Today was a great day. I know that each day, we say that, but today has truly been a great day. Yesterday we had a fantastic time with Eaden and Eldrik. They showed us some beautiful sights of the mountains around Flagstaff. I have lived in Ontario for, hmmm, 10 years now, but I grew up in BC, in the mountains. Since leaving that province, I had forgotten how wonderfully beautiful the mountains can be. The time we spent up there brought back some very fond memories of my childhood. /sigh. OK, I am done reminiscing about the past. After our short hike we went to a local casino where Eaden and the Wizard of Oz entertained us in a gut wrenching competition between woman and machine. Not surprising, woman won.Today we hit the road, destination sunny California. The
drive was gorgeous. Uh oh, here I go about the mountains again. They were spectacular. The weather was bright and sunny for the morning and quickly heated up the area. By the time we had descended from Flagstaff the air had heated up to the perfect temperature, and so it was time for the direct sun to disappear behind some light clouds in order to maintain that perfect temperature.
Eventually we hit California, and soon afterwords we were driving through what I think was the outskirts of Los Angeles. We knew this was coming; LA is one of the biggest cities in the country. Pete and I have gotten turned around on some rather insignifcant roads in this trip, have found ourselves on the wrong road far more often than I care to think about. But you know, it was never that big of a deal. We would just repeat our mantra "We are on vacation" and then do what
we could to get back to where we were supposed to be. Navigation has been a little bit, uh, lacking as we drove, but we survived.Knowing how we have been less than perfect in ensuring we are always on the right road, both Pete and I were nervous as we prepared to enter the massive city that we plan to spend the next week in. Turns out, when Pete applies himself and closely studies the map, and I pay extra attention to what lane I am in, and what exits are coming up, we are actually pretty good. We made it all the way to our hotel without taking a single wrong turn... and it isn't because we just
followed the same road the whole way there. We zigged and then zagged, and then zigged again as we jumped from one highway to another as we moved through the city. The picture here is just one of many roads we took, nothing special, but you will see there are four different roads crossing over the same point; it was wild.After arriving and checking into the hotel, we walked across the road to a mall we were told had a good food court. Turns out, the advices was true. Actually, the food court was a little bit lacking, but it had a little restaurant called "Great Steak" where we got a Philly Cheese Steak sandwich. It was absolutely delicious. Unfortunately we did not take the camera to the mall, so there is no picture of the sandwich. Despite the lack of photography today, feel rest assured that we will be going back to that restaurant so we will try to get a shot of it then.
So, we have checked in, had supper, and are ready for bed. It might be a little bit early, but we hope to take advantage of ever single moment of sunlight starting tomorrow, and that means getting a good nights rest tonight. Sleep well everyone, and be prepared for us to flood this blog with pictures of all the beautiful Californian, uh, scenery.
