HOME!

We'll we're home. After a relaxing couple days in Cheyenne with our extended family and a short but sweet visit to Chicago.. we actually made it home.
Chicago was a great city and maybe the perfect ending to our 2.5 months. My dad came down from Wisconsion and drove Nadeen and I into downtown while my car got its last oil change of the trip. We went to the main tourist spots like Sears (now Willis) Tower, Navy Pier, and Millenium Park. We also had the opportunity to go see Americans Pasttime (thanks to my dad). Chicago Cubs Vs. LA Dodgers in Wrigley Field was amazing!!! Nadeen's first Major League game and second baseball game in her life and she got to experience it at Wrigley.. how awesome is that? A coke, hot dog, and soft pretzel and we were set for the night, the only thing missing was a win for the cubs. Apparently they aren't the strongest baseball team in the league but they hung in there and had the fans clinging onto hope up until the bottom on the 9th.
In Chicago we stayed with Nadden's friend Rafi. He made us dinner AND dessert before the baseball and we truely appreciate him providing with a place to stay and food to eat.

Now all that was between us and home was a 14 hour drive with only 3.5 hours of sleep the night before. All Nadeen seemed to be thinking about were the people waiting for her at home and some Bojangles. And as for me, I was thinking about Bryson and Sydney and how I couldn't believe I had to work the next day. What was I thinking?? Haha

First things first we had to go see my new niece Sydney and the Big Boy Bryson before bedtime. It was great to hear Bryson calling for me and so eager to play, and Sydney was even more beautiful in person. As Nadeen sat there holding her while I got in a good amuont of time with Big Boy I'm sure she grew more and more anxious to get home and away from me :)

Next stop: Araina!! Well Daniel's to be exact. Araina was so happy to see Nadeen and I was sad to say goodbye. The trip was over? Where did the time go? Why exactly did we have to come home? There were a lot of emotions running through me at that point but we said goodbye and for the first time in 2.5 months (78 days) we were going our seperate ways. Nadeen was off to surprise her brother and mom and to see him puppies and I was headed in the opposite direction.

The trip for me was an awesome experience. I still don't feel like it was real. It's hard to describe but I have to look at pictures to remind myself that it actually happened and we actually visited all those Places. It's weird to think I won't be stopping at a gas station at least once a day anymore, there won't be anymore peanut butter and jelly or turkey sandwiches, I can do my laundry at home, sleep in my own bed, and won't be seeing Nadeen everyday. I learned a lot on this trip about our country, other people, and myself and I wouldn't trade the experience for anything in the world, nor would I change anything about it. Sure Nadeen and I had our bad days.. days where we barely talked at all but that just made the good days that much better and out friendship that much stronger. I can only hope that I can have a friend like that forever.

Thank you Nadeen for going on this journey with me, for putting up with my nonsense, for hiking in the desert to absoluntely nothing, for zip lining over waterfalls, for pulling my mom's four wheeler out of the sand dune, for giving me directions and making my lunches, but most of all thanks for a lifetime of memories and an awesome friendship!
I love you and I miss you already

Amanda

Back to "reality!"

Well folks, we unfortunately have to wrap up our time in Hawaii because like all great things it must come to an end. Our last full day in Hawaii was a pretty chill day. I got up super early (around 5:15am) to see the sunrise over the ocean by our hotel. Holy cow, it was unbelievable. Once the sun was up and shining I went back to the room to wake Amanda up and to get ready for the day. Now I was not so mean to just wake her up at 6am. Our lovely neighbor did that for me because he loves talking to his girlfriend in the bathroom that is right next to our room on speakphone. Needless to say, Amanda was already awake. We got ready and went to the Farmer's Market in hopes of getting this famed white pineapple that many people have talked about. Unfortunately for us, they didn't have any that day and we couldn't find them anywhere else. One of the guides at ziplining was the first to tell us about them and he did mention that if people did have them they rarely give them up. That may have been the case this time, I don't really know. Well anyways, after that we were so bummed we decided to release our frustrations by tanning :) We went to the beach (of lava) and layed out for literally only 30 minutes. I was already pretty sunburnt that I didn't want it to get worse. However, with the little time we spent there, we did lay out directly on the lava with all the little crabs next to us haha. Like I said, after about 30 minutes we called it quits and got ready for everything else.

Since we got to the zoo with only 15 minutes before they closed we thought it best to go back and experience the free zoo and gardens! For being free, it was actually a pretty remarkable zoo. It didn't have the typical elephants, giraffes, rhinos, etc. However, it did have a white Bengal tiger, lots of monkeys and birds indigenous to tropical areas like Hawaii. It was actually quite beautiful and I made a friend, Zoey. Zoey is a blue parrot who was trying to eat my frappe and was just a more social and active bird. The zoo took us about an hour and then we decided to go to the Mauna Loa Macademia Nut Factory. Again another free attraction (though there isn't much to it either), we walked the windows of the factory that looked like it was under renovations and pretty much just hung out in the gift shop trying to decide if I wanted to buy tons of macademia nuts because I love them. I didn't buy any because I really just wanted to walk through the nut trees and pick up fresh ones to crack myself. That didn't happen either though because Amanda was driving and wouldn't stop the car haha. I guess it will have to wait until my next trip to Hawaii. After that, our day and energy was pretty much spent. We had dinner and we packed up all of our stuff to get ready for the long flight home.

Once back on the mainland I started thinking about everything we did and saw in Hawaii. It seriously is like a whole other country (though I know its not, just in case you thought I didn't haha). It was beautiful and there are so much more things I would love to do that will have to wait. That's the main point of my title, since Hawaii was so different, the climate so perfect, it was hard to think about being anywhere else. But we got off the plane, back into the traditionally cold and rainy Seattle, to the snow storms that are bound to happen and to the unpredictability of our trip, that is our reality. But I can guarantee you one thing...I will be making my way back to Hawaii and hopefully traveling to the other islands as well to get the real grasp of that state!

We get back so late that we go straight to the hotel and go to bed, or at least attempt to. The next morning was meant to for Yellowstone but after realizing the drive was going to 10 hours or more we decided to make a pit stop half way. Moscow (pronounced Moscoe not Moscow like the city in Russia), ID!! Vickie (a friend of ours that used to work with us) lives there now with her sister and why not go visit her. But before arriving there I just want to point out that Idaho and eastern Washington are not known for its potatoes because I was actually kind of excited to see potato farms. There are known for wheat! Miles and miles and miles of wheat, that to me, looked like grass. At some points it was pretty, but after a while it gets redundant haha. Clearly I'm not a farming type girl so this type of setting is not my most favorable. Anyways, we arrived in Moscow, ID and walked around the town (which took about 10 minutes, it's really small but quaint). We ate dinner at this Chinese restaurant that Vickie says is amazing and then just watched a movie back at her place. It was a relaxing afternoon which was perfect because Amanda and I were still very much dealing with jetlag.

The next morning was really hard to wake up early, but we had to in order to get to Yellowstone early enough. Vickie, being amazing, made us breakfast...gigantic chocolate chip pancake and eggs! It was fantastic, 10 times better than when I tried making pancakes, just ask Amanda! While Amanda was getting ready I checked the weather of Yellowstone. Mother Nature struck again! Yellowstone had started getting snow that previous night and was continuing to get snow that day, about 4-6 inches of snow. Roads had already started closing and they say be prepared with chains and 4 wheel drive cars. Well we didn't have either of those, so unfortunately, Yellowstone National Park and the Great Tetons will have to wait for another visit because there was no way I wanted to be driving into the snow storm. We had to think of an alternate plan. Finally, we decided to go back towards Cheyenne, WY (where Araina's parents live) and just stop somewhere to sleep and finish the rest of the trip the next morning. Well, after driving through snow storms in Montana and rain in Wyoming and being in the car for about 12 hours we thought why not go straight there, what's another 4 or 5 hours :( So we did it, we drove (and it really was both of us, I drove about 6 or 7 hours of the trip which is phenomenal for me) the entire way to Cheyenne getting in at around 1am.

Well that's where we stand now. A couple days in perfect serenity in Cheyenne, getting over jet lag and getting our lives re-organized from Hawaii because we haven't had time since we got back. The trip is quickly coming to an end and I think about it and I wonder where did 2 and a half months go??? We have a few more places still, but it's crazy to think that we actually did it. Sometimes I wonder if it's all a dream, did it really happen? Then I look back at our pictures and know that this was definitely not a dream, but possibly the most outrageous and memorable thing of my young adult life :) You will hear from us soon, but until then bye guys!

Nadeen

OH the places we've been...

Redwood National/State Parks, CA: Redwood was another park that was confusing and a little disappointing. While there were a few spots with awesome views of the coastline we couldn’t get access to a lit of the park without a special pass of hiking really long trails. We did get to see the big tree and drive the car through another redwood that’s been carved out just to show how big they really are. The plan was to camp at Redwoods but after seeing how little the park had for us to do we did what we could and headed into Oregon to stay the night and get closer to tomorrow’s destination… Newport!

Oregon/Newport: Oregon was AMAZING! I loved it! On the way to the campground we made several stops that were on the way. We toured two lighthouses one of which is the oldest lighthouse on the Oregon coastline and another just north of there. We also got to rent ATVs and go out on the sand dunes. Sand dunes cover a large amount of the Oregon coast and taking an ATV seemed like a much better idea than hiking them like Nadeen and I have done many other times. After we paid they had us watch a safety video warning us of the dangers of being out on the sand dunes and basically telling us about all the fees if we were to get stuck or damage the bike. After convincing my mom not to back out we hit the dunes and had an awesome time. Only two of us got stuck (I wont mention names) but Nadeen used her muscles and pulled it out both times. No fines and back safely… a successful dune ride! We got to the KOA that night and decided what better place to get seafood than the coast. After asking the front desk about suggestions (she couldn’t really give us any names which was a bad sign) we just heading into town to look for ourselves. We drove on the bay and found one place that had no fish (which is what I really wanted) and a lot of fried seafood. After a long search we found Georgie’s! It was fantastic. The next day we woke up and spent the day driving the coast and into Oregon wine country. We drove to a couple more lighthouses, where at one we ended up seeing a lot of seals basking in the sun. There was one that was so fat haha that the only way he could get off the rock was for a wave to come up and crash into him and knock him over. Another seal was probably 20-25 ft from us. He was just sleeping until Amanda started clapping and then he would look up at us and had a perfect picture opportunity. Overall, the seals were so mesmerizing that we ended up staying there for probably an hour just watching them. After lighthouses and seals was wine country. We decided not to go in California because everyone goes in California, we figured why not go to Oregon where it’s not so well known. We drove about 45 minutes and found wine country. Wine country with no grapes haha. The main purpose was to walk through the vineyards (I fell in love with vineyards when I went in Vienna a couple years ago). We drove up and all that was there were sticks! Nothing had started growing or blooming yet, not like in California where we passed fields and fields of grapes. Since Oregon wine country was a bust we had to think of something else to do in the meantime. Our ingenious idea was horseback riding on the beach! We got there and ended up waiting almost 45 min, which wasn’t cool to get onto the horses. Finally, I got Mocha, Amanda got Pee Wee and Amanda’s mom got Bailey. It was incredible. We walked up sand dunes and then onto the beach where we were allowed to trot if we wanted. Holy cow, after a few minutes of trotting I was in pain haha. It was slightly painful but totally worth it. The views and the experience were amazing. Newport and Oregon so far are just beautiful and amazing and we leave the next morning to see more of Oregon!

Portland, Oregon: We drove into Portland but went straight to the Multnomah Falls near the border of Washington and Oregon. The falls were crazy. It was definitely a huge tourist attraction and difficult to get any pictures without a random person in it as well. Oh well, it just wasn’t meant to be. We went to a few other waterfalls near there and headed out towards downtown Portland. On the way we stopped at this building that had so many people. We learned that it was a Vista House, a place for weary travelers. From the top of it you get this amazing panoramic view of the Columbia River and Washington right across from it. Well once in the city none of us really knew what to expect or do in Portland so we just drove into downtown. First we went to see the nationally famous rose gardens. Yet again, Oregon weather has ruined things for us because only live 5 roses were in bloom. Mother Nature was trying so hard to ruin our time but she failed J. We tried to go to the Japanese gardens but the tickets were like $15 per person to see flowers?! Yea no! Later we went to see another Chinatown. I am just unimpressed by the Chinatowns I’ve seen. Oh well, I guess I will never visit China. Again, the gardens in Chinatown cost some ridiculous amount to see some flowers so we decided against it. Since it was Mother’s Day we thought it appropriate to take Amanda’s mom out to dinner so we went to Red Robin, which was yummy. But since Amanda and I both serve, we are fairly critical and service on our trip has been below adequate most times. I guess it just comes with being an amazing server and knowing what to look for haha. Well Amanda’s mom flew out that night and Amanda was bummed about it. But what helped was the fact that we would be in Washington the next day, including a day trip to British Columbia.

Olympic National Park/Port Angeles/Victoria, British Columbia, Canada: Wooo we made it to another corner of the continental US. The drive to Port Angeles was actually very pretty. I didn’t realize it until we pulled into the KOA, but Port Angeles was the town that was one setting in the Twilight series. About an hour and a half from us is Forks and La Push (also two more settings in Twilight). The town has definitely used that in their favor and used it to pull in some tourists. They have it advertised everywhere. Well since we only one half day to see the park, Forks and La Push were too far for us to go but we did go to a mini rainforest and waterfall (Sol Duc Falls). The rainforest was amazing!!! I loved it so much. Afterwards, we headed to the top and saw Mount Olympus and the Olympic Mountain range. It had recently snowed there and the snow was about 8 feet tall. The snow plows were on the side of the road were ridiculous and the tires had some hard core chains wrapped around them. Amanda and I thought they were so cool, that we had to stop and take some pictures of it (check them out on facebook).

The next day was focused on Canada. The ferry left at around 8:30am and we got back around 5pm. Going through customs, Amanda realized that the Canadians apparently didn’t care if you bring in weapons because they don’t ask you or check you whatsoever. On the ferry, we were talking about what we were gonna do when I realized that we had no camera to document this trip! Ugh we were going to have to go old school and use a disposable. Also, on the ferry, we were sitting with two older women who were so nice, Judy and Jonnie. Jonnie (who was older) was telling us all about her life and how she ended up in northern Washington. She was extremely funny. They were going to have tea at the Empress hotel, fancy stuff! Well we got into Victoria and started walking. We walked about 8 blocks to a castle, which looked much larger in pictures than it did in person. Slightly disappointed we walked back into town looking for lunch. We decided on McDonalds because it was safe and cheap. Ha Canadian dollar not the same as a US dollar and the menu was completely different. They had Rolo McFlurries!!! If you don’t know what a Rolo is go to the store and buy some because they are amazing. Well after figuring out what to get and how to pay we continued on walking around Victoria. We ended up seeing Parliament, Fisherman’s Wharf and Antique Row. Around 2 or 3 we were ready to go but obviously couldn’t unless we wanted to swim. We ended up just sitting by the water, people watching until 4 and headed back to Port Angeles for the night before going to Seattle!

Seattle: Oh Seattle, the city that I learned about from Real World way back when haha. Pike’s Place and the Space Needle were the only two things I really knew about Seattle and the only two places I really wanted to go. We went to the piers and just walked up and down before heading towards Pike’s Market. It was nuts, an experience everyone should do and embrace! They had so much stuff and so many people. We did get to the part where they were throwing fish and I really wanted to get behind the counter to catch on but I was too chicken to ask. I regret not asking now, but that means I will have to go back just to catch one. We were just walking through the city when I realized that I really like Seattle. I don’t know what it is, but the atmosphere is just different from other big cities. In the market, Amanda found this stand selling dried apple chips and later I saw a gourmet popcorn store. Of course it was after we were back in the car that we decided that we wanted it so I had to run around Seattle backtracking and getting those treats for us, but totally worth it. We headed to the Space Needle and I was stoked. Amanda thought it was crazy that I was so excited about this place but I don’t know I just was. We got there and went up to the top and the view was UNBELIEVABLE!! Though the price per ticket was kind of nuts, I would pay it again to see that view but next time I would do it at night. After a long day of driving and walking we called it a night because the next morning was going to be an early one because we were on our way to HAWAII!

Hawaii!!!

The flight was long and uncomfortable and they fed us some burrito that may have been beef no one really knows, but I’d do it again because after two months we were in the western most state of the US…Hawaii! We got into Hilo at around 3pm and got our cute little Nissan Versa rental car and went to the hotel. The hotel is in the works (under renovations) so it was okay, not the best. But for what we paid I’ll take it. The next morning we got up and drove to Hawi to go zip lining. The drive is about 2 hours from Hilo and we got there and realized we couldn’t do same day reservations L We had to come back the next day. Well instead, we drove to a rocky beach and to a historic statue instead. The first day was full of driving but the sites were so beautiful it didn’t matter. On the drive back we stopped at some waterfalls (Rainbow and Akaka Falls) and did some hiking. Akaka falls had a woman selling artwork done by her husband and was telling us how the falls were named after her family. She was just funny and interesting. The next day was the exact same routine as the first day and driving to Hawi for zip lining, except this time we knew we were going to go. Zip lining was so much fun. Our two guides were Slingshot and Big Monkey, typical Hawaiian guys that were so much fun and absolutely hilarious. We went on 8 different zips most going over the canopy of the rain forest, saw a few waterfalls, and crossed over a suspension bridge. It was a great time and took about 4 hours. Slingshot was picking up random berries and fruits and giving them to us. It’s good to know if I were to get lost in the rainforest I wouldn’t starve haha. Who would have thought that zip lining was so exhausting but I was tired by the time we got back to the hotel. On Sunday we drove out to Volcanoes National Park and ventured out around the lava. It was amazing to see the steam that was flowing out of the crater and knowing that there was a volcano boiling just feet below. We were able to walk through a lava tube, which is basically like walking through a cave. This is where lava used to flow underground and eventually resurface and flow into the ocean. The hardened lava was marked in different parts of the park as to how long it had been there. We drove out to a point where lava had completely covered the road making this the new stopping point. If you wanted to go any further in that direction you had to get out of your car and hike over the lava. There was even an arch in the side of the coastline made of lava rock. It was awesome! That night we went back to the lava viewing so we could see the red glow from the flow. They had the road blocked off about half a mile from the actual flow due to the lava rock that had covered the road just 11 days before. If we were to cross this line we could only make it about 10 minutes before out shoes were melted through.. that is if the lava didn’t give way before that. There was a security guard there full of helpful information and he was telling one couple that in 2006 they didn’t regulate where visitors could go and in that one year 17 people went missing (died) and about 430 were injured (lost a limb). This was shocking to me and made me thankful that he was there to tell me that it was too dangerous to go any further. Monday we went to the other side of the island. This area is where a lot of the tourist go and is know for good snorkeling and beaches. We went to the beach in hopes to get a tan but instead we laid out under the clouds and watched people at they snorkeled on the reef, got yelled at by the lifeguards, and got too close to the sea turtles. That night we had reservations to go to a Luau. This was a cool experience. We had awesome food, unlimited drinks, saw a beautiful sunset, and met some very nice people. The performers did a great job at giving us an idea of the traditional dances and Hawaiian culture. After a great day and a long drive home we crashed back at the hotel. Today we took it slow, tanning on the beach (becoming lobsters), went to the zoo (15 minutes before closing), and spent some time in a few local shops looking for gifts and souvenirs.

OK now everyone is caught up! We’ll try not to let so much time go by before another update. :)

Amanda/Nadeen

I know we're slackers..

OK so I left off at whether of not we would make it to Yosemite National Park the next day… AND we did!

Yosemite National Park:

Yosemite was interesting… We got there early afternoon and the weather was great the whole drive up but that didn’t last long. We headed down to the valley where most of the trails and waterfalls are and as we drove down the mountain it started to rain. Not too bad right? Who can’t handle a little rain? Well still with a positive attitude we made lunch in the car and headed up a trail to Bridal Veil Falls. As we got closer to the top it started to pour and at the top we couldn’t take any pictures because the rain plus the mist from the falls were so strong. That being said we ran back to the car and continued the drive down. As we kept going we passed a horrible accident where a car had flipped in the middle of the road blocking one lane of traffic and a poor bus was stuck waiting for people to get there and move the car because there wasn’t enough room for them to go around. We finally got to the bottom, it still raining, we got out of the car and walked up to the visitor’s center. There we decided to watch a free video on the park knowing that we weren’t going to be able to see as much as we had hoped. The video was cool and definitely made me want to go back and visit the park in the future… when the weather is good. We did one last hike to the lower falls and got on the bus to head back to the car. As we headed out the weather got worse. Rain turned to hail, which soon turned to an ice/snow mix. Getting stuck in traffic because a bus was sliding off the road and blocked two lanes of traffic we sat and waited for crews to get the bus on the side… and the roads continued to get worse. Once traffic got moving the road were pretty bad and we started to slide on the rod a good bit. Nadeen in the passenger seat was freaking out as I was driving trying to keep my cool knowing that everything would be ok. At one point we were headed off the side of the mountain and at another point I was probably a foot and a half from sliding into another car that had parked on the side of the road. As I try to talk to the fellow driving the vehicle and ask him to pull forward giving me room to make sure I didn’t hit them…of course they didn’t speak English and said I could drive their car if I would like… NO THANKS! I had enough problems as it was. So Nadeen stood outside between my car and theirs just to make sure I was clear and then ran and jumped in the car so I didn’t have to stop and get stuck again. After making it pretty far with no more close calls we were stopped about 9 miles inside the park and told we couldn’t go any farther unless we had four wheel drive or tire chains.. we had neither. Forced to stay the night in Yosemite we got a spot at the hotel where we’d been stopped and paid $110 for a hotel room that was dorm style, meaning we had to share the bathroom with other people staying there, had no TV, and no Internet. In the morning we woke up ate our free breakfast and got outta there. On the bright side the snow was absolutely beautiful and the park was awesome despite all the trouble.

Fresno, CA:

After Yosemite we were Fresno bound for a few days. We had one day before my mom got to town so we took some time to get the little necessities done like an oil change, tire rotation, and of course some laundry. On Friday my mom flew in and I was extremely excited to see her. We were going to be staying with her friends Jodi and Paul that she hadn’t seen in about 30 years and that was exciting for her and for Nadeen and I. They, like all the other people we have stayed with, were awesome! Making us all feel right at home we had a relaxing couple of days before heading out for a busy week. Nadeen got a chance to go to her first baseball game ever thanks to Paul. Paul works for Fresno State University Athletics so we got to tag along with him, get the tour, free entrance to the game, and the details of a sale they were having the next morning with a ton of cheap Nike gear. Thanks again to them for a great visit and Paul I think Nadeen’s offer to be your assistant still stands…

Lake Tahoe, CA:

May 2^nd… My Birthday!! On Sunday morning we headed out to Lake Tahoe, one place my mom has always talked about wanting to go. On the way up we passed another waterfall called Bridal Veil Falls that we stopped to take pictures at and then continued up the mountains and into the snow. 1 work to describe Lake Tahoe: BLUE. The lake was gorgeous with the sun hitting it just right. We drove up to what was supposed to be the best viewpoint for pictures and then came back into town for dinner and some time in the casinos. After loosing all of our money and realizing I may have a gambling problem, we headed back to the hotel room for the night and got ready to head out for San Francisco in the morning.

San Francisco, CA:

When we got to San Francisco we went straight into the city. We had a lot on the to do list for the city so we figured we should go ahead and get some of them checked off and learn our way around a little bit. We drove around downtown, followed a cable car because we figured they knew where we wanted to go, ended up driving through Chinatown, and by Nadeen’s navigation made it to Pier 39. Here we walked around a little, did a little shopping/looking, and went to the Aquarium of the Bay (which is not highly recommended). The Aquarium was ok but we’ve definitely been to better ones. We left excited to come back tomorrow for the boat ride to the Golden Gate Bridge. That night we got to meet another relative of Nadeen’s and his family. Motaz and his family were awesome. They gave us everything we could ever need and more. He was too funny.... washing my windshield before we headed out the next day, packing our lunch, and having more food made for us than we could possibly eat. We definitely owe him big time! That next day we did the boat tour of the Bridge and Alcatraz (a prison that was used many years ago for criminals that escaped for the prisons on land or were considered seriously dangerous). We saw the sea lions that hang our at the piers, walked around Fisherman’s Warf, walked to crooked street, and spent some more time at the pier getting ice cream and other treats.

Lassen Volcanic National Park, CA:

Knowing that Lassen Volcanic National Park was mostly closed off due to snow we still had to head that way because we had a reservation that we had to honor. In no hurry to get there we took a detour at the shopping outlets and visited Burney State Park, which was recommended to us by someone that worked at the campground we would be staying at. Burney was like a mini Niagara Falls. After that we headed to the campground and stopped at Lassen on the way. Though most of it was closed off I figured we could stop and see what there was to see since we were passing right by and I’m glad we did! We got a few cool pictures at Reflection Lake and got a good look at the snow-covered mountains that were the reason for the park being closed.

Well I haven't completely caught yall up but its a good start. Until then..

Amanda

OH Mother Nature..

Alright so we became slackers and haven't been keeping everyone updated... now I have a lot to cover. Since Vegas we've been to San Diego, Los Angeles, Big Sur, Fresno, and Death Valley National Park (all located in California).

San Diego: in San Diego we had the pleasure of staying with some amazing family friends of mine. Only having met them once before Charlie and Lynda were so welcoming. They made us steaks the first night we were there, made us feel right at home, and feed us some much needed home cookin. While we were there we got to visit the San Diego Zoo and one of the local beaches on the coast. The San Diego Zoo was awesome! It is huge and had animals I've never even heard of; one of them being a combination of a zebra and a horse. Our favorite was definitely the polar bear exhibit. There were three of them and two of which were natural entertainers. Playing with their toys and one another the crowd was impressed and the bears seemed to be enjoying themselves. After the zoo we went out in search for a beach. After a lot of driving around we found a spot to sit and take in out first view of the Pacific. I took a short nap... and Nadeen... well she sat there and stared at the waves :) That night Charlie cooked us his famous fried chicken (knowing that Nadeen lives fried chicken and is going through Bojangles withdrawals). The rest of their family came over and once again we felt right at home and enjoyed a nice home cooked meal.

Los Angeles: Our original intent on going to L.A was to see a taping of the Ellen show. Well we didn't get tickets in advance because they never called us back but we were still hoping to get the day of tickets... well that didn't happen. Apparently it is very hard to get in touch with Ellen or anyone that works with the show. So we ended up just winging it. We went to Hollywood and got a picture with the sign and we took another opportunity and went to the beach. Unfortunately it was extremely windy and Nadeen wasn't feeling well so we went back to the hotel and relaxed for the rest of the evening.

Big Sur: Big Sur was the place I was most excited about on the west coast. Its listed in the book of 100 places to see in America and I was excited to see the sea life and the coast in a not so commercialized area. It was BEAUTIFUL! On the way to Big Sur we got to stop and see a bunch of elephant seals that were relaxing on the coast. This was super cool. They were very vocal and seemed undisturbed by all the people peeking in on them. We continued on and enjoyed two nights at the Big Sur State Park campground. The first night we tried to make it to the sunset but couldn't make it to the beach area in time. The trail a ranger had told us to take would have required us to walk across a river that was realllly cold (I know because I started walking across, thinking Nadeen would come behind me like she had said, but really she just got a picture and I was left cold and wet). We got some pictures from the side of the road and made it for a sunset the next night instead (at a different beach area we had spent most of the day at).

The morning of leaving Big Sur was Nadeen's Birthday!!! We had planned to get up early and go take a tour of Pointe Sur Lighthouse. The tour was about 2.5 hours long and after that we were headed to Fresno to continue the celebration of Nadeen's 24th. The lighthouse tour was cool. We saw dolphins and seals on our way up to the top.

Fresno: Getting to Fresno was exciting for the both of us. I was excited to take a shower after not having access to one in Big Sur.. and Nadeen was excited that it was HER BIRTHDAY!! haha We checked into the hotel, cleaned up, did some research on places to eat and movies to see, and then headed out. Nadeen chose to eat at the Cheesecake Factory. Dinner got off to a rocky start with Nadeen sitting outside while I searched all over the mall parking lot for a parking spot. Nadeen sat at the table for a good 12 minutes ( 3 of which I was present for) waiting for someone to greet her... never happened. So we went back inside and asked for a new table that we then had to wait even longer for. Luckily I think it was worth the wait. We ended up with an awesome server. Nadeen enjoyed a few drinks and a lot of food and of course some cheesecake. We walked out with two bags of food to eat the next day. I love it when I get two meals out of one!! The food was great and Nadeen left feeling great :) Following dinner we went to see a movie. We ended up having to wait for an hour in the car until the movie started but I would rather kill time that way than settle for seeing "How to Train Your Dragon" (which was apparently number 1 at the box office this weekend), instead we saw "Backup Plan" which was pretty cute.

We have spent a lot of time in Fresno so far and we aren't done yet. On Sunday we were supposed to go to Kings Canyon/Sequoia National Park but after some research we found out that a lot of the roads were closed up that way due to snow so we voted against that for the time being and we went to the Fresno Mall instead. We decided to get a little shopping out of our system (one reason we're going to run out of money early). I got a pair of new shoes, Nadeen got TWO new pairs of shoes (there's something wrong with this), new jeans for me, and a new dress and jewelry for Nadeen. Overall Sunday was another GREAT day! And we ended it by eating at my favorite burger places ever... IN-N-OUT.

Death Valley: Next stop... Death Valley National Park! I can describe Death Valley in 2 words: FREAKING HOT! We hit 101 degree weather and Nadeen was about to die. Neither of us slept that night.. tent camping when it's that hot is not recommended by either of us. The day we arrived we went out to the lowest point in the US which is 282 ft below sea level... still hot there! We walked through a field of salt, went on a scenic drive, watched the sunset over the mountains, grilled some chicken fingers, played cards, and attempted to go to sleep. This is how most nights go. After a restless night in the heat we decided to make a trip to the sand dunes and head back toward Fresno and closer to the destination for tomorrow... Yosemite National Park. Tonight we went out to play some a couple rounds of mini golf and Nadeen hit the batting cages. Nadeen opened the first round with a Hole In One (after saying she was no good) but we both won a round and Nadeen hit about 8 out of 20 medium speed pitches. Props to her because I was too scared to even try.

Well I think I covered it all. Tomorrow is still up in the air for us. Its supposed to be snowing at Yosemite for the next couple days and raining in the rest of California. The only definite it that we will again be staying in Fresno for the next 4 nights... AND my mom is coming in town on Friday!! YAY :)

I'm super excited to see her and make it possible for her to see a part of the US she has always wanted to visit.

Until next time...

Amanda

What happens in Vegas...

Hola folks! All I can say about Vegas is I LOVED IT!!! Amanda and I had so much fun. We got there the first day and took in the Hoover Dam and Red Rock Canyon before checking into the Cortez in historic Vegas. Then we walked down Fremont Street (which is again part of Historic Vegas) and were just taking it all in. That night was when it all started :) We went onto the Strip and just walked up and down. We saw the Treasure Island show, which is what Amanda kept talking about, it's the one thing she can vaguely remember last time she was here. However, since Amanda and I were exhausted from the drive and neither one of us has really slept in a while we headed back in for the night around 11:30pm. I know who does that?! But the next day was so much better.

We got up and had lunch and then went straight to the strip. We were going down the part we didn't get to the night before and decided to check prices to see Cirque de Soleil the Beatles show at the Mirage. Holy crap they were expensive for not so great seats so unfortunately we didn't get to do that. We decided to gamble our sorrows away at the Bellagio haha. Neither one of us being gamblers, we just stuck to the penny slots. At one point we were up to $30 :) but then lost half of it. We stopped playing at $15 so we made $10 since we started with 5. I'll take it, it bought half our dinner haha. I was deteremined to see a show so we checked prices for the Blue Man show in the Venetian. As we were getting the tickets (which I was stoked about) haha guess who walks up?! Daniel and Janet Perry (the owners of Daniel's if you didn't know). At this point I am slightly buzzed because you drink for free while gambling and this guy on the strip gave up free beer pong and shots earlier (all before 4pm). So the guy behind the desk is irritated with me because I'm not focusing on purchasing the tickets but who cares, I wanted to talk to Daniel and Janet. Well after that we just went to dinner and back to the strip for the show. They were so funny and then we got pictures with them afterwards. It was pretty sweet, though they are slightly creepy.

Well after all our adventures in Vegas we had to pack it up and go. Until later...bye guys!

Nadeen

8 miles in one day!

Hello once again! Catch everyone up, we were in Utah at Capitol Reef National Park. From there we headed up to a quick trip to Great Basin in Nevada. However, everything was closed but the caves so we did that (it took about a hour) and headed back in Utah to finish the last two national parks there, Zion and Bryce Canyon. Zion was amazing. Our first day, we decided to do short trails and overlooks and the next day the longer trails. The reason behind that was because we had to wait at the campsite from 8am-12pm for an auto glass repairman to come to us. A rock had hit Amanda's windshield, almost killing me :/, and put a nice little knick in her glass. Well they finally came out at 12:30 so we only had half a day really. Regardless, we filled up our days. The second day was the most exciting. We hiked up to this area called Angel's Landing (I called the path Demon's walk because it was a little hard haha). It was 5.4 miles round trip and the last .5 mile was basically traversing a mountain and they have chain links to help you not fall. It was amazing and I would do it again in a heartbeat. Amanda and I killed these two guys who started it at the same time as us. We were fairly proud of ourselves because they looked like they were gonna just run up. We got to the top and the views were breath-taking. Trying to come down was the hard part. The rock was slick so we were afraid of falling, Amanda crab walked most of the first .5 mile (the part with chains) which was a good idea.

The rest of the day consisted of shorted hikes and seeing the rest of the park (our legs hurt pretty bad haha). The main trail we wanted to do was the Narrows. You are wading through the Virgin river through the canyon however far you want. But because of the snow melting they closed it due to flash floods. Oh well maybe next time.

The next morning was Bryce Canyon. We got up early, Amanda a little perturbed because there were no showers and headed out. We got there and realized that we would finish this park in a few hours and there was snow all over the campgrounds. I'm not that rugged that I am willing to sleep on snow. So we did the park which was mostly overlooks and then headed towards the Grand Canyon in Arizona. Goodbye Utah! Tonight we got to swim in a heated pool and hot tub and do laundry, it was a good night haha. Tomorrow we spend the day in the Grand Canyon and then we are off to Vegas for the weekend :) Until then, keep a look out for pictures on facebook and an update in Vegas this weekend! Bye guys.

Nadeen

PS

I GOT A NEW CAMERA WOOO!

Beginner's Hike

So we got some unexpected Wifi time at McDonalds because of some weather on the way to Great Basin National Park and some changes we need to make to plans.

Yesterday we went to Capital Reef National Park, again in Utah, and it was pretty sweet. Lets just say we got our hike on! We took a scenic drive which was about 20 miles round trip. We stopped at the end of the road and took a "short" hike of 2 miles to see "The Tanks." We got to one spot on the hike where we had no idea where to go next and had to wait for the old people behind us to catch up and lead us in the right direction. After that we went to what we thought was the end of the trail which was pretty depressing. I have a problem with not knowing where I'm going or what I'm going to see when I get there.. so after asking Nadeen about 100 times on the way what we were going to see.. this what not the outcome I expected. Come to find out we had actually passed the tanks and ended up coming across them on the way back by accident.. it was part of my short cut. Still not impressed with them it was a better than what we thought was the end the first time around.

After that hike we stopped at another one off the scenic drive. This one sounded more exciting, we were going to hike to the arch that Butch Cassidy apparently used as a hideout. Butch Cassidy was an outlaw back in the 1800's. We set out on this hike which was extremely challenging for us at first but got better and was a very cool ending. I would love for that to be my hideout... assuming I'm ever an outlaw or something. On the way back out we took a pit stop to see a couple closed off mines that were used back in the 1880's. The toxic fumes in the mines forced them to be closed and it is just a home for bats. Still pretty cool though.

Lastly we did a hike to a natural bridge. Titled an easy hike it ended up being hard for us.. call us beginners but this was not easy! I took one more shortcut and actually got Nadeen to run the last .25 miles with me... she beat me. I was impressed at how fast she went without falling.. while I struggled not to face plant like usual. The Bridge was really an arch and was also very cool.. but I'm thinking I should tell them that they need to rename the trail and reconsider the rating difficulty level of the hike.

To end the day I made dinner while Nadeen was off goofing around in the orchards and petting horses.

I didn't get to shower yet today... which makes me sad. And I found a nasty farmers tan from my shoes. UGH life is hard. So that being said I think we are ready to get less hike on and more tanning going on.. but first we finish out Utah, Vegas, and The Grand Canyon, then THE BEACH!!

Stolen Credit Card Numbers!

Hello! Amanda couldn't finish up to catch everyone up so I will. We left Arizona and started driving towards Monument Valley (where all the Marlboro man and his commercials were shot) but then decided it was too out of the way so we went to Four Corners monument instead. I was super excited because who doesn't want to be in four places at once. But alas, because I was so excited, the Navajo Reservation decided to close the Monument down for construction. Funny thing is... NO ONE WAS WORKING! Anyways, we moved on and went straight to Canyonlands National Park in Utah.

After driving almost the entire day, we got there to find out the campground was completely full (as well as Arches National Park which was only 30 min away). Amanda went back in to use the phone to call the KOA because we had no service to be later accosted by the rude old angry woman who apparently needed the phone badly. No one told her that there were pay phones outside because she would have gladly used them. Amanda was on the phone in the middle of the reservation and wasn't gonna hang up. It didn't help that Dwayne from the KOA was new and taking 2 hours to get her name and number. Finally, her credit card was declined! Later we found out it was because Bank of America put a permanent hold on the card because we used it somewhere that credit cards numbers have been stolen before. Great so I'm thinking we have only my money and we will be coming home early (because they won't take the hold off in case they did get her number and they have to send her a new card). Well everything worked out and we got a campsite and we got money out of her account until her mom comes later with her card.

We still decided to look around Canyonlands since we were there and it was nice. Just not impressive. We left after about a hour and went up to Moad, UT to stay. The next day was spent at Arches which was actually pretty amazing in my opinion. We hiked a lot that day and I practiced my rock climbing. I did however break my camera because it fell out of my pocket as I was climbing down a rock and fell into the sand. So once again, on a longer trip, I broke my camera and probably have to get a new one. It's a good thing Amanda is way more responsible with her camera.

We got back ate dinner and then I had the brilliant plan to go back to Arches to see the stars because in all the pictures the sky at night looks crazy cool. We drove out there got to the area to hike and I turned off the head lights and decided there is no way I am hiking in pitch black with only a little flashlight. Plus the stars weren't that amazing, nothing we couldn't have seen back at the camp site. So we drove back as soon as we got there :) Now we are leaving and heading to Capitol Reef National Park in Utah and then Great Basin National Park in Nevada. We will update probably again in Vegas which is in about a week. Bye guys!

Nadeen

Nadeen, Myself, and a Raft..

Ok so we left off saying how excited we were to go to Telluride, CO, well we ended up bypassing it altogether and headed straight for Durango. We had hoped to go snow tubing at some point in Colorado but as we researched it further we couldn't find much useful information about when and where we could do so. When we got to Durango we headed to their ski resort to find out some information in person, not realizing that the actual ski resort is just as confusing as their website. In short we didn't end up snow tubing at all but we did buy our own pool raft and set out to find our own mountain to go down. IT WAS A BLAST! The pool raft worked great and I'll definitely be using that idea in the future.

Other than sledding we just did some minor car maintenance stuff, went to the pool, hung out around the downtown area, and the hotel.

On the day we were leaving Durango we got up early and took a half day train ride through the San Juan Mountains. This was fun... and long. We did get to add prairie dogs and big horn sheep to th list of wildlife that we've see so far... although we didn't get pictures of either.

After Durango we set out for Petrified Forest in AZ. Not realizing there was going to be another time change due to Arizona not participating in daylight savings (Nadeen was very upset about this) we had a longer drive than expected and got into the campground fairly late. The next day we went and explored Petrified Forest National Park and Sedona, Arizona. Petrified Forest was cool... but there is only so much wood you can look at before it all looks the same. We spent a few hours there and then moved on.

Nadeen ended up loving Sedona. I had been there before so I knew what to expect but it's definitely somewhere I didn't mind going again. We got ice cream, saw a mountain that looks like snoopy, and a super cool church that's built in a mountain.

Snowmen, elk and blizzards everywhere we go

Hello! Cheyenne was so much fun. Araina's parents are so cute and so hospitable. The next morning when we woke up and had breakfast, Amanda and I went to get new tires on the Jeep for the Rocky Mountains. On the way back it started hailing!!! We got back to the house and checked the weather where it said Cheyenne was just going to be rain and fog!? It snowed all day and about 5 inches. Clearly there was some miscommunication between Cheyenne and Atlanta (where the weather channel is based out of). Regardless, we went outside and I built my first snowman ever! He was pretty sweet haha.

After a lot of snow and a lot of wonderful food (Araina's mom is a kick ass cook), we left to go to Rocky Mountain National Park. Apparently Cheyenne was the only town to get snow because the rest of the roads were dry. Dry up until we got to the top of Rocky Mountain National Park and the trails that we were walking, it ended up snowing again. Walking in snow... almost as hard as walking in sand. Especially in fuggs haha because there are no traction and I was sliding the entire way down the mountain. We hiked up to a waterfall that was a frozen water slide. I thought it was cool but Amanda was slightly dissappointed. I was so happy to be back in the car to warm up after our hikes, though I did enjoy the views.

We got to the hotel, and usually I wouldn't talk about the hotel, but this was incredibly funny. We get there at 8:45pm. The indoor pool, which I was stoked about, closed at 10. I mentioned that we were going in and the guy at the desk was like no it's closing, but I guess I will keep it open for you (in an Indian accent). Excuse me?? I only need like 45 minutes thank you. Next we slug all our stuff upstairs and open the door to the room and walk in... umm there was luggage, box wine, and dog toys and treats all over the room. Clearly someone else's room, but I should have grabbed the wine first haha. I had to go downstairs to get a new room etc etc. The guy at the front was very confused on why I needed a new room but gave me one anyways. A situation that should have only taken 2 min ended up being 15 min.

Today, we drove to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park about 5 hours from Denver. It's a really small park and unfortunately due to snow, everything was closed but 2 overlooks. Amanda and I being rebels, we went under the chain of a closed area (to Gunnison Point overlook) to get a better look. It was pretty slippery due to ice but we made it :) An alarm went off while we were down and we thought it was because they caught us down there. But we think it was someone trying to break into the visitor center that was closed, but we aren't sure. Now we are just hanging out in Montrose, Colorado until we leave for Telluride tomorrow to go SNOW TUBING!!! I will talk to you all again soon! Bye guys!

Nadeen

A lot of driving...a lot seen!

Hello guys! So Amanda left you in Carlsbad, New Mexico (which is in the southern part of that state). We are now in Cheyenne, Wyoming, so we have all of New Mexico and Colorado to talk about :)

We left Carlsbad on our way to Santa Fe, NM but making sure we stopped in the White Sands National Monument. This place is beautiful. The sand is so white and so cool to the touch, no matter how hot the day. We drive in and I see kids sledding down the sand dunes... I have never seen that before so I was in completely awe. Amanda tried to sled down on one of our bin tops. However, it didn't work out too well and she face planted haha. Mildly entertaining for me. After playing in the sand for a little bit we decided to head towards Santa Fe.

My idea of Santa Fe is adobe houses everywhere, Spanish influenced restaurants everyone and everyone on horseback haha. I was right on two of the three (no one rode horses). That night, Amanda was set on finding a great little Mexican/Spanish restaurant to eat at. The first one was closed, the second one was crazy expensive, but the third one was just right. Blue Corn Cafe was the name of it...it was so good I bought a t-shirt to remember them. The second day we walked around the town for a little bit. Stopping in the oldest house and church of the US (which happen to be right next to each other). We went into a few other places and then left to our next destination...Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado.

The original plan was to stay there for a couple nights however as soon as we got there we learned that the campsite was closed and we were forced to come up with other options. But before that let me tell you about the Sand Dunes! We climbed up the biggest sand dune I have ever seen in my entire life. 750ft tall!! I'm not the most physically fit person, but usually I don't have that much of a problem climbing up a mountain. But with the air thinning because we were higher up and it being a mound of sand, I was out of air. Amanda was killing me climbing up the stupid sand hill. However at the top it was totally worth it and Amanda got a lot of practice in using her panoramic shooting on her camera. The way down was 100 times easier and took us only about 20 min whereas the climb took us a little over a hour.

Afterwards, we decided to drive to Colorado Springs and stay the night there. We didn't do much in the town (because the only thing I wanted to do was rafting and it was closed), so the next day we drove into Denver. We were planning on staying in Denver but both decided eh, let's go to Fort Collins instead. But before leaving we went to the Denver Downtown Aquarium! There were so many cool things here, even tigers (I know in an aquarium? I thought the same thing).

Finally we left and went to Fort Collins and stayed at a KOA there. It was soo windy though, to the point that I could not sleep at all. So what did I do? My stupid self thought it would be a good idea to sleep in the car. And though I did fall asleep finally, I woke up in some pain haha. Oh well, the price I pay to actually sleep.

We decided to head to Chimney Rock in Nebraska before going to Cheyenne and I was so disappointed. It literally is a rock that is far away... you can't even walk up to it, the national historic site committee or whoever won't let me. And then they tried to charge us $5 a person to go through a "museum." By museum they mean one room that I can see from the entrance. Three hours out of the way for nothing. I got a picture and that's it. Oh well, I guess I would have never known that unless I went. So we are in Cheyenne now, hanging out with Araina's parents who are so nice. It will be so nice to just relax and catch up on the sleep I am so desperately missing out on :( But totally worth missing it for the stuff I get to see! I will post an update soon. Bye guys!

Nadeen

SNOW...in New Mexico??

Hello again!

OK really fast because we lost the first blog written due to Internet errors..

So we Spent a second day at Carlsbad and got up early to explore an unimproved cave. IT WAS AWESOME! But the hike up to the cave... not so much. Nadeen trying to be super woman made me look bad (for the first time so far). I was dying! haha I think maybe because it was too early in the morning or at least that's what I'm going with. Anyway the cave had no lights so it was just us, our flashlights, 10 other people and their flashlights, and the two guides.

At one point of the cave we were over our head in bat poop... it sounds worse than it is. But a quick lesson.. apparently they used to mine in the cave for the bat poop and bring it out my the truck load. Bat poop is a great fertilizer for plants, and well being in New Mexico that's pretty valuable for all the farming that goes on out there (we saw pecan farms mostly).

Check out the pictures on facebook though to see all the cool formations and columns inside the cave, although it wont be as cool as in person.

At the end of the day we went to out first drive in movie ever!! It was exciting. We took a couple of banana fudge sundaes from sonic and sat in the comfort of our own car and watched Cope Out on the big screen. After working out how to sit, angle the car, and get sound (a good minute or two after the movie started) it was quite enjoyable.

That's all... I said real quick and now Nadeen is reminding me of that. :)

Amanda

Oh yeah and to go with Nadeen's title we saw quite a bit of snow on the drive through the mountains of New Mexico. Neither of us thought the first snow we would see on the trip would be in Texas and certainly not that the second would be in New Mexico.

"I feel like a mountain goat!"

Hello all :) Amanda told you about our first day adventures to and during Big Bend. Well let's continue on with the rest of our fabulous trip there. Our first night was unbelievably crazy, constant wind the entire night. I thought the tent was gonna flop over with us in it. Needless to say, I did not sleep very much that night. However the night came and went and soon enough it was morning and time to start the rest of the day.

We began with driving to Santa Elena Canyon Trail. Since I am a wonderful navigator it took about an hour and half to get there. Regardless, we started hiking through the canyon itself. We reached the end which was almost a rock quarry right on the "beach" of the Rio Grande. This side of the river did not have any Mexicans trying to come over. Amanda learned how to use the self timer setting on my camera up there as well :) It was beautiful!

As we left, we just decided to stop at the Mule Ears Overlook. As we were there, Amanda felt it necessary to go on another hike, this time through the desert itself. We started hiking towards the Mule Ears Spring. About 40 minutes later, we both came to the conclusion that we had to have passed the turn off to the spring. Great, so we now how another 40 minutes to hike back to the car! It did help that the scenery was amazing.

Back at the campsite, we decided to make dinner and then take showers, woooo! Big Bend National Park likes to charge for everything they can and that includes 5 minutes of shower time at $1.50. You basically are trying to do 2 or 3 things at a time so you don't end up soapy at the end of the 5 minutes so you don't have to spend another $1.50. I knew that if I didn't finish I would have no way of reaching Amanda because I didn't have my phone (not that it would help because I didn't have service in the park) and she didn't feel like waiting in the bathroom, she went to the car. Thus leaving me alone with a group of middle school girls, one being in the other shower saying she was going to come out naked because no one else was here (even though we started our showers at the same time). Slightly annoyed I had to inform them that I was there and that I didn't want her to come out naked!

Finally clean, we drove up to Chisos Basin to see the sunset through the Window view, a popular place to watch it from. We basically got there just in time. Amanda was more excited about the soda and ice cream in the store than the actual sunset. Afterwards on our 40 minute drive back to the campsite we saw a group of Javelinas (pig like animals)!! Amanda was so happy to see some wildlife other than birds and roadrunners. A great ending to a great day!

After a very cold night, we packed up and headed to Guadalupe National Park. We ended up passing another border control station (both stations being about 80 or 90 miles from the border), who were much nicer than the last station. He did ask if we saw anybody hiking on the road, like really we were going to say yes and have to be interrogated longer??!! We finally got to the national park and got out of the car. Gusts of wind at around 50 mph! I've never in my life had to push through a wind and I felt like I was seriously working out sometimes. After some serious consideration we decided to just pass through and head to Carlsbad National Park. We got there just in time to tour the Big Room of the caverns. They were dark, creepy and wet....I loved them! Tomorrow will be a continuation of more caverns and more cave walks and dealing with more rude hotel clerks.

Until then....bye folks.

Nadeen

PS

The title came from me. Lately I have been speaking without thinking and we were in Santa Elena, climbing down the path. My stupid self just absent-mindedly said I felt like a mountain goat because of all the rocks that overlook the cliffs and the river. I meant to say mountain lion but didn't say it and Amanda wouldn't let it go. Thus the title of my blog!

I'll find a way like the Mexicans did...

Wednesday March 24 was probably the most eventful day so far...

Nadeen and I headed out of San Antonio in the direction of Big Bend National Park bright and early that morning. After being in San Antonio for a couple days we were excited to get to the rugged side of Texas.

Along the trip we ran into a couple of different boarder control stations. At one in particular we were motioned to stop so that two men and a dog could check the car for obvious reasons. As we approached I thought it would be a great idea to get a picture of the boarder control station/workers to add to the scrapbook and have for memories, as a snapped a shot I look out the window to be greeted by a man shaking his finger at me.. apparently a picture of him is not allowed and is a violation of national security. Nadeen and myself found this to be absolutely absurd but none the less we deleted the picture.

Not much farther down the road we ran into some more excitement... As Nadeen drives through a small town a sherrif deputy points and waves to her to pull over. Naturally Nadeen gets pissed and says she wasn't speeding... but the sherrif just wanted to see her insurance and license and went back to his truck. Luckily he came back with a warning citation, called my Jeep at 96 (not cool!), and let us go. We continued on our way stopping at a gas station a mile up the road where it seems we have already become famous. People are staring at us on our way in and one guys stops what he is doing to ask is we were issued a ticket.. it was quite exciting to see how popular we had become in just a short visit to the city.

After arriving at the park we set up camp and headed out for a hike before it got dark. We chose to hike at Boquillas trail... this trial took us to the Rio Grande. We went to the viewing area where we got anxious to get down to the river so we made our own trail and hiked our way down the hill, through the shrubs and avoiding the cacti. After that we headed over to the "real" trail where we meet some of the other campers and made friends quickly. We were able to climb a huge sand dune up to a cave and watch as many Mexicans tried to find a way to cross the Rio Grande without being spotted by the boarder patrol. Many of them were coming on horseback with their families and important belongings. It was amazing to see what these people will go through to get into our country, its something I always saw in history books or movies but never really thought it still happened this way... It makes you think about what you take for granted each day.

The days are flying by and each one has its own adventures. I am looking forward to all the excitement that has yet to come.

Amanda

Everything is bigger in Texas!

Hello all :) Amanda has done a great job summing up New Orleans and Arkansas and my feelings about them. Unimpressed about New Orleans, but thouroughly enjoyed seafood gumbo! And sticking my foot in the Mississippi River. After New Orleans we drove to Arkansas, my GPS is stupid and got me all turned around. Arkansas....yea not much to say. Hot Springs National Park and the town of Hot Springs are very proud of giving the US Bill Clinton and Arkadelphia (that's where we stayed the second night) does not believe of peanut butter milkshakes!!!!! That makes me despise Arkansas :)

After Arkansas we drove to Dallas, Texas to see my friend Morgan. IT SNOWED IN TEXAS IN MARCH!!! Apparently that doesn't happen and folks in Texas don't know how to drive in snow at all. We saw two pretty bad accidents, yet everyone continued to drive like maniacs. Well we got into Dallas finally and so far I like Texas. We didn't do much but enough to make an impact on me haha. We drove over to the new Cowboys stadium but couldn't see much of the inside because they were closing. Morgan made us some amazing crab legs for dinner and then we went to watch Alice in Wonderland in 3D (which is pretty good just not in 3D). Morgan was an amazing host and I was thrilled to see him after so long.

The next day involved Amanda and I packing up once again and driving to San Antonio to stay with some of my family. Today we didn't do much but relax. Amanda chilled while I played with my cousin's 2 little girls all day. That night Amanda and I experienced our first hookah ever. Not so weird to hear that Amanda has never done one, but my cousin was shocked that I hadn't especially because my family does it all the time (we are Middle Eastern if you didn't know, and if you didn't know that then you shouldn't read this blog because you aren't a true friend haha). Nevertheless, some wine and some hookah, I got little buzzed fairly quickly. It was nice :) The plan was to leave tomorrow but as Amanda mentioned in an earlier blog, my family is usually very insisting that we stay another night and this time they succeeded. We will be going downtown with the family to the Riverwalk and the Alamo. It should be nice. I like Texas and I like that they do everything bigger (though I haven't seen anything bigger other than the movie theatre). Talk to you guys again soon! Bye guys.

Nadeen

The scenic route

The past two days we have been in Arkansas.. Sounds exciting right??

On the way to Arkansas from New Orleans Nadeen was driving (while I was napping) and I woke up to her freaking out and yelling at the GPS. Lets just say the GPS is super confusing when its in a big city with a lot going on. So we missed our exit. And the next one.. AND the next one, so luckily we ended up taking the scenic route :) well I liked it.. Nadeen not so much. We saw A LOT of the countryside in Mississippi and Arkansas.

Despite the mix ups we made good time and got to Hot Springs National Park before dark on Friday. We managed to put our tent up and take a hike up to Goat Rock. Nadeen (my tour guide) told me this is called goat rock because it looks like a rock a mountain goat would perch on. I love getting to the top of a mountain and looking down on everything. The peace and quiet is refreshing. On the way down the mountain we collected wood for our campfire that was a HUGE success. We had an amazing dinner consisting of pizza (sauce and cheese on bread and toasted over the fire) made by Nadeen, and mashed potatoes, and green beans! It was awesome and we were so proud.

On Saturday we walked around Hot Springs; the park and the city. We toured an old bathhouse and.... thats basically it. We tried to take some of the hiking trails but the tour guide (Nadeen) and myself found the map and sigs hard to follow (I'm considering writing in about this) so we took the mountain drive instead, and still managed to miss a few things that were on the map.

After a little exploring we headed to Arkadelphia, AR for a cheap hotel since the weather was unpredictable for the night to come. We did some more relaxing and went to a local mexican restaurant where we were two of their seven customers and the server reminded Nadeen and I of our friend Juanita.

Now we're off to Texas!!!

Amanda

What do you wanna do now? I don't know. What do you wanna do?

Today was not too eventful. We took our time getting started and then headed out to see downtown New Orleans.

Unfortunately neither of us were too impressed. Nadeen was super excited to get here and I don't think the city quite met her expectations but we still enjoyed ourselves. We walked trough the city with camera in hand, Nadeen looking for the perfect Bourbon St. sign to snap a shot of, and I trying to predict where she was going to turn next. We walked down to the Mississippi River and put a toe in, it was pretty stinkin cold!. We also spent a good amount of time just looking for somewhere to eat (that wouldn't blow our budget) and Gumbo was a must on the menu.

I think my favorite part of the city was all the music. I enjoyed all the random people playing their instruments on the sidewalks whether it was the clapping of their hands or blowing on the saxophone.

Other than that we sat and waited almost 2 hours for an oil change and relaxed at the hotel.

Tomorrow we head out for Hot Springs, Arkansas and from there... well we aren't quite sure yet. Plans continue to change and so I've decided to plan for things to change so that things go according to plan that way :)

Amanda

Driving, driving, and wait....more driving

The past week has been incredible (and it's only the beginning), however there has been a lot of driving :( Already about 2500 miles on the car. Amanda's grandparents are the cutest people ever, I enjoyed being with them thoroughly. But alas, it was time to leave and we drove 4 hours to the Everglades. Holy cow I have never seen so many alligators in one area. It was so nice and peaceful and the sleeping was so comfortable. The temperature was perfect! The only downfall... I have been bitten freaking all over by mosquitoes. It's really bad right now, I'm scratching constantly. Hopefully they go away before I scratch off my skin.

Our next adventure takes us to Key West, Florida. A trip that should have taken only 3 hours ended up taking 4. Apparently Florida loves doing construction in the middle of the day on a two way road. I don't think I have ever gotten so much road rage. The drive was beautiful though. Woo spring break! There were people everywhere. We got there just in time for our parasailing reservation. I would recommend parasailing to everyone. It is so much fun and so relaxing in the air. I did get hit on by the fairly attractive, but slightly odd, guy on the boat helping us. It was funny, but like I said, odd. The rest of the day was us just hanging out in Key West. The entertainers in Mallory square were interesting and one of a kind. Everything from acrobatics to juggling fire and swallowing swords. Then we sat and watched the sunset in the southern most part of the US :)

We attempted to drive from Key West to New Orleans (we left at 830 and my gps placed us in New Orleans at 1030 the next morning). Yea that didn't work! We had to stop in Sarasota for the night and finish the rest today. Basically it has been a wonderful day on the road haha. We finally reached New Orleans at 7. When people on TV talk about the destruction in New Orleans I always thought it was just exaggerated. I didn't even walk through it, but by driving by it all it is clearly not! Tomorrow we will spend the day in the French Quarter and Bourbon St and I am stoked. Stay tuned for future updates haha :) Bye guys!

Nadeen

"What's on your agenda today?"

The past few days have been much more relaxed than the beginning of the trip. The last day in Atlanta we just hung out, it has been raining everywhere we went. On our way to Hobe Sound, Florida we stopped in Downtown Disney hoping to see Amanda H but that didn't work out too well. So we just walked around to stretch our legs.



Today I went up in my first lighthouse ever!! It was gorgeous at the top. Amanda got to climb her trees and vines at the lighthouse. Then we walked on Jupiter Beach. The water was so blue, at least bluer than I have ever seen it in NC.



Tomorrow we leave for the Everglades and the Keys woooo! More exciting news later to come.



Nadeen

Hmm well like Nadeen said We have been relaxing and fitting in the last bit of TV we will see for awhile. Nadeen's family was awesome. They all wanted to give us everything we could ever need and more. And not only did they want to make sure we had everything but they wanted me make sure we never left for the trip. It was so cute, they keep trying to find a way to make us stick around for "just another day" the other popular question was, "can I come along?" Unfortunately we have my jeep packed ridiculously full and had to say no to everyone.
They were great and I hope it wasnt the last time I ever get to visit with them.

That being said I was also super anxious to get to Florida so that I could spend time with my family. Its interesting to see how different our families are and where and who we get our amazing personalities and character from :)

The stop in Downtown Disney was a good idea but a stressful one. The traffic was a nightmare. Really the traffic everywhere we've been in the past two days has been crazy! And I know its only going to get worse as we head to the Keys during spring break week...

The Lighthouse today was awesome! I got to swing from trees and vines just like Tarzan (or Jane according to Nadeen, but that just doesnt sound as cool to me). The Ocean was absolutely beautiful and the waves managed to catch me off guard enough that I ended up with sand in my pockets..

Its been great seeing family and friends but now its time to move on and see and do things we've never done before. IM EXCITED! So tomorrow we head to the Everglades and Key West. Pythons, alligators, and creepy men in trailers... PLEASE STAY AWAY :)

Amanda

Atlanta

Today was a mix of family and fun! Amanda and I went to eat lunch with both of my cousins, who are both in elementary school. It reinforces the fact that I only like kids in my family and of friends. Holy cow! They were loud and obnoxious. However, what have the school systems done to lunch? I got ssshhhed at because I was too loud??? Lunch is a time for them to release some pent up energy and the kids are told to be quiet. It doesn't make sense and it seems like an impossible task to be doing especially with elementary school kids.

Anyways....after lunch, Amanda and I decided to hike up to the top of Stone Mountain. For those who don't know, Stone Mountain is a huge piece of granite over 700 ft tall. It had rained that morning so the rock was fairly slippery. Dude! It was a steep as mess and a freaking workout. 2.6 miles there and back. The further you went the denser the fog and the more moisture we got on our heads and clothes. Amanda just thought I had sweat so bad from the hike. I mean I know it took a lot out of me but I'm not that bad out of shape haha. We hung out on top for a little and began our trek down. Amanda is fairly clumsy on the walk down and slips numerous times but only falls once :)

After the hike, we got home and went to a 7 year old's indoor pool party. This pool was insane with a slide that goes from inside to outside and back inside. A playground in the middle of the pool and a lazy river. I was really sad I didn't bring my bathing suit then. Overall, a pretty busy day from 9am to about 9pm. I'm exhausted and tomorrow is mostly family time. I will talk to you soon. Bye guys!

Road Trip Jitters

Hello folks! So it's day one and it's been a rocky start. First, when filling gas I overflowed the tank (I know, my b). I kind of knew that it was gonna be one of those days from then on. We finally got to Congaree National Park, right outside of Columbia, SC (a hour behind schedule let me add) and it's drizzling rain ALL DAY. We take a 5 mile hike through the park, which was pretty cool, and we learned a lot. Most importantly...don't wear your good tennis shoes on a trail when it's raining :) Pictures will be posted soon on here (if I can figure out how) or on facebook. Later, Amanda cooked dinner!!! Penne and marinara, because we both missed Italian food so much already haha. It was pretty good though. Then we set up for camp. While we settling into the tent to just hang out we kept freaking ourselves out. It was us and the creeper in his trailer and that's it. Keep in mind we are in the back woods alone!! Needless to say, I really freaked and we packed up everything and drove 3.5 hours to Atlanta to my family's place. I'm still trying to adjust living out of a car :(

Lessons for today:

Don't wear good tennis shoes on trails while it's raining

Muck is good for pollution

I'm mildly afraid of heights (don't ask)

Can't camp when no one else is around or I go nuts!

So we will be in Atlanta for a few days. I will keep you posted on upcoming events! Bye everyone!