Thursday, July 8, 2010

Top Secret Project

Today was a ton of fun. I got up early to get there. Once there it was nothing but fun and excitement. Got to meet some new people and hang out with old friends. It was a super long day 8am to 11pm but it was chuck full of OMG and I can't believe they did that moments. Will be doing this all again tomorrow. Can't wait until I can share what it exactly it is I did.

(BTW this is the only picture I can show that doesn't give away anything or does it...)

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Home Sweet Home

Today I did very little.. did a little unpacking, had to go grocery shopping (as we made sure we had no food before we left for our trip) and tried to caught up on some internet stuff but for the most part I did nothing but relax and catch up on some TV that we had recorded during our vacation. It's good to be home!!!

2010 Pacific Northwest Road Trip

17 Days, 8 States and over 4000 miles. Harry, Daisy and I had a fantastic vacation/road trip. For the most part everything went as planned. We didn't have any issues with the truck and only a few issues with the hotels. Daisy was wonderful, if not over protective at times and Harry and I got to see some very beautiful sites.

I know I was ready to come home when we did but Harry said he could continue to travel for another few months.

I'm not going to go into great detail about the trip as I did written and video blogs every night of the trip. If you want details read/watch my previous posts.

I'm looking forward to getting my life back to normal, or as normal as my life can get. I was excited to get up this morning and not have to drive anywhere.. that was a great feeling.

I will be traveling again at the end of the month for Comic Con but that's down in San Diego and only a few hours drive.. I think I can handle that.

Hope you enjoyed my daily blog and felt as thought you got to travel with us during our 2010 Pacific Northwest road trip.

There are three albums on Facebook.. Here's a link to the first one and you don't need to be part of facebook to see them http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=447511&id=707225374&l=c4162dd85e

Monday, July 5, 2010

Pacific Northwest Road Trip - Day 17



This is the final day of our 2010 vacation / road trip. We are driving from St. George, Utah to our home in Agua Dulce, California. We took an unusual way home as both Harry and I are not fans of the Arizona Governor and her ultra right wing garbage with immigrants and gays. So instead of driving the 50 miles stretch of the 15 through Arizona Harry routed an alternate route.. only issue was that it was 135 miles out of our way and would add 2 1/2 hours of travel time. I was willing to over look hating Arizona and just get through that state as quickly as possible but Harry was adamant not to set foot there and I understood where he was coming from and agreed to drive the extra miles.

I'm kind of glad we did as it was an adventure into it's own. Harry mapped out everything on google maps but our travels didn't go as planned. We got to the highway that Harry had mapped out but soon it turned into a highway that we didn't know about and shortly after that it turned into a dirt road. Yeah we were in the middle of Utah/Nevada desert on a dirt road hoping we were going the correct way. When we hit a fork in the road we started to panic.

Harry had no idea which way to go and there was no clue as to which road to take. So we used our trusty GPS (which btw didn't show us on any road, just showed us driving in the middle of nowhere) I zoomed out on the GPS as far as it would go and saw that the 319 (which is the highway we were looking to connect with) was north of us so we took the north fork. Another half hour and we saw a sign that said 319 15 miles ahead. I could breath again... still had to drive on a dirt road but we knew we were going in the right direction.

After that we made it to the 319 then to the 93 and finally back onto the 15 and into Vegas. It was a long and crazy detour but a fun adventure.

Once it Vegas I knew we would hit traffic as it was the Fourth of July holiday traffic and it was Monday so everyone would be heading home.. I was hoping we were early enough to miss the traffic but I was wrong. Took about an hour and a half to drive from downtown Vegas to Primm (CA/NV border). After that we hit pockets of traffic here and there and in the end it added about 2 1/2 hours to our already extended trip home.

But at 8:30pm we made it home and man there is no place like home. I know Harry could have traveled for a few more months but I was happy to be home.

I'll write up an overview of the past 17 days in the next few days.. Thanks to everyone who has followed my video/written blogs for the past 17 days... hope you were entertained and enjoyed them.

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Pacific Northwest Road Trip - Day 16



Today was the last day of sightseeing of our 2010 Vacation. We planned to visit Zion National Park. So we left around 10 am, took I-15 to Highway 9 and followed it east. about 1 hour later we got to Zion. We checked the map and it turns out that most of the features of Zion can be explored if you go backpacking. Since dogs are not allowed on trails, that wasn't really an option. So we drove through the southern part of Zion. That are about 15 miles or so, but it was still very impressive and the rock formations are incredible. Something that definitely has be experience in person. We have to go back to Zion in the future and without the dog to go backpacking. We crossed Zion from West to East and by the time we reached the East Entrance it was just a little after noon. People told us that we should go visit Bryce Canyon National Park while we were down here.. so we looked it up on the map and saw that it was about 60 miles north of were we were so we decided to go up and check it out.

So we took US Route 89 north to Highway 12. We followed highway 12 east. While on the 12 we came across a place called Red Canyon and OMG.. there was some of the most amazing looking rock formations that I had ever seen. It was like driving on Mars.. everything was an organish red. It's hard to describe the beauty of the lands, it's something that really needs to be experienced in person. At every view point we stopped and took a ton of pictures and video.

After the Red Canyon we followed highway 12 and got to the entrance of Bryce Canyon National Park. Our first stop was called Swamp Canyon. You have a pretty good view of parts of Bryce Canyon and here it becomes clear, why it is called a canyon. Until that point it reminded us more of your average forest. We drove further up and decided to stop at most of the view points on our way back down, since they all were on the opposite side.

We finally made it to Rainbow Point, the endpoint of the road and with an elevation of 9115 feet also the highest point of the canyon. From this point you have an absolutely amazing 180 degree view... And man what an fantastic view. The Hoodoo's are absolutely stunning. A Hoodoo is a Sandstone Columns, it's something that I have never seen before.

After we had taken pix and video we started to drive back down. We stopped at several view points and from every view point we had an absolutely stunning view. One that was pretty cool was called Natural Bridge. It's kind of a rock bridge, but it reminded me way more of an arch. Regardless it was just amazing to look at. After taking pix and video we continued to drive down Bryce Canyon. We stopped at several amazing viewing points before we got to Bryce Pointe... WOW.. that is all I can say about that view. I can't even put it into words. I have to say that this is the best thing I have seen on our entire trip.. and I've seen some really beautiful stuff.. this view took my breath away. While I was taking pictures I saw way down at the bottom what looked like a hiking trail... the only thing I thought was, that this has to be one of the most amazing hiking trails I have ever seen. Guess we will have to go back to Bryce Canyon and hike that entire trail, but in order to do so we have to leave the dog at home.

Next up was a viewing point called Paria View. This point had some great views, but doesn't even compare to Bryce Pointe. We then saw Inspiration Point, Sunset Point and Sunrise Point. Though they were all great views after Bryce Pointe, nothing would compare.

We headed back through Red Canyon and back on the freeway. It took 2 hours to get back to our hotel, we picked up some Wendy's for dinner and called it a night.

All in all it was a great day.. so glad we decided to head to Bryce Canyon because if we didn't we wouldn't have seen Red Canyon or the stunning views of Bryce Canyon.