Days Seventy Seven and Seventy Eight - Grand Canyon

Like I said in the last post, we left Las Vegas on Sunday, March 11th at 7 a.m. Daylight savings time had robbed us of a precious hour of sleep. When my alarm went off at 6 a.m., which felt like 5 a.m., which was a mere three hours after I had gone to bed, I was not happy. I cried a little. I whimpered. I screamed, "I hate you, daylight savings time. I hate you so much." I cried a little more. I finally got out of bed and stumbled around a little. I may have taken a shower. I can't remember clearly. Somehow I ended up in the car and we headed out of town.  

Five hours later, we arrived at the Grand Canyon! Barry was super pumped to check it out. When we got out of the car, Charlie looked like this, which is also how I felt.

While we were walking through the parking lot, the first six license plates I saw were from six different states. It made me think of all the stories you hear about parents dragging their children across the country on a road trip, only to arrive after days in the car to see a hole. Here's a collage of all the pictures I took of the license plates. The second one from the left in the bottom row is from the Yukon! That's not exactly a day trip.

After we made it out of the parking lot, we got to see the large hole. Here are some photos...

This side of the canyon never really sees the sun.

I'd like to interject to say... that it was cold at the Grand Canyon. Windy and cold. I realize I'm wearing every color and pattern known to man. You can't see it well here, but my scarf was also rainbow and eclectic. I had to dig through my winter stuff, which I thought had been packed away forever, to find anything to wear.

Anyway.

Apparently The Flinstones were from the Grand Canyon. This giant Fred was by a campground.

I think we were on Route 66 for a few miles. I was too tired to be sure, though.

New Mexico! We crossed this border in the afternoon sometime on Sunday.

This is what New Mexico looks like. All of it, as far as I can tell.

So on Sunday we drove five hours to the Grand Canyon, stopped for two, and drove another seven. We stayed in Albuquerque Sunday night, then drove about eleven hours on Monday to Austin, Texas. I think that adds up to three million hours.

On the last leg of the never ending drive, Barry really wanted to drive through Roswell, New Mexico. I guess it's near Area 51. If you haven't heard of that, here's a helpful clip from the movie Independence Day. Go to 4:45.

Does anyone else really want to watch this movie in its entirety now? No? Just me? Whatevs.

This is the only alien I saw.

A million hours later, we hit this. Woo hoo!

We saw this all along the road in Texas. I'm not sure what it is. I think they're oil rigs. I don't know why they were on fire, but they all were.

Late that evening, we arrived in Austin. We're staying at my mom's friend's Susie's house. I'll be back with some Austin adventures soon!

Days Seventy Five and Seventy Six - Las Vegas, Nevada

Friday, March 9th. We did so many things that day. We knew that on Saturday we would have a lot of packing and cleaning to do. We went to lunch at an all you can eat sushi restaurant. I ate two sushi rolls and felt my belly was going to explode. Barry ate FIVE sushi rolls, plus a bunch of other stuff. This is him with one of the last pieces he ate.

After that, we decided to give Charlie a haircut. Its pretty warm in Vegas and our temperatures will only be getting higher over the next few weeks. Poor doggie gets scruffy and hot. Let's do a before and after makeover shot.

Here he is last month....

Here he is post haircut. His pile of shorn hair is hilariously huge. Aunt Judy's dog, Bella, is in the background looking on. The whole time we were cutting Charlie's hair, Bella was staring at us with a confused look. I think that she thought we were causing him pain.

After we gave him a bath, we headed to the Fashion Show mall, which is down on the strip. We wanted to buy Barry a suit for the wedding. While walking around in TopShop, I saw Carrot Top. I would refer to him as comedian to explain to you who he is but that seems a little strong. I mean, he's not very funny. He's a man, I think. He has giant red hair, that used to be naturally red. He looks freaking crazy.

Okay, I just googled him. Here's the best image in my opinion. He's on steroids. He's also had a lot of plastic surgery, apparently, and he's sort of scary.

After we passed him, Barry said, "I'm sure I've said at one point in my life that if I ever saw that guy I would punch him. I feel bad I didn't."

I ignored him.

Later that evening, we went to the Mirage and gambled for awhile. I won but Barry lost, making our total negative $7. The only reason we were there was to watch the volcano show. Most of the casinos in Vegas have some kind of show or attraction. Usually it's kid and adult friendly. Here's a shot of the volcano erupting. Erupting might not be the right word. It's water that glows orange and shoots up out of a faux mountain. Here's a picture, but it's sort of hard to tell what's going on.

On Saturday we had a lot of packing to do. We also spent some time cleaning my Aunt Judy's house since we'd been staying in it for a week and a half! Barry went out to Red Rocks park one last time as well. After we finished all the boring stuff, we went to Red Rock Casino for the last time. I lost $20 immediately, then played for hours on the only other twenty I brought. I ended up leaving with a profit of over $200! Woot, woot!

We went to bed at about 2 a.m. and woke up about three hours later to head east out of Sin City....

Days Seventy One - Seventy Four - Las Vegas, Nevada. Part Two.

After my California family and friends left Las Vegas, Barry and I didn't really do many photograph worthy activities for a few days.

For example, we spent most of a day looking for a suit for Bear to wear to our wedding. When we get back to Ohio, we're going to be working a lot, not to mention living on an island. We're not going to have many opportunities for wedding planning. If anyone is interested, this is part of what the boys are wearing. Pay no attention to the tie that's pictured with the suit jacket. Boo, patterned ties.

Here's actual Barry wearing the suit. I couldn't be bothered to stand up to take the photo. The angle is a little wonky.

We went to the local casino, Red Rock, and gambled a few times. Our time at the casino usually plays out like this. 

Bear puts $20 in a poker machine, sits there for two hours, and leaves with $16 (or $22, or $14, or something like that). 

I show up in the casino. I have my player's card. I have my ID. I have cash, usually $60. I have dollar bills to tip the cocktail waitress. I have several layers of clothes on in case the air is on high. I have bingo markers in my pockets if I want to go that route. It's like a Wild West movie. You know, the guy shows up in town with gun holsters and that whistling music comes on? 

I like to play the slot machines. They have all kinds of them, but my favorites are the ones with recognizable themes. I like Wizard of Oz, Sex and the City, Ghostbusters, and Wheel of Fortune. This is the witch. I like her. I go from $60 to $2, up to $100, down to $16, and so forth. I'm a manic gambler. I get irrationally sad when I lose and super excited when I win. It's probably a good thing we left Vegas. Haha!

One day, I went to the Mexican market. It's much larger than a regular grocery store. Everything is displayed like artwork, and most of it super cheap. Also, almost everything is in Spanish. Most people that work there are not bilingual. I think I was the only white person in there. Here are some melons and grapefruit and such.

It's true. Avocados were 5 for 99 cents. I have no words to express my elation.

I love Hot Dog on a Stick. They have turkey dogs which are made to order into corn dogs and the best lemonade on the planet. I like this picture because the cup is much tinier than the hot dog.

While in the mall one day, looking for ties for the boys to wear in the wedding, I saw a pet store. I have an addiction to puppies, so I walked in. I saw an Edie look a like! Edie is my friend Nicole's dog. Sometimes we call her and Charlie brother and sister, sometimes we call them husband and wife. I amended it to brother husband and sister wife. Anyway, here's Charlie's sister wife Edie.

And here's the Edie lookalike dog in the pet store. Same coloring in the same places and everything. This dog, however, cost thousands of dollars. Edie cost $160 from Pets Without Parents, an amazing dog shelter in Columbus. Weird, right?

On the day my cousins left Las Vegas, we took Ed to the airport, which is right near the strip. We stopped into the Bellagio on the way home. This is the ceiling of stained glass. I might have already posted a picture of this on the blog. I don't even care. It's breathtakingly beautiful. Who would have thought you could say that about the ceiling of a hotel lobby (and mean it)?

Barry does photograph worthy things because he goes hiking at Red Rocks park. When my cousin Alex called to tell me about all the rattlesnakes that are out at this time of year, the lukewarm feelings I had about hiking turned to cold. I didn't go at all during Vegas: Part Two. 

Some lovely pictures he took of the desert...

One day while Barry was out hiking, he was on top of a cliff. For some reason, a helicopter showed up and started circling him. He said it was a little creepy.

This next picture is a few weeks old. It actually happened in California. I forgot about it. Now that I have found it, I must show you.

It's me with dark hair! I grew it last month. No, not really. My cousin Chloe is standing over me with her hair, which is super long. I'd like to point out that she has gorgeous hair, despite how ridiculous it looks on top of my head :).

Craaazy.

Days Sixty Eight - Seventy - Las Vegas, Nevada. Round Two.

When we left Vegas the first time, my Aunt Judy told us that she was doing something crazy.  Her son, David, who lives in Phoenix, Arizona is moving to Ohio.  He was planning to drive there in the beginning of March.

That sounds horrible, you say? He’s going to drive a bajillion hours in the car from a sunny, lovely climate to the wintry hell of northern Ohio? Well, I’m extremely against Ohio winters so maybe I’m being dramatic. But here’s the craziest part- Aunt Judy agreed to accompany him. They’ve both gone mad, I think.

The point of this story is that she told us she would like it if we could come back to Vegas the first week of March and watch her doggy. Here’s the little angel now. She’s neither little nor angelic. I love her, anyway.

When Aunt Jud suggested leaving California early, my first reaction was to laugh uncontrollably. I said something like this: “Leave California?! Are you crazy?! I love California! You’re going to have to cut my arms off to get me to let go of the beach.” Although that last part didn’t make any sense, Aunt Judy said she understood and that she would ask her neighbors to check on Bella.

Fast forward a couple weeks. We’re in California and Jenny tells us that EJ, my thirteen-year-old cousin, has a lacrosse tournament the first weekend in March.

“Where is it?” I asked innocently.

“I think it’s in Vegas. Hey, you can come and we can all stay at Aunt Judy’s!”

"But I've already been there this month," I protested confusedly.

"You're going back, sister!"

“Son of a bitch,” I replied classily.

I've been told I have nice adverbs.

We agreed to head back to Vegas for the weekend and stay for the following week, which worked out for Bella, Aunt Judy, and everyone involved, really. Here are a few shots from the drive into Vegas.  When you cross the border from California into Nevada, you immediately encounter a casino. It’s called Whiskey Pete’s.

Not sure if you want to stay at Whiskey Pete’s? Just hop on this tiny monorail, which travels about seventy yards across the highway to….

Buffalo Bill’s!

On Saturday between lacrosse games, we went to the M&M factory with the kids. Here are a lot of M&Ms.

After that, Jenny and I stopped at a walk up beer window. They have those in Vegas because open containers are allowed... anywhere. Smoking is also allowed anywhere.

Later that day, also between lacrosse games, I went shopping with Chloe and Char. They both came out their dressing rooms wearing the same shirt that they had both unknowingly picked out. So cute!

Here's a shot of the lacrosse fields. I'm not sure if you can tell, but there were about ten fields in a row.

Lacrosse is kind of like hockey. I'm never quite sure what's going on and it's violent. 

I had a great time, though!

Days Sixty Four - Sixty Seven - Carlsbad, California

Well, I’m sorry to say I’m about eleven days behind on the blog.  We’ve been very busy and little blog is not at the top of my priority list. Gambling is. What? Awkward. Anyway, I’ll start from where I left off.

A long, long time ago, in a place that is now very far away to us, it was my cousin Carolynn’s ninth birthday.  The day was Tuesday, February 28^th.  I treated the occasion in the same way that any logical person would. I wrapped my male dog in pink and purple streamers and trotted down to Carolynn’s school to walk her home. Here they are after we got home. She loved it.

The four Mungovan kids are so busy that they’re rarely all home in the evening at the same time.  Carolynn’s birthday was a day that the stars aligned and someone’s soccer practice was cancelled or something. This, however, is the only photographic evidence I have that they were all there. Can anyone guess what’s going on in this picture?

That’s right. Brother is being gross. I’m not going to be too graphic because I’m a lady.

It was his butt.

Anyway.

Here’s Carolynn with her presents.

I don’t remember what was in that one but it must have been good.

On Wednesday, Carolynn had a birthday party with her friends. I don’t have any pictures of that (what am I thinking?!), but it was absolutely adorable. We went on a scavenger hunt,  had a piñata, went to the movies, opened presents, and about 300 other things. Busy birthday.

Thursday was our last day in California. Boooo. Between packing and searching for all my shoes that Chloe was trying to keep, we made it to the beach one last time.

Here are some shots of the beautiful Del Mar dog beach.

This is a sign near a lot of the beaches. I thought it was kind of a joke, but they’re serious about watching out for surfers. They’re an unobservant bunch, apparently, because surfers are the category of beach goers that get in accidents most often.

As usual, we’re sad little travelers to be leaving California but we’re extremely excited about continuing the journey. Next up, Vegas. Part Two. The next post will explain why we're returning to Sin City.

Also as usual, Barry takes all the beautiful pictures and then I write about them. Love it.