Flashback post: Chicago to LA

My move from Chicago to LA was my first proper road trip, but unfortunately it was too long ago to have kept a lot of information from it. Also, I had no idea what the hell I was doing. I went with my brother and constant travel buddy Nick (you'll get to know him, trust me) and my friend Sarah, who did a good deal of the planning. She knew where to stop, and she knew our last stop of San Diego really well, so we depended on her for a lot of it. Our trip took us from picking her up in Iowa to a night in Oklahoma City, then through Texas and into Roswell, then straight through to San Diego, where we spent two nights. We'd drive most of the day, make stops, and then make calls to hotels on our way to wherever we were stopping for the night. We stopped mainly at fast food places, and nothing really stoood out, good or bad when it came to where we ate or where we stayed. Sadly, I didn't know back then that I'd be blogging, or what a blog was, really.

But. I have some highlights for what we did. Behold:

Roswell. I looooove Roswell. It's kitschy and a clear tourist trap and I adore it. It's a place where the lamps on the lightposts are shaped like alien heads and the Wal-Mart has a spaceship sticking out of it. It knows why it's famous and goes for it, and you know what, I respect that. There are plenty of small museums dedicated to crash conspiracy coverups, and of course we had to check one out for a small fee. I knew it was time to leave when I started thinking "You know what, this museum has a point."

Also, we accidentally went during monsoon season. Yes, there's a monsoon season in the United States. It's from July through October, and we got there at a bad time for it. When we left our hotel for dinner, it was 101 degrees and there was something like a low-level sandstorm happening. By the time we left dinner, it was pitch black and we had to run out to the parking lot, where the water was almost up to the bottom of my car door. Be prepared.

It really is white sands.
White Sands National Monument. Located in White Sands, NM, it's a state park ($5), where the military does missile testing. Check to make sure there aren't any closures for testing before going. The name is pretty apt; it's all white sand dunes, where you can sit and take pictures and enjoy the silence. And I'm not kidding, you haven't actually known silence until you've been here. It's the absence of sound, which is a little freaky and really awesome. The only thing I warn about is that because you're surrounded by white sand in a hot state, stock up on the sunblock. We weren't there that long and I still got a burn. (Though I am a pasty Polish girl so maybe that had something to do with it.)

Saguaro National Park. I had a couple goals for this trip. One was to see an armadillo, and the other was to see one of those short cacti with a flower on top of it. I did see plenty of armadillos (roadkill), and Sarah took my other request and took us to a place full of cacti. Probably not the best place for someone who has a tendency to touch things and who falls down a lot, but it was pretty great. We also braved the 90-something degree weather to go on a hike. Well, Sarah and I did. Nick had a headache and stayed at the car, which I don't recommend as it was really, really, really hot. We started walking up to Painted Rock, which I think was rock art painted by the Native Americans. I don't know as I didn't actually get to it. See, I saw a sign that said "RATTLESNAKE AREA" and prompty freaked out, because what happened if there were snakes and someone got bit and did 911 even work this far out? Sarah climbed on ahead and I stayed there, getting weirded out every time I heard a noise. And finally I realized that standing by the sign wouldn't really help me because snakes can't read to know they're not allowed by the sign. After all this worrying, Sarah came back down and hadn't seen anything but gorgeous views. It's one of my biggest regrets, that I didn't go, but let's just say when in a similar situation years later, I braved the imaginary snakes.

Torrey Pines. I loved all of San Diego, and it's someplace I've visited a lot over the years. But Torrey Pines holds a special place in my heart, because that was my very first beach. It's one of those places I can still remember vividly how it smelled of salt, and I got to wade in the Pacific and anyway just go.

Point Loma. Also in San Diego, seals! Seriously, the place is covered in seals. There are also tide pools where you'd see a bunch of kids playing, but the best part was walking out and seeing seals hanging out.

You'll get more on San Diego later. There's a looot to talk about there.

For the record, my move back was way more eventful. Coming soon.