March 17 - Tuesday - Day 2 Traveling West

On St Patty's Day, we had a great start to the morning. Since we were near Mesa, we called up Aaron and Kylie to see if they wanted to meet us for breakfast. Lucky for us, they said yes!! They suggested the perfect spot right near where we were staying - Harlow's Cafe. What makes it perfect? It's local and yummy!!! I'd met both of them in Vegas last month at WPPI, Aaron is one of the ShowIt Studs, and was happy to get to see and hang out with them again so soon. Now we just have to get them both out to Santa Barbara!!


Don't we all look so cute in all our GREEN!


After filling ourselves, we were back on the road. Today wasn't going to be as boring of a drive....we had a few spots to stop along the way. We first decided to take a small detour and drive through Sedona. I'd never been and all I could see in my mind was red rocks.....and well, my mind's eye was right. There were a ton of red rocks, but they were so majestic and beautiful....I wouldn't have expected that!


We went up towards the airport to get the best view and snapped a few quick pics. I learned to see all of the figurines in the rocks.....the tea kettle, cat and mouse, submarine, and a few others. The weather was gorgeous too! Warm enough for even me to be comfortable in a tee shirt!


Next we were off towards Flagstaff to stop in on another ShowIt Stud, Todd and his family. I finally got to meet Elisa and Keifer.....Cooper was napping, so we'll be introduced and get to play together next time. Keifer was really into the holiday, and had his hair painted green! He was so much fun, showed us all around his jungle painted room. We searched for all 10 frogs on the wall, played with the kings and queens in his castle, and also got to see Todd's lush and comfy work chair setup. It was great to get to spend some time with the Watsons while we were passing through AZ. Hope to see them again soon too!!


So...next stop....the Grand Canyon!! Yet another spot on the west coast that I'd never been to, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity for a planned detour. One thing that I didn't manage to grab a picture of, but what kind of blew me away, was the sheer mass volume of the cactus on the drive up towards the canyon. I mean, the mountains were covered with them. Imagine driving through other mountains that are covered with pines....and just replace them all with cactus. Yes, they were everywhere! Crazy!

So, we made it up to where the entrance to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon was, and spent some time exploring. We first stopped at the Desert View Drive Point lookout, and then went all the way into where the lodges were and got the best views. We taught some new tricks to some other tourists with the point and shoot camera so they would get the perfect shot of us. It was quite amusing watching Brett give specific instructions, and seeing the people's reactions (is this guy crazy?? what happened to "just push the button?")...but it was worth it in the end. We came away with some pretty good shots. :)





We used the stitch assist and tried to get a panoramic shot.....I stitched it together as best I could. Oh well...you get the point.


After seeing all that we could see at the Grand Canyon, we got back on the road and started to head towards Vegas. It was just about dusk, and we had some more excitement that was totally unexpected. As we were headed towards I40, on the two lane highway, all of the sudden, the car in the other lane swerved into ours about 100 yards in front of us. Turns out that the driver was swerving to avoid hitting one of the two deer that were jumping on his side of the road.

Brett and I saw them, and were both instantly saying "Whoa! Whoa!!". The one deer managed to get himself across the road, but the other one got scared, and darted back to the other side. She then traveled about 50 feet on that side of the road, all the while we are still moving forward, and right about the time that we get to where she is, darts right out in front of us. She was less than a foot from the right front light when both the car and she stopped for a second...before she hopped all the way over to the other side of the road. We were a foot from hitting a deer!!

We were so fortunate that we didn't hit the deer, and that no one was behind us to slam into us....so it was ok for us to laugh about what else happened during this quick few seconds. Brett had the bag of candy in his lap (surprise, I know), and when the car suddenly came to the stop, all of the candy flew out and down in between his feet. So, all of the SweetTart chicks and ducks were sprawled all over the floorboard. So sad....but that didn't stop him from reaching down time to time to grab one, dust it off, and pop it into his mouth. :)

Our plan was to make it all the way to Vegas and take a day to rest.....but Brett hadn't told his parents this plan, so we got to surprise them. Brett called as he was walking up to their door and asked "So, where are you guys?". Brett's dad was like "What? You called us at the house.....where do you think we are?", right as he walked in the front door. It was fun to be able to surprise them. We stayed up for a bit recounting our travels and tales over the last two days and turned in for some rest.