Day 38

Day 38 we drove from Kansas City to a town outside of Bloomington ID. The drive was uneventful, and shortly after arriving at the campground, we went for a swim at the pool. Later that evening we drove to Wall-Mart and Noah bought some DVDs for us to watch. When we got back to the campsite, it was late, but we couldn't sleep. To kill time we sat in the car and watched a movie. After that Noah went to the tent to sleep and I slept i the car.

Day 37

Day 37 we drove from Denver to Kansas City MO. It was both one of our most eventful an uneventful days. While the view from the car was very dull, we did get pulled over by the cops twice. The first time I was driving and got pull over and ticketed for speeding, and the second time Noah got pulled over but got off with a warning. When we finally made it to Kansas City we stayed in a KOA. The place was nothing special, and was hot and a little humid. We did eventually fall asleep and slept in until 10 AM.

Day 18 video

Day 36

We decided to stay in Denver for an extra day today and headed out this morning before 9 to see the sights. We went down to 16th street mall which is a long stretch of shops built on either side of a road where the are only free shuttle buses driving. The shops stretch for over 10 blocks, and seemed to be pretty good. We walked around and shopped for a while not buying anything, and then went to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch. The food was good and very amply portioned. When we got back to the car after lunch, we noticed that the tire was low and decided to fill it on the way to our next stop, the Coors Brewery (we think that it had never been filled completely the other day and that is why it was low). Anyways, we drove to Golden Colorado where the brewery was and took the tour. We saw many people quaffing the free beer from the tour. People were able to get 3 full sized classes of any Coors beverage. After the tour we went back to the KOA and I am washing my clothes while David does computer stuff. Tomorrow we leave to go to Kansas City where we already have KOA reservations.

Day 35

We drove all night, and arrived in Bolder around 9 in the morning. The drive was long and tiring, but it was nice to get it out of the way. When we got to Bolder we drove around checked out the campus and then tried to figure out where to spend the night. We looked at a hostel but it was going to be too expensive so we ended up getting reservations at a KOA about an hour away. We did all this at a coffee place with free internet. After that we went back to campus to take a tour. While Noah was on a walking tour I noticed that our back right tier was low on air an put on the spare fearing a puncture. After I got in touch with our dad he suggested that I may have just unseated the bead while parallel parking. We went over to a gas station where we filled it up with air and poured water on it to see if there was an obvious leak. There wasn't so we put the original tire back on the car. After this we drove to the KOA where we swam and hot tubbed and then went to a cheap restaurant across the street for dinner. After dinner we watched a movie on my computer and then went off to bed. It thundered and lightninged in the night, and rained a great deal, but our tent seems to do well in the rain and only leaked a little on the bottom of the tent, and mostly on Noah's side so it wasn't so bad.

Day 34

Day 34 we drove from Flagstaff AZ to Zion National park in UT. The drive was uneventful. On the way to Zion we stopped at the north rim of the Grand Canyon. It was really cool. We walked around and took pictures for a little while, and then we returned to the car to head towards Zion. Zion was nothing special. It was cool to look at, but not that great. When we got to the campsite we were hot and decided to try swimming in the river near the campsite. The river turned out to be very muddy and very rocky. We didn't swim for very long before heading back to the tent and reading and playing cards. We tried to go to sleep in the evening, but it was too hot, and the moon was too bright, so we decided to push forward and get a bunch of driving done. We left the park around 11 in the evening and headed for Bolder CO.

Day 33

So we started out in Phoenix this morning after a very filling breakfast at Chompie's. We had a fantastic time with the people we were staying with and were very great full for a spot in their beautiful home. Today was one of the shortest drives so far on the trip, only a couple hours. Our goal was to end up in Flagstaff where we had reservations at a KOA. We only drove an hour to begin with before stopping at "Slide Rock State Park" for a swim. We had so much fun. We jumped off cliffs and swam down rapids. Pictures and video from Slide Rock will be coming soon. Afterwards we had an hour drive to the KOA and got there around 6pm. Tomorrow we will see the Grand Canyon.

ATV day video

Here is video of us ATVing at Pismo Dunes.

Day 31

Today we drove to Phoenix AZ


----These are just temporary posts so we don't forget what happened, real posts coming soon.---

Day 30

Day 30 we hung out with my friend Tanya

----These are just temporary posts so we don't forget what happened, real posts coming soon.---

Day 29

Today we went out and visited Beverly Hills.


We got up late and hung around the house for a while. We eventually went out and drove to Beverly Hills. There we walked around and tried to find a Starbucks. On the way to the Starbucks, we passed a cupcake store called Sprinkles which had a massive line outside the door. The other thing we saw was that all the car rental places rented out really expensive cars. We saw Bentleys and Rolls Royces and even a Ferrari. After we got Starbucks, we went back to the house and had a great dinner.

Day 28

We drove from San Diego to LA. We got up and started packing the car around 10AM. We cleaned out the trash so that we could fit all three of us in the car, and then we hit the road. We stopped at Starbucks and Jamba Juice on our way out of town. We got to LA early in the afternoon and hung around the house for a while. Later that evening, we went out for Chinese food with the family we were staying with. After dinner we were freaking out b/c we were about to go for our interview with Dr.Drew and Stryker. We drove over to the Westwood one studio around 8 and went to Wendy's to kill some time before we were to be at the studio at 9:30. The interview went well and after words we got to sit in the studio and watch the recording of the radio show Loveline. We got back to the house around 12:30 and went to bed.

Day 27

This morning we woke up around 9 and went to breakfast at Pipes with the family we are staying with. We then went to Ponto Beach which was beautiful with crystal clear water. We spent a few hours there body surfing and boogy boarding, which was nice since we have never had access to boogy boards. We broke off from the Everett's and and went to opening day at Del Mar horse track. We were able to catch the last three races. There were many short dresses, crazy hats, and drunk idiots. Joining the spirit of the track I had David put in two bets for me. I bet $7 on Glimmering Pete in race 8 of 9...he came in second to last, but I could tell he was putting forward is best. The odds for that race was 1:10. For race 9 I bet $3 on La Swing. The starting odd were 1:8 but ended up being 1:15. The race started out looking good for me. La Swing came out of the box fast and lead the race for a majority of the time but at the very end he dropped 4 places and I was out of the money since in both of my bets I bet for the horses to place. After the race we took a free shuttle back to our parking spot. By the time we got back to the house it was 7:30 and we were ready for dinner. We went to Uno and had a great meal. Now its 10 and we are watching "So you think you can dance." I'm looking forward to a good nights sleep after such a long day.

Day 26

Day 26 we drove from San Clemente to San Diego. We did not realize how short the drive was, so when we got to SD we decided to track down some lunch. It was surprisingly hard to find somewhere to eat, and we ended up in a small Mexican strip mall were we got foot long subs for $3. After lunch we got back on the 5 and went down to Imperial beach. When we got to the beach, I dropped Noah off at the beach and drove to the local library to get some internet. After calling the people we would be staying with, I headed to the beach to swim with Noah. After a couple hours of swimming and body surfing, we hit the road to Escondido. Last night was relatively mellow, we hung around the house and had a great home cooked meal for a change, and showered off.

Day 10 video

Day 9 video

Day 8 video

Microsoft Surface

Day 25

After a night filled with the sound of ATVs, Dune Buggies, and Dirt Bikes we were ready for a little fun of our own. We rented two Honda 250 EX 2007 ATVs for 2 hours. It was expensive but well worth it. We started out slow but quickly got used to the semi-automatic controls and steering of the ATVs. We then hit the Dunes, which reminded me of a large ski resort. We started out on small hill but moved up to large slopes and small jumps. We were catching mad air at this point. Like 3 to 6...INCHES....it was off the hook as you will see in our videos. Though I usually manage to get hurt on things that go fast and have the ability to go off jumps, I managed to get away with only a few scrapes and bruises on my ankle from failing to do a wheeley. David being the little girl that he is had to stop half way through because he felt "sick" and needed to eat pop tarts. Once our 2 hours were up we packed up the campsite and left for somewhere in Southern California. We embarked on an 8 hr drive. When we drove through Malibu we saw a lot of huge ridiculous houses. Then in LA we stopped at an In-and-Out Burger for the first time, it was tasty. Our last place we drove through was Laguna Beach, the setting of the forever popular TV show "Laguna Beach". I think I saw Jessica. Our night ended in San Clemente State Park, where we had a successful fire with wood that was given to us at Pismo Beach earlier that morning. It was hard to fall asleep because some really loud women in the campsite next to us, but once we did fall asleep we slept well.

Day 24

Day 24 morning we drove to the Monterey Aquarium to check it out. It took us a while to figure out parking, but in the end it turned out ok. The aquarium was really great, because of its location in an area that is home to most of the remaining sea otters, the aquarium focused a lot on them. After walking through most of the aquarium, we saw that there were some free movies so we decided to check them out. The first thing we saw wasn't actually a movie but instead a game shaw called "You Otter Know." It was semi-entertaining, and as I predicted the oldest person who was not an adult won. The next video was about sharks and was hosted by the author of Jaws. It was so so, and as soon as it was over we left to head towards our next campsite. We didn't actually have a place to stay so we decided to drive and check out the campsites as we saw them. We ended up at Pismo Beach, where we were able to camp literally on the beach. That evening around 9:30, we went for a walk on the beach where we saw a massive RV get horribly stuck in the sand. We were mildly amused when we saw them get stuck, but we saw that they clearly needed some help so we lent a hand. It took us a while, but we finally got them out. After driving about 100ft they got stuck again, and again we helped get them out. Then we saw a guy in a pickup truck who looked like he was stuck so we walked over to offer a hand. When I asked if he was stuck he said "Yeah, but not that kind" he was clearly very drunk so we decided to go our separate ways, but before we left he offered us some weed, we decided to pass on that and went back to the tent to sleep.

Day 23

Today we drove from Yosemite to Monterey. Before leaving we went on a short hike (only about 4 or 5 miles) and saw Mirror Lake. It was a very uneventful drive toady, and we got to Monterey around 6pm. After setting up the tent we went over to the beach and walked for a little while. Then we came back to the campsite and fixed dinner. It has been a very uneventful day. Tomorrow we are planing on visiting the Monterey aquarium.

Day 22

Day 22 we woke up and left our hosts house. We stopped and picked up some bagels from a place called Noah's bagels. We then drove out to Yosemite National Park. When we got into the park we stopped by the camp office to find out where we would be able to get a site for the night. We ended up staying in Camp 4, a camp frequented by hikers and rock climbers. I liked it a lot b/c it only cost $5 per person. After we got the tent set up and put all our food in bear boxes, we decided to go for a swim in the river. The stream was a short walk from out camp and the water was very cool and refreshing. We swam downstream a ways and played around in the water and then swam back to where we had started. After we hiked back to the campsite, we set our tofu marinating for dinner and just hung around the campsite. Dinner was good, we had rice and tofu in an asain sauce, and we went to bead really early. b/c it was so early, we couldn't sleep and ended up reading Dr. Drew's book to each other for a while.

Day 21

Today we slept in and then went out for a walk around the Berkeley campus with one of our hosts. We walked through the campus and saw some redwoods, and the Freespeach Cafe, and the clock tower. After we got back and took showers, Noah and I went out to get some lunch. We walked just a few blocks down the street to a pizza joint and got some food. I had a sandwich and Noah had sandwich as well. Later in the day we all went out to see the new Michael Moore movie. We though it was very good although as usual very focused in its one sidedness. I also thought that there were a few things that seemed needlessly dramatic. That evening our hosts went out and Noah and I made some tofu with pasta which was quite good.

Noah Levitating

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Originally uploaded by teamelementzero.

at a beach in Oregon got our levitation on

Day 20

Today we woke up at about 9:00. We waited for Milton and Sandra to come home from yoga so that they could help us decide what to do downtown. At 10:30 Milton dropped David and I off at the Bart. We took the train to the Montgomery stop which is just outside of Chinatown. We spent about 30 min trying to find a good place to eat in for lunch. Most importantly a cheap place. We ended up going to this little Chinese place where for 5 bucks we were able to get 2 beef dumplings, 2 pot stickers, a pork filled bun, a Chinese donut, a little meat turnover thing, and this giant fried piece of bread that despite being extra greecey tasted pretty bad. Then we were off to find some souvenirs that would be unique to Chinatown. We hit a home run in this category. We found some kick ass Chinese silk robes that are sexy and reversible. Some other great finds were 79 cent San Francisco Mugs and a porcelain sex figurine. After walking around in Chinatown it was about 3pm and we decided we would walk to the Fisherman's Wharf. We got some good pictures of Alcatraz and of a floating restaurant. By that time it was after 4 and we took the street car back to the Bart. Once we got back to Berkley Milton came and picked us up. After much discussion we ended up going a Indian Restaurant that was slow but good. Now it is 9:45 and we will soon be going to sleep. David keeps complaining about my snoring but I think he has stopped crying about it and realized he will just have to deal with it.

Day 19

After sleeping in the car for the first time on our trip we left for Berkeley. It was a cold night but we slept alright. The drive from Eureka was long and windy. The day was kind of dreary but the views were amazing. We stopped once in Gualala and then drove the rest of the way to Berkeley. We were both feeling pretty sick; the road wound allong the coast with sharp turns every couple of minuets, so our speed was slow and we were fealing crappy. We got into Berkeley arround 4 in the afternoon and decompressed for the rest of the day. We had showers and napped. Then we went to the grocery store and bought food for dinner which we promptly ate. We called it an early night and went to bed around 10:30.

Day 18

On day 18 we drove from Coos Bay Or, to a state beach in Westport CA. It was a relatively uneventful drive. The morning in Coos Bay was cool and very foggy. We had been planing to drive from Coos Bay to Eureka, but we decided to drive a little farther so that we could get to Berkeley faster the next day. Looking at the AAA campground book we decided that the state beach in Westport would be the best location wise. The campsite was cool. It was on a bluff overlooking the ocean with a path down to the beach. We had bought some lighter fluid earlier in the day and using wood we collected on the beach, we made a fire and cooked some hot dogs.

Because the campsite was so cold, and there was a lot of mist coming of the ocean, we decided to sleep in the car. We still set up the tent so that we could pull all of our stuff in it. Sleeping int the car went ok. Noah slept on one of the seats laid back all the way, and I slept on the floor with the other seat folded up to the wall. Before going to bed we watched an episode of top chef.

Day 17

*** Day 17 coming soon***

Day 16

*** Day 16 coming soon***

Day 15

Day 15 we woke up at 5:00 AM so that we could be out of the house before John and his family had to leave for their flight to Spain. We got up took showers and were on our way by about 5:40 AM. We drove from John's house to Mt. Renier which Noah hiked up some, and then to Mt. St. Helen's. MSH was a bit of a disappointment, you couldn't get very close to it and it was hard to see all the devastation that you alway hear about associated with the mountain.
We arrived in Portland Or. around 6 in the evening. The city is very nice so we parked and wandered around and got some street vender food. Around 7 we went and picked out
Cousin Amy up from work and then went back to her house. After she had some dinner we went out and walked around her neighborhood and saw where she hung our and what there is to do. The last place we stopped before returning home was to a restaurant with an outdoor section where we watched silent movies projected on a wall.

Day 14

Day 14 was our last full day in Seattle. First thing in the morning we went out to a Microsoft research building where we saw and conducted and interview about Microsoft's new product called surface. The interview went well and we even got to try out the prototype. After the interview we drove into downtown Seattle, parked, and returned to the Pike St. Market. There we stopped at and Asian food stall and had curry beef Hombows. They were fantastic and very very cheap. After lunch we went to our second interview with the director of portfolio management at Parametric in Seattle. The interview went well and at its conclusion, we returned to John's house and cooked dinner. That night we relaxed and went to bed early so we could get up early the next morning.

Day 13

Day 13 was our first full day in Seattle. We woke up in the morning and headed over to the Mercer Island Beach Club where we were to have our first interview of the trip. We conducted the interview with great success. The person we were interviewing was very friendly and helpful and clearly passionate about his job. After the interview, we spent the rest of the day (July 4th) at the beach club where we swam and had a barbecue.

That evening we went for Dinner at P.F.Chang's and then came back to the house and watched fireworks.

Day 12

Day 12 we arrived in Seattle mid afternoon.After visiting John's office, the three of us walked down to Pike St. Market and bought some fresh fruit which we then ate in the adjoining park. After that we left down town Seattle and headed over to Mercer Island to John's house. When we got there we just relaxed and caught up with his family. Later that evening when John got back from work, Noah, John, his son, and I all went out for dinner at the Space Needle's revolving restaurant. After that we went back to Johns house and just relaxed for the rest of the evening.

Day 11

Day 11 we drove from Yellowstone to Post Falls ID. This was the longest drive of our trip at over 7hrs. The drive wasn't bad though. We switched off driving every two hours, and it all went very well. We arrived at our campsite "Suntree RV park" in the afternoon and then tried to used their wireless internet which was down. We then went to the heated pool which was very cold, but we still swam. After that we drove into town to use the internet. Starbucks didn't have free internet, but the Del Taco next door did and we took full advantage of that. When we came back the campsite a few hours later, they had filled up the hot tub (which had been empty before) so we decided to go for a soak. The hot tub was a little cool, but still nice. While we were floating around talking about the trip, two other people joined us. They were very locals, and lived in the campsite, but had some really interesting stories. The woman had grown up just outside of Yellowstone so we talked to her about that for a little while, and the man had gone touring for a year with a car show which was also interesting. The funniest thing was that the man told us many times that we HAD to get high before dring through the redwood highway.

Yellowstone

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Originally uploaded by teamelementzero.

We really like this picture

Day 10

We spent all of day 10 in the park. We woke up early b/c of the cold and headed out to see the park. We were probably on our way before 10AM. The first thing we saw was a big traffic jam. There was a line of cars a far as we could see so we pulled the car over and walked up to take a look. It turned out that there was a maintenance crew removing two dead buffalo from the road. We got there after they had been mostly loaded into the dump truck, so we don't know the circumstances of their deaths. Noah did remark that they were "Buffalo Soldiers."

From there we kept driving and eventually found a swimming spot.

The swimming was fantastic, possibly the best part of our entire trip. You could swim upstream and them jump into a rush of water and be shot down the river.

After swimming we drove around the park some more and eventually ended up back at the campsite. After we finished dinner, we were approached by a pair of German Teenagers. They were do a cross country road tip and were trying to camp in the park. They had been unable to find a spot in the campground and offered to split our site with us for the night. We agreed as a result saved $10 on our camping.

Day 9

On day 9 we drove from Greybull WY, to Yellowstone National Park. Just outside of Greybull was the museum of flight and aerial firefighting. The museum was great. It was free and you could go inside and explore all of the planes. The museum was run by an old my who has been flying for over sixty years. He was very friendly and informative, but had a very strong opinion of the past. While he was talking about a plane that was of the type used to do the Berlin Airdrop, he commented that they should have continued pushing forward and wipe out the "damn Russians." He said they could have just used a few A-bombs and wiped them out. "We could have killed millions". Needless to say that was a little awkward, but all in all he was very nice. From there we pushed forward to Yellowstone. The drive was short and uneventful. When we got to the park, we thought we were almost there, but we still had to drive almost another full hour until we got to our campsite.

The campsite was very nice, but a bit of a ripoff. When I first got reservations I was happy b/c the campsite was only like $20 a night after tax, but I didn't realize all the hidden fees. The campsite didn't have electricity which was to be expected at that price, but what we didn't see coming was the pay showers. I have done enough camping that when I hear pay showers I think like 25 cents for a few min, which is reasonable and makes a good shower cost less than a dollar. Here they have a very different setup. The showers don't have a time limit, but they cost $3.25! Needless to say we didn't take showers. Not only were they expensive, but they were like a mile from our campsite. Instead we improvised and just poured water over our heads using a big water jug.

After we got to our campsite and set up our tents etc, we took a drive around the park. Within the park there are two big loops each with a number of points of interest. On this first day we decided to do the smaller of the two loops. On this loop we saw a bunch of animals like Bison and Elk, and some cool hot springs and rapids. (We will have pictures of these up soon). For dinner we had pasta with meat sauce and then cleaned up for a while because posted on our table, in our camp paperwork, and on the bathroom doors were warnings about attracting bears. We went' even allowed to have water in our tent.

We went to bed relatively early after watching an episode of Top Chef. The night was a lot colder than we had expected. It was as cold or colder than the first night in Ohio, and I had a lot of trouble sleeping.