Playing the waiting game has its advantages...

The weather is beautiful and the atmosphere is completely intoxicating. Park your car down the road, grab a backpack, and set off for a composed, relaxing day at Hermosa Beach. Mind you all the stereotypical saying about Los Angeles folk are completely true, but down at Hermosa Beach it is completely opposite. This is the most placid environment in southern California and also one on the most active. With its wide, flat, sandy beaches, this place holds the perfect venue for beach volleyball: aptly naming it the beach volleyball capital of the world. The path that runs parallel with the ocean can be filled with hundreds upon hundreds of people. Everyone was enjoying the aura that is Hermosa by rollerblading, biking, skateboarding, or simply walking along enjoying the sun and surf. Without a consideration in the world, take a book, a towel, and some good music and enjoy the sunrise as it sets on your perfect day at Hermosa Beach.

3400 miles later....and we made it!!!

Oh good old California. It's a totally different environment out here, and its scary. But, the strongest adapt and overcome. My next step in the next few days is to settle down and acclimate to my new home. Another good idea is to find a job I suppose. Don't worry I've been doing that right along. I've already had a few interviews and another one coming up on Wednesday. If I could toast with everyone right now, I'd say raise it up!!! And here's to the future. Thanks to everyone who kept checking the blog, it really meant a lot to me. Hope everyone is doing well at home and remember to stay in touch. One must never forget where they came from or lose track of where they want to go.

going going to cali cali

What a sigh of relief!! The california sign not to far in the distance, and the rest of my life waiting for me to catch up.

WOOHOO made it to Nevada

We finally made it to Nevada, seeing how it was only 100 foot drive after the Hoover Dam. Not a lot of pictures were taken after this point due to our luxurious stay on the Vegas Strip. Some of the biggest highlights of Vegas was staying at New York New York, winning lots of money on the craps table, and not remembering anything after that, do to the copious amounts of free drinks offered to us.

more dam

Hoover was the greatest engineer in the world since he had drained, ditched, and dammed the United States in three years

Well, B.B. and I wanted to find the closest tourist location to Las Vegas so we didn’t have to stay there two nights in a row. Only because we wanted to try and salvage as much bankroll for the big day in the casino. We did a little research and found that the Hoover Dam was only a half hour drive from Vegas. The Hoover Dam, also known as Boulder Dam, was another monster human construction. The amount of concrete used for this project they said could make a 4-foot sidewalk around the entire world. That’s a lot of concrete! The Dam blocks of part of the Colorado River that separates Arizona and Nevada. So, on the Arizona side it can be noon, then as soon as you get to the other side its 11 in the morning. Hoover Dam also created Lake Mead. It is the largest man-made lake in the United States. The Lake extends over 100 miles behind the dam. The best part was the hotel we stayed at had an amazing view over the lake (no picture to justify…sorry). Anyways, this place was a pretty big tourist trap. Gift shops, restaurants, tours, movies, everything you could think of; and it was all about Hoover. We took the shorter of the two tours offered and headed down to the bottom of the Dam where the generators are. This is a national historic landmark, our awkward little tour guy named Eric told us, and we weren’t to stray away from him due to unknown consequences. We took this giant 55-person elevator down to the ground floor where he began telling us how the Hoover dam was constructed. All in all, this was definitely a good day trip. Pay the little bit of money, for the admittance, and learn the good things that the human race has actually done for our society. It only cost 50 million dollars to build the Dam and made all of its money back in just over a decade. It also provides the majority of the southwest with water and energy. Just imagine what our multi-trillion dollar war money could have gone to….take care everyone, and more to come later.

Grand Canyon

Close your eyes and picture how big the Grand Canyon is. Okay now multiply that time 20 and that is how big this place was. I always imagined this place being huge but what a breathtaking place to visit. Seeing something like this really puts things into perspective on how small we all really are in the world. This place was carved out from the Colorado river that took over 6 million years…. unbelievable. We were coming from the southwest, so we went straight to the southern rim. We entered the national park right near Mather point. After hanging out there for a while we drove about a half hour east to the desert view. It seemed as if each point had its own characteristic and displayed the Grand Canyon in a different light. Once we got to Desert View point and parked, all you could see in the distance was a huge watchtower. The Santa Fe Railroad hired a designer to build a gift shop/rest area in the mid 30’s. She designed it after a prehistoric Indian tower. The bottom is a complete touristy gift shop, then as you go up the winding steps to the top, the walls of the tower are blanketed with murals by a Hopi artist. The Tower, standing 70 feet, is the highest point on the south rim and provided an amazing view of the surrounding areas. The Grand Canyon comes highly recommended and needs to be visited by everyone.