes a state police officer!  He caught Nick on the radar going 88 mph in a 55 zone.  Oops.  Nick dropped the “I just got out of the service” line and the cop dropped 30 off his speed.  The hubby now has a ticket for “waste of finite”.  What the HELL does that mean?!?!  Once I get on the “series of tubes” (internet- for those not in the know on the Bush-isms) I am going to look it up on “the google” (another Bush-ism).  Apparently it’s supposed to mean he was going less than 65 in a 55 zone, which brought Nick’s ticket down from a criminal offence to a citation.  The fine would have been $600!!!  We will find out in about a week what this fine is going to be.  At first I was just thinking my husband was a dummy, but now it’s starting to be rather amusing!

We stopped by Nick’s grandparents place and Granny cooked us up some tasty pork chops.  We got into another political argument over dinner.  This was another squabble about illegal immigrants.  Honestly, a rat’s ass is something I don’t really want to give when it comes to border jumping Mexicans!  We have bigger fish to fry, damn it!!  How about some sort of national health care?  How about our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan?  How about trying to control some of this corporate boom that is obliterating small town America?  How about America’s imperialism?  How about the sky-rocketing prices of food?  How about these fucking gas prices???  Needless to say, Granny was not too amused with our thoughts and beliefs on politics.  There is no reasoning with that woman!!  J 

So now we are sitting back in our mobile home (I refuse to ever buy a mobile home!!!).  Addison finally went to sleep a little while ago.  Tomorrow we are planning to make a visit to the nudist book store owner!  Granny is going to come with us since she’s friends with him.  Other than that, I have no clue what our plans are for tomorrow.  God, I’m getting old.  It’s only 9:30 pm and I’m practically ready for bed!  What’s up with that?

Monday, May 12 Los Angeles en route to Joshua Tree

Nick, Addison, Bob Bitchin', Me, and Judy 

Continued… (I got sidetracked!)

We found our way down to this ritzy marina (ritzy, as in… bell boys and valet parking) and visited the Latitudes & Attitudes store.  Any person interested in cruising (via boat, sail or whatever) knows what Lats & Atts is!  The founder, Bob Bitchin’ (AKA Robert Lipkin, but everyone knows him as Bob Bitchin’) just so happened to be upstairs in the office.  KICK ASS!  The girl working in the shop sent us up to go visit Bob and his wife Judy.  Yay!  They are some nice people.  Bob used to own a Bikers magazine (and a tattoo magazine), but then he sold it and took off cruising around the world for 5 years with his friend Judy (they then hooked up and married a few years later).  Bob wrote a couple books and is now the owner/publisher/whatever of the magazine Latitudes & Attitudes.  One of the most entertaining magazines we have ever come across.  So anywho, we met Bob and Judy! 

 

We ate and Joe’s Crab Shack that night.  It was alright.  Nick cooks better crab, for sure.  Snow crab is too much work for the little amount of meat in them!  Dungeness is better, but I think King is by far my favorite.  Mmmmm J  We took off from Redondo Beach, CA and headed to Joshua Tree National Park where we spent the night.  Joshua Tree is beautiful, but what boggles me is what in the hell would possess ANYONE to live in the desert?!?!  Blech.  I think I’d rather die a thousand deaths than buy a home in the desert.   Give me some water!  I need lush greenery!  I need LIFE!  Besides, I can’t scuba dive in the desert! 

Nick eating at Joe's Crab Shack 

We are visiting Nick’s grandparents here in Arizona now.  We’ve been here since Saturday and I already want to kill myself.  WHYYYYYYY do people live here?  Quartzsite, Arizona is a complete dead-end of a town.  All four corners of the town end in either a gas station or a trailer park.  I don’t think I’ve seen any houses that are actually houses and not mobile homes.  It’s so trashy looking!  The main attraction that this town has is the rock and gem festival in January.  A ROCK SHOW!!  “Hey everybody!  Come see all my rocks!”  Oy.  I don’t get it.  And you would think that with being about 100 miles away from the Mexico border that there would be some decent Mexican food here in this shit hole of a town.  But no.  We went out to get some Mexican food and alas… it was horrible.  Sad! 

 

We did make it to the Grand Canyon yesterday (Sunday- damn it, it’s only Monday today…) and it was definitely one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen!  Pictures do not serve it justice.  At all.  Looking down into the canyon almost gave me the feeling of vertigo.  It was so deep that it was hard to look down and focus, thus causing a dizzying sensation.  It was so cool!  It was almost like being drunk. 

Looking into the Grand Canyon AKA the Abyss 

Speaking of drunk, we camped in the park last night and got a wee bit too drunk.  Well, Nick and Granny got a wee bit too drunk.  I was the responsible individual that only got sort of drunk!  J  Granny was so sloshed that when Nick mentioned reading everything about Robinson Crusoe she got a little too excited and fell off the cooler she was sitting on!  She fell backwards and hit her head on Nick’s bike that was propped up against the tree behind her.  It was pretty entertaining after we made sure she was okay!  We all got into a huge argument about religion and politics and other random/stupid things.  (I even got to whip out the line “Well if everyone just agreed with me, we wouldn’t be having this argument!”)  I think it’s a good thing we left the campground early this morning before everyone else woke up.  We probably would have gotten a couple dirty looks because heated drunken discussions tend to result in loud, obnoxious voices.  Oops.  Sorry people that were near us in the campground! 

 

I woke up this morning to a bunch of sneaky ravens eating everything we had left out on the picnic table.  They ate all my doughnuts!!  Ooooh.  Had we not left that campground I may have tried to seek vengeance!!  Damn birds.  Eating my doughnuts!  They also managed to eat the potato salad (that shouldn’t have been left out of the cooler anyways) and all of my little girl’s teething biscuits.  Bah!  Oh well. 

 

So now we are back to the “housey house” as Granny likes to call it.  (Don’t ask me… I don’t know.)  It’s been nice to just hang out with Nick and take it easy.  I am SO ready to leave this place.  We are going to be here until Friday though.  Oy.  I hope I don’t snap by then.  Heat does funky things to me.  Such as DRIVE ME INSANE!!! 

 

Rough itinerary:

Tuesday- do nothing

Wednesday- go to Mexico

Thursday- get ready to leave

Friday- LEAVE!!  And go to Nevada.  Ugh, more desert.

 

We are going to go see my grandma next.  She’s up in the Middle of Nowhere, Nevada.  We will probably only be there for a day though and then head on out.  We are thinking that we will go back to the coast.  After all this desert, we are going to need to be in contact with A LOT of water to make us sane again.  Or at least feel like we aren’t so dried out.  Nick is talking about stopping by the Oregon caves, near the Klamath Falls area.  I am definitely excited to get back to the coast!  We might go stay on Jeff’s boat again in Newport, OR.  Go and eat some more crab and just hang out on the boat, fly the kite, ride bikes, take it easy. 

 

Okay, I’m ready to leave Arizona. 

Friday, May 9 Los Angeles

What's the dealie-o with all these rich folk?  With every Mercedes and BMW and Jaguar and Porsche and Infinity that passes us I get increasingly more bitter.  Why don't we have this much money??  I swear, this is THE most materialistic city known to man.  And here we come, bumbling along in our beat up Suby, (Ooooh yeah, rockin' the Subaru) with our bikes and tent strapped to the roof.  WOOOO!!  At one point, we were sitting at a stop light and at least $300,000 worth of cars was surrounding us.  It was UNREAL. 

First come teeth, then come boyfriends...

OH NO!  My little girl is growing up!  There was something awfully pokey in her mouth yesterday morning.  It was a tooth!  A little pearly white bump popped up through her lower gums.  Awww, no wonder she's been such a pill lately!  The hubby is convinced that the next step is a boyfriend!  Hmm... I figured we had a few years before we crossed that bridge!

So I am now a certified scuba diver!  Yesterday's visibility was no better than the day before, we were just a bit more comfortable with it I guess.  If that's even possible... we did make it down to 53 feet though.  It was dark and about 0-3 feet of visibility.  We went down under the pier and I managed to see a sea cucumber and some sea anemones and some starfish, but that was about it.  I saw a lot of mud and algae blooms.  It was pretty cool!  I just wish we could have seen more.  On one of the dives, my buddy and I got separated from the group and the current carried us down deeper than we thought we were.  Oops!  Heh... we surfaced and luckily we hadn't gotten carried too far.  Scuba is definitely worth the money though.  I can't wait for the hubs to get certified so we can go diving together.  That will be nice!!  Give me some better vis and a competent dive partner and we are good to go!

Diving

There is something very humbling about stepping foot into the underwater environment.  Today was the start of my open water certification dives (scuba).  The visibility was HORRIBLE.  The worst I think we could have possibly come across.  Vis was about 5 feet, well... less than 5 feet.  I couldn't see my own hand if I stuck it out in front of me.  It was so incredibly horrible!  We were sitting on the floor of Hood Canal working on skills and something moved under my leg.  HOLY SHIT!!  I had to concentrate on not freaking out.  It was incredible.  Tomorrow's visibility might be a bit better.  Today was the only day that shrimp was open to fishermen this whole season.   There were a lot of boats out.  Lingcod just opened up as well, so there was a good amount of boat traffic.  

The hubby and I can't take the scuba class together because of the daughter.  It's unfortunate because it would be neat to dive with him, however at the same time it's probably good that we aren't taking the class together.  He's going to get certified in June.  He was going to get certified at the end of May, but his grandfather is getting a pacemaker installed.  ROAD TRIP!  Heading on down to Arizona on Tuesday!  We have some stops planned, but for the most part, we will just go without an itinerary.  Mainly we just have to be back home by May 24th, when my mom comes down to visit!  Kick ass!  Nick says it's only 2 weeks... but in my head I'm thinking it's longer.  I haven't looked at a calendar either.  That's more than just two weeks right?  Heh heh... 

So here I sit in Hoodsport, WA with not a whole lot to do.  We went down to the hot tub, but the wee one got pissed off sitting beside the spa in her car seat, so we came back up to the room.  All but the hubby.  He's still sitting down there with some other guys.  My little girl and I are just hanging out.  She's on the bed talking to her toys :)  I can't believe I'm a mom.  Shew, even after 6 months it hasn't seemed to set in.  I can now celebrate Mother's Day for myself!  Weird... 

Well, I'm out.  PEACE... and chicken grease?

Associated

I have always tended to associate odd things with other things.  I have no idea why, or where they come from but it's just always happened.  For instance:

Subaru Baja- a total mullet car, people that drive this vehicle should rock the mullet, or else they just aren't doing the car justice. 

The tree with the name I don't know- it's a POODLE TREE!!  The ones that are pruned and have the balls at the end of their branches... I see them all over the place and they remind me of poodles.

The name Katie- yeah... my name reminds me of american cheese.  I don't know...

Oy, there are a lot more too, but A) I can't think of them right now, B) it's late and the hubby is hinting that it's time for bed (well... not quite hinting, he's already turned off all the lights and rolled over in bed), C) I've had a few beers (actually only one and a half over a 5 hour period... but it seemed like it might be a good excuse, ahem... reason) and D) I have to wake up early in the morning to go scuba diving.  

Time for bed, I suppose... ugh.  I always hate going to bed.