Road Trip to the West

So I haven't had a lot of time to keep up with my blog. I'm four weeks into my internship, but I'm writing about my road trip from over a month ago now. I'll try to get caught up as quickly as possible! This post was really a huge hurdle, since I did so much.

My girlfriend, Annmarie, and I decided early this year that we would road trip together to Califorina. I think one of us mentioned the possibility, and it instantly struck me as an awesome idea. So we spent the end of our semester planning the trip. We decided to go the following route for a total of nine days and eight nights.

• We started in Bloomington, IL.
• Omaha, NE (1 night)
• Denver, CO (1 night)
• Cedar City, UT (1 night)
• Fresno, CA (1 night)
• San Francisco, CA (2 nights)
• Morro Bay, CA (1 night)
• Los Angeles, CA (1 night)

Bloomington to Denver

The first day started off very interestingly as it was raining so hard it sounded like hail. We chugged through the weather and eventually made it to Omaha about six hours later. The drive was really pretty boring other than the rain, but we were expecting that going in.

The next day, we drove to Denver. The drive was equally boring (Nebraska is really boring and really long), and the first part of Colorado was pretty much the same. Once we got past about the first third of Colorado, however, we started to see some mountains! It has been a long time since I've made it out to the west, or anywhere really with mountains, so it was very cool to see. 

Annmarie's father's best friend is located near Denver in Golden, CO, so we spent the evening there. His wife and he were very gracious, and we had very interesting conversations about everything from politics to aliens. They were also very knowledgeable about the area and helped us find interesting things on the way out.

Denver to Fresno

This stretch of the road trip had two of our longest drives. The drive from Golden, CO to Cedar City, UT was eight and a half hours, and the drive from Cedar City, UT to Fresno, CA was eight hours.

The drive from Golden to Cedar City started off with a lot of snow. Not being used to snow in May, it wasn't something we were expecting, but it also wasn't bad enough to affect our trip (though it made my car look awful!). 

Hey, look! It's me...in Colorado!

Once we escaped through the snow and Colorado, there was nothing. Literally. We went through this section of I-70 that is known for being the longest stretch of the Eisenhower Interstate System without services. It's 110 miles of nothingness. Seeing the sign that said this on the highway was kind of frightening and definitely made me take a double take of my fuel gauge. Fortunately, we made it through alright.

Utah was by far one of the prettiest states we went to. The drive on I-70 was just beautiful.

Once we got onto I-15, we got to experience Utah's 80mph maximum speed limit. That was the highest of the whole trip and made the long drive a little more bearable, because the driving felt more productive. Eventually, we made it to Cedar City at a cool hotel called Abbey Inn. It was really cool in that it had houses for the pool and breakfast that were separate from the hotel area but in the same lot. So why did we stop in Cedar City, you might ask? That's because it's close to Zion National Park, which was one of the sights we planned to visit on the way there. The next morning, we left for Zion.

Zion National Park

I've been to a national park before, but it was too long ago to remember, so this was effectively my first time visiting one, and Annmarie and I were both very impressed. Zion is located in the southwest corner of Utah, and it is filled with numerous spectacles. We didn't have a lot of time, so we resorted to going on just one of the hiking trails.

Hiking is another thing that I had never really done before, but it has quickly become one of my favorite activities. The trail we went on was called the Canyon Overlook Trail. It was a one mile hike with just a small climb that took us up to a wonderful view of the canyon.  The trail itself was also quite beautiful, especially to a nature-neglected person like myself.

Panoramic view from the Canyon Overlook. Photography was difficult as there was a lot of light.

Cacti are super cool!

Annmarie and me while hiking back down.

The trail was all we did at Zion, again, mostly because we did not have a lot of time. We needed to get to Fresno at a reasonable time, because we were being graciously hosted by my cousins. Oh, and we stopped in Las Vegas for food because it was on the way. We ate at In-N-Out Burger, not a creative choice but our first choice didn't work out. It was my first time eating there, however, and I was very impressed!

It had been an extremely long time since I was able to visit my cousins in Fresno, and I hadn't visited their current house, so it was nice to be able to do that. Fresno was extremely hot and actually the first time that we really experienced warmth of that level on the trip and the year, and after the horrible winter we just faced, it was a great feeling. That evening, we planned our next day, our trip to Yosemite National Park.

Yosemite National Park

Let me start off by saying that going to Yosemite National Park was the best decision that we have ever made. We are both Yosemite fanbois now, so I just wanted to warn you about that.

We left Fresno early in the morning and headed for Yosemite. It took about an hour to get there, and the first thing that we sought to see was Glacier Point. Coming from the south entrance, it was about a forty-five minute beautiful drive, and it led us to our first beautiful view of the Valley.

Panoramic view from Glacier Point.

Another panoramic view from Glacier Point providing a view of the short trail.

Half Dome is way too cool.

Finally, how could we pass up getting a photograph here?

After admiring the spectacle that was Glacier Point for a few minutes, we proceeded back on the route that took us there to the trailhead for the Sentinel Dome. This was about a mile hike each way, more difficult than our Zion hike but not by much -- except for the fact that we got lost but let's ignore that. The end of the trail was the steepest part since we climbed up the dome, but it quickly rewarded us with another spectacular view.

Soon, we would reach the top of the world.

The top of the world looks pretty cool!

We walked back, knowing where we were going this time, and drove toward the valley. Having been seeing everything from the top-down, it was cool to be able to see the same sights when looking up now. On our way, we also passed by the very popular Tunnel View, which pleases its guests with a remarkable view of El Capitan, Half Dome, and more.

Tunnel View is simply stunning.

Here is Annmarie and me in front of Tunnel View.

Here, we are very close to Bridalveil Fall. We found out later that we could easily get up close to it, but we unfortunately didn't know when we were there. Definitely on the to do list next time we're here.

We proceeded to get lunch at the historic Awahnee Hotel, and our food was quite delicious. We plotted out what we were going to do next keeping in mind it was getting late in the day. Having read about the Tioga Pass, and taking into account the tremendous coincidence that it literally opened earlier that day for the entire season (even though it usually opens in late May or early June), we decided to drive through it. We also heard from Annmarie's father that Mono Lake was a must-see, and it's at the end of the pass. We weren't sure how far we were going to go; we left that decision for later.

Going through the Tioga Pass, we got to see the gorgeous Tenaya Lake.

There were a lot of random spectacles like this along the Tioga Pass.

We continued along the Tioga Pass for a little bit longer, and we soon made it outside of the park where we glided down the road from 10,000 feet up in the air, going east toward Mono Lake. Taking a stop at the visitor center, the lake looked amazing with the beautiful and large Paoha Island resting near the center. We also found out that the lake is known for its Tufa formations but unfortunately only after we visited. Next time we visit Yosemite, however, we will be sure to check out these Tufa formations.

Here's a panoramic view of Mono Lake. A photograph, unfortunately, doesn't do it justice. It looked majestic.

It was very windy when we were there.

So we were originally going to go back through the Tioga Pass to head toward San Francisco, our next destination, but I had the "brilliant" idea of taking a state road north of the park, SR 108. It was a beautiful route filled with never-ending twists and turns, plus we got to see the grade sign with the steepest grade of all on our trip: 26%. Much of the route was through Stanislaus National Forest, so beautiful landscapes were guaranteed.

The long, curvy road. The route was filled with views of snow on the mountains.

Photo of a gorgeous sunset off the shoulder.

Just another random, stunning view along the drive.

Eventually we made it through the Sonora Pass along the route, and we chugged our way through darkness to get to San Francisco. Needless to say, we slept very well that night, still in awe from everything we experienced that day. Heck, I'm still in awe right now. Writing this part of the post was most difficult, because I wanted to capture the essence of how great our experience there was.

San Francisco

I was very excited to visit San Francisco, as the bay area has been where I've been thinking about living post graduation. That may be weird to say, considering I have never visited the Bay Area before, but there are many reasons why I have considered this. First and foremost, it contains what is more or less the capital of the world in technology with Silicon Valley. With my interest in tech, how could I not want to live where all the magic happens? Furthermore, I've read great things about the area on Quora; it sounded like a cool place to be. I was not let down!

We stayed two nights in San Francisco. The first day, the day after Yosemite, we started off by visiting the Computer History Museum. The main exhibit was a walkthrough of computing through time starting with tools used for mathematical calculations (e.g., the abacus) and the reasons for why we wanted to create computers going all the way to the computers and mobile devices of today.

Here is a live demonstration at the Computer History Museum of an old, not very personal computer.

They had many old computers, such as the original Apple Macintosh and Apple Lisa 2 here, on display.

They also had the display that was on Jeopardy when IBM's Watson played against former Jeopardy elites.

After touring the museum, we sought out to experience some of the Silicon Valley area. We were crunched for time, though, so we just drove by the Google headquarters, went out for lunch in Palo Alto, and drove by Stanford. We had lunch at a place called Pluto's, and it was remarkably delicious. My turkey sandwich had turkey that was carved-to-order from a freshly roasted turkey, and Annmarie's Thai chicken sandwich had Thai basil that tasted like it was straight from the garden. Anyway, after driving through Stanford, we retreated back to the city to visit the Palace of Fine Arts.

Here we are again, now in front of the Palace of Fine Arts, another magnificent sight.

After that, we drove around and ended up in Union Square. One of the things I wanted to do on our trip was to stop at a Uniqlo store, as they're one of my favorite clothing stores but only have retail locations in San Francisco and the New England area (soon to be changed, though). We stopped there and got coffee at this cool coffee shop. We'd do both of these things tomorrow too. Once I finished buying all the Uniqlo stuff I could carry, we went through Chinatown and checked out Coit Tower. It was under construction, so we couldn't go up to the top, but we went up on the deck where you go up to the top and got some cool photos.

The gateway to Chinatown.

Walking through the hilly streets of San Francisco.

Coit Tower

The beautiful Bay Bridge from the deck.

Before we headed back to the car, we stopped in Chinatown to get dinner. The place where we ate at was delicious, and we learned that you can suck on those red peppers that sometimes come in Chinese dishes, and they taste delicious. Don't chew on them, though, or you will die from the spiciness (which has happened to me in the past). We also stopped at the famous City Lights bookstore, an independent bookstore-publisher that's now a historic landmark.

City Lights Bookstore

To wrap up our evening, we briefly stopped down near the Golden Gate Bridge.

The next day, we took it easier. We went to Uniqlo again, drove through Lombard Street, and drove on the Golden Gate Bridge. We didn't have too much time, because we had to start heading south toward Los Angeles. We left at around 2pm.

Lombard Street was more popular than we expected. It was so busy that they had to have police officers direct traffic. Imagine living here... Also, major props to Annmarie for being able to snap this photo (notice my car on the bottom right).

Driving along the majestic Golden Gate Bridge.

San Francisco to Los Angeles: The Pacific Coast Highway

With our trip winding down, we began our journey to LA. We decided to take the Pacific Coast Highway, which is literally right off the ocean for much of the drive. It was absolutely stunning. Breathtaking. There were many beautiful sights along the way, besides the fact we were driving practically on top of the ocean, such as interesting bridge architecture and mountainous terrains.

Mountains left. Ocean right.

This practically looks like a painting, doesn't it? A lot of the bridges were deemed civil engineering feats as they were built in the early 20th century. They were very gorgeous as you can see in the distance here.

Some more neat, random architecture.

We stopped the first night at a really cool hotel in Morro Bay called Blue Sail Inn. It reminded us a lot of the hotel we stayed at in Utah. We ate dinner in the area, and it was a really neat town. The next day, we continued along the highway toward LA.

We stopped along the way in Santa Barbara to get coffee, and we continued to Santa Monica to get a feel for it since that's where I'm staying for the summer. We went to a restaurant called Sunny Blue, where we both got our first tastes of Omosubi (also called Onigiri). It is this Japanese delicacy of rice balls with filling inside sometimes wrapped in nori. We were both greatly impressed! We then went to check out the Third Street Promenade, a fancy shopping strip in Santa Monica. It was really cool, and we stuck around for a little while. There was just about every store there, of all price ranges and themes and it contained some cool art pieces.

A cool art piece along the promenade.

Annmarie casually trying on some designer sunglasses at Sunglass Hut. This was the biggest Sunglass Hut I have ever seen.

After that, we kind of took it easy. We caught up on some TV shows, since we wouldn't be seeing each other for awhile. That has been hard, but since I'm writing this post in June (sorry!), she will actually be coming back to visit soon! The next day, I dropped Annmarie off at the airport, and I headed straight for Las Vegas.

A Week in Las Vegas

I had about a week between when I started working and when Annmarie left, because she had to get back for a May term at our university. Completely coincidentally, my Aunt had a business trip in Las Vegas that started the day Annmarie left and ended just before I started work, so I was lucky enough to get to join her!

The route to Las Vegas took a long time, because there had been a fire on a bridge along I-15 just a few days ago that destroyed the bridge causing all traffic to be diverted off the expressway. It tacked on an extra hour to my trip, but I eventually made it OK.

My Aunt and I were fortunate enough to stay at the Palazzo, which is connected to the Venetian. The hotel was absolutely ridiculous. I literally got lost several times -- inside the hotel. One day I needed to get a fork for some take-out that I ordered, and by the time I found one, my food was cold. :( Oh, and they have a canal. Inside the hotel. My Aunt was busy most of the time with the conference she was attending, so I mostly explored Las Vegas myself. One day I went to Red Rock Canyon. Red Rock is this national conservation area just outside of Vegas. It was yet another incredible place. Annmarie actually visited it when she went on a family vacation during Spring Break this year, and she highly recommended it.

The rocks really were red.

Plenty of beautiful views.

There were some really cool plants.

See?

And here's another flower!

I tried to hike along the Ice Box Canyon trail. I'm not going to lie, though...it didn't turn out well. Perhaps I took a wrong turn or something, but I got lost and didn't find my way back unlike that trail in Yosemite. I ended up hiking along this miserably rocky terrain for quite awhile. Fortunately, I saved the maps of the area on my phone, so I was able to make it out alive.

At least I didn't get lost on an easy or moderate trail?

So this is the type of terrain I had to deal with when I got lost. Oh, there were bees too, but I'm trying to forget about that!

On the last day we were in Vegas, my Aunt and I toured the strip a little bit. The highlight for me was definitely the Bellagio. Not only do they have their magnificent water show, but they also had a beautiful botanical gardens -- inside their hotel.

Beautiful flowers everywhere.

Remember, this is inside the hotel.

Look at how creative they got too!

We then caught the water show. It runs about every fifteen minutes, and the fountains are choreographed to the music that is played. It was a very popular attraction and deservedly so.

A grand display.

Close-up with the "Eiffel Tower" in the background.

The next day we headed back to LA, where I would soon be leaving from to catch my orientation flight, but before we arrived, we made one more stop: Death Valley National Park. Fortunately, we were going in May, and it wasn't too hot.

We started our Death Valley trip up at Dante's View. It's a view over the Badwater Basin, which we would go to soon, and a lot of the park.

There was a short hike to get up to the main viewpoint. 

The basin down below was extraordinary.

Here's another view down below for more detail.

We met a cool guy from England who was basically seeing all the same sights as I did on my road trip, and we exchanged stories about our trip. He also took this photo of my Aunt and me!

We left Dante's View and headed for Badwater Basin. On the way, we stopped at Zabriskie Point. It provided yet another otherworldly landscape, and it was very crowded, unfortunately prohibiting me from getting a panoramic photo.

Not something that I get to see every day.

Here you can see the perimeter of the place we're standing and the beautiful view we got to see.

We then went toward our last stop, Badwater Basin. It is well known for being the lowest point in North America at 282 feet below sea level, and it looks really interesting that far below.

There's a sign up in the mountain near the basin that says where sea level is.

Here I am in front of the sign!

This is the "bad water" that the basin is named after. It's called bad water, because it is completely undrinkable with the salt accumulated from the surrounding area.

Here is the bridge into the walkway of salt.

Truly magnificent.

We couldn't stay out here for too long, though. Being at the bottom of North America is very hot, even on a relatively cool morning in May. Our final stop was Artist's Drive, which was along the road that took us to the basin. It was filled with pastel colored rock of reds and greens.

A close-up of some green colored rock.

After stopping at the visitor's center to pay our dues, we headed to LA. I showed my Aunt, this time, around Santa Monica a little bit, and before I knew it, drove her to the airport. My road trip was over after more than 4,000 miles of driving. I find it hard to believe that I drove that much. It really didn't feel like it! A lot of people told me that I was going to hate this trip because of all the driving, but I'm glad I proved them wrong. Driving in shorter bursts (i.e., not all day and night) and visiting sights along the way makes a road trip an unforgettable experience, and Annmarie and I both look forward to our road trip back.

My next blog post will be about my orientation experience. That shouldn't take nearly as long to write about, since it wasn't as action packed as my road trip (though it was a lot of fun). Until next time!