Wednesday morning (this would be the 29th), we packed up and went to the Co-op for breakfast...our last bit-o-time with Sara... said our goodbyes and hit the road for Katy/Houston. Anjali Aunty was at work when we arrived, but she had cooked a really nice meal for us (so yummy!) and then we went to see at least a couple of the Houston sights in the few hours we had there. Our first stop was the Mahatma Gandhi district where we checked out all the Indian stores and enjoyed a Maaza each. Then we found a couple book stores, and somehow ended up near Rice University, but we made it out of that side of town before there was TOO much traffic... :D
We had a really nice evening with Anjali Aunty and her son. After another super yummy dinner, we looked through a bunch of old family photos because Aparna wanted to collect some old memories along our way, and there were some precious pics of her as a baby! :)
Thursday was a really long day because we had to drive from Houston to Branson, MO, meaning we took on most of the height of Texas and the ENTIRE length of Arkansas...whose current governor, I couldn't help but notice looks a lot like Bill Clinton....I don't get it... But the state itself is really pretty! It's super green and the Ozarks are gorgeous. And apparently, Arkansas has the only diamond mine that the public can visit, dig, and keep whatever diamonds they find! But since we had so far to go that day, we didn't really have time to stop, so I'll be going back some day to entertain that adventure as well.
We finally hit Branson after 9:00pm, checked into our Worldmark room, and I cooked rice and watched fireflies while Aparna went for a swim in what she claims was a very bug-ridden pool. In the morning, we really didn't linger for any longer than it took to gawk at all the confederate flag merchandise in the store fronts and research our next stop (a KOA campsite in Omaha) (which was really just supposed to be a convenient stopping point to get to the Badlands the next day...not because of anything IN Omaha). So we were on our way shortly. :D
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Saturday, July 9, 2011
The In-Betweens
So in real time, we are already back in Oregon for the 3rd day, but can we all just agree to pretend that I didn't let this go quite so long unattended? K. Thx. :D
Our very last morning in Dallas, we packed up and hit Fort Worth again on our way to Austin. Robbye agreed to meet up with us for breakfast since they were officially back from vacation, and we had both been bummed about missing each other beforehand. She took us for breakfast tacos (which I think is a very Texas thing...), and we had a nice visit regaling both our trips and recent adventures. But we never had quite enough time anywhere, so we soon parted ways, filled up the tank, and headed south!
I think we rolled into Austin about early afternoon and headed straight to Sara's place. (Sara and I met in Costa Rica last summer on our study abroad, so this was an awesome reunion!) She met us and helped us unpack for our glorious 2-day stay in her cute casa. By that time we were pretty hungry AND tired, so we walked down to the Co-op for lunch and shortly back to her house to just chill inside while in the heat of the day.
Towards dusk, Sara took us to the UT-Austin campus and gave us a really great tour of the different old buildings and stuff. I was really happy to get to see it all, but I didn't have the guts to tell her how tired my feet really were, so sadly, I think that distracted me from taking it all in. We did get to see a big fancy library (apparently there are several different libraries scattered across campus), the union, the shops on Guadalupe, a statue of Barbara Jordan (who was really awesome...you should check!) and...the gloriously large and beautiful chemistry building (!) even though we only saw it from the outside.
We headed to dinner and a movie at the Alamo Drafthouse where we saw "Bridesmaids" (the funniest movie I've seen in a looong time), snacked on pizza, and guzzled down water (hydration was VERY key in Texas). It was such a nice night, and seriously...that movie...! But we got back to Sara's eventually, arranged ourselves for sleep, and sleep we did! So much so that when Sara came in to wake us for a morning walk we had agreed to, she decided that if we were THAT passed out, it was worth it to let us just rest. :)
By the time we did get up and moving, we decided to head to the Whole Foods megastore/headquarters for brunch. That place was super huge, complete with chocolate displays (including a chocolate handlebar mustache on a stick!) and like 6+ food counters. It took us a long time to pick out what we were going to have, but once we did, we took it to the roof-top patio and ate in the quickly-evaporating shade. Once we ate our fill and reloaded our water bottles with ice, we were off to Barton Springs!
It took me awhile to get my head around Barton Springs because it reminded me of a cross between a community pool with the steps, diving board, and lifeguards and popular swim spot on the Molalla River with the slippery rock bottom and the plethora of aquatic plant life (and supposedly fish as well). But it was a chill (crowded!) place with plenty of opportunity to people-watch. :D Sara and I went for a dip while Aparna went to meet to guys with bongo drums sitting on the ledge above the spring. She was up there my herself by the time we got out, so I went over and pretended that I could keep up with her beats for a while. It was fun though...definitely a unique experience.
Our next adventure was a grand search for food carts! Our timing wasn't great, so of the few we found first, only a couple were already open for the night. But we settled on tacos, and the place had a big hula hoop/sign out front that said "Hula for 5 mins and win a prize"...so we did! Unfortunately, the guy working the stand had no idea where the sign came from or what the prize was supposed to be, so I convinced him to give me a free glass-bottle coke with my food. Aparna followed suit, so we celebrated our winnings over fried avocado tacos!
We then drove up to South Congress to what I imagine is Austin's food cart central, caught sight of Leslie on the way, and ended up walking down to the Congress Bridge to watch Austin's bats...home to the world's largest urban bat colony...as they took off down the river for a night of hunting. Before that, I had no real concept of how many 1.5 million bats IS, but I can now say that I have at least some better idea. :D It was really cool to see them flow out from under the bridge as the sun set over the city, and they just kept coming and coming!!
After, Sara took us on a sweet downtown driving tour (she is the BEST tour guide!), and we met up with my old roommate, Ish, (and his adorable lady friend) at Austin Java for a nice catch-up chat and tea til about mid-night. ...It was so good to see him agian!...
Ok. More to come later :D
lovelovelove!
-Alia
Our very last morning in Dallas, we packed up and hit Fort Worth again on our way to Austin. Robbye agreed to meet up with us for breakfast since they were officially back from vacation, and we had both been bummed about missing each other beforehand. She took us for breakfast tacos (which I think is a very Texas thing...), and we had a nice visit regaling both our trips and recent adventures. But we never had quite enough time anywhere, so we soon parted ways, filled up the tank, and headed south!
I think we rolled into Austin about early afternoon and headed straight to Sara's place. (Sara and I met in Costa Rica last summer on our study abroad, so this was an awesome reunion!) She met us and helped us unpack for our glorious 2-day stay in her cute casa. By that time we were pretty hungry AND tired, so we walked down to the Co-op for lunch and shortly back to her house to just chill inside while in the heat of the day.
Towards dusk, Sara took us to the UT-Austin campus and gave us a really great tour of the different old buildings and stuff. I was really happy to get to see it all, but I didn't have the guts to tell her how tired my feet really were, so sadly, I think that distracted me from taking it all in. We did get to see a big fancy library (apparently there are several different libraries scattered across campus), the union, the shops on Guadalupe, a statue of Barbara Jordan (who was really awesome...you should check!) and...the gloriously large and beautiful chemistry building (!) even though we only saw it from the outside.
We headed to dinner and a movie at the Alamo Drafthouse where we saw "Bridesmaids" (the funniest movie I've seen in a looong time), snacked on pizza, and guzzled down water (hydration was VERY key in Texas). It was such a nice night, and seriously...that movie...! But we got back to Sara's eventually, arranged ourselves for sleep, and sleep we did! So much so that when Sara came in to wake us for a morning walk we had agreed to, she decided that if we were THAT passed out, it was worth it to let us just rest. :)
By the time we did get up and moving, we decided to head to the Whole Foods megastore/headquarters for brunch. That place was super huge, complete with chocolate displays (including a chocolate handlebar mustache on a stick!) and like 6+ food counters. It took us a long time to pick out what we were going to have, but once we did, we took it to the roof-top patio and ate in the quickly-evaporating shade. Once we ate our fill and reloaded our water bottles with ice, we were off to Barton Springs!
It took me awhile to get my head around Barton Springs because it reminded me of a cross between a community pool with the steps, diving board, and lifeguards and popular swim spot on the Molalla River with the slippery rock bottom and the plethora of aquatic plant life (and supposedly fish as well). But it was a chill (crowded!) place with plenty of opportunity to people-watch. :D Sara and I went for a dip while Aparna went to meet to guys with bongo drums sitting on the ledge above the spring. She was up there my herself by the time we got out, so I went over and pretended that I could keep up with her beats for a while. It was fun though...definitely a unique experience.
Our next adventure was a grand search for food carts! Our timing wasn't great, so of the few we found first, only a couple were already open for the night. But we settled on tacos, and the place had a big hula hoop/sign out front that said "Hula for 5 mins and win a prize"...so we did! Unfortunately, the guy working the stand had no idea where the sign came from or what the prize was supposed to be, so I convinced him to give me a free glass-bottle coke with my food. Aparna followed suit, so we celebrated our winnings over fried avocado tacos!
We then drove up to South Congress to what I imagine is Austin's food cart central, caught sight of Leslie on the way, and ended up walking down to the Congress Bridge to watch Austin's bats...home to the world's largest urban bat colony...as they took off down the river for a night of hunting. Before that, I had no real concept of how many 1.5 million bats IS, but I can now say that I have at least some better idea. :D It was really cool to see them flow out from under the bridge as the sun set over the city, and they just kept coming and coming!!
After, Sara took us on a sweet downtown driving tour (she is the BEST tour guide!), and we met up with my old roommate, Ish, (and his adorable lady friend) at Austin Java for a nice catch-up chat and tea til about mid-night. ...It was so good to see him agian!...
Ok. More to come later :D
lovelovelove!
-Alia
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Happy Birthday, USofA!
gOSH! So many good things have been happening! I know I still need to fill in the details between Austin and KC, but for now, I just want to talk about now. :D
We are currently in Denver for the second night, actually staying at separate friends' houses tonight, but Aparna and I both got to watch the awesome fireworks show in Civic Center Park downtown...along with hundreds of thousands of others so we didn't actually see each other...that was held tonight in celebration of Independence Eve. It was a cool event in the middle of downtown in the park between the State Capitol building and the City and County building (which face each other). There was a big stage set up and the Denver Symphony played great patriotic music for about an hour before the fireworks show. I especially appreciated it since tomorrow we'll be spending most of the day in the car, and typically the 4th is my favorite holiday (as it should be growing up in Molalla!) and I've been bummed about driving for most of it. But we are hoping to also catch some SLC fireworks tomorrow as well, so we'll see how that goes.
Khara, an SDO alum/sister of mine, is living in Denver now, so we met up earlier after Kelly W. gave us a great driving tour of the city earlier. Oh! and we also had an amazing brunch of roasted parsnips/asparagus with fried eggs and hashbrowns. Yum! But Khara took me downtown on the light rail to the 16th st walking mall. My favorite part is all the public pianos they have available on the center walk...though not super in-tune, they are all painted very nicely, so I snapped some photos of some of my favs. :) I was going to play a song after the show, but they were all occupied by the time we were walking through. Next time, Denver!
We walked all the way down to the art museum, and saw some really cool sculptures. Ok, there are a TON of sculptures in this city which gives it a very unique flavor, I think. The best ones, though, were the broom/dustpan, the horse on a red chair, and the cows (which I rode, even though I probably wasn't supposed to) ;) Then we hiked back through the SUPER windy streets, and Khara treated me to dinner at the Yardhouse (named for the yard-tall beer glasses they traditionally served in, even though nowadays, you can only get up to a half-yard). They also have the (supposed) world's largest selection of draft beer, so I tried a white ale that was indeed pretty tasty. Then concert, then looong rides on the light rail back "home".
Yesterday was another 3-state day as we drove from Kansas City, MO, through the ENTIRE state of Kansas (and through a crazy thunder/lightning storm that I was convinced was going to turn into a tornado, pick us up, and carry us away!) ...I've seriously never seen THAT much lightning in one storm...and into Colorado which mostly looked like Kansas until we got close enough to Denver to watch the sun set behind the Rockies. :D But yeah, we basically drove directly into that storm, though it proved to be good photo opp. And after all was said and done, we landed at Kelly's super cute apartment, ate some yummy "Kelly food" (as Aparna calls it) and slept REALLY well. We didn't get out of bed til about 10:00 (a first for this trip?) but it was so nice. I like that Colorado isn't super hot all day AND night.
Alright, it's time for a blessed shower and a snuggle-in. LOVElovelove!
-Alia
We are currently in Denver for the second night, actually staying at separate friends' houses tonight, but Aparna and I both got to watch the awesome fireworks show in Civic Center Park downtown...along with hundreds of thousands of others so we didn't actually see each other...that was held tonight in celebration of Independence Eve. It was a cool event in the middle of downtown in the park between the State Capitol building and the City and County building (which face each other). There was a big stage set up and the Denver Symphony played great patriotic music for about an hour before the fireworks show. I especially appreciated it since tomorrow we'll be spending most of the day in the car, and typically the 4th is my favorite holiday (as it should be growing up in Molalla!) and I've been bummed about driving for most of it. But we are hoping to also catch some SLC fireworks tomorrow as well, so we'll see how that goes.
Khara, an SDO alum/sister of mine, is living in Denver now, so we met up earlier after Kelly W. gave us a great driving tour of the city earlier. Oh! and we also had an amazing brunch of roasted parsnips/asparagus with fried eggs and hashbrowns. Yum! But Khara took me downtown on the light rail to the 16th st walking mall. My favorite part is all the public pianos they have available on the center walk...though not super in-tune, they are all painted very nicely, so I snapped some photos of some of my favs. :) I was going to play a song after the show, but they were all occupied by the time we were walking through. Next time, Denver!
We walked all the way down to the art museum, and saw some really cool sculptures. Ok, there are a TON of sculptures in this city which gives it a very unique flavor, I think. The best ones, though, were the broom/dustpan, the horse on a red chair, and the cows (which I rode, even though I probably wasn't supposed to) ;) Then we hiked back through the SUPER windy streets, and Khara treated me to dinner at the Yardhouse (named for the yard-tall beer glasses they traditionally served in, even though nowadays, you can only get up to a half-yard). They also have the (supposed) world's largest selection of draft beer, so I tried a white ale that was indeed pretty tasty. Then concert, then looong rides on the light rail back "home".
Yesterday was another 3-state day as we drove from Kansas City, MO, through the ENTIRE state of Kansas (and through a crazy thunder/lightning storm that I was convinced was going to turn into a tornado, pick us up, and carry us away!) ...I've seriously never seen THAT much lightning in one storm...and into Colorado which mostly looked like Kansas until we got close enough to Denver to watch the sun set behind the Rockies. :D But yeah, we basically drove directly into that storm, though it proved to be good photo opp. And after all was said and done, we landed at Kelly's super cute apartment, ate some yummy "Kelly food" (as Aparna calls it) and slept REALLY well. We didn't get out of bed til about 10:00 (a first for this trip?) but it was so nice. I like that Colorado isn't super hot all day AND night.
Alright, it's time for a blessed shower and a snuggle-in. LOVElovelove!
-Alia
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Catching up (Pt 2)
(back to the Petrified Forest!)
The first part of the park is more so vistas of the painted desert, so we parked at all the stops to get photos and see the desert from the bluff. It was so windy up there! Then we looped down to the "forest" part and saw the old petroglyphs they call the Newspaper Rock as well as the agate bridge (a petrified tree trunk that the soil had eroded under til it formed a bridge), the jasper forest (which sadly has been stripped of parts of the stone trees over the years, but most heavily after the railroad was built nearby), the crystal forest...(we walked the path/loop that winded through the petrified logs, and some of them were still intact in long pieces), and finally we went to see the giant logs.
I was so amazed at the formations. The placards talked about how the tress were alive some 250 MILLION years ago, but the way the minerals were taken up to crystallize the trunks still discriminated the tissue types and, other than being a bit more colorful than wood (and sometimes just a bit more sparkly) a lot of times, the bark pieces look like bark, and the exposed wood looks like old exposed wood! It was astounding! ...A perfect stop for two rock-hounds like ourselves, indeed. ;)
So all in all, it took us a few hours to get through the park and see everything. We actually stayed past closed, and then realized that since we were still in Arizona, we would still lose an hour getting to Albuquerque and that we were even later than we thought to get to the Schneiders'. But...sometimes all you can do is keep driving, so that's what we did. :) I think we finally rolled into their place around 11:30 New Mexico time. But Deborah wasn't deterred at all from giving us the grand tour of their GORGEOUS house (it was even adobe style on the outside!!) and feeding us some delicious enchiladas.
I was sad that we didn't get to stay there any longer than overnight, but Albuquerque will just have to go on the list of places I need to go back to and explore a bit better.
That day was a really long day of driving because from Albuquerque we headed to Fort Worth, TX without stopping much, but with an honorary stop in Fort Sumner, NM at the Billy the Kid Museum (which was $5, so we didn't go through it). But we did stop shortly after entering Texas at a nice little taqueria for some yummy food and then continued through the long drag that is west Texas... the flattest place I have eveeeeer seen. We saw our first oil well. And then saw dozens and dozens more. And Aparna explained to me the horrors of natural gas extraction from the earth's crust when we saw some of those contraptions as well. All in all, I was getting kind of sad about Texas. At least the closer we got to central, the more trees we started seeing, so that was nice. We also were able to pick up a desi radio station closer to Dallas. :)
We were pretty tired when we got to Fort Worth, but we found the Teague house without much trouble, and Cameron showed us around the place before we took over free-reign. I couldn't believe how perfect and beautiful everything was! And it was so home-y with all the family pictures around... it was nice to feel close to family. Basically it was an eat and sleep night, but it was cozy.
We met up with Aparna's family friends from Utah in Dallas the next day, including going to the museum that chronicled JFK's death (housed in the building that the shooter sniped him from). I got to see my friend Chelsea, too, since she is in the city for the summer doing some cool cancer research, so we hung around downtown for a bit and (happily!) ran into a very random Pride rally in front of the old red courthouse smack in the downtown. It was so nice to see that side of Dallas, especially because I really did not expect to see such a thing in Texas at all!
The next morning, Aparna and I discovered the AMAZINGGGGGGG Dallas Farmers Market. It was basically two huge outdoor buildings and the sides were completely lined with produce vendors...who gave out SAMPLES! ...I ate the best tomato and onion of my LIFE! So yummy. Lunch was at Jack's Chill Grill, which unfortunately for all the chicas in Dallas was closing that day, but we still very much enjoyed the atmosphere...and the FOOD! The girlies know how to make a kickin' mac n' cheese!... We went to dinner that night at Anjali Aunty's family house, so that was another delicious Indian food night (we got a lot of those this trip!!) and then we sat up late talking into the wee hours.
I think that's good for now. More to come later, but I might take a catch-up hiatus in order to tell y'all about KANSAS CITY!
lovelovelove,
Alia
The first part of the park is more so vistas of the painted desert, so we parked at all the stops to get photos and see the desert from the bluff. It was so windy up there! Then we looped down to the "forest" part and saw the old petroglyphs they call the Newspaper Rock as well as the agate bridge (a petrified tree trunk that the soil had eroded under til it formed a bridge), the jasper forest (which sadly has been stripped of parts of the stone trees over the years, but most heavily after the railroad was built nearby), the crystal forest...(we walked the path/loop that winded through the petrified logs, and some of them were still intact in long pieces), and finally we went to see the giant logs.
I was so amazed at the formations. The placards talked about how the tress were alive some 250 MILLION years ago, but the way the minerals were taken up to crystallize the trunks still discriminated the tissue types and, other than being a bit more colorful than wood (and sometimes just a bit more sparkly) a lot of times, the bark pieces look like bark, and the exposed wood looks like old exposed wood! It was astounding! ...A perfect stop for two rock-hounds like ourselves, indeed. ;)
So all in all, it took us a few hours to get through the park and see everything. We actually stayed past closed, and then realized that since we were still in Arizona, we would still lose an hour getting to Albuquerque and that we were even later than we thought to get to the Schneiders'. But...sometimes all you can do is keep driving, so that's what we did. :) I think we finally rolled into their place around 11:30 New Mexico time. But Deborah wasn't deterred at all from giving us the grand tour of their GORGEOUS house (it was even adobe style on the outside!!) and feeding us some delicious enchiladas.
I was sad that we didn't get to stay there any longer than overnight, but Albuquerque will just have to go on the list of places I need to go back to and explore a bit better.
That day was a really long day of driving because from Albuquerque we headed to Fort Worth, TX without stopping much, but with an honorary stop in Fort Sumner, NM at the Billy the Kid Museum (which was $5, so we didn't go through it). But we did stop shortly after entering Texas at a nice little taqueria for some yummy food and then continued through the long drag that is west Texas... the flattest place I have eveeeeer seen. We saw our first oil well. And then saw dozens and dozens more. And Aparna explained to me the horrors of natural gas extraction from the earth's crust when we saw some of those contraptions as well. All in all, I was getting kind of sad about Texas. At least the closer we got to central, the more trees we started seeing, so that was nice. We also were able to pick up a desi radio station closer to Dallas. :)
We were pretty tired when we got to Fort Worth, but we found the Teague house without much trouble, and Cameron showed us around the place before we took over free-reign. I couldn't believe how perfect and beautiful everything was! And it was so home-y with all the family pictures around... it was nice to feel close to family. Basically it was an eat and sleep night, but it was cozy.
We met up with Aparna's family friends from Utah in Dallas the next day, including going to the museum that chronicled JFK's death (housed in the building that the shooter sniped him from). I got to see my friend Chelsea, too, since she is in the city for the summer doing some cool cancer research, so we hung around downtown for a bit and (happily!) ran into a very random Pride rally in front of the old red courthouse smack in the downtown. It was so nice to see that side of Dallas, especially because I really did not expect to see such a thing in Texas at all!
The next morning, Aparna and I discovered the AMAZINGGGGGGG Dallas Farmers Market. It was basically two huge outdoor buildings and the sides were completely lined with produce vendors...who gave out SAMPLES! ...I ate the best tomato and onion of my LIFE! So yummy. Lunch was at Jack's Chill Grill, which unfortunately for all the chicas in Dallas was closing that day, but we still very much enjoyed the atmosphere...and the FOOD! The girlies know how to make a kickin' mac n' cheese!... We went to dinner that night at Anjali Aunty's family house, so that was another delicious Indian food night (we got a lot of those this trip!!) and then we sat up late talking into the wee hours.
I think that's good for now. More to come later, but I might take a catch-up hiatus in order to tell y'all about KANSAS CITY!
lovelovelove,
Alia
Monday, June 27, 2011
SO many adventures! So little time to blog them all! (part 1)
Oof! So many things to catch up on! Which is something that I think becomes more difficult when the days kind of lose meaning, and I've lost track of time...
We caught up with our lovely friend, Miranda, in Phoenix after going to a delicious South Indian lunch with Aparna's uncle and little cousin. It was so good to see Miranda again...like soul sisters reuniting. Even though the car's thermostat read up to 112 F that day, we braved the heat and, with the help of local second-hand shop owner, randomly found the way to an old-timey ice cream joint called Mary...something... Anyway, it was the first ice cream place that I've ever seen have a sit-down menu full of sundaes and specials. All of us got double scoop waffle bowls of yumminess... Very filling! And the place itself was pretty cute. It looked like it had the same decor as when it opened in the 1950s, so we had fun with that.
My uncle John took everyone (the two of us and my cousins) out to dinner that night, so I filled up on yummy ceviche on top of my mountain of ice cream. It was kind of an epic dinner in that I heard a lot of family stories I hadn't gotten to hear before, but it was really nice to get the chance to visit with them all.
We left for Chandler to go to Aparna's uncle's house (which was maybe 45 mins away...? Everything is so far apart there!) where Chachi was waiting to fill us up again with a whole Indian dinner. It was the most food I've eaten in a day...maybe ever...but it was so good, and I literally couldn't refuse an extra spoonful because it was basically already in my bowl. :) Gosh though, we had some of the most delicious Indian food from Chachi's hands, and she was so sweet about answering all my foodie questions, so I definitely have some cooking homework to do when I get back home! Oh, and they had the coolest garden. Seriously they had like ten pomegranate trees, a bunch of citrus and tons of vegetables! So cool.
We hit the road out of Phoenix on Thursday morning and followed a good chunk of Route 66 to the Petrified Forest. We did have to take a pretty major detour because the big fire that was (is?) raging in Arizona jumped the highway we were set to go on just before we hit the junction. So we took a nice detour through Snowflake, AZ which is I think the most beautiful country I've seen so far...the whole Apache/Hopi reservation country in general, including up to what is National Park land that we were on. There's just something about the combination bleached white grasses with the big blue sky and the green scrub. It took my breath away, my thoughts, my emotions...everything.
So by the time we go to the Petrified Forest/Painted Desert, we assumed it would take maybe an hour or less to see it all and be back on the road. Wrong!
(K. More to come!) Lovelovelove.
-Alia
We caught up with our lovely friend, Miranda, in Phoenix after going to a delicious South Indian lunch with Aparna's uncle and little cousin. It was so good to see Miranda again...like soul sisters reuniting. Even though the car's thermostat read up to 112 F that day, we braved the heat and, with the help of local second-hand shop owner, randomly found the way to an old-timey ice cream joint called Mary...something... Anyway, it was the first ice cream place that I've ever seen have a sit-down menu full of sundaes and specials. All of us got double scoop waffle bowls of yumminess... Very filling! And the place itself was pretty cute. It looked like it had the same decor as when it opened in the 1950s, so we had fun with that.
My uncle John took everyone (the two of us and my cousins) out to dinner that night, so I filled up on yummy ceviche on top of my mountain of ice cream. It was kind of an epic dinner in that I heard a lot of family stories I hadn't gotten to hear before, but it was really nice to get the chance to visit with them all.
We left for Chandler to go to Aparna's uncle's house (which was maybe 45 mins away...? Everything is so far apart there!) where Chachi was waiting to fill us up again with a whole Indian dinner. It was the most food I've eaten in a day...maybe ever...but it was so good, and I literally couldn't refuse an extra spoonful because it was basically already in my bowl. :) Gosh though, we had some of the most delicious Indian food from Chachi's hands, and she was so sweet about answering all my foodie questions, so I definitely have some cooking homework to do when I get back home! Oh, and they had the coolest garden. Seriously they had like ten pomegranate trees, a bunch of citrus and tons of vegetables! So cool.
We hit the road out of Phoenix on Thursday morning and followed a good chunk of Route 66 to the Petrified Forest. We did have to take a pretty major detour because the big fire that was (is?) raging in Arizona jumped the highway we were set to go on just before we hit the junction. So we took a nice detour through Snowflake, AZ which is I think the most beautiful country I've seen so far...the whole Apache/Hopi reservation country in general, including up to what is National Park land that we were on. There's just something about the combination bleached white grasses with the big blue sky and the green scrub. It took my breath away, my thoughts, my emotions...everything.
So by the time we go to the Petrified Forest/Painted Desert, we assumed it would take maybe an hour or less to see it all and be back on the road. Wrong!
(K. More to come!) Lovelovelove.
-Alia
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Seeing the sights
What a treat to wake up in sunny sunny Phoenix and have a bowl of frosted flakes on the patio! I'm staring at my uncle's orange tree and thinking I might go pick one for the road today... :)
Arizona has been so nice, and the landscape is surprisingly so varied here. First off, the Grand Canyon was SOOO EPIC! And so HUGE! We stayed at the North Rim, and pulled in pretty late on Saturday night (and thus had to pitch our tent and cook our Maggi noodles/nutrella in the dark). (Oh, definite props to Aparna's Jet Boil and the invention of the headlamp!) But we decided to hang out at the Canyon all day Sunday, too, and we were able to finaggle a campsite for the second night, too, even though we had only reserved the first night in advance. So we got to drive up to about 5 different lookouts over the north rim, after we explored the cliffs close to camp, and the sights were breathtaking.
We had a fun time looking at all the rocks because they all sparkle and have little geodes all over. We even found some fossils of sea shells and different things up on one of the really high ledges of the rim...which I totally didn't expect, but it was just crazy to think about the transformation of the earth since those organisms lived...and to know that we were touching them however many millions of years later. My favorite fossil was this tiny perfect star that could have only been a few mm across, but it just stuck out of the sandstone as though someone had poured the stone, set it in there, and let it dry.
We drove/hiked up to the highest point on the canyon which was about 8800 ft in elevation, and ate cheese-its with sriracha sauce while admiring the view of the river and just the canyon itself. Aparna taught me a lot about the Colorado River and the impacts of it's development in just the last few generations. It's a pretty sad history.
We got to watch the sunset back at camp, but it got pretty cold pretty quickly, and that put a damper on the whole rest of the night. The highlight was driving out to the cliff and looking at the stars for a few mins. before the moon lit everything up and washed out the sky a bit. But we got to drive back to our site with the heat on full blast. :D
We pretty much packed up and hit the road for Phoenix yesterday morn. We chose the scenic route home and got to drive past the Vermillion Cliffs. There is a site up there, I think its on the Res, but I'm not sure, where these massive boulders have fallen from the cliffs, and the sandstone has eroded around them but not underneath a lot of them, so they sit on pedestals, basically. At some point, someone built dwellings around/between the boulders, and it was really cool to see the construction of the stone walls, the wooden outhouse, and just the nooks and shady places that would have provided shelter from the sun. They definitely did for us!
We also crossed the Navajo Bridge shortly thereafter, and walked out on it to see the Colorado. It was amazingly green, and the flow really was a slow crawl. It was interesting to see, but I reserve my opinions on whether I think it is pretty because I have no idea how it looked before all the development on the river changed all the hydrology to what it is today.
Driving through the reservation was also very humbling. I felt very unworthy, very over-privileged to be able to just drive through in the air-conditioned car, to know that I do not have to live every day in the heat as they do. I don't think I have processed the experience enough to be able to articulate what it was.
We did stop in Flagstaff for tacos and gas at Tacos los Altos. Then we drove into Phoenix through the beautiful Sedona, and Aparna dropped me off at my uncle's house. It's been good to see the fam again!
I guess that's all for now... Lovelovelove!
-Alia
Arizona has been so nice, and the landscape is surprisingly so varied here. First off, the Grand Canyon was SOOO EPIC! And so HUGE! We stayed at the North Rim, and pulled in pretty late on Saturday night (and thus had to pitch our tent and cook our Maggi noodles/nutrella in the dark). (Oh, definite props to Aparna's Jet Boil and the invention of the headlamp!) But we decided to hang out at the Canyon all day Sunday, too, and we were able to finaggle a campsite for the second night, too, even though we had only reserved the first night in advance. So we got to drive up to about 5 different lookouts over the north rim, after we explored the cliffs close to camp, and the sights were breathtaking.
We had a fun time looking at all the rocks because they all sparkle and have little geodes all over. We even found some fossils of sea shells and different things up on one of the really high ledges of the rim...which I totally didn't expect, but it was just crazy to think about the transformation of the earth since those organisms lived...and to know that we were touching them however many millions of years later. My favorite fossil was this tiny perfect star that could have only been a few mm across, but it just stuck out of the sandstone as though someone had poured the stone, set it in there, and let it dry.
We drove/hiked up to the highest point on the canyon which was about 8800 ft in elevation, and ate cheese-its with sriracha sauce while admiring the view of the river and just the canyon itself. Aparna taught me a lot about the Colorado River and the impacts of it's development in just the last few generations. It's a pretty sad history.
We got to watch the sunset back at camp, but it got pretty cold pretty quickly, and that put a damper on the whole rest of the night. The highlight was driving out to the cliff and looking at the stars for a few mins. before the moon lit everything up and washed out the sky a bit. But we got to drive back to our site with the heat on full blast. :D
We pretty much packed up and hit the road for Phoenix yesterday morn. We chose the scenic route home and got to drive past the Vermillion Cliffs. There is a site up there, I think its on the Res, but I'm not sure, where these massive boulders have fallen from the cliffs, and the sandstone has eroded around them but not underneath a lot of them, so they sit on pedestals, basically. At some point, someone built dwellings around/between the boulders, and it was really cool to see the construction of the stone walls, the wooden outhouse, and just the nooks and shady places that would have provided shelter from the sun. They definitely did for us!
We also crossed the Navajo Bridge shortly thereafter, and walked out on it to see the Colorado. It was amazingly green, and the flow really was a slow crawl. It was interesting to see, but I reserve my opinions on whether I think it is pretty because I have no idea how it looked before all the development on the river changed all the hydrology to what it is today.
Driving through the reservation was also very humbling. I felt very unworthy, very over-privileged to be able to just drive through in the air-conditioned car, to know that I do not have to live every day in the heat as they do. I don't think I have processed the experience enough to be able to articulate what it was.
We did stop in Flagstaff for tacos and gas at Tacos los Altos. Then we drove into Phoenix through the beautiful Sedona, and Aparna dropped me off at my uncle's house. It's been good to see the fam again!
I guess that's all for now... Lovelovelove!
-Alia
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