Around the World in 365 Days – Southwest US

Day 27: Nov. 13^th – continued: Due to the time change – the travel back “day” is 36+ hours long, so arriving back in the US on the same “day” we left, but now in the morning. Our friend Anthony had to drive down to San Diego, so he met us at the LAX Travelodge to welcome us back then had to hit the road. John and I went to the nearby IHOP for breakfast – I missed real pancakes, then John got in a nap, but I was jet lagged and jazzed up, so I caught up on email and started taking care of some work stuff that came up when I was gone that I needed to address. After John woke, we found a laundromat that had giant washing machines (up to 100 lbs) and ultra-fast drying. There was a Burger King next door. I know, I know – but we were tired, it was there, and they have the Impossible Whopper. We split a pack of French fries. No, I did not take pictures of the laundromat or the BK.

Day 28: Nov. 14^th: Uneven sleep, I always have a hard time adjusting back to home time, but John and I got up decided to check out Santa Monica pier, which was about forty minutes away: eleven miles, but as I overheard a woman telling her friend – “when we talk about distance here, we say how many minutes away something is” – when you’re dealing with how crowded LA is, four miles can be an hour away. John and I joked we wanted to confirm that the Pier was standing, since on almost every Los Angeles based TV show over the last few years it has been blown up more times than I can count, and on 9-1-1 it was wiped out by a tsunami.

It was smaller than I imagined, with a lot more restaurants and fewer arcades and games. A lot of buskers – mostly musicians, but a middle-aged magician as well, initially doing the balls in cups and then later card tricks with the other tourists. On the sidewalk on Oceanside there was a stand-up comedian with his version of a Mr. Microphone practicing his routine for the two minutes people are captive waiting for the crosswalk. We did get in a lovely walk on the beach, where we could see the line of 3-4 bedroom homes on the beach that likely cost over $20 million. Location, location.

We grabbed lunch on the pier – I don’t recommend the veggie burgers at the Pier Burger, though their garlic fries were almost worth the $6.75. Since Venice Beach was in the direction of the hotel, we figured that was the next best stop. Muscle Beach was being renovated, but we saw the skate park with it’s set of deeper and deeper runs. The best skate boarder we saw was about 8 years old. I could never quite get a picture of him in the air, but he was impressive.

Unfortunately, we also saw many homeless, this appears to be one of the big areas for them to congregate. They didn’t harass anyone, and honestly with rents in LA, many of them probably had jobs, they just lived in tents on the beach. We walked the length of the main area, and did see where a music video was being filmed. It took an hour to get the 8 miles back to the hotel (at 3PM, the early part of rush hour), and then met up with Anthony for dinner back in El Segundo at a Mexican/ Cal-Mex restaurant called Sausal on Main street. I had spicy shrimp and grits – which were head on barbeque shrimp in spicy cheese grits. The dinner was capped off by the sunken chocolate souffle. Since we were still jet lagged and Anthony had driven a lot of miles in the last two days, we had to make it an early evening.

Day 29: Nov. 15^th: We got in a nice jog through the neighborhood – up Maple and around several other tree names. It was the first real run since Hangzhou. Then we packed up and hit the road – first stop – Joshua Tree National Park. We started seeing a few trees in the small community outside the park, but then once entered there were rows on rows of these ancient trees. It helped to have a back drop of mountains.

We did several short hikes, and drove one end to the next, and then back on the road. We made it to Lake Havasu and found some reasonable rates – staying at the Hampton Inn very close to London Bridge. Lake Havasu, Arizona is the infamous town that had bought the London Bridge and had it shipped and rebuilt. We saw it from the casino ferry (I couldn’t get any decent shots since it was night and the ferry was moving, then forgot to walk over and get a photo in the morning). There was an Indian Casino having it’s “soft opening” that night, but to get there you had to take a $2 ferry that ran once per hour on the hour – it was crowded. We did get free ferry tickets – a New Zealander (aka a Kiwi) had accidentally bought extra tickets and was standing in front of John in line when I went to get tickets. I was having trouble with the ticket machine, so John got ahold of me in time. The casino was bustling, with almost every slot machine and blackjack seat taken. I found a Chinese themed slot – with a budget busting 88 cents minimum per roll, but since I seemed to be mostly winning on it, that was OK. I changed machines when it “turned” and after a few other machines, found another that was starting to hit when I got the page from John that he was ready to go. The problem was the time was 9:25, the return ferry left at 9:30 and I needed to cash out. By the time I did it was 9:31 and we were watching the ferry pull away. Shucks, had to gamble another hour. Of course, now I lost back what I had won earlier, so ended up the night even.

Day 30, Nov. 16^th. We got up and got going – next stop – the Grand Canyon! We got to Tusayan, the town 7 miles outside the park and checked into the Red Feather Lodge, then drove up to the canyon to hike the south rim trail. It’s a really nice, handicapped accessible trail so anyone and everyone can appreciate the views. We hiked a total of about 3.5 miles along the rim.

After going to the bookstore to get my official t-shirt, we realized it was only about an hour to sunset, and seeing the canyon as the sun sets is something I had read could be spectacular. On the way to the bookstore the area had a natural visitor – a Rocky mountain elk.

Initially it was just grazing and ambling about. Unfortunately, a lot of the parents let their children chase it, and it became stressed, and finally left the area. The haze we had noted earlier reflected light, but many of the views were still beautiful.

Just after sunset we drove back to Tusayan/ Grand Canyon Village and ate at the Big E steakhouse. Not many steakhouses advertise vegetarian options. For once I decided against the veggie burger and went with the cheese ravioli, which was really good, with ricotta filled ravioli and a chunky marinara sauce. We should have stayed in the park a little longer to check out the stars, since there is a lot of light in the village so the stars were about the same as being in the city.

Day 31, Nov. 17^th. We grabbed the breakfast buffet next to the hotel, then packed up and headed back to the park to hike part of the Bright Angel trail. It’s steep, but popular. We had always been told to allow for at least twice as much time for up as it took to walk down. Since we could only stay about two hours, we hiked for 30 minutes down, it ended up only taking 45 minutes to hike back up. Along the route, along with a lot of other hikers, we saw a pair of elk in the brush, a western bluejay, a warbler (yellow with green but I did not get a good enough look to make a definite ID), sparrows, and great views of the canyon. There was a lot less haze in the morning, so much better definition of the canyon and its colors.

We enjoyed some coffee at the lodge (someday, I would love to stay there) and then hit the road. The next stop was Booty’s Burgers and Wings in Surprise, Arizona. Several months earlier John and I met a couple at Dick’s Last Resort in San Antonio, discussing wings. They gave us a couple of cards – including $5 off a meal. They owned the above restaurant and had national award-winning wings and wing sauces. Surprise is on the west side of Phoenix, and even though not quite in the direct path, we decided it was worth going a little out of the way for award winning wings. The most interesting part of approaching Phoenix is the saguaro cactus – fields of them.

We found Booty’s, and the wing sauces were great – maybe even a little better than our favorite San Antonio spot – Charlie Browns, but the chicken itself was overcooked and a little dry. Then Eastward Ho! We drove to Casa Grande (between Phoenix and Tucson) and stayed at the La Quinta for the night.