The Country's Most Beautiful Drive

After exhausting ourselves in the Grand Canyon and leaving a day early, we took advantage of the extra time and drove through Monument Valley, which was like driving through Mars. That place is insane.

It's honestly the coolest drive I've ever taken and I was constantly exclaiming around every corner. I've never seen anything like it. Not only are all the formations just crazy beautiful, but they're all different, which was what was so amazing to me. Some were smooth and rounded and others were pointy and textured. Some of the spires were thin and fragile-looking and others were massive and solid. And all of these were right next to each other. 

For Experienced Desert Hikers Only

Check out all of our pics (including Grand Canyon pics) on THIS PAGE!

I was PSYCHED to go to the Grand Canyon. I'd never been and it seemed like an important place to check out before we went abroad. After we left Zion and Bryce (see Tom's post here) we made the long drive to the Grand Canyon and arrived at the East Entrance just as the sun was setting. We raced to the Desert View Watchtower and Lipan Point to catch a few pics of the setting sun. Unfortunately, pictures just canNOT do the Grand Canyon justice. We tried anyway.

After a few shots, we made the rest of the Desert View drive and to our way to our campsite in Mather Campground, where we planned to spend 3 nights. Mather is a large campground and I had expected it to be pretty generic and crowded. Surprisingly, the sites are well spaced out, quiet, and well-shaded. At this point in our trip (and after sweating like crazy in the desert), I was in desperate need of a shower and raced to the coin-operated showers in the campground. It was amazing. It may have been the best $2 I've ever spent. I'm not exaggerating when I say that the water at the bottom of the shower was brown...BROWN....from my dirt-covered self.

Utah Rocks

Check out our pics from Zion and Bryce on our Pics Page.

Today, we're in Colorado, visiting my sister and her husband and our two nephews and, now that we have Internet, we're catching up on blog posts.

After leaving Yosemite and stopping in St. George (check out Steph's post here), we picked up some groceries from a weird supermarket in Southern Utah (I got a strange look when asked the check-out guy where we could find a liquor store), and we headed into Zion National Park. While driving into the park the landscape changes and large red and orange sandstone cliffs start towering all around you.

Zion NP entrance

Cliffs at Zion

The Adventure Begins - Yosemite National Park

First - if you want to skip this post and just see pics, you can see all the pics from the first 3 days of our trip here. (I haven't had a chance to organize, clean-up, or caption them yet...but you'll get the idea.)

Now - The past few days have been a crazy whirlwind - from the moment that the storage pod arrived, we've been non-stop.

When they came to pick up our storage pod on Saturday, I noticed that, with everything we owned was in the storage pod on a San Francisco street, Tom had forgotten to lock it up overnight. Thankfully, no one noticed or, at least, no one sketchy took advantage. Lucky for Tom...he would have been in the shit house for years if EVERYTHING we own was stolen. Great job, Tom. That night, we had quality time with Bernie, Todd and Q before we finished our time in SF with drinks with a friend in from Miami. The next morning, we were both overwhelmed with excitement and a constant feeling of, "Is this really happening?"

In front of our house - right before we hopped in our car and left town!

I Get So Emotional, Baby (RIP Whitney)

Let me just tell you about the past 10 (or so) years of my life. I'm 29 now, so what I'm saying is - let me tell you about my adulthood. (It's a good thing I get to share this with you from behind my computer screen and not in a live monologue or something, because I'm already crying. You're welcome.)

Here I am, barely 18,
fresh-faced and wrinkle-free

I graduated from high school in 2001 and, just a few weeks after I moved into my college dorm room, 9/11 happened...rough entry to adulthood, huh? I tend to think about people my age as different from those even a few years older than me. We're the first group to only have a post-9/11 adulthood. I wonder what that means about us.

This Is Really Happening...

We've had our going away party. I've had freak outs. I've cancelled the Internet and handled our finances. Friends are rifling through our refrigerated/frozen/dry goods (which I call the Swain Market). I only have a few more boxes to pack. The storage pod gets delivered tomorrow. We hand over the keys to our subletter on Friday. We leave on Sunday morning. The U.S. portion of The Trip is about to begin. This is really happening.

And this is what my living room looks like.

Sorry posts have been light the past week or so. I'm dealing with all the final details and I think my head might explode. Tom had his first "holy crap" moment today, which felt oddly comforting since I've been having one long "holy crap" moment for the past 2 weeks. It's about time he joined me.

I'll try to get another post up before we leave. And, if not, I'll talk to you from the road. Wow.

I'm so, so, SO excited. I can't even explain it. Wow.

Home

As our days in San Francisco wind down, I have to admit that I'm freaking out a little bit. I can hardly fathom the thought that we're heading out in just 10 days to begin our adventure. I'm completely preoccupied with thoughts of what the next year of my life will be like because it's right around the corner and I have no idea what to expect.

ooh la la!

I'm in the process of packing our apartment up and it's really hitting me - I'm giving up the concept of "home" for more than a year. And that's scary.

The other day, I was making coffee. Almost every morning, I have coffee from the same coffee mug. I love these mugs. They're Ittala's Taika mug in white. Every day, using this coffee mug makes me happy. When I use that mug, it gives me the smallest feeling of comfort and joy. I don't get that feeling with my dinner plates or my couch cushions or many other "things" in our apartment. But I love these coffee mugs. Every time I get one down, I think, "I'm so glad I bought these mugs." And that moment gives me the smallest bit of joy and comfort every day. Recently, it occurred to me that I would be losing that small comfort (and tons of others) for a year. I told Tom about this and he said, "You're going to miss A COFFEE CUP while we're on the trip of a lifetime?" And I said, "Of course not! If you ever hear me actually talking about how much I miss the coffee cup, smack me in the face. What I WILL miss, though, are those small moments of comfort." What if I don't feel like me for an entire year?

I just can't believe that we're leaving in 10 days. You hear people say, all the time, that something is "surreal," and I've said that a number of times in my life also, but I don't think I've ever meant it as much as I do now. I can honestly say that this is a truly bizarre feeling. I'm so excited/nervous/sad/happy and, honestly, it's giving me indigestion. Pile that onto the HUGE list of things I have to do and, well, I've had my share of freak out moments this past week.

Don't get me wrong - I'm still super excited. And I'm, in no way, regretting this decision. But it's almost Go Time and the reality is intense. And the unknown is scary.