Monday, July 28, 2014

Road Trip - Day 30 & 31: Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon was the perfect last adventure on the road trip - we still have Tucson and LA, but this felt like the last real part of the road trip. I've hiked the Grand Canyon as a kid, but had never been to the North Rim, neither had Chris. So we took our last shower for 3 days and hoped in the car at 7 AM.

Warning, this is going to be a longer post because we saw so many cool things, (bison, deer, California Condors) but it will be mostly pictures.

Night one we camped in Jacob's Lake - its about 45 miles from the North Rim in the first come, first serve campsite, we were thrilled to get a spot!  Then we explored around Jacob's Lake.

I am beginning to think Chris is not actually afraid of heights, he's 90 feet up on a rickety fire tower
Our campsite day one and the beautiful Arizona sunset!
The next morning we woke up, packed up camp to move to a closer campground, De Montte, which is about 20 miles from the north rim. As we drove into the park this is what we came across....

Well hello, Mr. Buffalo
And then we got to the canyon. WOW! The North Rim is much different than the South Rim - there is much more detail and it way less crowded (its harder to get to, we added 3 hours to our drive each way for North v. South Rim). From the South, I remember the canyon looking very wide, just massive. The North is 1,000 feet higher and I am no geology expert, but I will try - this side has receded more due to more rain and snow creating more "stuff" to see in the canyon. Pictures just don't do it justice, especially ones I take.

We drove 45 minites to the tip of the North Rim stopping along the way for hikes, this hike was a 4 mile loop 
   Before the storm, you could see the mountains of Flagstaff 66 miles away 
The window rock, you can walk out on it

View down from right on top of the window
South Rim is across to the right of the storm
On the way out of the park that night we saw more buffalo. We saw them outside of the park about 2 miles from our campsite, which is apparently rare. There have been recent car accidents killing the buffalo, so Arizona is trying to separate. We also learned that buffalo are not native here, they were brought in by someone in the early 1900s to breed with cows, when it didn't work they sold them to the state of Arizona who now owns them.

There were so many - look in the background

Some up close with the babies 

While we were in the park we went to a ranger talk about the California Condors. If you don't know the story of the condors, I'll give you a re-cap. They were almost extinct, there were 19 left in the wild. A conservationist group worked to capture the 22 birds and breed them in captivity. To make a long story short, it worked. There are now about 400 of them total and 230 in the wild. They are the largest bird in North America, they have a wingspan of 9 feet! You can learn more about them here: Peregrine Fund

We also learned that there is a popular nesting area on the way out of the canyon on the Navajo bridge, they hang out on the getters of the bridge, so we decided to stop to see if we could see some....and we did! We saw 5 birds total, it was pretty cool! You can also look them up by number online.

See, not afraid of heights

Its also a beautiful area - there is a driving and walking bridge
This is F1, 30 and 54. We thought F1 was a juvenile, but according to the internet it was born in 2007. At one point F1 was flapping its wings and 30 got closer and closer....until it basically attacked it and then it flew off the bridge. We thought it was the Mom encouraging the baby to fly, but we were wrong (they are all males), no idea what was happening.

In order F1, 30 and 54.  
Close up, you can see the numbers
This is where it was flapping its wings, 30 was quite interested
This one is H9 and we definitely thought is was a juvenile since he has a black head, which is what the babies have according to Ranger Charlie. But online it says he was born in 2008....I think something is off, because we also saw 77 and online it says he is dead.....

He is super tiny! 

The Grand Canyon North Rim was awesome - definitely go if you have the chance! 

Sunday, July 27, 2014

Road Trip - Day 28 & 29: Santa Fe, NM

From Marfa, TX we were headed to Santa Fe, NM. There were a few route options to get there, all pretty much 7.5 hours - we thought it would be fun to drive though Roswell and maybe see some aliens, or at least some crazy people. We were wrong...it was the most boring drive ever, EVER. For all of you who think Tucson to Phoenix is boring, it has nothing on Southern NM. Only do this drive if you have to. You will thank me, so your welcome. We did drive though a big storm & a log came out of nowhere, that we hit. We are both still shocked that there was no damage.  

The only cool & almost scary part of S NM was this storm
Not a great pic, but I captured some lighten, which I was super proud of :)
Once we hit Northern NM it was a different story, it was beautiful and I could smell the green chili that I was about to devour.  

Our lunch spot with an awesome patio
We drove to the Los Almos area and learned about nuclear bombs. Then we hiked in Bandelier National Monument - in case you don't know what it is (I didn't till this trip) it is an area where there is evidence of human living over 11,000 years ago. There are cave dwellings, petroglyphs, little villages and ceremonial sites.
Looking down on one of the small villages - the homes were in a circle 2-3 stories high around the ceremony site
There was a flash flood in 2011 and the hike to the dwellings was covered with wood
The start to the climb up to the main ceremonial kiva 
This makes it look way more badass and steeper than it actually was

Top right is the kiva

Main ceremonial kiva
Day 29 was also our 3 year anniversary! They had a free concert in the park for us, it was perfect! We met some New Zealanders at dinner who sat next to us that we have been emailing with, we will for sure be visiting them in NZ! We also had great food in New Mexico - lots of green and Christmas Chili (green and red mixed).

Bruce Robinson and Kelly Wills - they were great!  

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Road Trip - Day 27: Marfa, TX

Marfa, Texas was a last minute addition to the trip thanks to Glynn and Melissa. We wanted to avoid a 10 hour drive in one day (Dallas to Santa Fe) so this gave us a perfect diversion.

The drive there was desolate, aside from a few trucks we were the only people on the road for at least 100 miles. The scenery was pretty, and I can tell we are getting closer to Arizona!

There was a crazy rain storm in the distance
We checked into our swanky tent at El Cosmico. Chris was not impressed, I thought it was cool, definitely a little hippie, but cool nonetheless.

Home sweet home
America!  
We were pretty hungry so we headed out to dinner pretty much immediately. There are only two restaurants open on Monday nights so it wasn’t a difficult decision. We picked Jett’s and were off. Well, Jett had a different idea, we were greeted with a sign on the door that said, “no food, only drinks tonight.” I did have a slight internal panic…what if the other place is closed too….we have one clif bar or a 50 mile drive to another town, that had food, maybe. It all worked out, we ate at Cochineal and it was really good, but they know they have a captive audience and the prices reflect that, of course :) 

Super random beer garden/firewood storage at the Lone Horse
We wanted a little more local color before retiring to our tent, so we stopped in at the Lone Horse Salon, at least that is what I think it was called. That is where we met Tina and she was awesome! She has traveled the world working in International schools as a teacher – she was on a state park road trip of CO and TX in her RV with her 2 dogs, 1 of which had 3 legs. Just to paint part of the picture. I regret not taking a picture with her :(

She was headed to the Marfa Lights and convinced us to go with her. The Marfa lights are these unexplained lights that have been appearing about 10 miles outside of Marfa since the late 1800s. They were AMAZING. So glad we did it - we probably stayed for an hour, with wine of course. We saw up to eight lights at a time and all different colors - green, red, orange, purple. The lights split and merged back together - it was really cool. It definitely something you have to see to believe!

One the way out of town we stopped at the famous Prada display, literally in the middle of nowhere. It is actually about 35 miles outside of Marfa closer to Valentine. It is so strange and I’m pretty sure there is now a bullet hole in the front window, oh Texas. 



We are now about to leave Santa Fe, NM – Southern NM is a strange place and a really, really boring drive, avoid it if you can, but Northern NM is beautiful.  

Road Trip - Day 25 & 26: Dallas, TX

Top Ten reasons we love Dallas, more in chronological order than anything.  

10.  Ian, Emily and Hattie were amazing hosts, seriously, they even gave us weather in the 80s. In Texas, in the summer!   

Is Chris wearing a name tag that says Lauren?
9. There is no shortage of crazies on the grassy knoll, so many conspiracy theorists. There is also a huge X in the road where JFK was shot, it was too eerie and strange to take a photo of for me....although it didn't stop people from darting into three lanes of traffic for a selfie. Seriously, I kind of wanted them to get hit. 

8.  Hands down the cutest pup in Texas, Hattie! Just 9 months old and such a lover!  

Look at that mug - Harriet La'Queeshia
7.  Shooting shit, its not Texas if you don't shoot guns.  If we broke into Ian & Emily's house we would rather have him shooting at us than Emily...maybe but, she did hit 3 bulls eyes in a row! 

One of our targets


6.  The staff of Baby Dolls has their pre-game meal at Velvet Taco, which was delicious.  

5. Everything is bigger in Dallas, EVERYTHING. Especially their trucks and highways.  

Five Deep!  
Texas is that BIG!
4.  But don't worry, Texas is green too. They built an awesome, huge park over the highway that is really cool!



3.  Sunday Funday at the pool was awesome -  after traveling so much it felt like just a normal day with friends!

Emily, Ian, Chris and Me
2.  Enter the grocery store with Ian at your own risk!  Welchs sparkling cider explodes when you drop it and this is the aftermath :) I haven't laughed that hard in a while!  



1.  We discovered that Dallas is definitely a place we would consider moving when we come back to the states. There is no snow, but generally you still get at least 1 ice day a year - sounds perfect.

In all seriousness, we had a great time in Dallas! Thanks for showing us such a great time Ian and Emily!  

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Road Trip - Day 23 & 24: Austin, TX

As I write this we have now been on the road for 27 days! Its kinda of hard to believe actually. As we approach the Southwest I have to say I am getting more and more excited to get to Tucson to see my mom, friends & family and of course Bone Crusher. Thanks Mom for taking such good care of the wee-man while we travel around - here are my two favorite mischievous photos of his spa time in AZ.



I have always wanted to go to Austin so I was excited about this leg of the trip. We were ready for some food trucks, BBQ and Austin weirdness. We got it all!

We kayaked on the Ladybird Lake, it felt good to actually do something active. Not gonna lie, I have never been so excited to get back to the gym and eat normally.


It was nice and cool with the clouds
Nice family photo - I think this is the first and maybe last selfie I will ever take with Chris

Coffee on the lake at Mozart’s roasting house - it was delicious!


There was lots of food - Taco’s at Torchy’s, beers at Shady Grove, BBQ at the Salt Lick, where we made friends from Lima, OH and sinful breakfast and Biscuits and Groovy.

The Salt Lick - all you can eat BBQ for $19 was delicious! 
This was an amazing concussion from the Biscuits and Groovy food truck 
Such cool signs everywhere...and good food! 
We will be back, Austin!  

Friday, July 18, 2014

Road Trip - Day 23: On the Drive

In Sapphire we went to George's second favorite BBQ spot, so naturally when he told us his favorite BBQ was on the way to Austin, well kind of on the way we knew we had to make a stop.  Joel’s BBQ it was! IT was seriously tasty! 

Literally a shack on the side of I-10
My Frito Pie, I trusted Melissa and she knew what she was talking about! BBQ Beef, cheese, onions, beans over fritos, so good!  
Don't mess with a man and his ribs....