Wait... Your home?

Yes that's correct we are home. No, we didn't fly home after San Diego. The last leg of the trip was very tough and we haven't had time to post. But, we will soon. There are a lot of pictures and other stuff coming soon. Sorry guys.

SeaWorld and some pictures!

So before I get to the pictures, I want to tell you all about SeaWorld. We are at our last stop before heading home and I can say without a doubt SeaWorld was my favorite! =) Those of you that know me well know that I love marine life and SeaWorld was chock full of it! We went later in the day since there was a night show we wanted to see and decided it would be easier to walk around when it wasn't 100 degrees! Boy did that pay off! There were almost no crowds and the weather was perfect. The highlights of the park were the sea turtles, the dolphin show, and the Shamu show. Well enough about that, on to the pictures!

Okay so I know it's been a while since I posted any pictures and I know some of you are itching to see them! So here they are! =) (BTW sorry for the small size.)

Here is a beautiful picture of TWO rainbows Adam and I saw.

Here's a picture of Pike's Market in Seattle. It smelled strongly of fish but I didn't mind because it was such an experience!


This is Adam at lunch at the top of the Space Needle. The view was breathtaking!


And here is the Space Needle.


This picture is for my sister Tiana since I know she has a new found love of elephants! =) This was the cutest elephant I have ever seen! She was a tiny thing just getting her grub on! =P


Here's Adam and I at the Golden Gate Bridge. It was pretty windy that day.


I left my heart in San Francisco. =( This is my Auntie Grace and cousin Jamilla who I love & miss terribly!


So this picture doesn't do the monument itself justice but here it is! Mount Rushmore was absolutely breathtaking. I know you see tons of pictures but to finally be there is something I will never forget.

So there you have it, just a few of my favorite pictures to fill you in on what we've been up to. We will be home in a few days & I will continue to update then. I miss home and all my family and friends. I can't wait to see everyone and share all my stories with them. Thanks again for reading and talk to you all soon!

They named it San Diego, which in German means a whale's ....

Right now we are in Glendale, Ca. Let me tell you about a little place called San Diego where the beer flows like wine and beautiful women flock like the salmon of Capistrano.

We got to SD on the 21st. The original plans were to pickup Chris at the airport in LA and drive down to SD. It didn't work out that way, and it was a good thing it didn't. Chris pushed his flight back a day and to San Diego airport instead. So we shot down to San Diego first. We passed through LA at around 5:30pm....

Traffic and a brush fire and I had to go to the bathroom. I took the first exit I could get to, East Los Angeles. It wasn't too bad, but I wouldn't want to live there.

After LA it was smooth sailing. We checked into a nice hotel with palm trees everywhere, refrigerator and microwave. We ate the left overs from San Francisco and went to bed. We had a long day ahead of us, the San Diego Zoo.

The zoo was amazing of course. It is one of the finest zoos in the world. There was only one unfortunate part. A staple attraction, the giant Galapagos tortoises, were not there. Jill was very upset. They did have some very large turtles though. Jill will be posting tons of pictures and stuff on the zoo.

After the zoo, we picked Chris up at San Diego airport. It was a tight fit. We have a lot of stuff in the car. We managed to make a semi-human sized spot for him. There was not quite enough room for him and his bag though. He somehow folding himself in there to fit. Luckily, his apartment is only 15-20 minutes from the airport. Like I said earlier, it was lucky we didn't pick him up in LA. That 2-3 hour drive would have killed him.

Chris has got a fancy apartment up on this mountain and was nice enough to let us stay, but we didn't. I forgot something; he has cats, two of them. Jill has crazy cat allergies. She tried to stick it out but the weezing coming out of her didn't sound good. We grabbed our stuff and in the middle of the night had to leave. We got a hotel near the one we had the night before.

The next day we got food and got my car washed. Yes, the bug graveyard has been put to rest. We also drove around looking at all the rich people's homes. Chris took us to the area he wants to buy a house. They actually have show houses which are open to the public. We walked right in and looked around. These houses are amazing. For California, they are massive. In New Jersey standards, they would be medium sized.

Chris had work at 3pm so we parted ways. We planned to go back to the hotel, change and head to Sea World. We fell asleep, for 4 hours. Needless to say, we didn't get to go to Sea World that night.

We booked the hotel for an additional day so we could go to Sea World. The next morning, we ate at Hash House A-Go-Go. No dancers, sorry. The portions are massive. Jill will posting extensive pictures. Me and Chris tried to finish the Tractor Driver's Breakfast and failed. We got pretty close though. After that, we drove around to all the cool San Diego places, Del Mar, Downtown, La Jolla.

Wow this post is getting way too long. I'll let Jill talk about Sea World on her post.

Busy Bees!

Disclaimer: Long post ahead!! =P

Sorry for the lack of updates everyone! So this post will be sans pictures since I can't find my cable for my camera. There's a shocker! =P Anyways we have been sooo busy and at the end of the day we are too tired to get on this thing!

So the last I posted was somewhere in Montana I believe. Shortly after that we arrived in Seattle and checked in. But not after some crazyness! The roads there are kinda crazy. We drove down a hill that was like a rollercoaster! It was so steep I had to close my eyes for fear of getting sick. There are also a lot of one ways that makes getting anywhere a pain in the you know what! Anyways after checking in we called it a night because we had lots to do the following day. So the next day we planned to do lunch in the Space Needle, check out Pike's Market and see the aquarium.

Let me tell you, lunch at the top of the Space Needle was amazing! Not only did we have a view of the whole city as we ate, but the food was delicious! (All thanks to my Mom and Geroge; thanks!) I will put pictures up soon. After an amazing lunch, we then made our way to Pike's market via the monorail. It was a bumpy and short ride but we made it. We walked up and down Pike's market and what I loved most were the beautiful flowers and fresh fruit. They were even handing out samples to get you to buy and they got me! =) The aquarium was quite lackluster. Being the aquarium buff myself, this aquarium wasn't the greatest. The marine life was mostly fishes and the buildings were spread out all weird. That was pretty much our trip to Seattle, our next stop was San Francisco.

After about 12 hours we finally made it to San Francisco around midnight. Adam and I stayed with my awesome cousin Jamilla! =) The next morning we went to Pier 39 as my Aunt cooked us an amazing and delicious dinner. I can honestly say that I love San Francisco! It's so beautiful and there is tons to do! After walking up and down the Pier we headed back to my cousin's apartment where we had dinner with her, my Aunt and Uncle. We had adobo chicken, dill potatoes and pansit. I really love and miss her cooking! The next day we did more tourist-y things. We went to the Golden Gate Bridge, drove down Lombard Street (a crazy windy road) and went to Chinatown/Little Italy. They were right next to each other. Our visit was short and sweet but an amazing one at that! LA has some stiff competition on where we might live.

Okay well that's it from me for now. Sorry again for the lack of updates! We are San Diego now and headed to LA and Vegas within the next few days. I will update soon with pictures! Again thanks for reading! =)

It's been so long

Update

We have been having so much fun; it's been hard to get to the computer. The last post I sent via email got so messed up. First of all, it got truncated badly. All that was posted was my disclaimer and the two pictures. Second, it didn't even post the disclaimer first. I'll see if the entire email is still in my sent box and try to repost it. So go back to the last post if you get a chance.

San Francisco

San Francisco was a blast. Thanks so much to Jamilla and her family for everything. The city is truly charming. The houses have a unique style. The weather is strange but pleasant(it gets cold there but no snow). There is a endless number of activities to do. We left feeling fulfilled but at the same time we knew we missed so much.

Fisherman's Wharf is a popular tourist attraction. It's an outdoor market, picture taking, attraction venue. There were some street perfomers. Although we didn't see the famous Bushman. There is a great spot to take pictures of Alcatraz and a place to watch the harbor seals.

The Rock

We didn't get to do the Alcatraz tour. It is very popular apparently and tickets were sold out until after we had to leave SF. It's no big deal; we will be back.

We drove over the famed Golden Gate bridge.

We also got a taste of San Francisco's club/bar scene and sampled a favorite after hours taco place.

North by Pacific Northwest

Disclaimer: this post may have wierd formatting from the iPhone. I'll
fix it when I can.

Watch for Rattlesnakes

A sign overlooking the Columbia River, WA

Yesterday we drove from Billings, Montana to Seattle. It's about 800 miles and 12 hours. After this leg of the trip we are officially over 3000 miles already. 3000 miles in 3 1/2 days, pretty crazy. The car is holding up very well. I'm really surprised that we have had not one problem.

The drive itself was decent. I do have one peev, the Rocky Moutains. They are not very impressive this far north. Tuesday when we saw Big Horn, it was huge. White capped peeks and a triangle shape. I thought it was the Rockies. The Rockies themselves were just not that impressive. This is the Rockies:

This is Big Horn:

It might be hard to see in the picture. But Big horn looks like a Coors commercial.

Ranting over.

The picture of the Rockies above is more or less what you see for 8 hours straight. It fun at first, then it gets boring. After Montana, you move into Idaho for about an hour. It starts to look all Pacific-Northwesty with green trees and sweeping hills. Then you hit Washington state. And it looks like a wasteland. An hour or so from Seattle it turns back into the Pacific Northwest of legend. There is a very nice mountain range here too. Mt. Rainer is along the way, but we couldn't see it. Hopefully, I'll get some shots of it from the Space Needle today.

Sleepless in Seattle

Sorry for the corny title but as usual I cannot sleep and I felt the title fitting. Also as usual Adam is snoozing away while I watch some TV and blog.

After a late start this morning, Adam and I arrived in Seattle after about 11 hours. We drove through a lot of mountains and even stopped to take some pictures at a beautiful scenic spot of a gorge. (I think that's what it's called.) Our hotel is conveniently located right off the major freeway and not too far from downtown Seattle.

We settled in and then headed out to get some dinner. It's surprising how many restaurants are within walking distance. There are too many to count! Finally we decided on Thai food, partly because we were curious to try the food and mostly because we were starving! We ate at Racha Noodles & Thai Cuisine. (http://www.rachaqueenanne.com/) Adam and I both got noodle dishes with beef and were happy with our choices. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures this time around but I will try from here on out.

It's off to bed for me since we have a day filled with tourist like things tomorrow. I'm looking forward to the Seattle Aquarium. Before I get to bed I just want to thank everyone who reads our blog and I hope you continue to! Talk to you all soon!

What you've all been waiting for!

I know you all have been waiting for some pictures, so here they are! I am currently in the lobby of our hotel since the WiFi reception is horrible in our room.

Okay so the food so far has been pretty good. We haven't eaten anything great yet since most of our trip so far has been on the road so bear with us!

Okay so our first stop was at Granite City Food and Brewery. (http://www.gcfb.net) After nearly 10 hours on the road Adam and I were starving and this place was close. The food was pretty decent and according to Adam, the beer wasn't too bad either.

So for an appetizer we had pretzels with cheese dip, but this was no ordinary dip, it had their own brewed beer in it! The pretzels were soft and warm and the cheese dip was quite delicious.


I decided to have the Chicken Alfredo for dinner. It wasn't anything special, but Adam seemed to like the herb flavor.

Adam decided on the "Betta Chedda Bacon Burger". This burger was piled high with cheddar, bacon and barbecue sauce. It was juicy and tasty if I say so myself, judging this with my one bite!

We headed to Chicago and after an eventful day (read Adam's previous post) we went to Lou Malnati's for some deep dish pizza. (http://www.loumalnatis.com/)
Much to our luck we got there just in time for their lunch special which consisted of a beverage, soup or salad and a personal deep dish pizza all for about $7! I have never had deep dish pizza but being a bit of a foodie, I have seen my fair share of TV personalities enjoy it! Let me say that Adam and I are officially deep dish pizza fans! Adam more so than me, even though he won't admit it!

Well that's it for now. I should be getting to bed soon since we have a 12 hour trip to Seattle ahead of us. Hopefully we can blog more frequently as we get closer to big cities.

Twister!!!!

In my last post, I wanted to press on from Wyoming. Jill wisely decided that we drive for another hour or so and get a hotel. It was a good thing we did.

We found some of those hotel discount books at a rest stop and decided on the Billings Hotel and Convention Center. While we were on our way we see the the sky darkening. I'm not talking about a storm in the Northeast. This thing looked nasty. It started to rain about 15 minutes from the hotel. Then it happened...

The radio cut out. There was an all-too-familiar beeping noise. It was like the ones on TV that say "this is a test of the emergency broadcast system". Except this one was for real. The voice came on the radio and gave us a tornado warning for the county we were in until 10pm.

We were both stressed. The rain started coming down harder and harder. Lightning streaked across the sky and thunder shook the car. We arrived at the hotel and checked in just as the storm was peaking.

15 minutes later, the sun came out and the sky was blue. No tornado, no golf-ball-sized hail. Just a lot of rain. What a hype. I drive for 20 hours with nothing but grass, cows and bug splatter to look at. I finally get something exciting and...

NOTHING!

On a more positive note, the hotel is very nice. It has a pool with a water slide that Jill is in love with.

Tomorrow, we will be up bright and early and move on to Seattle.