New Mexico to California

North Kingstown, RI * Astoria, NY * Newark, NJ * Albuquerque, NM * Gallup, NM * Four Corners * Bryce Canyon, UT * Las Vegas, NV * Los Angeles, CA * Santa Barbara, CA * San Francisco, CA

 

So many cities, so many states, two cars, two best friends and a helluva lotta fun! This is finally my blog detialing the trip of the year! I say trip of the year instead of trip of the century, because let's face it, I take a lot of trips.

 

March 14-15, 2012

Let's begin with step 1...the first leg of the trip consisted of a train ride from RI - NY where I met up with my bestie Carrie Wasserman. Staying at her abode was lovely and we headed out the next morning to Newark Airport. Exciting event # 1 - Charlie Murphy (Eddie Murphy's brother) was sitting directly across from us at our gate. Also Carrie saw Bill Murray, but I was in the restroom so  I missed out on that. Flight from Newark - DC was uneventful. Flight from DC - Albuquerque was the same. We watched some Walking Dead and I finished reading "The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest." We then picked up our giant ford taurus (Apollo) from the Albuquerque airport and hit the open road. Even though it was late we both stayed awake for the 2 hour drive to Gallup (fun name of town), which was a random town in New Mexico, exactly what you'd expect, not much there and a creepy hotel.  But we got a decent sleep and headed out early the next morning.

 

March 16, 2012A long day awaited us...a long day of driving. Our first stop after leaving Gallup, NM was the Four Corners. The 'highways' around New Mexico, Arizona and Utah were what we city dwellers like to call a back road, consisting of a two lane road with a double yellow or a yellow dotted lines to pass the slow moving cars. It was terrifying at first to pass cars going 75+ MPH but once I got the hang of it, it was easy peasy lemon squeezy. (Also, the speed limit through most of Utah was 80. YEP! Craziness.) Also, there were long stretches of nothing with teeny tiny "one stop light" towns smack dab in the middle of nowhere as we drove along. It was weird.

 

Four Corners is a monument inbetween Gallup, NM and Bryce Canyon, UT. We parked the buggy and walked to the center, each taking pictures standing in all four states at the same time (Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona). Very very cool! We looked around a bit before buying some 'Fry Bread', which is a dough boy! (SO YUMMY) Then we headed on out and drove the next few hours to Bryce Canyon, Utah. The park was closed when we arrived so we had some dinner, watched some TV on our ipads and went to bed.

 

March 17, 2012

Have you ever looked out onto something in complete amazement and awe? Stared at something so magnificent that you wonder how in the world this beauty exists? If you haven't you need to make it a priority to travel to Bryce Canyon National Park. Canyons so stunning you can't believe that you're in the United States. We looked out over Inspiration Point and Bryce Point and I was stunned. It was freezing but worth it.

We left Bryce Canyon for our 8 hour trek to Los Angeles, CA with a quick stop in Las Vegas. The drive was long but a lot of fun, we danced and sang to the fun music of the awesome mix cd's Carrie made and we were in Vegas before we knew it. Planet Hollywood was where we went, Carrie forced me to gamble so I decided on a $1.00 slot. I played that $1.00 and made out with $30.00 yay me. Then Carrie played some random version of poker and won $10.00 YAY US! Then we ate some food and traded cars, getting a ford prius which was small and cute. We then drove the rest of the way to Los Angeles, CA.

March 18, 2012

WONDERCON!!!!! Best Day. EVER! We arrived at Anaheim Convention Center bright and early and met up with Carrie's friends Cheryl and her brother. We then booked it over to the booth we needed to go to and got in line for our wristbands for the Fringe signing. Luckily all of us got our wristbands (they only gave out 50). Then Carrie, Cheryl and Cheryl's bro went up to do something that I forget. I stayed and got back in line for the Alcatraz signing wristband. Once I received my Alcatraz signing wristband Carrie and the other two cool peeps met back up with me and we did the Fringe signing. Met Blair Brown (Nina Sharp), Joshua Jackson (Peter Bishop), John Noble (Walter Bishop), Seth Gabel (Lincoln Lee) and the two producers Joel Wyman & Jeff Pinkner. So. Awesome. 

After the Fringe signing we went upstairs and had the amazing opportunity to meet and have posters signed by the creators of Once Upon a Time, Adam Horowitz & Edward Kitsis!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! As you all know I love OUaT so this made my day even better! Then we got to get a pic with them!! SQUEE! Following that I watched a bit of the Alcatraz panel and then left the crew (OH also met Carrie's other friends Ally Baldwin and Stephanie Guenzler (sp?) during this time) to go do the Alcatraz signing. They all were going to the Fringe panel.

I did the Alcatraz panel, meeting Sarah Jones (Rebecca Madsen), Parminder Nagra (Dr. Singupta), Jonny Coyne (the Warden), Jorge Garcia (Doc) and Robert Foster (the Uncle forget his character name lol). SUPER AWESOME. I then met back up with the crew...saw the end of the Fringe panel and then we all watched the Once Upon a Time panel, which was so fun. We were able to see the episode that was airing that night and it was amazingggggg!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The entire audience even got a special treat of a OUaT notebook! :D

Following that we walked around the floor and bought some nice little souvenirs. Then we said our adieus and went back to casa Strauss (the home of Carrie's wonderful cousins Jordan & Natalie, who were kind enough to let us stay with them in LA).

As if our day wasn't busy enough after a tiny little shapiro stop at the House of Strauss we headed over to UCLA to see an incredible Grey's Anatomy benefit concert. It was awesome and the fact that we got to hear Sara Ramirez sing "The Story" live was breathtaking. <3 *TEARS*

March 19, 2012

Another fun day in LA. We ate lunch with Jordan & Natalie at a cute little place where I had the most delicious Italian Tuna sandwich in the world. Then we headed over to The Grove walked around a bit, went to Barnes & Noble and saw 21 Jump Street, which was really funny. That night we went to the LA Gun Club and met up with Ally & Breezy Baldwin and their friends Mac Hanson and his girlfriend Lauren (is that her name?) and did some shootin'. I was TERRIFIED to the point of almost backing out (thanks Carrie for making me do it) but after I did it once and realized it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be I had a lot of fun and want to go back **WE HAVE TO GO BACK!**

March 20, 2012

We ate lunch at Brentwood Country Mart, had a delicious burger and even more delicious fries. YUMMMMMY. Then we went to the Chelsea Lately taping. We got to see Jen Kirkman & Chris Franjola dressed as flies and Chuy dressed like a flower. The round tablers were April Richardson, Lavelle Crawford and Ross Mathews. The guest was Adrien Brody. Very very fun! We then went to Big Bang Theory, but unfortunately didn't get in to the taping :( Sadness ensued. So we did stuff and then went to Santa Monica pier. Fun fun.

March 21, 2012

After packing up are shizzle we drove up to Santa Barbara, stopping at the Zoo YAY ANIMALS and the beach for a hot second and then State Street where we dropped some dough at the Coach outlet. Then we had a lovely dinner with my Auntie Barbara and cousins Tom, Linda, Matt and his fiance Jamie. We stayed over Auntie Barbara's house, watching her hilarious reactions to the show Happy Endings (tee hee). Then slept.

March 22, 2012

We ate breakfast and headed up to San Francisco. We checked into the hotel, which was beautiful. And then hopped a bus to Alamo Square and checked out the Full House Houses. Super cool. Also that park was used for filming of the movie The Five Year Engagement! (I squeed when I saw the movie!) Then we went back cuz we were exhausted and we had to watch Fringe.

March 23, 2012

Took the traincar (hehe) to the piers and boarded the ferry to Alcatraz! Saw a great view of the Golden Gate Bridge. Took a tour of Alcatraz like a boss. It was really awesome. I enjoyed it and loved the history of it all. So cool to see the cells and the cafeteria. We then went to Pier 39 and ate hot dogs and cotton candy and walked around. We had lunch at Ghiardelli Square, a milkshake for me and ice cream for the Carrster. Yummy in our tummy. Then we met up with Carrie's friend Lauren Michelle and saw THE HUNGER GAMES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Loved every second of the movie. Then we ate dinner in the food court, yummy food. We shopped and then dropped.

March 24, 2012

Carrie left me with my mama in SF and so my mom and I saw The Hunger Games. Yes my second time in two days...be jealous. (plus it was raining so who wants to sight see?!) She went to her conference and I planned a surprise night, organizing my cousins Louis & Ben to meet us in SF and go to dinner. It was a lovely evening, my mom was surprised and we had a lot of fun. It was nice to see Lou & Ben. After our delicious seafood dinner mmmmmmm we went back to the hotel and slept.

March 25, 2012We went home. The end.