Heading to Tucson

We left Vegas to stop in Tucson. I wanted to visit one of my cousins there... it's sort of our family thing... we've got cousins all over the country and we didn't really grow up together but whenever somebody passes through we get a meal together. Lisa had been working in Seward a few summers ago and my brother Casey and I drove down to see her while he was visiting. Before Lisa left Alaska she came up to visit me in Fairbanks. Brian had to get the lowdown on how we're related since he's used to having a big family in a relatively close area.

We thought all of Arizona would look like this... but with less green stuff

Really neat rocks everywhere... maybe they used to be apart of the Grand Canyon?

HAHA they lost the Super Bowl (which we watched in Haines, AK)

The camera didn't due this sunset justice... There were so many different colors just like in the paintings...

Leaving Las Vegas...

Lake Mead in the distance

I like mountains and grassy hills more than desert...

but there are some pretty amazing things to see

Hoover Dam!

What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas

And we suddenly were in desert...

This is the only picture I took while in Vegas. This is our mini fridge in our hotel room at the Bellagio. They have a sign warning you that you may be charged for things if you move them around... I read that... Brian missed it... Put it down!
The bathroom in the bellagio in our standard room was as big as a bedroom. The whole room was bigger than my apartment and the one Brian had in Newport News.

We only took another picture in Vegas when we went to see the Cirque De Soliel show "O". I might put it up here in the near future, the picture of us isn't bad, and the show was amazing.

Going to Vegas

I was really surprised by how much agriculture there is in California. Being and East Coaster I had always been of the mind set that the San Andres Fault could just float California out to sea... Well I never realized how much of our fruits and vegetables come from CA. We saw oranges, artichokes, grapes, avocados, rice paddies, strawberries, pistachios, green onions and so many other things like happy cows. I've become a big supporter of local grown products in the past few years and its nice to know that we can still get produce from our own country (at least part of the year)
The landscape getting closer to the Nevada border was very striking to me. I loved all of the rocks that just randomly piled up along the hills almost like ruins of castles...

More wind turbines...

Going to Napa

After a really really long drive to get to our hotel in Napa we got their pretty late and got some grub (Hawaiian BBQ) and hit the hay. Driving through Napa is not for the faint of heart! California has been added to the list of places I don't want to drive through again... I think it's somewhere between Washington DC and Texas... We did however get to see quite a few wineries and other famous Napa things, like the Culinary Institute of America which was far more exciting for me than Brian...

We saw quite a few windmills which are very foreign to me. I think it would be kind of scary to live near them but as Brian put it, you only need to be worried when one is going alot faster than all the other ones...

We took off the next morning for Vegas and stopped at one of our favorite wineries.

I went to a wine tasting at Lavelle's Bistro in Fairbanks, AK which included the owners of Michael David winery. I really enjoyed the wines that were offered and picked up a few bottles for when Brian came back for R&R. He really enjoyed them more than I thought he would and we've both become big fans of this winery. Since we only had time for one this had to be it.

They have a little market and a place to eat, and we picked up some wine...

Redwood Forest California

Leaving Oregon we drove down the Pacific Coast Highway. We passed a discount liquer store, which caught Brian's eye, we stopped in the parking lot to get coffee from the coffee shack and debated on checking out the store. We pulled out and found Chinook St so we took a picture...

Then we went back to the liquer store... Brian actually got a really good deal on some scotch that he really likes, so worth the stop.

Love the misty coastline

Brian and I talked about how big the waves are, especially compared to the ones in Virginia.

That's a big tree or a car killer

(car vs. tree the tree is going to win)

It's so big Brian had to stand next to it to demonstrate the size.

If I stood next to it you wouldn't be able to tell how big it is...

That's really how the those trees looked!

The trees blocked out the signal from our satellite radio...

There's a little deer in there... Bah! Moose are more exciting...

HIGHSPEED INTERNET where have you been my whole trip?!

So I'm finally going to add more posts... Internet speed has been a pretty big factor in the no updates as it takes a really long time to upload any pictures... so be prepared for a deluge!