Rocky Mountain High

Kelly and I spent my last day of west coast travel hiking around the lakes of Rocky Mountain National Park. Despite the high altitude making breathing damn near impossible, it was worth it for these views.




The grass in the water looked like a painting.


This little critter stopped to enjoy the scenery with us.

>
Kelly and me in animal form.


Kelly (in human form) on top of a rock.


Nymph Lake was covered in lily pads.

See a whole mountain (yuk yuk yuk) of Rocky photos on my Flickr.

Winning Big at the Penny Arcade

Seeing Kelly in her new city of Colorado Springs was like coming full circle, since she was the one who really showed me around her hometown near DC when we were in grad school together. Colorado was no different - she took me to cool downtown places where she hangs out and told me about a diner in town that had been on the Food Network's Outrageous Foods. She then asked if I was hungry. Um, yes!

We had late night mini breakfast burritos at King's Chef - mini meaning the size of a newborn. They were delicious, and we each got a sticker proclaiming our newfound membership in the Clean Plates Club!

We ate at the location in the corner of a strip mall downtown, which looked really small and shady until you went inside. After inspecting the clip art that adorned the menu, I said "They should have a place that looks like a castle instead of just a storefront." That's when Kelly rocked my world and told me the other location was a castle! Due to their limited hours, we didn't get to eat there (yes, we ate at King's Chef two nights in a row), but we stopped to check it out.

"Do you want your picture in front of it, like it's your house?" Kelly asked me.
And that is how you know who is a true friend.

Saturday Kelly and I drove to a cute little town outside of Colorado Springs called Manitou Springs. We stopped to have lunch at a diner called Mildred's.

See that burger? That's the Juicy Lucy.

The cheese is inside the burger.

And that craziness set the tone for the rest of the day.
After lunch, we went to the Penny Arcade with pockets full of change.

There are incredibly old games and rides there, including some of those old-fashioned peep shows. Kelly was generous enough to pop a penny into pretty much every peep show for me.

I was thrilled to see the organ grinder monkey in the corner. I know it sounds silly, but it's always been a dream of mine to make music with a monkey.

Beautiful work, right?

We then emptied our pockets playing round after round of our favorite - Skeeball. Kelly had warned me that the games didn't give out many tickets, but I got a rhythm going and, with the help of a few singles from Kelly, had enough to win a tiny plastic dinosaur! No, I'm NOT kidding! For a mere thirty-five tickets (equivalent to three and a half American dollars). Can't beat a deal like that.

Garden of the Gods

I've seen some blogs that do Wordless Wednesday - posting only photos, no entry. Since I can't really think of words to describe the views of Garden of the Gods, I thought it'd be a nice thing to try. Starting... now.













See more on my Flickr.

Seattle Wrap-Up

In an alley near Pike Place Market, I found another gum wall.
(The first was in San Luis Obispo, CA.)


This one was a little more artistic…

I didn't leave my mark here. I think immortalizing myself via gum in one state is enough.

I also fell in love with the most bizarre peep hole at my friend's house.

It was like watching TV. I was enchanted for hours at a time.
I drove down to Portland the next day. Everyone was surprised that I drove down just for the day, but after driving such distances in Arizona, it actually felt nice to be back in a car, covering a lot of ground. Plus, the payoff was pretty great:


I picked up some doughnuts to thank my friend and her roommates for letting
me sleep on their couch. They were big fans of the bacon maple bars.


They also recommended I get the Memphis Mafia, in the back right corner. It was a banana doughnut with cinnamon sugar, glaze, chocolate frosting, peanut butter,
peanuts and chocolate chips on top! It was so rich, four of us shared one.

That other doughnut in the picture? The one you saw and said "That looks like a -"
Yup. It is. Those were so large, I only got two of them for four girls to share.
No jokes even need to be made, so I'm moving on.

My favorite was the Voodoo Doll; I don't even like jelly doughnuts,
but I enjoy playing with my food.


My last day in Seattle was August 19th (now you know how far behind these entries are...). I got up early, determined to explore Pioneer Square, visit EMP, and tour the underground. Instead, I was distracted by news about the West Memphis Three being FREED. I was glued to my laptop for hours listening to live footage from Arkansas. I learned about this case as a high school sophomore and was immediately obsessed with it, so that Friday was incredibly monumental to me. Though it cut out about 3 hours of my last day, it was worth it - and I did finally explore EMP with a big smile on my face.

Snoqualmie Falls

I've become obsessed with waterfalls on this trip, and was excited
when my friend told me she wanted to take me to Snoqualmie Falls.








There were descriptive words randomly scattered all over the walking paths.
My favorite was somewhat disturbing:

Not exactly what I want to see going down the stairs.

There are more photographs of Snoqualmie Falls here.

We checked out Pike Place Market on the way home, splurging on decadent salted
caramels from Fran's and gourmet ice cream from Molly Moon's. Hey, it's a vacation! The perfect opportunity to splurge. Which means when we got back to the house, we had a few of these:

Isn't that natural lighting gorgeous? The glass is glowing, insisting "Drink me!"

And I'm not the type of person who likes to disappoint stemware.

Quinault Rainforest

I left LA for Seattle on Monday afternoon, and had dinner with a family friend when I made it into town. We hadn't seen each other for seven years, when she had traveled through Memphis on her mid-twenties road trip. I love life parallels like that.

On Tuesday, I set out for Olympic National Park. Without my GPS. It is incredibly important that I mention that fact, because I am horrible with directions. Even with a GPS telling me "Turn right in 400 feet," I see a right turn and say "Here? Ok!" And it will somehow be wrong. I am the only person I know who can get lost while using a GPS. But when I found out my rental's cigarette lighter didn't work and therefore my GPS had no power, I did not panic. I didn't stay home out of fear of getting lost. I Googled basic directions, wrote them down, and followed signs.

At the visitor's center for the park, the guide asked me what I wanted to see. I had no clue, but the embarrassment has ensured that I will always do research prior to my future excursions. He told me about a place that would still have snow on the mountains. "That sounds cool," I said. "Literally," he retorted. And thus began our friendship.

Then he told me about Quinault Rainforest. That was definitely what I wanted to see. He gave me directions so I could amend my ghetto Google notes, and I was off.

I picked the right spot. Quinault Rainforest was gorgeous, and there was a wide selection of trails, so none were overwhelmed with hikers.




I did not photoshop this picture. The colors were so vivid, they were neon.


I am apparently obsessed with baby pinecones. [Previously at Mammoth Lakes, CA]


My lens got randomly steamed up and it took me a second to notice,
but I love how it made the picture look like a watercolor painting.


I saw only a tiny portion of this park; it's definitely a place I need to visit again. I want to explore it all, and a friend has said she wants to camp there, so I will hopefully have many more adventures here.

I am pleased to announce that I successfully reversed my original directions and not only made it back to Seattle, but made it back to my friend's house without assistance, despite the wacky street numbering system within the city. A landmark day, my friends. I will never forget it.

See more Quinault Rainforst photography at my Flickr page.

Back to LA

As the plane touched down in LA, the pilot announced that the temperature was 70 degrees - a nice change from the blistering heat I'd just left behind in Arizona. I originally planned to live it up during my second California weekend: go to a rock show, hit up some comedy clubs, and have lots of good eats. Instead, I started feeling sick, and decided to keep it low-key.

I met up Friday night with the friend who had influenced me back when my life was drastically changing and I had no clue what to do. It was great to catch up and share where I'd been and where I was headed. I feel like I've really grown a lot in a few short months (which I'll address in an in-depth post later), but I wasn't able to see it until I caught back up with him and compared it to our last visit.

Saturday, I drove down to Anaheim to meet up with two girls I "met" during the Great Food Truck Race. Gloria and Shellie were incredibly sweet and generous; we bought things from different trucks (since they had the insider scoop and knew what was worth trying) and shared everything. I gotta say, I have never had such a diverse, gourmet lunch! I've lived too long on peanut butter sandwich lunches and cereal for dinner.

Of course everything was delicious, but my favorite was the red sorrel quesadilla we shared from the Curb A Peel truck. It was made with edible flowers.

EDIBLE. FLOWERS.
[Photo credit: Gloria - check out her blog, Adventures of a Very Picky Eater]
We hung out in the sun chatting for hours, and I developed a fantastic flip flop tan. By the time I got to my hotel room, I was so exhausted that I chugged some orange juice and went to bed, hoping that would satiate my impending sickness.

It didn't. I woke up late Sunday morning wanting only to stay in bed reading and napping. I managed that until early afternoon, when the guilt of "wasting" traveling time became too much to ignore. I looked up two museums and drove into the city to explore them.

Instead, I just explored the city. I had this idea in my head that LA would be intimidating to drive in, but it's not at all. And once I got into the downtown area, there was so much to look at that I turned off my GPS (I can only stand "Recalculating…" for so long) and drove aimlessly. I drove down dirty city streets, I passed loads of pedestrians, tourists on those ridiculous movie-star-hunting buses, and cruised up the wide, palm-tree-lined avenues of Beverly Hills. I'm sure the museums I'd intended to visit were great, but driving around and people-watching was entertaining enough for me.

Though it was far from gourmet, I ended the night with a visit to the Dog Haus, where I ordered a hot dog wrapped in bacon. I know, I know, I'm cringing right now too.

But it was good.

A Little Culture

After my wonderful Wigwam Wednesday, I drove on to Phoenix to spend Thursday at some museums. First up was the Phoenix Art Museum. They had a whole gallery of work by Philip Campbell Curtis; I had never heard of him, but promptly fell in love with his whimsical, witty style. I took notes on half a dozen paintings that I loved, but could only find two good images online.

"Gift Bearers"


"Two Way Parade"
Despite taking art appreciation in college and being employed in a creative field, not too many painters' names and titles stick with me. I know about Frieda Kahlo, of course, but was particularly moved by her "Suicide of Dorothy Hale." You can read interesting facts about Dorothy Hale and Frieda Kahlo's "portrait" of her here. Fascinating stuff.

I especially love how the frame is painted as a continuation of the work itself.

Besides the miniature rooms, most of my favorite pieces were contemporary art.

The very funny "Pothead" by David Gilhooly.

After spending a couple of hours at the Phoenix Art Museum, I made my way to the Musical Instrument Museum.

Wow.
I have nothing against Phoenix, and really liked the friendly people, but didn't have much of a reason to go back. Until I explored this museum for three hours and still didn't see it all. If you're anywhere near Phoenix, and like music and/or history at all, you absolutely must go here.

Many exhibits are still being developed, because the museum is trying to show music from all over the world. Every country's past and present music styles are represented (or will be) with audio, video, instruments and costumes. General admission includes a headset for the guided tour.
     "The audio tour starts upstairs," the curator told me.
     I headed upstairs and was instantly confused when my headphones began playing music. "Am I in the right gallery? What if I started at the end, and now the music will be all backwards and I won't learn anything!"
     I stepped back from the display and the music faded out. I stepped forward, and it started up again. Ah-ha! To put it scientifically: the super cool, technologically advanced museum has sensors in the audio stations that your headset picks up on as you near the station. You're never lost. You're always listening to the music of the country's exhibit you're standing in front of. Brilliant. There's also a flat-screen TV broadcasting video footage of the performances you're listening to, so you're totally immersed in the country's culture.

When you finish studying the exhibits, there is an Artist Gallery that highlights a range of musicians, legendary and modern. Then came my favorite part - the Experience Gallery. By some miracle, this area was empty except for me and a curator, which means I was able to bang a gong, bang on the drum all day, let my guitar gently weep, be a sitar hero, and mess around on a lot of instruments that don't get a song stuck in your head.

Wigwam Wednesday

Remember when I mentioned that I had booked just one room in advance? Well, this is it:

The Wigwam Motel!

Jealous? You should be. After twelve nights of typical hotel rooms, sleeping in a wigwam was the most unique place to stay.

When I told my coworkers that I was staying in a wigwam (like I said, I booked waaaay in advance!), my boss requested a picture of me sporting pigtails in front of it:

After I emailed it to him, he replied "You are so cool." I suspect
some sarcasm there, but certainly I'm wrong.
As I drove into town on Route 66, I was worried that the motel would be decrepit and dirty. Holbrook overall seemed a little run-down, with the exception of new-ish fast food establishments on most corners.

Thankfully, the clerk was very friendly and the room was incredibly clean, comfortable, and spacious. I sat writing for hours at the desk, feeling more productive than I had the whole trip to that point. When I finally turned in, I got one of the best night's sleep since traveling.


I felt so at home in my wigwam that I'm seriously considering going back whenever I really need to buckle down and get some work done. Some of my productivity was probably due to the novelty of the motel: "Let me tell you about this story I wrote in a wigwam." "The other night, in my wigwam…" And, though I would never do this (hi Mom, hi Dad!), I kind of wanted to go to a bar and meet a man. How many chances do you get to invite someone back to your wigwam?!


I'm sure Holbrook has some great things to offer, if only I had more
time to explore. That's where "next time" comes into play…



Check out more views of my wigwam here.