Slacker

Yes, yes.  I know I am… but this is not all my fault.  David and I have been touring the country in a fifth wheel camper.  It is actually a nice unique camper with two slide outs that almost double the space in the camper when they are open.  Very nice.  That is... until they break down.  Well, we’ve been dealing with a broken camper slide out for a few weeks now.

We did make a quick trip in to Houston to drop the camper off to get fixed, but quickly whisked away to sunny Florida. 

Got an offer I couldn’t refuse.  J

We did make it to the Grand Canyon before the slide broke.  It was amazing.

See you all after the holidays….

Merry Christmas from the white as snow sands of the Emerald Coast!!!!

Theme Parks

Did you think I would go to southern California and not go to Disneyland?  If you said yes, you don’t know me well.  J 

And I do realize there is more to LA than Disneyland, but after spending some time on Venice Beach, I think there were actually more cartoon characters outside of the theme park than in it.

Do you remember the anti-drug commercial in the 90’s where the guy showed you the egg which was your brain then cracked it open in a skillet to show your brain on drugs?

This is Disneyland…

(Sleeping Beauty’s Castle at Disneyland)

This is Disneyland on Drugs…

(The CVS at Venice Beach)

Get the Picture?

After a week in California and hangin’ out with my Sis, we moved on to the next theme park, Las Vegas.

No good pic of the strip yet, but I will hopefully get one before we leave…more on that below...

At first we decided to get our Reality TV fix.  We went to Gold & Silver Pawn to visit the setting of the famous Pawn Stars.  The stars were not there, but we did go in the store and check out some of the goods.  The store itself is smaller than I thought it would be, even though the building is big.  Next we went to Peepshow; a burlesque show featuring Holly Madison, Hugh Heffner’s formal girlfriend on The Girls Next Door.  Needless to say, I am the coolest wife ever…at least in my husband’s opinion.

We also made it out to the Hoover Dam.  It is well worth the 30-minute trip, if you find yourself in need of a break from the debauchery of Vegas.  We were not actually planning to spend much time in Vegas.  The longer you are here, the more likely you are to go broke…even if you don’t gamble.  But we are still here.  The winter weather has arrived, and it gets cold in the desert…and very windy.  Not very fun conditions for an RV.  As of now, the rest of our stops from here to Texas are below freezing at night.  We are staying here another couple of days to see if our luck changes.  If it doesn’t, it looks like we will be headed back to Texas. 

The beautiful and not so beautiful California

I just have to say it is nice to have the internet again.  It was touch and go in Napa and completely non existent in Yosemite.  We didn’t even have a phone signal there.  But what a beautiful and interesting place to be cut off from technology.  The rock cliffs and waterfalls are amazing.  It’s easy to see why Ansel Adams loved shooting here. 

This is my attempt at an Ansel Adams inspired photo… (clearly I need to learn more about B&W photography...I bought a few of his books)

We were even able to see a few giant sequoias, which has to be one of the more difficult things to take a picture of.

I will work on putting this together in one shot, but for now, I think you get the idea.

Before Yosemite, we made a quick trip to the wine country.  The funny thing about wine tasting is ... as the day goes on ... you kind of forget to take pictures.  J  So we only have a few pictures from our first winery visits for each day.

Day 1 First Stop:  Spring Mountain

Day 2 First Stop:  Mumm

I love starting the days at places like this, because they are both so beautiful.  We were late in trying to make reservations so the rest of the trip was simply tastings at many wineries and eating a wonderful dinner at Zuzu, a lovely tapas restaurant in downtown Napa.

I wish I could say the trip after Yosemite was as nice as the trip before Yosemite (Napa) but we unknowingly went to a “not so nice” place in California; Fresno.  We had no idea.  We were there one night and had a window on the truck shattered.  Needless to say, we got out of there as soon as the window was fixed in the morning.  Not to worry, nothing was stolen.  We will be rounding out our California leg by the end of the month and starting to head back east.  

For more pics:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/e_e_b/sets/72157627839369963/