i'll eat my candy/ with the pork and beans

So it's my birthday. The very first one I have ever spent entirely without my family. My engineer has gone home, and while my family sent me some lovely flowers and balloons, I would rather have their company.

So I will spend the evening drinking champagne with a few friends and working on my birthday puzzle.

What would you do?

like a tired bird flying high

Day 4: Arizona-

After spending the night in Flagstaff, we drove into Grand Canyon National Park.

The Grand Canyon is like nothing I have ever seen before. We drove into a fairly ordinary looking park, parked our car, walked about a hundred yards, and were suddenly staring at hole in the ground bigger than you could possible conceive of. It's beautiful, and terrifying, and absolutely looks fake. My engineer is terrified of heights (don't tell him I told you), but was perfectly fine climbing around on rocks at the edge of the canyon, because the heights you are looking at are so enormous your brain can't begin to comprehend them. Once again, I will try to compensate for my lack of words with a few pictures.

We had made plans to meet a friend in L.A. that evening, so we tore ourselves away far too soon, and headed back to the parking lot, where we saw a baby mule deer.

Word to the wise: if you ever make it to the Grand Canyon, give yourself a full day. At least.

The drive to L.A. was mostly uneventful, save another about-to-run-out-of-gas-in-the-middle-of-nowhere experience, and we got to see a couple of interesting bands at some club. Honestly, we were too tired to really appreciate the evening.

The next day, we limped our way to our final destination, where we immediately took a very long nap in my new, entirely unfurnished apartment. And thus concludes our grand adventure.

looking for a place to stay/ near some friendly star

Day 3: New Mexico (cont.)-

The next stop on our trip was perhaps a little ridiculous, but something we had agreed was a necessity.

The UFO museum in Roswell, New Mexico is an interesting blend of campy and insane. The walls are lined with "evidence", first-hand accounts of the incident that supposedly took place in 1947, along with copies of redacted government documents that prove that everything was hushed up. We tried to keep our giggles to a minimum, as it was very clear that whoever runs this place takes themselves very seriously.

It was clear that Roswell is a small town that knows what it has going for it. Even the McDonald's sign was in an alien language.

Admittedly, this part of the country is pretty creepy at night. And fairly boring in general. You can see why an alien landing would be such an appealing idea.

Anyway, having seen what Roswell had to offer, we drove on, made the requisite failure to turn left in Albuquerque (and had a fabulous lunch there at The Frontier), and headed off into the desert.

keep track of the visions in my eyes

Day 3: New Mexico -

Our goal was simple. To see one of the most beautiful limestone caverns in the world.

The walk from the visitors' center was lovely, through rocks and scrub. We saw several lizards, but the most impressive wildlife was at the mouth of the caverns.

Just as bats swarm from the entry at dusk, throughout the day, cave swallows are everywhere. The swallows dart in and out of the sunshine, before returning to their nests in the rock, impossibly high above you.

The caverns themselves were one of the most magical things I have ever seen. I don't know how to even begin to describe them, so I will try to make do with some pictures of the more amazing features.

At the end of the self-guided tour, an elevator returned us to reality, where we still needed to go a very long way in not nearly enough time.

there's a freeway runnin' through the yard

Day 2: Texas (cont.)-

Texas is even bigger than it looks on the map.

The day started out pretty well, with some interesting cities to drive through, and a delicious lunch at a Chuy's in... some Texan city. In fact, we were feeling so good, we decided to take a break from the I-10 monotony and take some smaller highways. By mid-afternoon, we were driving through ranch land, and our spirits were high.

We drove hour after hour, nearly running out of gas several times, finding precious fuel in tiny little towns not on the map (along with much amusement at the interest/suspicion we aroused in the locals).

As night fell, however, the benefits of a major highway became clearer, as the middle of nowhere gets pretty darn dark when the sun goes down. And apparently all Texan deer are suicidal.

Several hair-raising hours later, we made our way back to I-10, which was equally dark, but less popular with the wildlife. By 11:30, we were in New Mexico, in one of the sketchiest hotels I have ever stayed in, safe from rampaging ungulates.

crossed the deserts bare, man

Day 2: Texas -

I woke up to the sound of pouring rain and a feeling of great trepidation. This was it. The 15 hour day. The goal was to wake up in New Orleans, LA, and fall asleep in Carlsbad, NM. Between us and our goal lay... Texas. All of it.

But laying there feeling stressed wasn't making the miles go away, so I made myself get out of bed, woke a surprisingly cheerful engineer, and drove away into the rainy New Orleans morning.

First things first. The original plan had been to stay two days in New Orleans, so that I could show my engineer around the Decatur Street area as well as the Bourbon Street half of the French Quarter. I tried to make up for the necessary change in plans by slowly driving down Decatur Street pointing in the rain to the aquarium, the water front, and Cafe Du Monde... But wait! The lights were on at Cafe du Monde!

I parked like a maniac, laughing with glee, and told engineer-boy that he was in for the breakfast of a lifetime. We didn't have time to sit and enjoy the ambiance (besides, it was already 95 with 110% humidity), so I told him to look around while I waited for our beignets and cafe au lait -- to go.

Not even 30 minutes behind schedule, we were sitting in traffic on the I-10, with sticky faces and a feeling of great success.

truckin', like the doo-dah man

A week ago, my amazing engineer and I got into my packed little Toyota (and by packed, I mean riding so low that it's a miracle I wasn't bottoming out on speed bumps) and took off on a grand road trip across the US. Thus begins a little time-traveling...

Day 1: New Orleans-

On July 6, we were up bright and early, finished packing the last of the bags into the car (with one notable exception, as it would happen), and left Gainesville.

Within an hour of getting on the road, the heavens opened up.

It poured as we drove through the Florida Panhandle. And the little tail-y bits of Alabama and Mississippi. We stopped for the condemned man's last opportunity for Southern nosh and were stunned to learn that there are still parts of the country where you have to request the non-smoking section. Lunch was a fairly subdued affair, as after traveling for eight hours in the driving rain, there was a decidedly Twilight Zone-esque edge to the collective mood. (I'm sure that everyone has, at one time or another, experienced that strange disconnect from reality, where you realize that you have no idea what state you're in, and everything is funny. No?) The okra was delicious.

Due to the aforementioned geographical confusion, I'm not 100% certain, but I think we were in Louisiana when my engineer was given the opportunity to experience his very first underwater tunnel.

Obviously, there was much excitement. And speculation as to how exactly the tunnel is engineered. Does it go just under the water, or under the ground under the water?

After some more driving (and accompanying rain) we arrived!

New Orleans!

We were surprised to see some fairly major hurricane damage still, although mainly the city seems to be thriving. We checked into our amazing hotel in the French Quarter and immediately... took a nap.

After some much needed sleep, we went out to explore a little before dinner.

After admiring the beauty of the historic French Quarter and traumatizing the engineer with the sleaze on Bourbon Street, we had a delicious dinner of red beans and rice and a Hurricane for one engineer (and a Voodoo Juice... and a Swamp Water), and visited a cool little voodoo shop where we purchased all manner of good luck talismans (talismen?). The hotel was awesome and it had very soft beds.

help, i'm alive

Allow me to introduce myself.

Hi. I'm Julia. I'm a graduate student in California. I live with the grumpiest fish ever.

I love to cook, read, paint, sing, dance, and garden. I kill plants for a living. I am a huge nerd and I can quote the entirety of all the original Star Wars movies. I have an awesome partner (the amazing engineer), who happens to live on the other side of the country. And I do my best to live my life happily and to its fullest.

I look forward to sharing all of my adventures with anyone who is interested in hearing about them.

Cheers!