Road Trip to Cali: Days 4 & 5

It's hard to believe that this is Day 5 of our trip already. It's flown by way too quickly. :(  But we're having lots of fun, making great memories, and taking lots of great photos! lol We'll be in Cali in two days. Scary. It will definitely be a gigantic change, especially since driving through all this barren land. lol. Here's a quick review of the past two days:

Day 4 of Road Trip:

Friday, July 22, 2011

• Slept in @ Dreamcatcher Inn. A wonderful B&B! Loved Prudy and her adorable dog Jake. We missed the communal breakfast, but Prudy sent us some delicious cinnamon crumble cakes and strawberry smoothies. Bought the cutest little ornament and also a card with a photo of Jake!  

• Went to Taos Pueblo. It wasn't quite what I had expected, but it was soooo interesting! Went on a brief walking and tour and then browsed the village and shops. Everyone was very friendly and met a lot of interesting people. Bought this amazing piece of pottery, a sage prayer bundle, some homemade cookies and bread, and this littl clay bowl. We probably spent a good 2-2.5 hours here. 
• Then we went to the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge which is located a bit northwest of town. It was so amazing, but extremely scary at the same time! We walked out to the middle of the bridge and there was a little viewing deck. It was soooo windy! I swear the wind could knock you over. I'm not a fan of heights and it was definitely scary!

• Last stop of the night was Mesa Verde in Colorado. It was about a 4.5-5 hr. drive from Taos and involved a lot of mountains. Thankfully, Jennica was driving this time around! I didn't realize how HIGH up Mesa Verde was. We got to the entrance around 8:30ish probably and it was a looong drive to the lodge which involved lots of curvy roads along the edge of the mountains. We just kept going higher and higher and higher. It was terrifying. Well, at least to me. I'm sooo glad that i wasn't driving because I probably would have passed out! and I'm not joking. lol. We reached the lodge after dark-- at about 9:15 and we were sooo happy to get there. haha. It's not fun driving around mountain edges at night. It was as if we were on top of the world! I think the elevation was 8500 above sea level. We had no phone reception and the phone @ the hotel was out. There was limited wifi and we were able to get online, thank goodness! haha. I don't like being completely disconnected from civilization. :P There was a great view of the stars that high up! lol. We had a few problems getting into our room. At first we couldn't get the keys to work (they were old locks) but thankfully a kind stranger helped us out. And then we locked ourselves out (the doors locked when closed, which we didn't realize). Another fellow traveler offered to climb onto the balcony and open the door, but we were able to have someone from the front desk come and unlock it for us. We decided not to eat at the restaurant because it was extremely overpriced, so we bought some food from the gift shop. However, it was soggy and not good at all, so we went to bed on empty stomachs. haha. 
• Overall, it was a good day! My favorite part was definitely the Taos Pueblo! it was a lot of fun!

Right now we are at The View, a wonderful hotel in Monument Valley. It has an amazing view! We just happened to get a room here! We had been trying and trying to get one for days, but to no avail. We randomly checked online last night to see if there were any reservations and there was an open room! I can't tell you how excited we were about that! And thank goodness we could book it online because we had absolutely no phone access. haha.

Road Trip to Cali Day 5:

Saturday, July 23, 2011

It definitely does not seem like Saturday! The days have become a blur.

• We left Mesa Verde around 11ish. We didn't go see any of the cliff dwellings. It kind of sucks since we were so close, but I think we were just ready to leave. lol. Mesa Verde is a nice place, but I'm just not a fan of heights and was really dreading that drive down. Also, we were on kind of a tight timeline. We wanted to get to Four Corners and then to Monument Valley to go on an evening tour. 
• We stopped in Cortez, Colorado to eat some lunch. Ended up eating at Pizza Hut, then continued our drive to Four Corners.
• Four Corners is definitely a tourist trap. They've updated it quite a bit since the last time I was there (7 yrs. ago). We took our pictures on the circle and then wandered around the different shops. Jennica found the "death beads" that she was looking for, we each bought a handmade magnet, and we got snow cones. Then we continued on to Monument Valley.

• This is my third time visiting Monument Valley, but it was the first time that I had entered from the north end. We drove through an extremely deserted stretch of land in Utah and it was like we were the only ones alive in the world. haha. Well, not quite, we saw a few cars and a bunch of animals. There were a bunch of range crossing signs and we saw horses, cows, and sheep just walking down the middle of the highway. It was crazy! haha but very cool! The view coming into Monument Valley was amazing! 

• The View is a really nice hotel, although it's a bit overpriced. However, the view is worth it! It's an AMAZING view of the valley which is accessible from each hotel room. We just chillaxed on the balcony for a bit enjoying the view. Then we went and picked up some sandwiches from the hotel restaurant and brought them back to our room. We ate dinner on the balcony while watching the sunset. Priceless! It was beautiful! Unfortunately, we missed the evening tour, but had an awesome view from our room. We've talked about going on a tour in the morning, but we'll see what happens. I definitely am hoping to get up early enough to enjoy the valley during breakfast. They have tables set up so that you can eat outside. It's just so beautiful here! One of my very favorite places in the world! So far anyways. haha. And everyone else must think so too because there are tons of people that are visiting! And I've noticed that a large majority of them are international tourists. Jennica and I have been sitting here in the lobby (the only place to access the wifi) and I've been people watching as I'm online. Everyone is speaking a ton of different languages. I've heard some French, some German, some chinese. Just a variety of people from all over the world! It's so much fun to just sit and observe other people and learn about other cultures and ways of life. 

Well, I have a bunch of photos to upload, but the wifi is not that great and won't let me upload them. Maybe next time! Sorry! I have a bunch of them that I'll try to upload in the next few days.

Well, I think we're going to head back to the room and get some rest. Have a long couple days ahead of us. Night everyone! :)