California Knows How to Party....

"Holy Ackward" - Seth ( Adam Brody on the OC)

Being in Orange County California has brought back some serious memories of our college obsession with the O.C ( the tv show). When I lived in the Faircloth dorm, second floor, we would all gather in our room and watch way too many episodes in a row. We are currently staying in a house that would rival that of Adam Brody's and loving the pool and warm californian weather.

( I mean really...how cute can you get....)

Orange County looks like I thought it would look, sunny, gorgeous, wealthy with all of the stucco houses built into the hills. A sweet family Rachael used to nanny for is letting us stay in there home for the weekend. I keep imagining Adam Brody, who by the way would love Jesus and play guitar, and I with our two lovely, curly haired children running around in the sand...Ohhhh if only.

The drive from Phoenix was warm and deserty. Southern California didn't look like what we had pictured, we didn't start seeing palm trees until we had been in California for a few hours. We tried to go to Joshua Tree National Park but it was cloudy and when we reached the park it was to late in the day to hike where we wanted to hike. So we bypassed the park and headed toward Los Angeles instead. Rachael and I had a yummy dinner, relaxed and rented "Adam." It was such a good movie but had some heart wrenching parts. We watched way too many episodes of the nanny, if thats possible, then passed out for the night.

Today we have been pretty lazy. I watched two movies, researched the route and places we wanted to see on the remained of our trip. Rachael slept in and we ate lunch late. The Mecks had left these awesome big, white resort bathrobes and each of us stayed in those and our pj's most of the day ( we also had an impromptu dance party around the house - I am sure the neighbors thought we were crazy) We had planned to go to Laguna beach but by the time we got moving it was late afternoon so we went for a long walk around the neighborhood and let me tell you it is gorgeous. It feels to good to be warm and not have to bundle into a jacket. After walking I came back to read and use the excersize bike while Rachael died her hair a shade darker. Then I hit up the amazing jacuzzi tub while she started dinner. Tonight we dediced we would actually cook and sit down at the table rather than grazing. We had mushroom rice, chicken and green beans with a bit of champagne to drink ( I love champagne at any time).

We are heading to bed now, planning on getting up very early to clean up and pack and hit hwy 1 for the long drive northward to Carmel along the coast. I am super excited about this drive - I love the beach and something in me feels as if it will remind me of scenes from old movies such as " to catch a theif". On the way we will stop at the Santa Monica Pier and weekend market, possibly Hearst castle, view the Chanel Islands in the distance and drive along the cliff route of Big Sur. Praise the Lord we were able to get in touch with a sweet, distance cousin named Phyliss who lives in Carmel so we will have somewhere to stay. We promised jackson we would be home by the 22nd to be at his basketball game so our schedule is a bit more constricted. After Carmel we will go through Monterey ( to see the butterflies) and into San Francisco. I think while we are there we will take the Ferry, see fishermans wharf, rent bikes for the day and cross the golden gate bridge to saulsalita and ride the trolly. After that we are going to drive through Napa valley for a wine tour and then onto Redwood National Park. Good night all. We are exhausted. Our last night in Pheonix the neighbors dogs kept everyone up all night barking. I felt fine yesterday but today it has caught up with me. I was ready for bed at 8pm. Rach is already asleep.

Ciao Me amores

Phoenix

"Arizona is gorgeous. The sunshine in Arizona is gorgeous red."

Cecilia Bartoli

We ventured away from the Grand Canyon in high spirits having met interesting new friends and enjoying an amazing view. From Northern Arizona we headed a few hours South - the view and weather in Arizona is amazing! We were greated with open arms, paws and wings by the Colley family. They have an amazing array of pets and are just fantastic company. Bobbe made us a yummy dinner, and with David gave us a tour or their beautiful and eclictic house. We didn't stay up to late, it had been a long day and we were looking forward to exploring phoenix in the next few days.

The next morning David was already off to work by the time Rachael and I got out of bed. David is a pastry chef and teaches at a local high school and college. Bobbe spent time with Rachael and I in the morning and then we all headed over to a nearby resort they belong to. It was a sunny 70 degrees. We used the gym, swam in the pool and sat in the hot tub and steam room. So relaxing.

The next day we took a long walk around the area to the post office. While there Rachael spilled water all over the floor while singing along with the post office radio. Love it!

We did the spa thing again the next day. This time I laid by the pool and soaked up the sun and it was glorious! I could defintely live in Arizona in the winter. When we got back we decided to head over to the Arizona Biltmore. We had been invited by two sweet ladies we met in the grand canyon to come and have a drink with them. However, we couldn't get in tough with them so we just decided to go and see the hotel by ourselves. It is listed as one of the 1000 things to see before you die. Frank Llyod Wright advised the project and the architecture and layout was really beautiful and super luxurious Rachael picked a comquat right off the tree and ate it, and then of course I had to try it and it was yummy!

Heading back to the house Steve, Sarah, Adrian and Audrey had arrived! Hoooray! They are precious. It was really good to see them for the evening. Audrey is still uber tiny and Adrain getting taller and smarter all the time. Bobbe made margharitas that were to die for! and we all got to visit. We presented Steve with his super hot hot sauce from the chili pepper institute and everyone tried it that night at dinner on our tamales. They Manganos left the next morning for the zoo and to visit friends and we headed to California.

We loved Arizona and the Colleys. They are amazing and our time was fantastic. We will definitely be returning to Arizona sometime soon!

Grand Canyon

Quickly leaving the Colonial Motel and its sketchy area we headed toward the Grand Canyon. When we arrived the air was bitter cold and there was snow on the ground. We told the park ranger at the entrance that we were going to be camping. She looked at us and smiled then suggested we put boiling water in our nalgene to keep us warm in our sleeping bags. She probably thought we were a bit crazy but her idea was a great one. We drove along the rim of the grand canyons stopping at the different view point to take amazing pictures. Its such an astounding sight that it doesn’t seem real.



We ended up being at the exact point they recommend to see the sun sets, Desert View;everything on looked as if it was on fire in bright oranges and reds - Wonderful.

Despite the beauty around us I couldn’t feel my face and told Rachael we needed to get a hotel room. Driving along the rim we entered Canyon village and stopped at the first lodge - bright angel- that was supposed to be the cheapest. I left Rachael at the front and went to find a parking spot as I turned into the parking lot I saw the reds and blues start flashing behind me. Great. We had made it more than half way across the country without any problem only to be pulled over in the grand canyon. Thankfully, the police officer was really nice. Evidently I had not fully stopped at the stop sign ( despite the fact the police officer had waved me on) At any rate he only gave us a warning and I was once again able to breathe.



Bright Angel recommended we go down to the lodge down the road, which we did and surprize! the hotel is actually owned by the same company that I worked for when I was a freshman in college. I kept expecting it to look the same even though it didn’t but it was fun to be in a hotel when I used to work in one super similar. YSP 04 friends only you would understand the surealness of being in a xanterra hotel without any bear soap.

Rach made us dinner in our hotel room using our camping stove! It was awesome. yummy soup and bread. We read for awile and watched this awful creep movie called Wind Chill - I didn't want to watch it but Rach kept flipping back, then when we missed the ending she flipped back to watch it twice. YUCK.

We were planning on getting up early so we could hike all the way down to the colorado river and back in the same day. Ignoring the fact that there are warning signs everywhere saying its not safe to hike in and out of the canyon in one day of course.  Par usual though we got up later, ate breakfast, wandered around the rim of the canyon a bit and stopped in at an art gallery built into the side of the canyon. By the time we had done all of this we started hiking down at noon. The path was steep, slim and covered in ice, snow and mule poop ( I am not exaggerating the snow was now a green color);



At least the sun was shining and it wasn't too cold. We hiked down about two miles and realized there is no way we could make it down and up in time and we were getting a bit tired.  On the way we saw several " rim runners" professional runners wearing shorts and tshirts and jogging down the canyon and all the way back up - Insane. What is even more crazy were these two guys in front of us wearing normal clothes and tennis shoes and attempting to jog down the canyon - WHY???

We breathed our way heavily back to the top, laughed at ourselves a bit and went to get a cup of coffee. The lounge selling coffee also happened to be a bar so we were carded for our coffee, first time that has ever happened to me. Also at the bar was a sweet elderly man named George who gave us some tips about hiking into the canyon and back the next time we were there, since he had done 18 times already. He was from San Franscisco and gave us some good tips on fun things to do when we visited.


Coffee warm in my hand Rachael and I left the bar and headed to the big fire place in the entry way to eat our lunch. We began visiting with a girl our age named Bianca who is from South Africa. She had just been to San Fran and also gave us some superb ideas and invited us to see her in South Africa. She is a journalism major getting read to graduate and super nice. Two older ladies were also near the fireplace, one from Florida and one from New York - they were friends on vacation together. They invited us to get a drink with them when we were in Phoenix ( they were headed that way next as well) and then to come and see them in New York sometime. Its amazing the people you meet Traveling! Love it!



At this point we were ready to hit the road for phoenix. We were staying the the mangano's parents and decided if we left now we could reach there before it was too late.

Warm weather here we come!

The Colonial Motel...

What's the good of news if you haven't a sister to share it?  ~Jenny DeVries

We decided our last night in Las Cruces that we would no longer be going to Mesa Verde. It was really cold in southern New Mexico and would only be colder the further we headed north. It was disappointing because Mesa Verde was the National Park I was most looking forward to. Instead we decided to make another trip when it is warmer, maybe by train to see the ring of five national parks in Utah and then over to Southern Colorado to see Mesa Verde. We LOVE our National Parks pass and are going to use it to the fullest.

We were supposed to stay with a friend in Albequrque NM on our way to the grand canyon but it fell through and so we started searching for a cheap hotel. I found one online that had really good reviews, was cheap and the website looked amazing. We made reservations and headed on our way. In Albequrque we stopped to eat at Ponchos, a mexican restaurant my mom has raved about for twenty years. She ate there when she was pregnant with Rachael and loved it. We have heard mixed reviews from other people who said the food wasn’t good but we figured it is pretty hard to mess up mexican. Ponchos is a mexican buffet, you go through and get your first round and then you raise a small mexican flag at your table when you want seconds. It was pretty good! The cinammon and sugar chips and the sopapillas ( which were my dads favorite) were the best part. We did raise the flag once for more chips, rice and beans yummm - so full when we left. I had a massive food baby. We took a walk around the parking lot several times in an effort to burn off some of the calories we had just inhaled. I ate twice as much as Rachael so I probably needed to walk twice as far. ( ** seriously don't know where audi puts it. She either has hollow legs or a tape worm named bob who is really hungry. She has the metabolism of  teenage boy.)

** Contrary to Audi's pretty good, i loved Ponchos- their green chile tamales, sopapillas, and cinnamon sugar chips were the best i've had. Seriously normally I am skeptic of Mexican food. I'm just not in the mood unless it's Steve's fish tacos, but this trip has totally redeemed mexican food for me. Papasitos in TX, La Posta in NM and Ponchos in NM.. thumbs up.( and as much as I hate to admit it, taco bell was amazing this trip..)

Our motel was located in Gallup, NM on the way to the Grand Canyon. This town was sketchy. As we drove through the downtown a drunk man walked haphazardly across the street and almost bumped into our car. We looked up at the garmin and our hotel location was only half a mile away, wonderful. It was dark and we were super sketched out at this point.

We pulled up to the hotel and it looked NOTHING like it was advertized. Very Bare and right across from the train tracks. I was unsure about going in, but we decided to at least see a room and check the price again. The lady at the front desk was really nice and when we checked out a room it was clean, dry and neat even though again, it looked nothing like it was advertised. We decided we would stay because it was only 30 dollars a night and we were tired and ready for bed. On the way to our room Rachael saw a creepy man looking at us from one of the other hotel rooms. (** his head was right between the curtains and he just stared at us the entire way to our room.) We hustled into our room and pushed the mini fridge, microwave and chair against the door just in case. ** The pics above don't do it justice, bc i dint take them at night, nor did i take them of the room with thee fridge and such in front of the door.. but believe it.

Here is the link to the hotel:  http://colonialmotels.com/

The next morning we got out of their quickly. As we left town we passed a Days in that was on fire - at least our hotel was not aflame.

Grand Canyon here we come!

Las Cruces

"Eat dessert first, Life is uncertain" -Anonymous

I would add especially if you are eating sopapillos to the quotes above

We love Las Cruces. Rachael was born here and my parents have always talked fondly about living there. We got up and walked around the corner to Walmart to get some yummy groceries since we were staying in New Mexico for a few days. Avocados there were only TWENTY-FIVE CENTS!!!! And they were super yummy. We got those, tomatoes, cheese, hummus, tortillas, milk, ham and peanut butter and jelly. We ended up making most of our meals in our room with the help of the microwave.

Always in the background are the Organ Mountains. Gorgeous and different they rise out of the backdrop of Las Cruces to constantly amaze. Rachael fell in love with them. New Mexico is actually really mountainous, contrary to my original belief.

After shopping and lunch we headed to Old Messila Village just outside of Las Cruces. It was once a stop on the stage coach line and is famous for people such as billy the kid who used to frequent there. There was a gorgeous old church there that still holds mass and we considered going that evening. We also stopped by a shop that sold Green and Red Chile Pecan brittle. Amazing we had to have some. There was also a shop called Nambe - famous for unique design and a metal that looks like silver but doesn’t tarnish or rust, absolutely gorgeous. All the buildings are built stucco style and there are large bundles of dried red chile peppers hanging from peoples doors and the streets in the old village were cobblestone.

After wandering around Old Messilla we headed down to New Mexico State University to see the Chile Pepper Institute. Along the way I realized that I had lost my favorite glove that Rachael brought me back from Italy. Trying not to freak out we decided to go ahead to our tour of the Chili Pepper Institute and then go back to Old Messilla Village to find it. The institute wasn’t what we expected but it was still really interesting. We were thinking we would go out and see the fields where they grow peppers or something like a farm. Because we are traveling in January nothing was growing so a sweet college student - also named Autumn by the way - told us all about how they grow the chili peppers and how they recently discovered the hottest chili pepper on the planet. Its from India and called a Bih Jolokia - its recently been in the guiness book of world records. She let Rachael and I try a hot sauce and a salsa made with the peppers. It was really hot but yummy, it crept up on you after the taste from the back of your throat. We bought several packets of different kinds of peppers to try and grow in our apartment and some of the sauce to give to steve and sarah.

Leaving the Chili Pepper institute we headed back to Old Messila and split up to find my glove. Retracing our steps I searched in several stores we had made purchases in with no luck. On a whim I went back and checked the parking lot where we left the car and thanks be to God there it was! Rach in the meantime had found a local winery that had live music the next night. On the way back into Las Cruces we passed Lulu’s - this adorable store and we had to stop. They had amazing stuff for the house and fantastic jewlery. I would love love love to buy the whole store. There was a copper ring fashioned into a gorgeous rose and I loved it! Unfortunately it wasnt my size. Rachael and I did buy a pottery bowl for our apartment, we think we will put all our match books or assorted chocolates we have collected along the trip in it eventually. There was also another winery next door that sounded fantastic, serving local wines. We might head there tomorrow night after dinner.

We went from Lulu’s back to our hotel and had dinner before heading out to see a three dollar movie (not quite as good as the 1.50 movie in Raleigh but better than full price) and saw “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” which was really good! I want to see “ the Princess and the Frog” also!

The next day we got up early and headed to the Gila Cliff dwellings. We drove three hours out really into the middle of nowhere but it was BEAUTIFUL! The road was really windy and there was some snow so it took us awhile to get to the monuments. When we arrive at the park we had to drive a few miles from the visitors center and then take a short hike up the canyon to reach the cliff dwellings. They were amazing! built into caves in the cliff, you could see where people lived and how the rooms were divided.

After our hike and the long drive we were zonked. We came back and cleaned up and went to have dinner at my parents FAVORITE restraunt in Las Cruces called La Posta. It was also listed in our Atlas and I think it is pretty infamous. It has been there since the stage coach route used to come through ( at least 100 year) and the food was fantastic. Rach and I split chili con queso, chips and salsa, guacamole salad, green enchiladas, a chili relleno, rice and beans, and a fold taco. SO YUMMMY. Desert followed with an apple empanada and sopapillas. The Sopapillas are so good it is almost unbeliveable. Soft, flaky and filled with honey. We were so stuffed afterwords that we skipped the wine tasting and headed back to veg out and get some sleep.

Tumble Weeds

The drive across west Texas was exactly what we expected stereotypical texas to be. It was fairly flat and dry. When we stopped to get gas somewhere I actually saw a tumbleweed blow across the road. We jammed out to some good country tunes and finally reached El Paso we were having a massive taco bell craving because we had been eating pretzels and peanuts the whole ride. Only for some reason we kept missing the taco bell exits. We passed El Paso and right befor e enterning New mexico we finally found one to satisfy our craving. After that we continued to cruise on until we reached Las Cruces. Our hotel was nice and cozy and we crashed quickly and slept well after driving for ten hours.

EZ tolls and no Alamo in San Antonio

"I love it. It is wild with adventure." – Henry Starr

The next morning we got up to head back to Houston, instead of San Antonio, yes Rachael did forget her shoes. However, thats pretty good considering it is the only the second time we have forgotten something ( Rach had forgotten her jacket in east Texas but we realized it before we got too far down the driveway). On our way back into Houston traffic was thick and we had to yet again pass through the icky tolls. We made is safely through the first toll but as we approached the second one no one would bloody let us over and we were in the far left hand lane of six lanes of Traffic and needed to be in the far right hand lane.

Here are the thoughts running through Rachael’s head
“ So Really! No one is going to let me over!”
“ crappity crap crap I am about to go through the EZ toll”

She says “ Autumn what happens if we go through the EZ toll”
She yells “ Someone let me over!!!!!!!”

(EZ tolls are the express lane - you have a pass with a bar code fixed on the window or something so you don’t have to stop)

As we fly through the EZ toll lane without an EZ toll pass the lights, alarms and sirens go off....

Rachael says “ ohhh my gosh, ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh”

“ I am going to get arrested” and burst into tears

“ Do I need to pull off? Do I go back through the same toll? Do I pay double at the next toll? Autumn I want you to drive, I don’t want to go to jail in Texas” ( the officers have the shorty shorts and the creepy mustaches ewwww)”

Autumn is attempting not to laugh and or worry and proceeds to call our cousin Lisa, whose house we are heading towards. Lisa assures us that though they took a picture of our car they won’t send us a ticket or anything unless we have gone through three tolls ( which we plan never to do!) Rachael continues to drive, we pick up her shoes and set the garmin ( suzy) from then on to avoid tolls even if it adds a bit of time to our trip.

From Houston it took us about 2 and a half hours to reach San Antonio. We set our stuff up in our hotel, which was nice and jumped back in the car so that we can see the missions, and they were AMAZING. Huge, ancient and beautiful. We wandered in and out of two of them and were headed to the Alamo when we realized it would already be closed.

Instead we went and parked in Market square and walked down the main drag to the Riverwalk. It too was interesting walking below street level and seeing an astounding amount of resteraunts and shops. However, they were draining and cleaning out the waterway and so it smelled a bit like sewage.

Rach and I walked back and forth, back and forth, back and forth down the Riverwalk trying to decide where to eat because everything looked so good. We finally settled on Waxy’s Irish Pub. Rach had an amazing lamb stew and I had a portabello sandwich. At this point we were so tired from walking around we headed back to our car and crashed at our hotel for the evening - again watching late night episodes of the Nanny. We have an addiction.

  

    

 

We despise driving in Houston

"Leave sooner, drive slower, live longer." ~Author Unknown

The above quote is something we still have not mastered despite being on the road for three weeks, so it took us forever (as per usual) to leave Lisa's house and head to downtown Houston. We had planned to see some of the museums and parks in the downtown area but it didn't work out that way because of the time constraint.






Instead we visited Rice Village, a shopping center built in the 1930's. Rachael really wanted Indian or Thai and everything was closed between 3-5pm, I guess they know how to siesta for real. We did have some yummy Spanish Tapas with Carmen though, the black bean soup and the potato fritters were really good.

After eating we wandered around this awesome park near the hospital. From there we tried to head to Ashley's apartment which should have been relatively close to where we were. However we kept driving and driving and went through a several tolls. We were looking for a Kroger near her apartment so we could make Ashley dinner. Kroger appeared in the distance and we picked up ingredients for creamy tomato basil soup, garlic bread and carrots. The GPS then took us to a random medical building and we were tempted to blame Suzie for getting us lost. She has gotten confused a few times on the trip. However, when we called Ashley we found out we had put in the wrong address and were on the wrong side of Houston thirty minutes away and consequently at the wrong Kroger. On the way back we had to pay the tolls AGAIN. Just to reiterate we hate driving in Houston.

We finally made it to Ashley's, ate dinner and watched a movie. Poor Ash had to get up super early and work in the morning so we didn't get to visit with her for very long, especially after getting lost. She hugged us goodbye and we decided she needs to come visit us in Portland and next time we are in Texas we will come and see her. Attempting to leave Houston yet again led us on an interesting adventure. More on that later.