Road Trippin' America

Summer Vacation, 2013.

When your school tells you have 3 weeks off.. what do you do with that time? Well, first you jump for joy in excitement... and well, then the debate (with myself) starts. Do I travel to a different country? Or do I go home to see loved ones? The more I debated and contemplated and pondered.. I couldn't get excited about anywhere except America. I can't explain it really, but that's how I felt and continued to feel, so I pulled the trigger and bought my super expensive plane ticket to .. HOME.

Well home should be used loosely... because I spent 2 weeks traveling about California, Vegas, Idaho and Utah before I even made it 'home' and is Iowa even home anymore, when I haven't lived there for 4 years?! But they say home is where the heart is, so I guess in that case, my home is basically, um, well the Earth?!



My trip:

I got up to the counter at the Incheon airport and they kindly asked me if I would switch flights... So basically I got bumped off my original flight because it was over booked, but got put on a direct flight, so I was fine with it. However, looking back, I should have raised a bit of a fuss and at least gotta something free out of the deal. Now I know, and you do too!

So, I landed in San Fran, got off the airplane, excited and a bit nervous. Why?.. you ask. Well, I was about to see a man. Yes, shocker, a MAN. A real life one who was coming to pick me up, who had driven from Vegas to do so, well that's if he showed and didn't ditch me like my dad thought (thanks dad for having faith in me). But why was I nervous? I was basically dating the boy for a few months, so why the nervousness. Well maybe because this would be the first time I had seen him in about 3 years. Ok, what?



Here's a good story...

I took a flight mid September 2010 (exactly 3 years ago today) from Salt Lake City to Chicago to see my cousins (Morgan and Marie). And on that flight, by complete chance, I was seated next to a massive (in that his muscles were ridiculously huge) military man - mid 20's, going through a divorce with a 2 year old boy, who was living in England and had been for a few years. 3 years ago I would have just turned 21 and he was 26. Nothing about mid 20's, divorced guy with a kid appealed to me. NOTHING. Seriously, nothing. But he wanted to add me on Facebook.. and I mean why wouldn't I let him? I'm all about outreach, making connections - maybe even having a free place to stay when I go to England, you know... those sorts of things.

Here's the extent of how much I talked to this random man I shared a row with... he comments on a picture of me in Africa on Facebook, I never reply (I don't think intentionally). That was it for over a year. Then I move to Korea and he starts messaging me. (Why guys decide to message/friend/like me when I move half way around the world is still a mystery to me!) He asks about NM since he was moving there, because he knew I lived there. I wanted to be nice (in my head I was like.. yo dude whatcha want from me) so I gave him some ideas, pointers and such and from there we just kind of kept talking (not 'talking' that term used by 14 year olds who are kind of dating but can't really because they are 14 and don't even understand dating, and they can't even drive!). But it wasn't until my ER visit that we really started talking (ok, now maybe it was 'talking') almost everyday and not until March of this year that we started FaceTiming for hours upon hours and you know kind of 'dating' but more just 'talking' because how do you date 16 hours apart? Oh wait... that's what online dating is? .. right? sort of? But I was as serious as one could get with a computer screen man you've seen once in your life. However this all aided in my decision to come to America and was the reason for my nice little road trip before going to Iowa.

Ok, so now you know the small back story..


San Francisco.

So, this boy, the first person to see me when I landed in the states. A man I had met on a 3 hour airplane ride and hadn't seen since that day. Since I was a lost 21 year old, not well traveled, didn't know anything about life. But here we were.. 3 years later, meeting up for a 9 day adventure together. This is no first date dinner and a movie, this is a first date through about 40th date all rolled into one long road trip of never getting away from each other. This could either be a really great thing or a really horrible thing. Now do you see why I had the right to be a bit nervous?


But he rolled up in his little white Prius, yup he owns and drives a Prius (Don't worry I have already made fun of him countless times.) and he picks me up. It was strange, and weird and strange and yes, I was NERVOUS. When I saw him in real life I couldn't decide which way to run... towards him or away from him! But then I thought, yeah, why run? So I walked... ahhhhh still it was weird. I hugged him and that was that... we were on our way......


I would say the nervousness, awkwardness lasted about 2 hours maybe. By the time we reached
my relatives house in Berkley (which worked out perfect and who were super nice to let us house sit while they were away for the weekend), I'd say we were some what almost normal.

It was no longer so weird that he was there in real life and there was no 'end' button to push. We could and did just kept talking and talking. We saw some family and met up with a friend of his he met when he lived in Brazil.

The view of the Golden Gate Bridge... oh wait, it's foggy... oh wait, that's San Fran for you. I'd never seen it this bad though!

Then we went to Rome... ok, just kidding. This was at the Palace of Fine Arts.

We ate clam chowder (of course), saw the golden gate bridge (because it wasn't foggy the WHOLE time we were there), froze our butts off, enjoyed the sun when we found it and just chilled. I love California and it was a perfect way to spend a few days before we started the drive back to Vegas.

Stuck in San Fran traffic... for 2 HOURS. bahhhh we had no idea why, turns out a semi had burst in to flames and all that was left was some chard pieces - scary.



Highway 1 - PCH: Pacific Coast Highway

Probably the most beautiful stretch of road in America. Seriously, holy cow... it's amazing! I was so happy!! I wanted to of course stop every 2 seconds to photograph something, but I kept it under control.


Well, until I got behind the wheel and then we stopped where ever and when ever I wanted.

Side note: We went from San Fran to Morro Bay - 230 miles with a half a tank of gas. And THAT'S the moment I stopped making fun of him for owning a Prius and started thinking I might need to get myself one

And then we found some seals. They were called elephant seals. They were loud and had these ridiculously long snouts - 'elephant seal' described them perfectly. Good name... so pat on the back to who ever named them.

Morro Bay - sunset.

We found a nice pier and enjoyed the sunset from there. I love sunsets.. and sunsets over the ocean are just spectacular and probably one of my favorite all time things. We ate some clam chowder and a burger that night for dinner. Does life get any better than that? Nope.

So I guess you've maybe been wondering who this boy/man is I have been referring to this whole time. Ok, the wait is over..... I will stop torturing you. I know you are all just DYING to know. (ok, probably not). 

Ta daaaaaaa, Let me formally introduce you to, Trevor. You may know him as NutriThor, I may have referred to him as such in past posts. But I mean really... he is pretty Thor-ish huh? Handsome, blonde, massive muscles, blue eyes... oh and the Nurtri part of that is because he's oober geeky about nutrition :)

See for yourself... Handsome eh? Still have yet to figure out why he likes me.... like seriously how does a girl whose nickname is Tina (from Napolean Dynamite 'Tina ya fat lard come get your food') get a man whose nickname is Thor!?!? Oh the mysteries of the world.

Vegas.

And then continued our way back to Vegas (where he's stationed. Yes, he works on the Area 51 base - but has nothing to do with that, well at least I don't think - he can't really tell me what he does). We didn't get in till about 4, but we didn't care. We had nothing to do and in Vegas the night life is where it's at. So we gladly slept the heat and the day away and hit up Fremont Street, the old strip, that night. 

I loved it. It was a bit trashy and dirty (in the best ways possible) and filled with the most 'interesting' folk. We had a man in front of us (pictured) who knew every word to every oldie rock song one of the bands was playing.. we had a man behind us dressed like Santa, dancing with a girl so drunk she was in a wheel chair and was missing a shoe. And there were of course women dancing up on platforms advertising their casinos along the edge of the street. I joined in on a bit of the crazy and did some dancing and belted out some of the words to a few of the songs, only of course trying to fit in with the scene. But, it was a scene for sure and I LOVED it. I love people watching, and this ladies and gents is the people watchers dream spot!

And that night we got ME SOME IN N' OUT!!!! Guys, I love In n' Out. I LOVE IT! We had it 3 times (not enough if you ask me and WAY too much if you ask him). But I got to choose since I'm the girl.. errrr I mean since I'm the one not living in America right now!































The View.

The next night we went to 'The View' in the Palms hotel on the new strip. We played some shuffle board and some pool and had a rather chill night over-looking the city. It was a whole different experience than the night before.

If you want to feel classy and like royalty or if you really like clubbing - get dressed up all fancy and go to the strip. If you want to feel better about yourself, get a few laughs and do some people watching - go to Fremont street.

Or better yet, just do both - either in the same night, or different nights!












Bear Lake, Idaho.

We drove to Idaho, stayed with his family in their cabin near Bear Lake. We went to the beach, rode 4-wheelers, got amazing raspberry shakes and looked at the millions of stars that I had kind of forgotten existed. (I miss small town living sometimes).

Oh and we got fried..... (oops). Idaho of all places.. what the heck?

4-wheeler riding.

So many deer!

Sunrise over the lake... There's not many things I can think of that are worth getting up at 5:30, but this would for sure be one of them.



Utah.

Then we drove back to Utah, where I got to meet his little boy, who's 5. He was such a sweet little boy and when we were eating at Cafe Rio (when in Utah eat HERE and only HERE, duh) he said he wanted to sit by me, you know because I'm pretty cool (oh wait, I made that part up - he didn't say that). He even remembered my name from a couple of FaceTime chats we had had a while ago.

Um... yeah, so much cuteness I can hardly take it!

We hung out with him for a few hours and then drove down south to see my friend Kelly in the play 'Guys and Dolls', which she was amazing in. Seriously she was the star of the show. Every time she was on stage, I was dying laughing. She is going places guys, really!

Then we met up with Brooke, this amazing mother of 4 kids, who does a cook book, a cooking blog, photography, leads meet up groups for single mothers etc. etc. She is one of the coolest, funnest, sweetest, hippest moms I've ever met! Check out her stuff... seriously, she's so inspiring!

And that was our little vacation. Our first date.. and second and so on.. and well our first 9 day road trip. Nothing like jumping right in to things, right? My life is crazy. I look back now and wonder if it really happened and why I ever thought that was a good idea. But hey, I'm alive (friends who thought he would murder me) and it was a great time! I'm so glad I went to see him :) I mean I guess I should have known I would end up meeting a boy on a flight, because where else do I expect to meet people while I'm traveling the world!


Utah (minus the boy).

I spent a bit of time in Utah after he left and hung out with my bestie Pierie and met up with Kelly and Jade for some more Rio. It was great to see these ladies and do some catching up!!

Pierie was mimicking the Titanic.. haha I just love her!

I am pretty sure this is from the fires that were going on when I was out there. The sky was a hazy red/yellow color. Kind of beautiful and scary all at the same time!

I met up with the lady I did a photography internship with, Whitney, with Whitney Lewis Photography. We had a small picnic with a few treats from her bag and chatted for a half an hour. She is one busy and very popular lady! It was fantastic seeing her, it had been way too long. She's a great friend and such an inspiration in more than ways than just photography. She is kind and out going and just loves people, all people! Seriously, I totally thought she knew the worker at Chick-Fil-A, nope Whitney was just being super friendly. I'm pretty sure she made that girls day!

She is also quite the traveler and loves to live every day to the fullest! She's awesome, that's all. 

I also saw my high school bestie, Natalie and her little boy! He's such a happy baby and I was so glad I got to spend the day with her! We met up with Alicia for lunch at Zupa's and some shaved ice -- two must haves, while in Utah!

Iowa.

Iowa was a whirlwind. I flew in to Des Moines, did some shopping, eating and saw my cousins and their new little one. Finally made it home, where I did 4 photo shoots (including Alex's senior pictures -- I can't believe she's graduating!!). Had a church party and a party out at grandpa and grandma's.

Saw a couple of friends, went out to eat with the family and just, you know hung out. It was great to see my family. I had missed them, even though I do FaceTime them quite often, it was nice to actually be in the same room as them and in the same time zone! Then my sisters drove me down to St. Louis (also great getting some much needed sister time in as well) a week later, I spent the night and flew out the next morning.

Flight back.

And then you know missed my flight to Korea.... it sounds a lot worse than it was. My flight into San Fran was delayed from Phoenix by over an hour, so there was no way I could make my connection. This should have stressed me out and made me mad, but ya know.. it didn't. One more day in paradise.. fine by me.

I luckily have an AMAZING Aunt in Cali, who let me crash at her place and not only did she let me crash, she took me to dinner and to see a Mission, to get ice cream and the next day on a bit of a drive around the city and showed me a view of the bridge I had never seen. Yeah, I have the best family - end of story!

And that was one heck of an American summer vacation folks...

Now back to reality.. well not really reality (Korea life is not real life)..... of working, oh wait I don't do much of that either. Ok, well back to life of hanging out in Korea where I do a bit of teaching from time to time!