The End of a Chapter

Here goes my last post!

Thursday we left Illinois for our short day of driving and went on to Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky. Once there we set up our tent (in the least crowded campground we had been in yet, likely due to the fact that there was a hotel attached to the Visitor's Center) and picked out which hike we wanted to do. There were so many to choose from, and so many of them sounded fun! Some were super intense (like you needed specific shoes and pants to even go on them) but others there were only a couple like that. We chose to do the Historic Tour, and our guide was awesome! He was the fourth or fifth generation of his family to be giving tours of Mammoth Cave (which is the longest cave in the world, 300+ miles of discovered cave), so he really knew his stuff. The tour was about 2 hours long and took us through the four biggest rooms in Mammoth Cave (in which church services were sometimes held because there was so much room) and through a stretch of cave called "Fat Man's Misery, Tall Man's Agony," during which we literally had to crawl through at parts because the ceiling was so low and the walk way was so small!

Even though both of our cameras died about half way through, we had a lot of fun exploring the cave and we both agreed it was someplace we wanted to return to some day.
After the tour we ate dinner at the restaurant attached to the hotel, but since it didn't fill us up and we didn't have cell phone service anywhere in the park, we decided to drive to the next town over to get ice cream & make some calls. Gotta love Dairy Queen!

Friday morning we were going to do this hike along the water, but it was raining and we figured we were going to loose another hour with the time change anyway, so we decided to get on the road.
We stopped and had brunch at a Waffle House because UD had never been to one, it was the only chain restaurant/food place we stopped at during the whole trip other than In-N-Out Burger (which doesn't really count because it's a west coast thing) the whole trip! So we were pretty proud of that because we really wanted to experience the different local cuisine in each place.
After getting into Ohio we stopped at the US Air Force Museum. We got there two hours before it closed and there was so much to see we missed an entire room, but it was still really awesome. I learned so much and got some really great pictures, so I was glad that UD wanted to stop there because it was definitely a place I wouldn't think to stop at if I was traveling on my own.

That night we stopped in Zanesville, Ohio. Seeing as though it's an hour east of a big city (Columbus) there wasn't a lot of options food wise so we went to Tumbleweed Southwest Grill for dinner. Afterwords, we stopped over at Steak & Shakes to get a milkshake. The only disappointing thing about the evening was that my Peanut Butter Milkshake was just a vanilla milkshake with a few Reece's PB Cups in it...haha.

Saturday morning we got up and made our way to where UD lives in Stewartstown, PA. The day went off without a hitch (except for when we almost lost the ticket for the toll road, but no worries, we found it under the seat) and we got to his house around 2:30. The rest of the day I caught up on some shows and hung out with my Aunt Lori and their two little chihuahua dogs.

This morning I got up and headed home! It's great to be back and I am so blessed to have had two successful trips across country and an amazing semester in Los Angeles! :)

Halfway Home!

Uncle Dean (UD cause it's a hell of a lot shorter to type) & I are about half way done with our journey home to PA. I can't believe it's already Wednesday! The trip is literally just flying by. It has been a ton of fun so far and we have seen some pretty amazing stuff.

Friday after picking up UD at the airport we went to the Thai place to try to see the Elvis impersonator AGAIN (plus UD loves Thai food). Too bad he WASN'T THERE! Apparently he had a stroke last month and hasn't been in for awhile. If this is actually the case I feel really sorry for him, but since he is definitely one of the reasons that place has had as many customers as it has, they should really make it known that he hasn't/won't be in for awhile so people aren't continuously disappointed!

Saturday we got up pretty early & got the car packed to head out on day one of our trip!
For dinner, UD wanted to stop at an In-N-Out after spotting one as we drove through Vegas, but we pretty much gave up hope after that because we didn't spot one for awhile. Eventually though we did find one randomly in Utah at about 3 in the afternoon, haha!
Later, we got to our destination, Zion National Park in Utah. We literally got the last campsite (since we didn't get there until close to 5 because we lost an hour), but it worked out that we had just enough time to set up camp and go for a hike through the park. It was literally the most beautiful and most amazing hike I have ever been on in my entire life. Utah is just so massive and the stone formations are just incredible.

At 9PM we went to this ranger information/ceremony thing which is apparently different every night. That particular night it was a seminar/info session on the mountain lion. The lady was really enthusiastic, and had a lot of interesting stuff to say so though it sounds kinda lame, it was actually really interesting.

Sunday we got up and drove through the rest of the park (which was an incredible ride thanks again to Utah's landscape) to Colorado. Along the way we stopped at the Navajo National Monument in Arizona and did a little hiking there to the lookout to see some cliff dwellings in a nearby mountain. Near the Visitor's Center, there were fossils containing actual dinosaur footprints, which was random, but incredibly awesome because I don't think I have seen anything even related to dinosaurs in person before.
We stopped briefly at Lake Powell, where there is a giant dam similar to the Hoover Dam. It was super windy, but still incredibly beautiful.

Finally, we stopped at the Four Corners (Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, & Colorado) National Monument so we could stand on the T and officially be in 4 places at once! Super cool! Though it was just a little plaque on the ground, it is probably something I'll never do again, so it was definitely worth stopping at.
That night we stopped at Cortez, Colorado and ate (not) Mother's Day Dinner at the Main Street Brewery.

Monday we got up and headed to the Mesa Verde National Park near Cortez to see the cliff dwellings there. Despite getting pelted with rain/snow/sleet/anypresipationyoucanthinkof and it getting progressively colder (I'm talking 40 degrees) as we went up the mountain, it was one of the coolest things I think we have done so far. The cliff dwellings were so cool! It's crazy to think what people did with their bare hands back in the day because they didn't have any other choice versus how technology has made us less skillful and more dependent on aids & tools.

After our morning exploring the dwellings we headed to our next destination, The Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado. After getting our campsite there, we drove back to the closest town to go to the True Grit Steakhouse for dinner, since UD insisted that we have steak at least once (and because the little town of Alamosa didn't have much else to offer...)

Yesterday (Tuesday) we got up and hiked out to the dunes to do some exploring! I literally felt like I was in the movie Aladdin the entire time while the wind just blew sand everywhere, I have never quite seen anything like it! We talked about hiking to the top of the tallest dune, but after discovering how hard it was to hike up one of the smaller ones at the base and realizing it would take a couple hours to hike up and then come back down the dunes, we decided against it. Never before have I had so much sand in my shoes that it felt like they were too tight on my feet!

After that adventure we decided to push on to our next destination, Wichita, Kansas. It took quite awhile on the Kansas back roads and we lost another hour so we didn't get to Wichita until pretty late. The most exciting thing we saw amongst the endless farmland and small towns that make up Kansas, was outside of this one little town there were all these metal & rod iron, handmade statues, wheels, scarecrows, & creature things on posts surrounding one person's property. It was cool to see them all lined up like that and if we had more time I think it would have been cool to walk around the property to examine them all.
That night we went to the Red Rock Canyon Restaurant for dinner. Everything was quite impressive, from the food, to the atmosphere, to the service. Definitely our best meal thus far.

This morning (Wednesday) we decided to go to the Botanical Garden in Wichita before heading out. It was really pretty and had some pretty interesting plant life in it, but there was a lot of construction going on and it wasn't as well maintained as I expected it to be, but oh well! It was still a nice, spontaneous little stop along our travels. There were also some cool statues throughout the garden of people enjoying nature, so I thought that was a nice touch.

After that we pushed through Kansas & Missouri, with a brief stop at the St. Louis Arch so UD could check it out/touch it in person. He had about the same reaction that I did the first time, sheer wonder/amazement/awe at such a massive structure. (Massive seems to be the word of the week here, everything we see is so awesome & impressive that you can't think of any other word to describe it than massive!)
After that, UD wanted to push on a little more so that tomorrow we can take it easy, so we continued on until our current location, Mt. Vernon, Illinois. For dinner we ate at this cute little mexican restaurant, El Rancherito. Our dinners + half a pitcher of margaritas were only $31 and change, so I would say it was definitely the best meal for the best price so far....haha.

Kentucky tomorrow! Update for the last time (ahhh! :( ) once I'm home.

LA, you were good to me

Well, the Elvis impersonator wasn't there. But, I did get to have a good dinner with friends, so that was nice.

Saturday Mia and I went to Torrance, CA to see Buffy's house & the high school that they used to film Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Though we felt extremely weird creeping around a residential area (because people actually live in the house...super jealous), I am so happy that we went and that I got to physically walk around where they filmed the television show that made my adolescence. Going around the school was a lot of fun too because it is REALLY big, so as we walked around and saw different spots of the school we were literally just recalling scenes that we remembered that were shot in those specific locations.

Afterward we looked in my GPS for a place to eat in the area and we found this place called Buffy's cafe, so of course we went thinking it was this awesome cafe completely dedicated to the show. Yeah, it was just this creepy diner with dolls and blankets in the show case window that had absolutely nothing to do with BTVS. So, we ended up going somewhere else. Surprise!
On our way back we stopped at this place called Famous Cupcakes because I had a Groupon that I spent $9 on to get 1/2 a dozen. We got 6 different flavors and then when Ginny was around we split all of them three ways so that we could try all of them. It was a fun little roomie bonding experience.

On Sunday morning I met with my group so that we could finalize and prepare our pilot pitch for our Writing for Series TV final. We timed it perfectly so that when it finished we could go right over to the end of the semester Luau for the ICLA program. It was a really nice, final little get together where we all got to see each other and eat dinner on the RA's budget...haha.
I left the luau pretty early though to go see West Side Story that was being shown at the Grauman's Egyptian Theater as part of the Turner Classic Movies (TCM) Film Festival that was taking place in Hollywood for the weekend. They had a discussion before hand at which the producer of the movie, Walter Mirisch, the woman whose voice was actually used as the voice of Maria (they claimed Natalie Wood had a good voice, but they wanted a great voice), Marni Nixon, and the guy that played Bernardo, George Chakiris, were all there answering the commentator's questions and just going over aspects of making the movie. George looked like he hadn't aged a day since they filmed the movie (which is incredible!) and I was literally in awe to be standing (or rather, sitting) in the same room as such talented people. Also, seeing the movie on such a big screen with the color restored was insane! Great LA experience.

Monday I did a lot of work on my presentation for our final later, and I typed up my notes for our Government and Media final on Tuesday. The actual presentation went pretty well, our group didnt get first or second place, but the judges said that our show had definite potential to be picked up had it been an actual pitch, so that was pretty cool.

Tuesday I took my car to get serviced and started packing up some stuff around the apartment. After our Government and Media final (which didn't go as well as I hoped, but oh well) a bunch of us went to Menchies for frozen yogurt because it was Mia's last night in LA.

Wednesday my Uncle Jim was in town so I took him to Santa Monica to see the Pacific Ocean and to see the Hollywood sign. That night Ginny, Danny, and I watched all but the last two episodes of season two of Friday Night Lights! We were planning on watching the last two episodes today, but it didn't work out so it looks like we will be watching them in Ithaca in the fall... :(

Yesterday I went to The Counter for lunch with my friend Anthony because we both heard good things about it and wanted to check it out before we left. It was pretty cool because you got to custom build your burger, even though I put too much on mine and had to eat it with a knife and fork.

Then we stopped by Paramount so that I could get a couple movies at the Paramount store (they are only $4 there with your Paramount ID). Anthony wanted to see the set of Community (or what is left of it since they are on hiatus) and I wanted to go say hi/bye to Josie one more time. I am so glad to have worked for someone as sweet as her and it is a relationship I plan on maintaining regardless of whether my life brings me back to LA or not. Awe.
Last night a bunch of us went to dinner in downtown Burbank (we tried to go to El Torito because it was Cinco de Mayo so we figured going to a mexican restaurant was fitting, but apparently everyone else had the same idea and the wait was ridiculous) as our last hurrah. It was really a lot of fun, definitely one of the best nights I have had out here because it was a good time with good friends. Also, the girl that was singing/playing guitar was AMAZING, not only in her performance ability but in the extensive collection of awesome songs that she could cover.

This morning Ginny and I took a box full of stuff to the Pendelton Center that we are leaving for Kelsy and her other roommates that will be out in LA in the Fall. While there, we also said goodbye to Jon & Holly. I didn't get as sad as I thought (or probably should have) because I felt like I would definitely be seeing them again, even though I don't plan on returning to LA after graduation. That being said, the staff at the Pendelton Center are truly the nicest, kindest, most caring faculty members I have ever encountered at Ithaca College and they and their helpfulness alone were worth coming to LA to study. Awe, again.
Then Ginny and I went to one of the stores on Hollywood & Highland so she could get some souvenirs for her family. I didn't get anything for my family because they picked out their own souvenirs when they came out here, however I did help her pick some stuff out and I bought some shot glasses for a few friends back home.
After that it was time to pick my Uncle Dean up at the airport! Actually picking him up made me realize that I am actually going home tomorrow. It is starting to feel real for the first time, even though I have been packing all week and one of my roommates is already gone. However, it also made me super excited for our trip home because we are planning on seeing a lot of cool stuff. I suppose I will keep this blog through the week and end it when I am finally home so that the LA experience can be documented in its entirety!
Thankfully his flight got in before rush hour traffic started, so we weren't in the car as long as I thought we would be getting back. After we got back Ginny and I went through the fridge and freezer to get rid of all the stuff we didn't want, then Uncle Dean cooked the food we were keeping so that we could eat it for lunch/dinner (he even ventured to say breakfast) tomorrow.
After a random discovery that Uncle Dean likes Thai food, we decided to try out Palm Thai to see if the Elvis impersonator would be there this time. I was also excited to go again because I didn't really like what I got the first time and I was ready to get something actually enjoyable. Unfortunately, the impersonator wasn't there AGAIN! One of the ladies said he had a stroke last month, so he had only been coming in spontaneously the past month or so. If that is true, I feel bad for him but it sucks that he is one of the main advertising pawns to get people to come to this restaurant and he is never there. However, it was a much more successful experience than last time, so I guess I do like Thai food!
Afterwards, we went to Yogurtland (of course) so Uncle Dean could have his first frozen yogurt experience, which it seems like he enjoyed. It is just one of those things you HAVE to do in LA apparently...haha

Tomorrow morning I'm getting up really early to take Ginny to the airport and then we are gonna head out! Update along the way when I can. Goodbye Los Angeles! Thanks for the memories.