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2003-08-01 - 9:34 p.m.

Here it is, the much anticipated entry describing my entire road trip from Sacramento to Seattle by way of Pensacola. I realize it's a tad lengthy, but just think of it as twenty-five days worth of entries all wrapped into one. For those of you whose attention spans may not be up to the task of reading this entire entry, just scroll down--there are pictures!

July 5, 2003

Our roadtrip started early on July 5th. It was my parents and me packed into our Subaru Outback. We left Sacramento headed south and had breakfast at McDonalds in Stockton. I know I've said this before, but I'll say it again, do you know what's between Stockton and Los Angeles? No? That's because there's nothing. Well, not much, anyway, especially not along I-5. We stopped for lunch at Pyramid Lake then drove through the LA area to Palm Springs. First thing when we got there, we took the Palm Springs aerial tram up to the top of Mt. San Jacinto. It goes up 8000 feet in 10 minutes. It's pretty cool, but the air is so smoggy that you really can't see too far from up top. After we came back down we found our hotel, the Doral Desert Princess, which I booked using Priceline, so I got it very cheap.

The view from the top of Mt. San Jacinto looking down the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway

July 6, 2003

We left Palm Springs and headed east along I-10. We drove through Phoenix and ended up in Saguaro National Monument. Driving along a dirt road through the cacti we picked up a stone in our brakes which required my dad to remove the tire to get it out. Meanwhile it was 109 degrees out and there was no shade. We spent the night in a campground near the monument. It was so hot we just threw our sleeping bags out on the ground and slept on top of them.

A cactus wren on a saguaro cactus near Saguaro National Monument

Sunset near Saguaro National Monument

July 7, 2003

We had a little confusion with the time in Arizona due to the fact that when we crossed the timeline we set our clocks forward but really didn't need to because Arizona doesn't honor daylight savings time. So we got up an hour earlier than we needed and when we decided to go to the Sonora Desert Museum, we got there an hour before it opened. We went up over Gate's Pass and into Tucson where I showed my parents the UA pharmacy school where I interviewed for a residency position. We next stopped in Wilcox. My aunt bought some property in the outskirts of Wilcox on e-bay, sight unseen. Her plan is to retire there. When she bought it she didn't even know where Wilcox is. We stopped to see her property and, as expected, it's bare, hot nothingness. The scary part is that my aunt works for NASA. We continued driving through Las Cruces, New Mexico to El Paso, Texas where we stopped to camp for the night.

My aunt's property in Wilcox, Arizona

July 8, 2003

One of the bad things about travelling with my father is that he likes to stop and see old historical stuff which holds very little interest for me. Today we went on a historical tour of Fort Stockton, Texas. Most of it was highly snooze-worthy, but at the end was the Old Fort Cemetery which had some pretty old headstones in it and some beautiful wildflowers. One of the headstones was for an A.J. Royal and instead of saying that he died it said that he was assassinated. As we were leaving some guy came up and told us the story of the man who was buried there. Apparently he was the sheriff of Fort Stockton but everyone hated him so much that the townspeople actually drew straws to see who would get to shoot him. Hey, fair's fair, eh? We also stopped by in Fort Stockton to see Paisano Pete, the world's largest road runner. Seriously. So then we moved on down the road to a little town (population 30) called Langtry, Texas. Again, we stopped for historical reasons. The town was originally run by some nut named Roy Bean who named the town after his obsession, English actress Lily Langtry. We spent the night in a campground in Seminole Canyon.

Old Fort Cemetery in Fort Stockton, Texas

Sunset over Seminole Canyon, Texas

July 9, 2003

Our first stop this day was at the Amistad Reservoir which is basically where the Rio Grande, Pecos River, and Devils River converge. The rest of the day was fairly uneventful until we got to San Antonio. We got ourselves a campsite at the local KOA campground, which was actually fairly nice as KOA's go. Then we headed downtown and visited the Alamo then drove the big loop around San Antonio.

The Alamo

July 10, 2003

When we went to the Alamo we drove the car downtown, but there was actually a bus that stopped right by our campground so when we decided to spend the next day at San Antonio's River Walk, we took the bus instead. The first thing we did when we got there was take a river boat tour of the river. If any of you ever go to the San Antonio River Walk for the first time, I really recommend taking this cruise because it is informative and gives you a good idea of all the things on the River Walk so you can know where you want to go when you decide to walk it later. We ate lunch at a barbecue restaurant called "The County Line". We walked around the River Walk for most of the day and then took the bus back to our campground where we spent the rest of the evening in the pool and reading.

On the River Walk in San Antonio, Texas

July 11, 2003

My brother flies home from work on Thursday evening so on Friday we knew he would be home for us to visit. We drove from San Antonio to Houston and were there in time for lunch. His wife was still at work so we went out to lunch without her and went out to dinner again when she came home. Their house is a beautiful three story townhouse about three or four minutes' drive from downtown Houston. That night we got a phone call from my aunt saying that she, my cousin, and my grandfather would be stopping by the next day.

July 12, 2003

My aunt, cousin, and grandfather showed up and we decided to take them out to see the San Jacinto Monument and the U.S.S. Texas. The San Jacinto Monument looks quite a bit like the Washington Monument in D.C., except it has a star on top and is supposedly a bit taller. It is marking the place where the Texans finally beat Santa Anna and won their freedom. The Battleship Texas, which happens to be docked nearby, was originally built for World War I and then added on to so it could be used again in World War II. We went on a tour of the ship which was pretty cool because you can basically go anywhere you want. You can go all the way down to the bottom of the engine room and all the way up to the top. They also had those anti-aircraft guns on board and you could actually climb on them and aim them and stuff. That was fun because they had the kind where two people sit on the gun and one person spins the crank that adjusts aim vertically and the other person spins the crank that adjusts aim horizontally. It wasn't easy to get coordinated and I have no idea how they managed it during actually war situations. We went out to dinner again and then we took everyone out to get bubble tea. My brother and sister-in-law and I like it, my mom, aunt, grandpa, and cousin all hated it, and my dad, well, as long as it's vaguely edible, he'll eat it.

My dad and my cousin "shooting down" seagulls on the Battleship Texas

Inside the engine room of the Battleship Texas

July 13, 2003

Fairly early in the morning, my aunt, cousin, and grandfather took off to continue their trip. The rest of us decided to go see the Johnson Space Center and the Space Center Houston. It had a lot of interesting stuff, but it sure was hot out that day. It was also sort of sad because they had a lot of stuff memorializing the crew of the Columbia. For dinner we went to the Downtown Aquarium. It actually has rides outside, an aquarium inside, plus a cafe, a restaurant, and a ballroom, among other things. We went on the Shark Adventure and then into the restaurant. The restaurant is sort of like The Rainforest Cafe on the inside only instead of in the jungle you're in the ocean and instead of animatronics, all the animals are alive. And also the food is better. Much, much better. I have to say that the dinner I had here was quite possibly the best meal I've ever had in my life. I had sake marinated sea bass. Yes, it was pricey, but it was worth it.

Rocket engines of the Saturn V contrasted with a windmill on a Texas farm

July 14, 2003

It's Monday again so my brother and sister-in-law had to go back to work. My parents and I continued east to New Orleans. We made reservations on Hotwire for a hotel half a block from Bourbon Street, the Hotel St. Marie. The hotel itself was pretty, but I wasn't impressed with the service. We got there an hour and a half after check-in time and our room wasn't ready. And then when we got to the room they only had one king bed so I ended up having to sleep on the pull-out couch. Our room was the only room on the first floor, directly off the courtyard. The door to our room was literally two steps away from the swimming pool, which is great except when you're trying to sleep and there are kids doing cannon balls feet from your head. We walked down past the St. Louis Cathedral through Jackson Square to the Moon Walk on the Mississippi River and had dinner somewhere nearby. Then we walked back to the hotel by way of the French Market and Bourbon Street.

The St. Louis Cathedral and Jackson Sqaure, New Orleans

July 15, 2003

We got up fairly early and walked down to the French Market to eat breakfast at the Cafe Du Monde. We had beignets and coffee, of course, because that's all they serve, but how can you go to New Orleans and not have beignets? Then we bought all-day passes for the New Orleans transportation system and walked down to catch the St. Charles trolley. It starts in the Central Business District of New Orleans and goes past Lafayette Square, Robert E. Lee Circle, down through the Garden District, past Audobon Park and Tulane and Loyola Universities. It continues down to the end of the line where you have to get off and pay again to come back. After riding this whole trip we walked up to see one of the above-ground cemeteries, St. Louis Cemetery No.1, and then over to Louis Armstrong Park. We walked down and had lunch near the Jax Brewery then rode the Riverfront Trolley down to the Riverwalk and took a ferry boat across the Mississippi River and back. We took the Riverfront Trolley all the way back to the end of the French Market and did a little shopping as we worked our way up the street to dinner at Landry's. Then my dad decided he would like to ride the ferry across the Mississippi River again, only this time at night so we could see the lights of the city. Only problem was it wasn't dark yet. So we walked back up to catch the St. Charles Trolley again and this time got off in Audobon Park to walk around. We took the whole circuit and then got off and walked down to the Riverwalk again. By the time we walked through there it was dark and we could take the ferry at night. After that we walked back to our hotel by way of Royal Street and Bourbon Street. It was a long day with a lot of walking around and when I collapsed into bed I was contributing the cramping in my gut to the gumbo I ate at Landry's. For that reason, when Aunt Flo came she caught me unprepared. It's been a long time since that's happened.

St. Louis Cemetery No.1, New Orleans

July 16, 2003

We got up and had beignets and coffee at Cafe Du Monde again this morning before we said goodbye to New Orleans. We got our first glimpse of the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Mississippi. I was surprised both by how white the sand was and how brown the water was. I was also surprised by how little the whole coastline has been commercialized. Most of it in Mississippi and Alabama is still basically undeveloped. We drove along the coast all the way until we reached our hotel in Pensacola, Florida. Then we drove out to Pensacola Beach and went swimming in the Gulf of Mexico. I couldn't believe how warm the water was. I'm used to swimming in ocean water in Northern California where it's so cold (usually in the low 50's) you have to wear a wet suit if you're going to be in the water for any length of time. The water at Pensacola Beach was at least in the upper 80's. At first I was just on the beach with my feet in the water collecting shells. There was a guy there on the beach collecting shells too, only he was actually going out in the waves to get them. He came over and offered me several really nice shells he had found. For some reason I was really touched by that. He didn't have to do that. I didn't see him again after that, though. We decided that if we were going to swim in Florida, this was our chance, so we went back to the car and changed into our suits. We jumped in the water and, (I don't mean to perpetuate any myths about all Californians surfing, but what else do you do in the ocean?) although there was no one else doing it and the waves weren't very big, we started surfing. We obviously didn't have any boards with us, but the waves were only big enough for body surfing anyway, and it was fun. We stayed until the sun was starting to set and my dad got stung by a jellyfish. We drove up to a Dairy Queen overlooking Pensacola Bay and ate hamburgers and Blizzards as we watched a lightening storm off in the distance.

Sunset over Pensacola Beach, Florida

July 17, 2003

Pensacola was basically as far as we had planned on going so from here on out we're heading back west. Our plan was to get back to Houston by Friday when my brother would be back from work, so we jammed back across Alabama and Mississippi. We did actually take the time to take the car ferry across Mobile Bay, but that was one of our few real stops for the day. We had planned on camping somewhere in Louisiana, but by this time we had caught up with some residual storms left in the wake of Hurricane Claudette so we opted again for a hotel. We took Highway 90 through Cajun Country (where I saw my first roadkill alligator) and spent the night in a hotel in Lafayette, Louisiana.

Offshore oil rigs in Mobile Bay, Alabama

July 18, 2003

At the welcome center on the Texas side of the Texas/Louisiana border, there is a neat little boardwalk that takes you out into the middle of a swamp. When you first go out there you just see a bunch of plants. But if you stop and actually look, you'll be amazed by all the animals you will see. The first animals I saw were giant spiders. Their bodies were one to two inches long and with their legs they were easily four to five inches long. They sat in the center of webs, the smallest I saw was three feet in diameter. After looking I spotted snakes, frogs, all sorts of weird bugs, and a whole bunch of turtles. We spent a while here and then called my brother to let him know we were almost to his place. Only problem was he was in New York. He had been called to a last minute meeting there. So we took our time getting to his place and once we got there we went for a walk and explored the shops around his area. When we got back to his place his wife was home. He came home later that evening.

Dragonfly in a swamp near the Texas/Louisiana border

July 19, 2003

Today we decided to take a trip to Galveston. Hurricane Claudette had recently been through that area so we weren't sure what shape it would be in, but it turned out we only saw one restaurant there that had a bulldozer moving sand out of it. We ate lunch in a restaurant on a pier in the Gulf of Mexico and then took the trolley to the western side of Galveston where we saw lots of fishing boats and offshore oil rigs. We took the trolley back and waded along the shore of the Gulf of Mexico and back to the car. We spent the rest of the day back at my brother's place relaxing.

Fishing boats docked in Galveston, Texas

July 20, 2003

Another relaxing day, we walked down the street and had breakfast at La Madeleine and then went back and sat on my brother's porch for a while. We did a little shopping at the Houston Galleria and then went and saw "Pirates of the Caribbean," which, by the way, is a great movie and if you haven't seen it yet you should go see it right now. After the movie we came home and had home-made pizza for dinner.

July 21, 2003

The 21st is Monday again so my brother and sister-in-law were back to work. It was time for my parents and I to start heading north to Seattle for my cousin's wedding. We headed north from Houston through Dallas to Gainesville where we discovered a restaurant called Braum's. I'm talking mighty fine milkshakes there. Unfortunately, they only have this restaurant in south central states, so it'll be a while before I have another of those shakes. We drove as far north as Oklahoma City before stopping for the night.

July 22, 2003

From Oklahoma City we continued north into Kansas. I was surprised by how much Kansas looks like central California. If you dropped me off in south central Kansas and told me I was in California, I'd probably believe you. In fact, there was a place near Salina that I would believe was Sacramento if you told me so. It was sort of strange. At Salina we began heading west towards Colorado. We stopped at Fort Hays so my dad could look around and then made it as far as Goodland, Kansas before we stopped for the night.

Sunset over Goodland, Kansas

Honeybees on a sunflower at dusk in Goodland, Kansas

July 23, 2003

I had always imagined Denver, Colorado as being nestled in among the Rocky Mountains. With this picture in mind, coming into Denver from Kansas was a bit of a disappointment. Denver was so smoggy that the first time I saw it, it looked like it was in the middle of a plain because the mountains weren't yet visible through the haze. It totally reminded me of "Dumb and Dumber," the part when they're driving to Colorado but instead of heading west they head east and they're in the middle of Kansas or someplace instead and one of them says something like, "I expected the Rocky Mountains to be rockier than this. John Denver's full of shit!" But anyway, even though Denver was a disappointment, the rest of the Rocky Mountains were beautiful. I drove through the Eisenhower tunnel and we stopped for lunch in Frisco, Colorado which was absolutely gorgeous. We continued past Vale and Grand Junction and stopped for the night in Green River, Utah.

Dillon Reservoir near Frisco, Colorado

July 24, 2003

At this point it was time to start heading north again. This was a rather uneventful day in which we drove through Salt Lake City, Utah and Twin Falls, Idaho until we stopped for the night at Mountain Home, Idaho, a small town outside of Boise. The only exciting bit of the day came at the end. We were sitting in our campsite reading when suddenly a big storm hit. We weren't expecting it or prepared at all. We jumped up and threw everything we could in the car and then hid in the tent. It was pouring down rain and the wind was blowing like crazy and there was lightening very close. It continued until well into the night, but had cleared up by morning. This was really the only storm that we were caught outside in during our whole trip. Not bad, all in all.

July 25, 2003

This was another fairly uneventful day. We drove across the northeast corner of Oregon into Washington and stopped for the night at a campground in Ellensburg, Washington. Our campsite was about thirty feet from the rushing Yakima River. It was also about ten feet from a freeway overpass. Needless to say, it wasn't quiet.

Our campsite on the bank of the Yakima River in Ellensburg, Washington

July 26, 2003

Our plan for today is to go to my aunt's apartment in Seattle, but she's working until two, so we took our time getting there. We stopped in Starbuck's at Ellensburg and then drove up to Snoqualmie Falls. There was quite a bit of water in the falls considering the fact that Washington and most of the other western states, too, are having a draught right now. Then we found her apartment. We spent the rest of the evening gabbing and we went out to dinner at the Outback Steakhouse.

Snoqualmie Falls, Washington

July 27, 2003

We spent the morning hanging out at my aunt's place and then went for a walk down to a nearby lake. We packed up and said our goodbyes then went to pick up my brother from the Sea-Tac airport. We had a cargo rack on the top of our car so we couldn't fit into the parking garage so we had to search around a while for the overheight parking, but we finally found it. With my brother in tow we stopped for lunch in Des Moines, Washington and then found our hotel room in Tacoma. We changed out of our camping clothes and into wedding clothes and drove out to Lakewood where my cousin's wedding was going to take place. We got there pretty early so we walked around some and saw Gravelly Lake which was only a little ways away. The wedding itself was held outdoors and it was very nice. While they were saying their vows a pair of bald eagles were flying around above them. That was neat. Very few people from my side of the family actually showed up to the wedding. There was me, my parents, and my brother of course and then my grandfather, my grandfather's sister and my uncle, and that was it. So right there I've listed all the people I knew at the wedding. During the reception I sat at the same table with an ICU nurse from Vancouver, British Columbia, and she was fun to talk to. For some reason everyone there kept assuming that I was my brother's wife, that was a little annoying.

Tent where the reception for my cousin's wedding was held in Lakewood, Washington

July 28, 2003

We got up early to drive my brother to the airport so he could fly out for work and then we set off south for home. We drove all the way through Oregon and stopped for the night at Lake Siskiyou, outside Shasta City, California. We went swimming in the lake. It was really hot that day.

Mt. Shasta and Lake Siskiyou, California

July 29, 2003

The last day of our trip. We had breakfast in Redding and were back in Sacramento by the early afternoon.