Summer Trip: Days 13-18

JEEZ MATT HOW LONG IS THIS TRIP

Sunday

So as mentioned, our plans kinda got interrupted/rejiggered due to fires. Sunday, then, we got up and got the hell out of there and started heading for Arizona. But first...why not visit the site where Thor's hammer fell to Earth?

Sir? We found it.

No, really, it was Meteor Crater! This was one of several stops on the trip that we didn't plan, but happened because something else didn't. It was pretty neat, though. We didn't do the outside tour - it was too much of a hike in too direct sunlight, and then it didn't wind up happening anyway because it was too

FUCKEN WIMDY

But the museum exhibits were fun.

OK, Chicken Little

The view off an observation deck

Petrified wood

This astronaut didn't say much, but he was a good listener

True love transcends galaxies

We struck off on our way from there, and saw a geodesic gas station:

And later, in Adrian, TX, when we stopped for a break:

No to belabor it, but...there are two bathrooms, both of them are single-person. So not only is it a little silly to gender them at all, but why are we making a big deal about "men" going into this room? And why isn't there a similar sign on the men's room door? Very strange indeed! 

Anyway, we spent the night in Santa Rosa, NM, which I thought was going to be real sketchy, but was actually quite pleasant. After breakfast in the morning, on to Oklahoma!

Monday-Tuesday

Honestly, at this point things slow down a bit. Michelle's family lives in Oklahoma, so we spent a couple of nights there, chilled out, watched some soccer, tried not to think too hard about the shit that pops up in her mom's Youtube feed. I don't have many pictures, but the ones I do have are important:

Her brother's dog, Berkley

Berkley and me, hanging out

We also saw a local chicken chain. Now, you tell me what you see:

'Cause I see a dead chicken

Wednesday

We struck out from Oklahoma and fled to Jackson, Mississippi, but basically just got there in enough time to crash out, and we discovered that one of the problems we'd previously had with air conditioning was that some hotels, including Hiltons, fucking restrict how low the AC will go in an attempt to "save power." Now, I support this endeavor, but fucking disclose that, because if your room doesn't get colder than 78 degrees that's a Problem for those of us with POTS. 

Anyway, this is view from outside the hotel:

And every time I think about this I get Johnny Cash singing "Jackson" in my head

Thursday

Before leaving for our next stop (Birmingham, Alabama), we went to an awesome little bookstore in Jackson called Lemuria:

Which is hard to get into (though there is a direct entrance that we didn't know about)

That's the only picture I have, but it was a cool space. We left Jackson, drove to Birmingham, tried to go to the Civil Rights Museum, but we'd gotten there too late, we just went to the hotel and crashed out to watch soccer. 

(Frankly at this point we were getting kind of road-weary.)

Friday

Home again, home again! We drove from Birmingham to Cleveland, which is a long-ass day of driving, but we did stop at Dolly Parton's truck stop in Tennessee:

With its own dog park

And...guitardelier? 

And that's all the pictures I have, so that's all ya get. 

Summer Trip: Days 10-12

On we go! 

Thursday

As mentioned, while in LA we stayed in a very nice B&B. I've generally had good experiences at bed n' breakfasts, but this one was really nice. We got there Wednesday just in time for wine and cheese, and then in the morning, breakfast!

This is half of the breakfast bar

I mention this only because this place gave you a bunch of lovely options for breakfast, and also eggs made to order or omelet or souffle (which changed daily), as part of the cost of staying there, and meanwhile Paris Vegas, raking in money enough to make Croesus revolve in his grave, charges $15 to connect a third device to the wi-fi. 

Anyway, enough of our capitalist nightmare. Here's the view of the wetlands off the balcony of the B&B.

I mean, I know it's overcast here, but it was really nice

So Thursday we got up and headed out for the endeavor that was really the impetus for the whole trip: The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures!

We somehow managed to find parking and walked past the La Brea Museum (which we'd planned on visiting but ran out of time):

"MAMA! NOOOO!"

Rar.

Me with an ARG mammoth

WHO'S A GOOD KITTY

Past a bunch of things near the art museum:

This building isn't the art museum, though it kinda looks like it should be

And into the Academy Museum. Now, the thing that sparked us going this year was the exhibit on Jaws for the 50th anniversary, so we headed straight there.

DUN-DUN

Finally realized my dream of getting eaten by a shark

And then the rest of the museum!

OSCAR!

I WANNA PUSH YOU AROUND WELL I WILL

RAR

I'm a production designer!

Also a big exhibit on Bong Joon Ho's films, which I didn't know was there but was very cool. 

The creature from The Host

GIANT PIGGIE

And then we went to a screening of Notorious hosted by Guillermo del Toro, which was really awesome, but I do not have pictures. Long day!

Friday

Friday, we went to the Aquarium of the Pacific. 

See?

I do love aquariums. Here are some pictures!

Michelle petting jellyfish

BIRB

GET THAT TAIL. GET IT.

We finished up there, and headed the heck back to the B&B for rest and watching soccer, because after two days of walking around and looking at stuff we kinda wanted some downtime.

Saturday

Saturday was our last day in LA. We woke up and went to the beach so that Michelle could stand in the Pacific Ocean. 

See?

A warm place with no memory

The plan from there was, initially, to go into Arizona and go to the Grand Canyon. And here we ran into some problems. 

The hotel we were booked into emailed us and said they were expecting a power outage. We didn't want to get stuck in a hotel with no power (and no AC, which is not good for me), so we switched hotels to one further south that had a train that took people in to see the Canyon. Cool? Cool. 

We got lunch at the In-n-Out on the way, as I'd never eaten there

But when we got there, we learned that because of the wildfires, the train wasn't running. WHOMP-WHOMP. So we initially toy with staying there for both of our booked nights and just finding other stuff to do...

Like...look at trains? 

But like, this hotel was in pretty bad shape.

Another still from Backrooms?

The "game room"

So instead, we decided to cut that short and stay an extra night in Oklahoma with Michelle's mom. But first we had to endure the hell of...Santa Rosa. 

(It was fine. Not hellish at all.)