sunset

... and then ....

and then ....

Here's our apartment

Three weeks later

We thought everyone would like to see our apartment. The reason it is three weeks later is because I wouldn't take pictures until I had everything organized, which means 75 boxes later and a trip to IKEA of course...

This is the official end to our road trip blog. Until we get another itch to do something adventurous you will have to use conventional methods of communicating, i.e. e-mail, cell phones, or even snail mail.

Sunday (last day)

We started off with breakfast at the Steve and Rachel Restaurant. They made there famous BLT's with coffee. We then got on our way to complete the remainder of our trip. As we approached the Bay area we decided to stop in Sausalito for lunch. This was convienently located close to the area Damian wanted to finish our video at. After lunch we headed that direction. Damian's plan for the ending of our video was to go to a look out point the has the Golden Gate Bridge and Downtown San Francisco in the background. We set up the video camera and he had me stand in front of it to say "We made it". Then he came over and joined me and all of the sudden he started to kneel down on one knee. He then pulled out a ring and asked me to marry him :) Oh come on, of course I said yes! It was a perfect ending for our road trip and a perfect start of our new journey together. Now if that isn't cheesy enough for you stay tuned the wedding will be September 2006...

Check it out....

Golden Gate Bridge

Lunch in Sausalito

Saturday

Well we woke up in Jackson Hole and started driving West. We drove through the rest of Wyoming, Idaho (where we did not kill a bird with our hood), Utah (where we stopped for lunch in Salt Lake City), Nevada, and finally our sleeping point Truckee, CA. While driving through Utah we had the pleasure of see the neverending salt flats. It was pretty cool. When we entered into Nevada we thought it would be really cool to see how many bugs we could take out with our windshield. We stopped every 100 miles to clean our windshield. We made to Truckee where Steve and Rachel live. These are friends of Damian's that were so cool and let us stay the night. We were pretty beat from driving twelve hours so we just went to bed.

Our friend Rachel. (Steve is hiding) Thanks again for letting us stay at your place!

Looking across the lake at the Grand Tetons.

Entrance to the Tetons.

Old Faithful showed us what she was made of right as we arrived.

Yellowstone has lots of Geothermal activity. This is Yellowstone lake and there was a pool of boiling water on the edge.

Yellowstone falls were amazing!

A Bison with her Baby in Yellowstone. She was licking the baby clean and the baby was trying to get away. "Mom! .. not in front of my friends!"

Friday

We left Cody, Wyoming the home of "Buffalo Bill" and headed toward Yellowstone National Park. Yellowstone was Amazing!! We saw so many Bison/Buffalo. They were so close we could almost touch them. We knew better than that because there were signs everywhere reminding us that they were in fact wild animals. We saw the most beautiful waterfall, it was picture perfect. We continued to travel around the park and couldn't help but notice all the damage the fires had caused. Most of the park had dead trees laying on the ground and burnt stubs standing up. The positive part was that there was plenty of new growth. If there are no more massive fires the park should develop nicely. We then came upon a road block created by four legged fuzzy grunting horny animals... a.k.a Bison/Buffalo. The cars were backed up 5-6 deep and the bison didn't care they just kept truckin down the street. We got some great close-ups on film. Next adventure was "Old Faithful" so we drove along. Just before we got there, we spotted some Elk and of course took some pictures. We then pulled up and parked in the lot and starting walking toward the site of Old Faithful. We noticed a sign on the way that talked about how to perdict when Old Faithful would go off, and basically you can't perdict it. As we approached Old Faithful, we noticed about 200 people gathered around as if they had been waiting awhile. We thought oh no, I wonder how long this is going to take. As luck would have it we walked up, pulled out our camera, and there she blew. It was so awesome!

Next, The Grand Teton National Park...The Tetons are super jagged and only accessible by helicopter. What an overwhelming site. Damian fell in love with the Tetons and I think he had visions of granduer and actually wants to snowboard them...as he said only if he gets way more advanced! I think that is one goal I can do with out.

Finally, our stopping point for the night Jackson, Wyoming. We stayed at the Jackson Hole Inn. What a cool little town. We had dinner and fell on our faces. We have a big driving day tomorrow...

A waterfall in the Big Horn Mountains.

They say this won't be complet for another 10 years or so. This is the Crazy Horse Monument. The flat part will be his arm. The front will be his horse.

Thursday

We saw some cool stuff today.

We started by driving to Mt Rushmore. Then we went out to the Crazy Horse Monument. That thing is huge!! It's a whole mountain. After that we drove to see Devil's Tower. It was the US's first national monument and it was where the film "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" was filmed.

Then we drove west and through the Big Horn Mountains. These mountains are amazing. At the top we were between 9 and 10 thousand feet and it was still covered with 2-5 feet of snow. After we decended we went through a canyon and on to Cody, WY where we stayed the night.

Tomorrow we are off to see Yellowstone.

A Bad team in the Badlands!!

Ground floor perspective of a formation in the Badlands.

Looking down into the Badlands.

This is looking out of someone's house toward the saloon at the Ghost town in South Dakota.

Victoria getting some good footage of the Ghost town. This place is dated back to the mid to late 1800's

Damian made a new friend too!!

Victoria made a new friend at the Corn Palace.

The Corn Palace is almost completely made of Corn!

Wednesday

What a big day!!

We left Iowa at 5am. We drove across Iowa all morning. Just before we reached Nebraska we headed north to South Dakota. Another several hours of nothing. Finally when we thought we were going to die of bordom we stopped at the Corn Palace. It's this huge palace made of Corn. They use different colored corn to make art and different patterns in the building. It was super cheesey but hey, that's what road trips are for right?

After that we came across a real ghost town. They used this town for the set of "Dances With Wolves" This place was cool. We walked around, went into the old saloon, and took lots of video. We even got to see a tumbleweed pass through. So Cliche.

We drove some more along I-90 until we reached the Badlands. We had debated whether or not we wanted to take the time out to see them but were were glad we did. They are really cool. You don't even see them coming because the peaks are at the same elevation at your approach.

Finally we arrived at Rapid City where we went for dinner. We discussed our evening plans for Camping and Victoria wasn't feeling so hot so we opted to bail on that and get a hotel room. It was a good thing because we were wiped out.

I think we might alter our agenda and drive from Jackson Hole straight to the Lake Tahoe area and stay a night with our friends Steve and Rachel. We won't stop at Salt Lake City. Since we got a hotel here we will be able to cancel the one in Salt Lake City and save some cash.

We will see Rushmore in the Morning. And then drive to WY. Pictures are on the way.