Hanging out with Peyton and Fam on Beale Street!

We've been enjoying Memphis this weekend and had a lot of fun with Peyton.  She's just about four months old and super smiley!  Here's Grandma Peart and Peyton!

  

Beale Street is a great walking street in Memphis with lots of bars and music venues.  We stopped by a place called Silky O' Sullivans for some "Big Ass Beers."

 

  

We also had some more Memphis BBQ.  This time in the nacho form.  I think I liked this iteration best, with piles of meat on top of chips.

Landed in Memphis!

And... we're in Memphis!

After basically two days of road driving, we're in Memphis visiting Shannon's brother, Corey, his wife Jess, and their daughter Peyton.  Steve and Gail (Shannon's parents) are here as well for the weekend.  Here are a few random notes from the road:

-We were in Texas (the pan-handle) for like 3 or four hours, still it did not disappoint; at the one random gas station we stopped at we found an overwhelming amount of Texas trinkets and Lone Star beer advertisements.

-We spent the night outside of Oklahoma City in a campground on a Lake (Thunderbird) and had a beautiful campsite.  We learned that it had been rebuilt several times after tornadoes.  Our companions in camping were primarily local folk of the"drinkin' and fishin'" nature. 

-I had a marshmallow disaster last night that would involve eating a half bag of marshmallows in one congealed mass that would eventually get on my shoes, face, hands, and feet.  I do not regret the bad decisions that led to this.

-Humidity is something both Shannon and I have grown unaccustomed to living in Seattle.  Sleeping outside in Oklahoma on a humid 80+ degree night was... sweaty.

-We're currently listening to The Mountains Echoed  on tape.  Good so far.  I think we're close to half way through. It's been interesting to learn about Afghanistan.

-Tonight we enjoyed our first sampling of Memphis BBQ.  It was quite tasty.  Pretty sure we will not leave this city with an empty stomach.

We're excited to spend the weekend hanging out with family and experiencing Memphis!

Petrified Forest and Painted Desert

After leaving the Grand Canyon behind, we set out eastbound again, hoping to see a little bit more beautiful scenery in Arizona and New Mexico before the dreaded Texas-Oklahoma-Arkansas stretch.  

We made our way through Flagstaff (quite a charming town, I might add) until we reached the Petrified Forest National Park.  This park is pretty much made to be a detour off the interstate, so why not?  After feeling like we were basically driving into oblivion, a visitor's center showed up and we were able to get out and walk among the petrified wood.  

Petrified wood is actually pretty cool. Long story short- an ancient braided river carried the logs along, which was then covered by volcanic ash that prevented the logs from going through the decaying process.  They are scattered all around this desert, and after years of people commercializing and making money off petrified wood, the national park was established. They are now VERY serious about people not taking the petrified wood. 

As we continued to drive through the park, other interesting formations showed up such as these, called The Teepees.  

In this area, there were also ancient people (Puebloans) who established towns (pueblos) in this desert and throughout the Southwest.  Here, there are some ancient ruins of a town and also petroglyphs that they made on rocks. This was pretty cool.  They even have a rock that marks the summer solstice by a sliver of light that shines through it precisely on the right day.  

The last part of the park is the Painted Desert, named for its various colors in rock formations. 

The landscape is harsh and desolate, but it does have that tragically beautiful thing going for it, which is something to be appreciated.  We can't all be the Grand Canyon, right?  :)

Grand Canyon!

After a few days of camping, we're now cleaning up in Albuquerque.  We'll post a few updates from the last few days...

On Monday we hit the road on the drive to the Grand Canyon.  It was generally beautiful SouthWestern desert country with the occasional mesa, mountain, etc.

We made it to the Ten-X campground (yes, a strange name) just before dinner and quickly got the tent up and then headed to the Grand Canyon to checkout sunset.  Our first views of the Canyon were stunning (neither of us have been here before).  It seems like watching the sunset is a nightly tradition for most Grand Canyon guests as many were out sauntering about.  We did the same but one-upped many because we had brought our dinner for a sunset picnic (ha!). 

  

We headed to bed and woke up the next morning ready to do a hike down below the rim called Cedar Ridge.  We had heeded all the warnings about extreme heat in the middle of the day and woken up at 5 AM.  It was a fantastic hike down to a cool overlook where we relaxed for quite a while away from the crowds.  We climbed back out of the Canyon around 10 AM and we were still able to stay (mostly) in the shade.

 

In the hot hours (like 10-2ish) we checked out the Visitors' Center, a geology museum and walked a bit of the rim trail.  Here are some things I learned about the Grand Canyon:

-The rocks at the bottom (The Vishnu Group) are old enough that they probably existed before multi-cellular organisms.  That's crazy.

-The canyon has been carving itself via the Colorado River for about 6 million years. 

-Each year the canyon averages an inch or two wider along its lenght, although in reality this happens in larger chunks (a few feet? unclear?) randomly along its length.  

-Geology is complicated.  Lots of rocks...

After we completed our learning for the day (and it started to cool down) we rented some bikes for a 5 mile bike ride along the rim that we would do over a few hours because of various stops along the way.  If you're looking for the ideal way to enjoy the Grand Canyon rim... THIS IS IT.  Cruising along on a slight downhill in the Arizona heat checking out the sights is good times.

  

We were hungry (hangry perhaps) for dinner and ended up in Plaza Bonita in Tusayan.  Don't make this mistake.  While the food there has already turned into a running joke... the place is quite a disaster.

Fortunately for us, we were able to ramble back to the Grand Canyon to catch one more sunset before heading to sleep.

 

One more Grand Canyon thing I shouldn't forget.  Both nights we heard coyotes (around 4 AM?) howling.  Like... really howling at the moon.  It was a pretty awesome, if not slightly terrifying experience.  We didn't get eaten.

Kings Canyon/Sequoia National Park Continued!

After our second night of camping in Kings Canyon NP, we rose early to pack up and check out other places in the park.  Before leaving our campsite, though, we decided to attend the worship service held at our campground.  Realizing that we will be on the road for a looong time, it was nice to be able to get in a little church time.  And what better place to worship than out in the trees!  Next, we were on our way to see the Sequoias.

Here is Scott near a tree in the Lost Grove. He's 6'3". The size of these trees is a little mind-blowing!

The "the largest tree in the world" (by volume) is called General Sherman. In true National Park style, this one had a nice paved trail to it and even a very courteous picture-taking line.  Scott and I chose to circle the less-traveled portion of paved trail to take pictures.

Another exhibit that we liked was this giant cross-section of a fallen Sequoia. It was really cool to be able to touch the rings and see which years might have had a drought or a fire.

Our next step along the Generals Highway was Moro Rock.  Moro Rock is a quarter mile trail of mostly stairs up to this incredible granite mountain-top.  The views were stunning from the top.  However, we quickly ascended and descended to escape the hoards of tourists.  Ok, so maybe we had been a little spoiled after not seeing one single person on the trail during our 8-mile hike the day before.  :)  But like I said, stunning views!

The Generals Highway continues with a crazy amount of curves until you reach the Foothills AKA Scott's worst nightmare.  Temperature: 98 degrees.

After leaving the National Park, we pressed further south and eastward until reaching the little desert town of Mojave, CA.  We found the local burger joint and a hotel and called it a night! Next stop- Grand Canyon! (or thereabouts).

Kings Canyon/Sequoia

... And we're back in civilization after two wonderful car camping nights in Kings Canyon/Sequoia National Parks.  I think we've figured out how to automate some postings so I'm updating a post from Kings Canyon and we have a few posts setup for the next few days...

On Friday morning we had a nice breakfast with Grandma Youmans and then hit the road towards the Sierras.  We arrived with plenty of time to find a great campsite in the Sunset Loop at Grant Grove.  Highly recommended, as the name implies, the sunsets over California's Central Valley are awesome.

Our first stop was the Grant Tree itself; the first of many Sequoia visits on this trip.  Sequoias are a really stunning tree because while they're not the tallest, they're just HUGE and grow fat.  Here's Shannon in front of one of the first ones we saw:

 

There's a short part of this hike were you walk through an old Sequoia log.  Rad.

No National Park visit is complete without a Ranger Talk.  This nights had a seasonal ranger impersonating John Muir. It was a pretty impressive act complete with Scottish accent (Muir was Scottish).

There is also a reasonable chance this was Santa Claus on his summer job.  Here is young junior Ranger Connor getting his mind blown.

The next morning we drove the into Kings Canyon.  We had heard about the wonderful alpine lakes in the high sierra and had picked one out (Eagle Lake) only to discover we were wrong about where we were on the map... by about 4 hours... so we went to a backup plan.

At first, spirits were down... we endured a hot (south-facing) climb of about 1,200 vertical feet before the overlook.  Fortunately for us, the overlook was GLORIOUS.  Or spirits immediatly turned as we realized how great of a spot we had found.

The hike was actually a loop and after the overlook we continued north over a ridge into one of the most fantastic sub-alpine forests I've ever hiked.  This area has sparse trees that we think were from a fire (not recent?)?  Anyway, I was shocked at how beautiful the big trees were surrounded by a carpet of wildflowers.

This is tree skier heaven.

After our hike, we continued up canyon to Zumwalt Meadows.  The stop here had an ulterior motive.  During the Ranger Talk the night before many people had said they had seen bears here.  We were on a literal bear hunt.  I was excited.  Shannon, not so much.  We didn't see any bears, but the views of the meadow were great.

We retreated to the campsite where we enjoyed some Shells-And-Cheese (we're classy like that) and a Sierra Nevada brew.  A great day in a new mountain range for both of us.

Oregon Coast, San Fran, and San Mateo Travels

We've been as busy as ever the last few days coming down the coast and exploring San Francisco and San Mateo with family (my Grandma Youmans and Aunt Sue and Uncle Dave).

On Monday, Shannon and I headed south around the strike of noon.  We had planned to go a little further than Portland before turning to the coast but got tangled in some Portland traffic and decided enough was enough and headed West.  It was also exciting to go to the Coast right at Tillamook because it would mean I had driven all of 101 in Oregon.  We stopped for the night at Cape Lookout Campground and thrawted off some rainshowers before enjoying the beach:

The next morning, we headed further South and I really enjoyed seeing how the ecosystem changed slowly to a more and more dry climate.  The driving terrain south of Port Orford was particularly great. 

 

We stopped at the beach below and watched handfuls of windsurfers and kite boarders get after it.  While I occasionally attempt to wind surf, these guys were doing some pretty incredible stuff.  A double black of wind-surfing?  The wind was sculpting the sand in a pretty cool patterns.

It was time to call it a day at Patrick's Point State Park.  We had picked up firewood along the way and had a great sunset, campfire, and s'mores.  I take s'mores pretty seriously.  I love s'mores.

Before we left Patrick's Point the on Wednesday, we went to Wedding Rocks and watched the ocean pound the coast.  We weren't sure whether the fog just off shore was coming or going?

 

Then it was time to head in-land and drive through the Redwoods.  We stopped by "The GrandFather Tree".  Which was just huge.  How do trees get this huge?  I guess that's what happens when you're (supposedly) 1,800 years old.

 

After a bit more driving, we crossed the Golden Gate bridge and made our way to San Mateo where my Grandma lives.  We had a great meal at a restaurant called "3" and enjoyed catching up and checking out some old family photos in her house:

Yesterday we hit the streets of San Francisco.  First we checked out the Ferry Building and had some lunch from a street truck.  Then we met up with Aunt Sue and Uncle Dave and checked out the Cable Car Museum.  This was a pretty neat spot because it's actually where they run all the cables for the cable cars.  It's like a ski lift terminal on crack.  As a mechanical engineer, I really appreciated this stop.

A cable car ride seemed necessary after this and we went to checkout Pier 39 and eventually the Golden Gate bridge.  Sue and Dave were great tour guides!

We all met-up for dinner together at a neat place on the water before heading back to Sue and Dave's place for a delicious dessert!

Today we set-out for Kings Canyon/Sequoia national parks, eventually the Grand Canyon, and then Memphis.  We'll be off the grid for a while, but expect an update next week!

And... we're off!

After a delicious Thai dinner at Jai Thai in Fremont last night, we're ready to hit the open road.  We'll miss a lot about Seattle including an abundance of Thai (don't see that often in Ohio).

Our stuff... fits... in the car... mostly.  We're not yet at full on junk show level, but I'm pretty sure that will happen soon.  Here's a view of what we've got:

You see that big box of books?  We're taking the guidebooks we've accumulated for all the countries (including the US) we'll eventually visit.  We'll tackle some planning on the road. 

We're also schlepping two lanterns from our wedding across country to give to my Mom.  Because that makes sense (you're welcome Mom).  We're hoping to exchange this for some New York Maple Syrup (better than Vermont, Jason) that we'll schlep back the other direction.

Ok.  I think we're going off the radar (car camping) for a few days before arriving in San Francisco on Wednesday.  Cheers!

Beginnings...

Welcome to our blog!

We hope to use this site to keep everyone updated on our travels throughout the world over the next 9ish (12ish?) months.  We've been planning and packing like wild and are very excited (and overwhelmed) to hit the road!

Did we get ahead of ourselves?  A little more background... Shannon and I are jumping into what we have been calling Bonus Year (or "Operation Bonus").  We chose Bonus Year because we don't really like the idea that we're taking a "year off."  Instead we're taking a "bonus year" to travel and really explore the world and see what it has in-store for us next.  We want to learn, contribute, and connect while we're abroad, not just be unemployed slackers.  At the same time, we're both going to enjoy a bit of a break from the speed and intensity of the 9-5 life.

One of my favorite planning and dreaming trips was to Metsker Maps in downtown Seattle.

















I enjoyed the cashier's reaction when we bought a map of Patagonia, a Vienna guidebook, and a Canadian Rockies road Atlas.  Yes, we're up to no good.

Stay tuned as we kick things into gear!