Part 1: Road Trip to New Orleans, LA

I've been recovering from our road trip to New Orleans all week. HA! I'm kidding, but my house and wifely duties have suffered greatly.

Hence, my week-long absence. But I'm back, just hoping you guys didn't hold your breath!

SO...

This past weekend Klay and I road-tripped it to New Orleans, Louisiana to see our favorite band Kings of Leon in concert.

And, boy, did we pick a good weekend to go! The weather was incredible and we got the REAL New Orleans experience this time around.

We went in 2012 to watch the SD Chargers play the NO Saints (we are Chargers fans; go BOLTS!). Anyway, we headed down there early Sunday morning for a Sunday Night Football game and then left the next day. Needless to say, we didn't get to sight-see and never quite got a feel of the NOLA's culture.

This weekend, though, just happened to be the week New Orleans hosted a huge--and free--music festival called the French Quarter Fest. The annual festival has about 560,000 people in attendance each year, 1400 musicians of all genres across 21 stages and cuisines from some of LA's most iconic restaurants. It's dubbed "The Largest Free Festival in the South."

BUT... with every trip comes ups and downs.

It was definitely full of more ups than downs, but there were plenty of frustrations and are-you-freaking-serious moments.

Let's dive in, shall we?

So, we left late Thursday night and headed Bossier City, LA to spend the night.

It was about a 7-hour drive or so to New Orleans from my parents' house. And from our past road trip to NOLA, we knew we didn't want drive so much in one day, especially prior to the Kings of Leon concert that Friday night. So we opted to leave Thursday instead.

We had received a few things in the mail from Margaritaville (a casino in Bossier), but lost them, so Klay called to see if we could get a special promotion, especially since we would be visiting on a Thursday night.

Ya'll, we stayed there for $55! Holla!!!

Anyway, before we left, I wanted to stop of at Maurices to return something which was on the way. We had to take Brody to Klay's parents' house anyway and then to drop the dogs off at my parents' (which is literally 1.5 miles away), and the outlet mall was on the way.

We stopped, and I ran in to exchange something for some shoes and a purse for the concert. I ended up being $2.50 over. I looked in my purse for my wallet--dun dun dun--it was missing! Then, I recalled Brody playing with my purse the day before. Apparently he had taken out the wallet and hid it on the couch behind the cushions. #FML

We had to turn BACK around to go get it. It was already 6:30 p.m. and it's a 2 hour drive to Bossier City, and we still had drop off the kid and the dogs.

Klay said it was a good thing we stopped at Maurices, other wise, we probably wouldn't have known that it was missing until we got to Louisiana.

He was right...and I don't say that very often.

This trip was NOT off to a good start.

By the time we got to the hotel it was 11 o'clock. We were tired and ready to get to our room.

Things looked up when we discovered we had an end-suite with a balcony. It had two beds and a large balcony. We were really, really happy with it, especially since we've had our fair share of stays in places that look similar to the hotels in "Psycho" and "Vacancy."

NOT
EVEN
JOKING.

We had plenty of unpleasant stays on our 17-day trip from Alaska to Texas in 2011; some I had to sleep on our blankets that laid on top of the bed. It seriously would have been better if we slept in the car! I have no idea why we didn't. #roadiesforlife

Of course, we had to gamble while we were there. I mean, you can't go to Louisiana and not gamble, right?

I like the slots. Klay started playing roulette.

I didn't fare too well and lost my money pretty quick. No surprises there, Cass. 

Normally I play the quarter or dollar slots, but my money was dwindling fast so I tried the penny slots. I won about 40 bucks on one and then lost it. Story of my life. 

I went to check on Klay and watched him for a bit. He ended up about 80 dollars ahead, so we only ended up losing about 20 bucks all together! Yes, I blew a hundred in an hour. #wasntthefirsttime

We left early the next morning to ATTEMPT to get to New Orleans around 3ish. But we were definitely tired from the night before and went to bed around 3 a.m.

We talked and laughed along the way. Klay made fun of me and cracked jokes, as always--primarily about my feet. Despite hitting a little traffic, we arrived to New Orleans around 3:30-3:45 p.m.

We headed to the bed and breakfast Klay booked for us. We had searched for hotels for two weeks, but everything downtown on the weekends were listed for about $300 per night. Um... where's the nearest Motel 6? Ha! I'm kidding--kind of--but we tried to save money where we could.

Anyway, Klay booked a bed and breakfast so we could try something different. And, it had great reviews and was half the cost per night than the hotels downtown. By the time we pulled up, it was about 4ish.

The house was pretty on the outside--the classic NOLA look. I wasn't sure what to expect when we went inside. I saw two pictures of rooms online and the place looked very old and antique-y. Klay isn't big on "Grandma-style/museum housing" so I kind of knew he wouldn't dig it.

Immediately when we walked in we got a wiff of old, "this-is-place-is-ancient" smell. The doors were massive, the staircases were steep, the halls narrow, the floors creaked and the smell was just OLD. Mona-Lisa-looking paintings of people (who weren't Mona Lisa) hung on the wall. I felt like I stepped back in time. I was surprised they had electricity. HA! I kid, I kid.

Klay gave me a look like "WTF did I get us into" and I smiled because I knew what he was thinking.

The guy was super nice and showed us our room. We apparently had a suite, if you could call it that. We walked in to a pretty good sized room with our own bathroom that definitely could barely fit one person in it. It was tiny; pictures are deceiving ya'll.

He left us there and walked out. We didn't take our bags out of the car yet because we wanted to check out the place first.

As soon as the hotel dude shut the door, I sat down on the lower corner of the bed gauging Klay's reaction as he examined the room. The floors and the rooms were filthy--dust bunnies galore.

"I'm not into all of this old stuff and these people [in the paintings] staring at us. It's creepy," he said.

I did kind of feel like I may see a ghost at any moment, so I understood where he was coming from. My primary issue is smell and cleanliness. And I have a STRONG sense of smell. It's pretty much like a curse.

Klay sat on the corner at the top of the bed (by the headboard) and that's when I heard a CRACK, KERPLUNK, BAM!

YA'LL,

THE
DAMN
BED
BROKE

and

KLAY
TUMBLED
ONTO
THE FLOOR.

"Oh my God! Klay! You broke the bed!" I said laughing.

He stood up smiling and examined where the bed broke.

Apparently someone had wrapped a clothes hanger around the bed post to try to keep it up.

We had only been there ALONE for barely two minutes in that room and the bed broke.

ONLY US.

If anyone asks, Klay was going to blame it on our crazy "sex-ca-pades."

I didn't have any make up on which meant I still had to get ready for the concert which started at 8 p.m. It was now 4:30 and we needed to decide if we wanted to stay here (if they had another room available) or if we can manage to find a hotel nearby for a reasonable price so I could FIX all of this (meaning myself) for the concert.

Klay and I went to tell the guy what happened, he came and checked it out and agreed it wouldn't be fixable, so he went to call his boss to ask what he should do. Klay and I talked and pretty much decided we would try to call some hotels either way (maybe this was a sign we shouldn't stay here), but we waited for the fella to come back and give us options.

He told us that the owner knew the bed needed fixing, but hadn't gotten around to it yet. Well, DUH!

They had one more room available. We went up a huge flight of stairs into a bright neon orange room, with a "kitchenette" which was pretty much just counter tops and cabinets that we wouldn't use anyway. It had a living room area with a twin bed and a couch I wouldn't sit on to save my life. The linens on the bed were old, smelly and faded. Nothing was clean or updated. Everything looked like it was originally from the house when it was built in the 1840s.

It was about 40 degrees warmer than the room downstairs. We asked the guy to give us a minute to talk it over.

We had already paid the deposit so we needed to get it back. But we pretty much knew we didn't want to stay in this room. It was unsettling with the bright colored walls and the steep flight of stairs that looked like they could collapse any moment.

The other room was like the Ritz compared to this one.

Klay called Hotels.com to see if we could book a room at the Hyatt Regency downtown (which was two blocks away from the Smoothie King Center where Kings of Leon was playing). When we had looked earlier that week rooms were $300+ a night, but online it was saying it was now $160 per night.

We booked a room at the Hyatt and decided it would be a better option anyway, especially since we were closer to the concert. I guess since it was the same day, the hotels cut the price so they could fill more rooms.

We went downstairs and told the guy we were going to leave. He apologized and refunded the money. We headed to the Hyatt which was only two miles or so down the road.

We had to park in public parking because we didn't want to bay $40 a night to valet (which was the only parking this hotel had). I wasn't about to spend $80 to park for two nights. No way, no how, see ya! (SNAPS!)

So, we paid to park for $20 a day in a nearby lot across the street. Mind you, we are in downtown New Orleans so there are buildings, cars and stoplights galore.

We could only pay for one day at a time so we'd have to make back down there before it expired at 5 p.m. the next day.

We walked across with our luggage in tow and waited to cross again on the median.

This white BMW zoomed passed us trying to beat a yellow light to turn left. She was in the lane closest to us nearly hitting Klay who stood in front of me.

She turns left and we cross. We were talking about the crazy driver and were about 10 feet into the street when we hear BAM, SCREECH, BAM!

The sound of glass shattering echoed for a second and Klay and I turned around. The BMW ran a red light and was T-boned. Airbags deployed, glass was everywhere and two cars were destroyed. We were only 30 feet away or so from the now, wrecked car.

My heart pounded, everyone stared at the wrecked cars. When we reached the other side, we turned around to look again. The guy who t-boned her got out to check on her (she was still on her phone). Everyone around us said "She ran a red light. It was her fault." They weren't talking to us, but talking to their friends who stood nearby.

Klay and I continued on to the hotel. My heart was still racing. I was clearly shaken. I'd never witnessed a wreck like that before, much less being so close nearby--and pedestrians on top of that.

I can't even imagine how high my blood pressure was. I was already stressed about having to get ready, my hair was a hot mess and needed washing, we had witnessed a wreck, and booked a new hotel room because Klay broke the bed at the B&B we were supposed to stay at.

Gosh, that was a long sentence. But that's how it felt! It was one thing after the next, after the next.

With our luck, we'd get to the Hyatt and they wouldn't know who we were or where our reservation was! Luckily that didn't happen.

We walked in, they knew who we were, had our room ready and went up two escalators to get to the elevators so we could go to our room on the 19th floor. Yes, 19th!

This place was like a mini airport, ya'll. It had 4 restaurants and a Starbucks all in one place--and I'm a coffee whore--so I was stoked.

We went to the elevators, which had a touch screen panel to select your floor. It was fancy, schmancy.

We made it up to our floor and into our room. I immediately started to get ready and asked Klay to call and order some food from one of the restaurants to be sent up. We needed to eat a little something before the concert. It was now 5:30 or so and I didn't know what I was going to wear or when we should leave. We decide we should leave around 6:45 and walk over.

My BFF Cami also came to New Orleans to see KOL too. So, we planned to meet up with her and her friend Jeremiah before the concert started.

I got ready--tried to curl my hair--but it wasn't working. I really wanted to wash it, but I didn't have time. So it stayed straight and messy and I sprayed the shit out of it with dry shampoo. #oilyhairproblems

Klay and I headed to the concert and walked in to the lines to get your handbags and pockets checked prior to entering.

This fool pulls out his ($50) pocket knife he forgot he had on him (which they saw) and he had to throw it away. They didn't even check our pockets... they required us to take stuff out so he could have made it through with it had he not pulled it out. He clearly wasn't thinking. UGH. Yet, another frustration.

I could feel our bank out depleting at every new expense:

New Hotel: CHA-CHING
$40 Parking: CHA-CHING
$50 Pocket Knife in trash: CHA-CHING

Needless to say, I was in dire need of a beer after everything that had happened in the past two hours. I just wanted to enjoy an adult beverage and relax.

Klay was MR. Grumpy Pants after the knife thing. We could have taken it back to the hotel because we were so close, but he didn't want to.

Luckily, Cami and Jeremiah came in and saved the day. Our moods shifted as we gossiped and talked about anything and everything before the concert. And Jeremiah was pretty amazing at feeding us drinks and shots every few minutes. Our hands were rarely empty throughout the ENTIRE weekend. Thanks, J!

I was so ready for KOL to come on stage. This is the band I obsess over. I know almost every song they sing. I listen to them all the time and Klay and I have a sentimental history with them.

Their music reminds of us of different parts of our lives. From living in Alaska to our trip across the country to the birth of our son, we are tethered to this band and their music forever.

Plus they rock.

The concert was so amazing, even though this wasn't the first time for us to see them in concert! I sang so much I was afraid I wouldn't be able to talk the next day. If you follow my instagram, you can check out a video that basically proves I should never sing in public.

It was a blast.

As soon as it was over, we headed to Bourbon Street with Cami and Jeremiah.

Group Selfie!

Daiquiris!

Always a good time with this lovely!

And they were huge!

This guy was the cutest guy on Bourbon!

Deep Convo and a Cami Photobomb. 

Why is everyone pointing? 

Things were a bit crazy, beads were thrown, drinks were drank, shots were shot, food was eaten, selfies were selfie-d...

And well, what happens in NOLA, stays in NOLA.

It was such a good time!

We didn't make it back to our hotel til after 3 a.m.

So what do you think happened the next day? It was a doozy.

Click to read part 2!

Best,

Day 16: Hoover Dam, Grand Canyon, Arizona & New Mexico

Before we left Sin City, we had to stop at Gold and Silver Pawn Shop (the pawn shop on the hit TV show "Pawn Stars"). Klay absolutely loves that show and I like it too. We walked in to the amazingly crowded pawn shop, which looks just like it does on the shop. Klay watched something about the filming of the show a while back and because the show has become so popular, they only allow the people in the shop that they're talking to while they film (so they completely clear out all the other customers). The guys on the show only come out for the filming because they get swarmed with fans. After visiting it in person, we see why. There were so many people at the shop (they even have their own gift shop with t-shirts, mugs, blankets, etc. with Rick, Corey, Chum Lee and the Old Man's faces on it. The gift shop nearly took up half of the store.

The guys were in New York or so we were told. But it was definitely cool to walk around and see actual items that were purchased on the show. Klay would say "I remember that episode." That was a cool little pit stop on our way out of the city.

We headed south to the Hoover Dam, which was only 30 miles from Vegas. The dam is huge and tourists and travelers crowded the walkways taking pictures of the massive structure. It was designed from 1931-1935, and many people died during the construction of it. We kept joking that "The Cube" was below (as seen on "Transformers"). It was a pretty neat place to stop. We parked and had to walk down to be actually on the dam. I had to go to the bathroom, and the long walked like to kill me. Note: When visiting the Hoover Dam, go to the restroom before you actually get to the dam!



After viewing the site, we headed to the south rim of the Grand Canyon (about a 4-hour drive from Hoover Dam). The Grand Canyon is what it promises--grand. It's crazy how large and immense it is! It was definitely worth the drive. We walked a bit on a trail enjoying the spectacular view when Klay's nose started to bleed. We had to walk all the way back to the car to get some napkins for him.

It was around 5 p.m. when we finally reached the Grand Canyon so after walking around the time flew by. We wanted to get to New Mexico tonight. After 15 days of travel, we're now officially tired of being in the car. We're just ready punch the rest of this trip out and stay in a house!

After stopping off a few more times and enjoying the site of the Grand Canyon, we headed and went through Flagstaff. I started driving (Klay was tired) to try to see how far we could get. After 5 more hours of driving, we landed in Albuquerque, New Mexico around 1 a.m., where we stopped and are staying in a hotel.

Ready to relax until we leave in the morning!

This trip has been crazy!

See how it all ends "From the Road..." as we round up the end of the trip!

Day 15: Viva Las Vegas

We woke up around 11 a.m. It was so nice to sleep in and not have to get up and get in the car! We got ready and took the dogs outside for a walk. Walking the dogs to their 'potty area' outside of the hotel, we had to walk through the casino. I can't tell you how many people "awed" at our pups. Everyone seemed to be amazed by them--like they've never seen dogs before.

Billie would turn his head at the machines when they'd make noise, and overtime we'd walk by this cafe, he'd try to pull me in there. He really wanted some food!

We had lunch at the Tequila Bar in Bally's hotel and casino (which is connected to Paris Hotel), where we ordered the biggest plate of nachos. It was $16, but we split it. We didn't even scratch the surface of the plate. These were some TEXAS size nachos (I know all my Alaska buddies will roll their eyes at that comment). We gambled at Bally's  where we had no luck and then walked to Planet Hollywood, and gambled a bit there (again, no luck!). We just walked around seeing what all Vegas had to offer.

We went back to the hotel to check on the pups, and Klay took a nap (it was already 6 p.m.). Since he fell asleep, so did I. We woke up around 8:30 p.m. and headed out again. We walked over to the Bellagio to watch the famous fountain. That was pretty cool. Of course, we saw it shoot up the night before, but we didn't actually watch the entire thing.

We walked all the way down to MGM (gambled a bit; again, won nothing) and New York, New York, which was pretty cool. We ate and by the time we left, it was already past midnight, so we headed back toward the hotel.

One thing that was sort of annoying are the people on the corners of the street trying to hand men cards with the number for escorts on there. These people are everywhere handing out these cards and there are at least five of them on each corner. That sort of gets old.


But overall Vegas at night is a sight to see. It's seriously a town that never sleeps. I'm amazed at how many people are there and work at all hours of the night. I don't know how they do it.

Klay and I enjoyed our last night walking around and taking in Vegas. We actually got to spend some quality time together, laughing and enjoying each other.

For some reason, Klay thinks it's funny to talk in different accents to people. So, he definitely kept me amused!

We got back to the room past 1 a.m., took showers (have to get that smoke-smell off!)  and then went to bed. Off to the Hoover Dam and Grand Canyon tomorrow.

Thanks for reading and stay up-to-date "From the Road…" for more details from our trip! It's not over yet! =)

[gallery columns="2"]

Day 14: Leaving SD and onto Las Vegas, NV

Before leaving San Diego, we, OF COURSE, had to hit up the Chargers fan shop at Qualcomm Stadium. We both bought shirts and then we went to the ticket office. After talking to the man about how we drove all the way from Alaska to see the stadium, a man was nice enough to show us the field where all of the action happens. The field wasn't painted or anything, but it was definitely cool to see where the Chargers play! Klay was exceptionally excited. We hope to one day come back and go to a game!

After that we headed to Vegas, and on the way I fell asleep. My eye hadn't gotten much better and was irritating me so I took a nap. I woke up and we were right outside of Nevada state line. As soon as we crossed the state line there were casinos, hotels and shops. But we moved forward toward our destination.

We stayed at Paris Hotel on the Vegas strip. They accepted dogs for a decent price and allowed guests to leave their pets in the room (which most hotels don't allow), so it was a perfect fit for us! Seeing Vegas in person is pretty awesome. Neither of us have ever been, so we were ready to get out there and experience it.

After we got settled in our room, we went to eat--we were starving--and then we walked around the strip--and there are lots of weird people out there. It was cool though to see all the people who stand out there and showcase their talents. And as some of you may know, you can walk around and carry your beer/drinks on the strip wherever you go, so there were tons of drunks too.

We went to gamble at Harrah's first and didn't really win much there. We were about to head to Caesar's Palace when we saw this guy who was spray painting pictures of the Vegas skyline with just the spray can and paper (it's hard to describe, but he's crazy talented). Klay and I ended up watching him for 30 minutes and bought two paintings.

We arrived at Caesar's Palace, and I sat down and put a $20 bill in a quarter slot machine. The first pull, I got nothing; but the second, I won $175 bucks. Klay didn't believe me until he walked over to the machine. After I didn't hit on that machine anymore, so I walked around to another one and hit $40 right off the bat. Then I'd work my way down to about $150 and hit $60. I probably hit $60 bucks on this machine four times and hit $120 once. I ended up playing that machine for two hours because every time I'd get to stopping point it'd bump me back up. I ended up walking away winning $130.

I know for Vegas it might not be that much, but at least I was winning and not losing! I can't say the same for Klay; he had no luck. Poor thing, his money went quick!

On the way back to our hotel, we decided to stay another night. We were dying to sleep in, actually relax and take a day to do whatever we wanted. We got back to the room around 1:30 a.m., took a shower and crashed!

Having fun living the Vegas lifestyle...tune in tomorrow for more "From the Road…"

Day 13: Laguna Beach & San Diego, CA

Today was the most exciting day for Klay. Like my day yesterday, he got his "Buffy" moment. We arrived in San Diego, got situated in our hotel and headed to Qualcomm Stadium, where the San Diego Chargers play (Klay's favorite NFL team and mine too). So he was excited to finally see in person the city of San Diego and of course the stadium!

The team shop was closed, so we will hit that up tomorrow, so we drove around the stadium looking everything over. I could really tell he was so happy to see it, but I know he was disappointed that the team fan shop was closed and it wasn't football season. He's dying to go to a game.



After looking at the stadium, we went to eat at Dave and Busters and play some games. We were just enjoying ourselves as much as possible. It's gotten to the point now where it's really hard to leave the dogs in the car (because it's hot) and having dogs on the trip has hindered us on our options for things to do. And the dogs are getting more and more restless in the car. I think they're ready to be back at home.

But it was nice to chill out and joke around for a while!

With it being our last night on the California coast, Klay and I took the dogs to a nearby beach for a walk. We were going to watch the sun set, but we couldn't find a parking spot (I guess everyone had the same plan we did) so we caught just the tip of the sun as it finally set. Then we sat on a bench looking at the ocean and enjoying the view. It was so pretty and definitely makes us question moving back to Texas.

So not too much happened today, we'll probably do some more cruising around San Diego tomorrow. Supposed to head to Vegas tomorrow too!

I'll be hearing the sound of slot machines in my sleep!

P.S. We also passed through Laguna Beach! It was a pretty cool town with houses everywhere. The beach was crazy crowded too! But it was neat to finally pass through it after watching the show so much. =)

Stay tuned for more "From the Road..."

Laguna Beach on Dwellable

Day 12: Malibu, Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Beverly Hills & Hollywood

Before we left sunny Santa Barbara, Klay and I decided to take a nice walk on the beach. It was beautiful and relaxing! Klay really loved Santa Barbara and says he likes southern California better than northern Cali. But we just took our time and walked along the beach, soaking in the sun and fun, before heading to the city.

After seeing how beautiful Santa Barbara is on the beach , we definitely weren't ready to go to chaotic Los Angeles. But to fit in the basic tourist attractions in LA we had to take off.

We traveled down Hwy 1 (the Pacific Coast Highway), going through Malibu, passing Neptune's Net (the place seen on "Fast and the Furious" and a few other TV shows and movies like "The Hills"). Traveling on a Saturday in Malibu and Los Angeles was terrible--at least it was for us, and perhaps this is why we enjoyed Oregon so much. For one, there were way too many people and cars in Malibu and LA. When we finally got to Santa Monica, we just rolled on through because it was crazy busy and packed with no parking anywhere. So, we headed toward Hollywood and Beverly Hills. I'd been to LA before (in 2006) so I'd seen all of this, but of course I wanted to show Klay the 'touristy' type attractions.

We went down Rodeo Dr (of course) and headed to Hollywood Blvd to park and walk down the 'Walk of Fame.' We walked down looking at all the stars w/ celeb names lined along the street.


Apparently, there was an event happening Grauman's Chinese Theatre (it was some kind of film festival) so it was packed.

We didn't get to do too much walking around there because it was 80 degrees and we had to leave the pups in the car (we cracked the windows), so we didn't stay long.

We spent the next hour and a half trying to find somewhere to eat (our GPS was messing up), and then we would go to a place and it wasn't there or didn't look very good. The one thing really stupid thing I will say about LA is that there are NO, and I mean NO, green left arrow lights. So with all of the people in the city and with every street packed and busy, you have to gun it when the light is yellow to turn left; it's awful and left turns take forever because of it. And, once again we have pedestrians and bicyclists flying out in front of the vehicle at their own will. A couple of them almost got hit--not by us, but some other people!

Overall this was one of those frustrating days where every place we turned had construction, we kept spilling things or knocking things over (which created more problems and frustration), and had trouble with virtually everything. We were still having some fun, but it was too busy out for us to really enjoy ourselves.

The one thing that I'd always dreamed of doing was visiting the school where "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," my favorite TV show, was filmed (along with other shows/movies like "Beverly Hills 90210," "She's All That," "Bring It On," "Not Another Teen Movie," among many others). And today, my dream finally came true!

I'd googled it's location (along with a couple of other Buffy filming locations, which we didn't go to), and Klay and I found it! I flipped when I finally saw it.

Luckily, Torrance High School (the name of the actual school), was having an event and they had the school not completely gated off. So, Klay and I walked around and I was citing lines from "She's All That" and "Buffy" showing him where they filmed what scene and what episode it was in, etc.  Then, we found the Sunnydale HS courtyard (Sunnydale is the fictional town Buffy lives in)!

I seriously had  a few tears come out! I know, I know I'm lame! But imagine this, people: I've watched this show since the 4th grade.

I've seen every episode, and the first couple seasons are my absolute favorites--I might possibly be the biggest Buffy fan ever (check out my old Facebook photos for proof; pics of my old Buffy room are on there). I think I know most of the words to every show, so seeing this literally made be the happiest Buffy fan on the planet.

This day definitely ended on a high note--at least for me! Klay kept joking that we needed to be careful and watch out for all the demons because we were on the hellmouth! Just an FYI--I'm kicking some vampire butt in the picture to the right! This was definitely one of the coolest things I've done. Now, I just want to get my DVDs of the show and watch them for the millionth time!

Tonight we're staying at the Ramada Inn in Newport Beach. This hotel is completely booked (no joke) along with the rest of the hotels in Newport. We're lucky enough to have the laundry room right next to us (that was sarcasm) and it's midnight and the housekeeping staff is still working. So that's sort of annoying because the dogs flip out when they hear people talking and walking. It's now 1:20 a.m. and I'm still not asleep.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed this post! Tomorrow's destination: San Diego! Gooooo Chargers! Whoop!

Thanks for reading "From the Road..." and stay tuned for more posts!

Day 11: Santa Barbara, CA

Ok, I apologize for not posting last night! I'll explain all that happened...

We got off to a late start to the day not leaving the hotel til around 10 a.m. Then, we went to an urgent care center (called 'Doctors on Duty') to find out what was wrong with my eye and get medicine (it started to get worse overnight). Luckily, the place we went to took Tricare (our insurance) and we sat and waited for about 45 minutes until I was seen by a doctor.

The doctor came in for a 2 WHOLE minutes, looked at my eye, told me it was infected and prescribed me some antibiotic eye drops. We spent another hour and half talking to 8 people on the phone with our insurance and Elmendorf (our base in Alaska) to make sure that we wouldn't have to pay for the visit. It's hard to explain, and it's boring, so basically we were annoyed with talking to so many people who all told us several different things to do. It was frustrating and took up the bulk of our day.


We arrived in Santa Barbara (about a 3 1/2 hour drive) around 4 p.m. and ate late lunch. I wanted to go to Santa Barbara Winery (a winery I visited in 2006) and do a tasting. We made it just in time, a little before 5 p.m. (which is when it closed), to do a tasting. The tasting cost $5 and we got to taste six wines (they actually gave us a free one, and I asked to try two more, so we tried nine). Klay and I tend to sway more toward white wines instead of reds, and we already had bought three white wines, so we were trying to find a red we liked. We ended up buying two red wines at the Syrah and a ZCS.

Then, we walked across the street to do another tasting at Oreana Winery. It was $6 for six wines and was a really cool place! In the photo of Klay and I, we were about to drink the "Eliminator" which has 20% alcohol content. It was a little strong for me, but wasn't too bad.



A block away from Oreana, was another winery, which gave a whopping 11 tastings for $8. Their wines we weren't to crazy about. But we met some friendly folks who suggested some places to stop at in Los Angeles.

Our hotel was right around the corner and I'd already started getting a headache. I thought about blogging, but when Klay got out the computer, we apparently had to pay money for Wifi! I went ahead and went to sleep (although I probably wouldn't have blogged any way; the wine got the best of me). I woke up with a massive migraine, took some medicine, went back to sleep and woke up just peachy (literally no headache or anything)! Needless to say we didn't stop at any more wineries before leaving Santa Barbara.

But Klay and I really had fun and have learned a lot more about wine on our trip!



Stay tuned for more "From the Road..."

Santa Barbara on Dwellable

[gallery columns="2"]

Day 9: Sonoma & Healdsburg, CA

After a horrible night's sleep, I couldn't wait to leave Fort Bragg. We left bright and early and entered wine country. Of course, we couldn't resist another 11 a.m. wine tasting!

We pulled into Saracina Winery in Mendocino County. We walked into a wine tasting cave (I guess that's what you would call it) with another group of people. The cave was pretty big and really cool.

We discovered that they were big winos, and the eight of them were really cool. They plan a trip to wine country every year. They had a spreadsheet with wineries to visit (on each day of their 5-day trip), with the phone numbers and addresses, cost of the wine tastings, etc. And they were nice enough to give Klay and I copies of their spreadsheets and maps for places to stop.



During the tasting, Klay didn't like any of the red wines. I used to not like them, but I thought some of them were pretty tasty (or perhaps after the sixth one). We ended up buying another bottle of wine (which makes three so far) at Saracina.

Then, we headed to Francis Ford Coppola Winery (the guy who directed "The Godfather." Yes, he has his own winery (actually, I think he has two). And this place was huge! He had a restaurant, bar, pool and memorabilia from his movies. They had they desk from "The Godfather" and costumes from "The Dracula."

We ate lunch at the Coppola winery, and it was pretty awesome. Then, we wanted to go to a nice hotel and just relax some more. Yesterday wasn't very relaxing, and I really need some sleep!



Both wineries were pretty neat, we might hit up a couple of more on the way to San Francisco tomorrow.

Hope you like the videos! Keep reading "From the Road..."

Healdsburg on Dwellable

Day 8: California & Redwood National Park

Today was a sad day for us. Leaving Oregon, was unexpectedly sad and disappointing. I thought originally we'd be excited to get to California, but Oregon was truly amazing. Our little cabin was so awesome, we didn't leave til checkout time at 11 a.m. We tried to relax and soak it all in.

When we got in the car, Klay told me he had a song for me...Can anyone guess what it was? If you thought "On the road again," you were right on the money! I guess he got tired of singing and decided to let Willie Nelson do it for him--or at least thats what he said.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ag3w0MS6wv0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3]



We decided to stop off at one last beach right before the Oregon/California state line.

We ended up spending an hour just walking along the beach with the dogs and picking up white rocks along the shoreline. It was nice and relaxing, and I knew that when leaving the stunning Oregon coast I'd be sad.



We got to California without a hitch and with Oregon behind us, I figured I'd focus on our excitement for Redwood National Park.

We stopped at a Redwoods visitor center to get some more info and directions on nice paths to take, so we'd know exactly where to go. When we got to our first path, our immediate reaction to the redwoods was: "Whoa." Here's why (see the pics!)...

These trees can get up to 361 feet and 25 feet wide (according to Klay; he's the one that remembers). So they really are giants.



Majority of our day we spent driving through the parks gazing at these gigantic beauties. While driving in through the parks, we passed a ton of wild elk.



So the destination for today's trip was for Fort Bragg, CA to spend the night and it was a horrible idea.

By the time we were almost to Fort Bragg it was pitch black and I was driving.

We turned off to Hwy 1 which took us down the curviest, swerviest, ridiculous road ever. It took an hour just to get 30 miles. We were running low on gas (which I was slightly worried about) and I couldn't see anything. I have a tendency to hit deer, or they like to run it to me (that's the way I like to think), so it was crazy scary for me!



But we made it to Fort Bragg just fine. I'd looked up places to stay in that area and found what I THOUGHT was a nice place (it had a spa). Boy, was I wrong! We still stayed, but had a horrible night sleep. Glad to leave in the AM!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dvqLjV6zYg&w=560&h=349]

Stay tuned for more "From the Road..."

[gallery columns="2"]