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three:
lunch with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kilroi, Erin, and Charisse at Roscoe's. Merritt Bakery makes some tasty waffles, but Roscoe's has them easily beat for the chicken & waffles combination...they make some damn tasty fried chicken there, and the waffles are the thin Waffle-House-style, and taste of cinnamon and nutmeg. after lunch, we trekked across LA to Costa del Mar & Huntington Beach, maintaining mostly-imperturbable zen through the traffic. walked around Costa del Mar with Elise & Flora-the-dog, down past the cliffside beach and back around again: Catalina Island in the distance, and huge ships hovering on the horizon. had coffee with Chris & Elise. "you know, your life kinda sounds like a long series of drunken bets," he says, after hearing the stories of Matilda's aquisition and how the roadtrip was planned. it doesn't sound like a compliment to me, but it made me laugh, and i'm having a hell of a good time, so i'm not going to argue.
Elise ran off to her class, and we grabbed Chris and drove up to Huntington Beach to meetwalkinthewilds for dinner. there was a small army of screechy cheerleaders, but we managed to stay out of trouble, get food and drink, and meander down towards the beach, where there was a bar and a fire. many stories traded and told, and much laughter -- a fine evening indeed. we dropped Chris back off at his house, played with Flora and the overgrown-hamster-dog, left a small gift of some Mary Prankster albums, and rolled on back out the door to crash at walkinthewilds's house, who we then shanghai'd into coming to Vegas with us. mwah-hah-ha!
four:
breakfast at a little French-esque cafe in Irvine withwalkinthewilds, Chris, & Elise, and then the three of us and Matilda headed northeast to Joshua Tree, where we climbed around like monkeys for a few hours all over the Wonderland of Rocks, small mountains of huge rounded boulders. from there we hit the long desert highways again, me grinning like a maniac and laughing to drive such a perfect car for those roads. we pulled over at the side of the highway to watch the sun fall into the mountains, to watch the colors turn, to take in a little of the desert peace with the rush and fall of noise and wind from passing trucks. the music was good, the company was good, and we came through the last hills into Vegas in the dark, and suddenly there was a city of lights, and the strip blazing out, neon and spotlights in the center.
we made it to the hotel in time to shower off the dust and sweat, and change into something a bit more appropriate.l_stboy and walkinthewilds were a little short on interesting costumery, but i did my best to make up for it. *grin* twirly blue satin skirt (with grommets and laces!), tailored dark-wine satin top, boots and stripey socks, leather jacket, and of course the top hat. we swept down through Vegas with style, panache, and hats, fed our famished bellies, and went into the theater to see Cirque du Soleil's O, which was phenomenal. fire and water, clowns and zebras, flips and dives and dancing; i was full of wonder and laughter through the whole show, and i think i could see it another two or three times and be just as charmed.
afterwards we went to Paris for champagne, cassis, and dessert;l_stboy won a little on the slots, and eventually we decided it was the better part of valor to give up at three in the morning and go to sleep instead of staying up to make trouble.
five:
breakfast in Paris at a creperie, andwalkinthewilds's aunt came by to meet us. (which foiled our plan to sell walkinthewilds to a brothel before leaving town, but i suppose that's probably better in the long run.) a slow day. we said our goodbyes, went to buy odds and ends for Matilda, hung the new fuzzy dice on the rearview mirror, and finally made our escape from Las Vegas less than 24 hours after arriving. on the road again, and banzai!
six:
the winding desert highways took us to the Grand Canyon in the dark of night, but we snagged the last room in one of the rim lodges and woke at sunrise the next morning with the Grand Canyon stretching out from twenty yards outside the window, on as far as the horizon. these places...words don't do justice, and pictures can't catch the scale and depth and detail and color. it's just not possible. so, then, just this: go. get on the road, get in a plane, move, open your eyes, and come see, come walk down these cliffs and canyons and trails.
we walked down a bit of the Bright Angel Trail, which winds down the cliffside, out to the edge of a plateau, and then down the inner gorge to the river. we walked an hour down and a bit more up, and only got maybe a third of the way down the cliff. between that and the climbing at Joshua Tree, my leg-muscles were screaming, but it was a good kind of screaming. from there we drove around to the Watchtower on the east side of the Canyon for sunset, and then out on the highways again to Page, Arizona.
(more to be added later...)
seven:
Mike's coffeeshop in Page, then on to Zion, camping and thunderstorm.
eight:
Zion, Angel's Landing trail, drive down the canyon and back out again, on and up the roads to Bryce. snow on red rocks in the darkness. Ruby's Inn and a good hot bath.
nine:
it's sunny and snowing. breakfast with country music ("whiskey for my men, beer for my horses"), too cold for trail rides, heading out now to drive through Bryce and look at sculptures made by hands of wind and ice and the movement of the earth.
...l_stboy and walkinthewilds have some pictures up on their journals, so take a look over there.
lunch with
kilroi, Erin, and Charisse at Roscoe's. Merritt Bakery makes some tasty waffles, but Roscoe's has them easily beat for the chicken & waffles combination...they make some damn tasty fried chicken there, and the waffles are the thin Waffle-House-style, and taste of cinnamon and nutmeg. after lunch, we trekked across LA to Costa del Mar & Huntington Beach, maintaining mostly-imperturbable zen through the traffic. walked around Costa del Mar with Elise & Flora-the-dog, down past the cliffside beach and back around again: Catalina Island in the distance, and huge ships hovering on the horizon. had coffee with Chris & Elise. "you know, your life kinda sounds like a long series of drunken bets," he says, after hearing the stories of Matilda's aquisition and how the roadtrip was planned. it doesn't sound like a compliment to me, but it made me laugh, and i'm having a hell of a good time, so i'm not going to argue.Elise ran off to her class, and we grabbed Chris and drove up to Huntington Beach to meet
walkinthewilds for dinner. there was a small army of screechy cheerleaders, but we managed to stay out of trouble, get food and drink, and meander down towards the beach, where there was a bar and a fire. many stories traded and told, and much laughter -- a fine evening indeed. we dropped Chris back off at his house, played with Flora and the overgrown-hamster-dog, left a small gift of some Mary Prankster albums, and rolled on back out the door to crash at walkinthewilds's house, who we then shanghai'd into coming to Vegas with us. mwah-hah-ha!four:
breakfast at a little French-esque cafe in Irvine with
walkinthewilds, Chris, & Elise, and then the three of us and Matilda headed northeast to Joshua Tree, where we climbed around like monkeys for a few hours all over the Wonderland of Rocks, small mountains of huge rounded boulders. from there we hit the long desert highways again, me grinning like a maniac and laughing to drive such a perfect car for those roads. we pulled over at the side of the highway to watch the sun fall into the mountains, to watch the colors turn, to take in a little of the desert peace with the rush and fall of noise and wind from passing trucks. the music was good, the company was good, and we came through the last hills into Vegas in the dark, and suddenly there was a city of lights, and the strip blazing out, neon and spotlights in the center. we made it to the hotel in time to shower off the dust and sweat, and change into something a bit more appropriate.
l_stboy and walkinthewilds were a little short on interesting costumery, but i did my best to make up for it. *grin* twirly blue satin skirt (with grommets and laces!), tailored dark-wine satin top, boots and stripey socks, leather jacket, and of course the top hat. we swept down through Vegas with style, panache, and hats, fed our famished bellies, and went into the theater to see Cirque du Soleil's O, which was phenomenal. fire and water, clowns and zebras, flips and dives and dancing; i was full of wonder and laughter through the whole show, and i think i could see it another two or three times and be just as charmed. afterwards we went to Paris for champagne, cassis, and dessert;
l_stboy won a little on the slots, and eventually we decided it was the better part of valor to give up at three in the morning and go to sleep instead of staying up to make trouble. five:
breakfast in Paris at a creperie, and
walkinthewilds's aunt came by to meet us. (which foiled our plan to sell walkinthewilds to a brothel before leaving town, but i suppose that's probably better in the long run.) a slow day. we said our goodbyes, went to buy odds and ends for Matilda, hung the new fuzzy dice on the rearview mirror, and finally made our escape from Las Vegas less than 24 hours after arriving. on the road again, and banzai! six:
the winding desert highways took us to the Grand Canyon in the dark of night, but we snagged the last room in one of the rim lodges and woke at sunrise the next morning with the Grand Canyon stretching out from twenty yards outside the window, on as far as the horizon. these places...words don't do justice, and pictures can't catch the scale and depth and detail and color. it's just not possible. so, then, just this: go. get on the road, get in a plane, move, open your eyes, and come see, come walk down these cliffs and canyons and trails.
we walked down a bit of the Bright Angel Trail, which winds down the cliffside, out to the edge of a plateau, and then down the inner gorge to the river. we walked an hour down and a bit more up, and only got maybe a third of the way down the cliff. between that and the climbing at Joshua Tree, my leg-muscles were screaming, but it was a good kind of screaming. from there we drove around to the Watchtower on the east side of the Canyon for sunset, and then out on the highways again to Page, Arizona.
(more to be added later...)
seven:
Mike's coffeeshop in Page, then on to Zion, camping and thunderstorm.
eight:
Zion, Angel's Landing trail, drive down the canyon and back out again, on and up the roads to Bryce. snow on red rocks in the darkness. Ruby's Inn and a good hot bath.
nine:
it's sunny and snowing. breakfast with country music ("whiskey for my men, beer for my horses"), too cold for trail rides, heading out now to drive through Bryce and look at sculptures made by hands of wind and ice and the movement of the earth.
...
l_stboy and walkinthewilds have some pictures up on their journals, so take a look over there.
