Its a Small World Afterall (Day 7)

Awww...Day Seven. My most favorite day of the trip. :-) Day seven was reserved for nothing else but Disneyland.

I've never been to Disneyland or Disneyworld or Disney-anything. I wasn't really sure if I was going to go or not when planning the trip. I knew it was a possibilty because it would be something to do while we were away, but I hadn't made up my mind just yet. After the accident I decided that I was going to Disneyland to make up for wrecking while on vacation. It was the best idea I had from the whole trip.


Disneyland wasn't very crowded at all. I was quite surprised, but I enjoyed that aspect tremendously. Everything at Disney is catered to the children (and any Disney fan regardless of age). I've always wanted some of those nifty little Mickey Mouse ears and I was determined to get some before the day was over. After a little confusion on how to get inside the theme park, I was finally met by the towering castle of Sleeping Beauty. :-)


I'll spare the details of the park. Its smaller than the one in Florida but it has pretty much the same things. My favorite was Toon Town. We stood in line for over an hour to see the Disney Princesses and for the life of me, I'm still not sure why exactly, but hey, at least I got some pictures out of it. I also saw Jason Segel while walking through the park. No pictures unfortunately as proof, but it was him. My only celebrity sighting while in California, but sure as shootin' there was Jason Segel walking right past me in Disneyland. Of all places and of all people. Ah well... I didn't get to ride EVERYTHING I wanted to ride, but I got my mouse ears finally...and that's good enough for me. :-)

Day Seven Photos:

Welcome to the Jungle (Day 6)

Day six found us running a few errands in Kingman, AZ before heading back West to California. We had to make a quick stop at the local police station to fill out papers so that I can get my copy of the report from the accident (eventually, because its been a few weeks and I still haven't gotten my report). I also had to stop at the local post office. It was there that I met a married couple that were retiring from the Postal Service later this year. The husband wanted to know what part of Kentucky I was from...if it was a small town...if people would leave you alone...what the taxes were like in Kentucky...and if he could learn to talk like me if he moved there. ;-) His wife just wanted to move somewhere close to a mall. Alas, my hometown is nowhere near being close to a mall, so I gave them a few other suggestions on possible places to relocate in Kentucky.

From Arizona we began to head towards California...following along Route 66 most of the time. :-) This made me very, very happy to say the least. I found the Route 66 Museum but it was closed when I got there. :-( We made it to Los Angeles just as the sun was setting. However, I didn't KNOW we were in Los Angeles. It was dark, traffic was horrible, and I just didn't have much time to pay attention to any signs. I listened soley to my GPS system. We finally found a hotel and after checking in, I decided to look at some of the brochures in the hotel lobby. Mom and I decided to take a tour of Los Angeles on our last day in Southern California. So I called the number to reserve our spot. When the owner asked me what hotel I was staying in and I told him, he said, "Oh okay. So you are in downtown Los Angeles then."

"I'm WHAT?! WHERE am I?!" Downtown L.A.? Me? I'm gonna have to start paying attention to signs. No wonder traffic was horrible.

Anyway, the rest of that night was spent watching "Criminal Minds" (when Mom wasn't watching Mexican soap operas that is) and sleeping. Day 7 was reserved for Disneyland...and boy was I excited about that?!

Day Six Photos:

Day Five Photos

On the Road Again (Day 5)

Day five found us still in Kingman, Arizona. I knew our replacement rental would be awhile getting to us, since it was coming from two hours away. So I decided I would sleep late that morning. Unfortunatly my insurance company had other plans.

At roughly seven a.m. (Arizona time) my claims adjuster from Farm Bureau gave me a call. "I'm sorry to bother you, Miss Nunn, but my name is Jason ... and I'm calling concerning your recent wreck. Can you tell me what happened?"

Groggy from just having been woken up and having had very little sleep the night before due to the excitement from the accident, I proceeded to tell my adjuster everything that happened, "Well, I was on my way to the Grand Canyon and the road was really bad because it was curvy, gravels, and sand. And the other guy, he came around the curve and...."

"I'm sorry, Miss Nunn. I don't mean to interrupt you, but I'm talking about the accident that happened in Berea about a week ago."

"Oh yeah! That accident!" I think I turned red over the phone. Ummm...yeah, it had been a rough couple of weeks because just the week before some idjit rearended me on my way to work and then here I was getting sideswiped by another idjit in the middle of the Arizona desert. Shew!

Anyway, with all that being settled we decided to walk down to the local Arby's for a quick breakfast. It was on this walk that I discovered I was actually staying right along historic Route 66. I was very pleased with this discovery! For those that know me well enough, then ya'll know I'm a bit obsessed with Route 66. Since before I was legal driving age, I've wanted to take a road trip down the entire length of Route 66. I'm not sure why, but I just always have. So any time I accidentally run across it, I turn into the equivalent of a four year old. I'm pretty sure I was standing on the sidewalk, looking up at the Route 66 sign, pointing and jumping up and down at some point that day.

Kingman, AZ is a nice little town. Not too big, not too small. The roads are laid out nicely, the people are friendly, and the living is affordable (I've done research on it since getting home from vacation, that is how serious I am about living there one day.). There are lots and lots of Route 66 references throughout the town as well. Which was fun for me. :-)

Around three that afternoon the tow truck from Las Vegas called to tell me that he had my replacement rental downstairs waiting for me. I was so, so, so happy that he had finally gotten there. See, I used to not mind sitting around waiting for things. A day in the hotel would have been relaxing to me. However, eight months ago I was in a very bad accident (as most of you know) and it jostled my noggin' around a bit. Closed head trauma. No big deal, except I can't remember anything from that wreck and I can't remember most of anything from that entire day and night. Even after all this time. Its like it never happened at all. Not a memory, not a dream, not a thought. I don't quite understand it. But what I do understand (and find very strange) is that since then, I feel like I have adult ADD. I can't concentrate on anything anymore. I can't even finish a book (and I LOVE to read). I can manage to watch television programs that last an hour or less and read short stories and magazine articles, but to actually focus my attention on something for more than an hour at a time drives me crazy. I think it has something to do with the accident and the bump on the noggin', but I'm too chicken to go to a doctor for it. :-P

Anyway, that is just the long way of explaining why I was ready to tear my hair out after spending all day locked in a hotel. Finally, though we were on the road about fifteen minutes after the rental got there. We headed towards the South Rim entrance of the Grand Canyon this time. Paved roads all the way. :-) We passed a lot of little towns that I would have loved to stop and take a gander at, but there was no time. The sun was setting and we wanted to see the Canyon before it got dark.

We made it just in time.

There was some construction going on, but the road to the actual park was beautiful. Tall, tall trees everywhere and signs to watch out for bear and whatnot. Fun! :-) We got our three day pass (although we didn't use it) and found parking. It was VERY cold that evening. Mom and I both wore jackets and we were still freezing. The trails were nice and level and really there wasn't much of an incline, but breathing was still a bit tricky. I suppose because we were at a higher elevation and all that. Not that it was impossible to breath or anything, but there was a noticable shortness in breath.

The Canyon itself was amazingly beautiful. Everyone should go see it at some point. I can't wait to go back and take the time to actually explore a bit. See all the trails and all that jazz. I took so many photos that I finally managed to fill up my memory card. First time ever! And I've had that camera for YEARS.

Anyway, when the sun set, we headed back to Kingman for our final night in Arizona. The next day would find us on our way back to California and well on our way to Disneyland! :-)

Photos from Day 4

Highway to Hell (Day 4)

From Las Vegas we continued our trip East towards the Grand Canyon.

Along the way we made a pitstop at the Hoover Dam. It was fun. It was very windy as well. VERY windy. I've never been in winds like that unless there was a storm a'comin' so it took some getting used too. The Dam is huge and worth seeing if you ever get a chance. We didn't take any of the tours, but we did spend some time walking around.

Before we left we drove back to the look out point for Lake Mead. That was nice as well. Very beautiful and blue.

From there we headed towards what we hoped would lead us to the Grand Canyon. Most of the trip for Day 4 was spent actually driving. Lots of flat land and cacti. Lots of sand. Definitely different from what I'm used to in Kentucky. So it was a nice change of scenery.

We made a pitstop at this little roadside dive off of Highway 94. We just wanted to stretch our legs, but we ended up eating there as well. It was really good food too! I mean, you probably wouldn't expect it by looking at the outside of the building, but it was great...and the people were super nice too. So we ate and I got some souvenirs and then we hit the road again. We were traveling towards signs that marked the way to the Skywalk over the Grand Canyon.

Nearly a hundred miles down the road (and no, that isn't an exaggeration) we thought we were finally to the Skywalk. We drove through miles and miles of a little town that was smaller than my hometown, which blew my little mind. I mean, who knew there was anything smaller than Jackson County, Kentucky.

In order to get to the Skywalk, we had to turn down this curvy, gravel and sand covered road called "Diamond Bar Road." Now Diamond Bar is the only road that leads to the Skywalk. It isn't paved, not by any stretch of the imagination, but if you know a little bit about driving on back country roads, then you should be okay. Fortunately, being from Southeastern Kentucky and being a farm girl, I know my way around roads full of loose gravel and dirt. Unfortunately, I was the only one on the road that knew how to drive on roads like that.

I made the comment to my Mother as we rounded one sharp curve and the car in the other "lane" (to be honest, there were no such things as lanes there) came too close to our side of the road and was absolutely flying, "You know, these people don't know how to drive at all. I had better slow down." And I did. The speed limit is 15 mph on Diamond Bar Road. I slowed down to roughly 10 mph.

It wasn't ten minutes later that we got hit. Yep. That's right. I go on vacation and get ran over. Figures.

As we were coming around a curve, we met a car. The driver was going too fast and lost control of his vehicle. He hit our rental car in the side.

Everyone was okay, but I was ticked. I even got sassy with the 911 operator and had to apologize to her later for my sharp tongue.

When the cop got there (2 hours later...we were really out in the boonies), he assessed the damage and ended up writing a ticket for the other guy, because according to the cop, the guy had to have been going 45 or 50 mph (in a 15 mph zone!!!). Grrr!

It took two hours for the cop to get there. Two hours for the wrecker to get there. And then, after I spent ten minutes arguing with the rental car company because I wasn't going to give the wrecker $900 to haul me and the car back to Las Vegas, it took 2 hours to get to the nearest hotel. So...Mom and I got to spend roughly four hours on the side of the road in the desert after dark. It was freezing cold. Then we rode in the back of the police cruiser for another two hours to the nearest town.

We finally got checked into a hotel in Kingman, AZ around 11 that night. We never got to see the Grand Canyon that day. :-(

So...here's to you, city of Dolan Springs, AZ: I hope you get more cops and a hotel soon. And to you, Kingman, AZ: you were great fun and I loved you. I may move there someday. To Officer Thompson, THANK YOU for going out of your way to make sure we were safe and comfy for the night. You went above and beyond the call of duty. God bless you! To the tow truck driver: You can kiss my a** for being such a rude hog about that car. :-P To the rich guy who owns the Skywalk: Stop ripping people off. It shouldn't cost $35 to get to the Skywalk and then another $25 just to walk on it. And by the way, if you are charging those prices, could you please pave your darn road! You don't REALLY need a new jet do you? PAVE THE ROAD! To the rental company: Suck it. And to the other driver: Listen buddy...you can't go highway speed on loose gravel and dirt. Learn to friggin' drive or move back to California where everyone else drives like you.

Pictures to come soon. :-)

Viva Las Vegas (Day 3)

Day three found us on the road to Las Vegas.

Nothing much to report there. Long stretches of straight highway and pretty much clear of traffic. Actually, if you are planning on heading out West this summer, be advised that they are doing some road construction out that way. We ran into a lot of that, but nothing that held us up for very long.

I was a little concerned that traffic would be bad because I've heard that it can get pretty thick between California and Vegas, but we didn't have any problems at all. In fact, it was an uneventful trip until we came over a hill and was greeted with some HUGE hotels and casinos that seemed to just pop outta nowhere.

Mom took photos from the car, but most of them were no good at all and the truth is, by the time we made it to our hotel I was way too tired to go out and about and take photos. I wish I had, but I just couldn't do it anymore. The drive wore me out. I must be getting old. :-P

We found parking really easily and it was free. I was flabbergasted with the ease of parking in Vegas. Equally flabbergasted with how easy the streets are to navigate.

We stayed at the Stratosphere which is the hotel/casion that is super tall and kinda looks like a needle with a spaceship on top of it. The hotel was like a mini-city. Shopping, food, gambling, shows, movie theater, and even thrill rides at the tippy top. When Mom and I made it to the observation deck that night, there was a place where you could bungee jump off the top of the tower. Of course I was ready, willing, and able to get in line for that! But my Mother threatened my life and to physically tackle me to the ground right there in front of God and everybody if I even so much as inquired about the jump. So to keep from causing her to have a heart attack, I decided not to jump.

At least not until next time. And there will be a next time because I really, really want to go back to Vegas.

I'm not interested in gambling but I do want to see the rest of the city. I want to see some shows. I want to see some Elvis impersonators. I want to do all that...but no getting married. Well...I WOULD get married in Vegas, don't get me wrong, but I just don't want to wake up married to a stranger. So I'll have none of that thank you very much.

Mom and I behaved ourselves. "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas" need not apply to us. We shopped. We looked out at the observation tower. We saw a country band perform. We gambled all of five bucks between us. Just basic things for one night in Sin City. It was nice though and like I said, I'd like to go back someday. I think everyone should go to Vegas at least once.

Photos from Day 2 of the Vacation. :-)

                                            (Ghost or smudge? I'm gonna go with ghost. Its just more fun that way.)

Do you know the way to San Jose? (Day 2)

Day two found us in San Francisco for most of the day as well. When morning rolled around we checked out of our hotel, but when they offered to hold our car and luggage for us until 6 p.m. we took them up on the offer and hit the town. I treated Mom to a Mother's Day dinner at Johnny Rockets where the waiter flirted shamelessly with me (*insert eye flutter here*), but to no avail. I left him the 15% tip but nothing more. Last thing I need is a California boy hanging on my arm. :-P

Regardless we decided to check things out a bit. We talked to the Conceirge at the hotel to ask about directions to places and bus schedules and all that. Ten minutes later and with a map in our hands with all kinds of squiggly marks I did not understand, I looked at Mom and said, "Ummm...we are getting a tour." I was not attempting that wild mess! So that is exactly what we did. A motorized trolley tour. Not a real trolley which is sad, but it did the job all the same.

We went all over San Francisco and saw the sights from the safety of a vehicle driven by someone other than myself. This someone being a man from Russia named Igor. That was fun. Imagine this...sitting at the back of the trolley, listening to Igor tell us about the city in his thick Russian accent while simultaneously listening to the French couple beside you, the British family in front of you, and the Alabama couple behind you. I really only understood the Alabama folks. I mean, I understood the others (except when the one couple spoke only French), but I can just understand that Southern dialect a lot better than the others.

We saw the Golden Gate bridge, the "Painted Ladies", and all that jazz. I took pictures. I'll post them in another blog because I don't have them with me at the moment.

After the tour was finished, Mom and I packed up and headed South. A couple of hours later and we were in San Jose taking a tour of the Sarah Winchester Mystery House. No photos of the inside because that was against the rules, but I took some in the garden out back. One photo may or may not contain the image of a "ghost". Now, I don't know what ya'll believe or don't believe, but I'm gonna just go with it being a ghost. Even if its not, its just more fun to think it is. So I will forever tell people that I took a picture of a ghost at the Winchester mansion. :-)

The house itself was beautiful. It was a little weird, but not creepy. It was quirky is all. I loved it there. I wish I had more time to explore and the tour was worth the money so if you ever have the chance, then you should take it. It was really neat.

From San Jose we went South and then East. Passing by the garlic fields of Gilroy, California (you can imagine the smell of that) and the oil fields of Bakersfield. I didn't have time to stop at the Buck Owens place while there, but there was a lot I didn't get to do on the trip. I'll just save all those things for another time. We spent Saturday night in some random California town near the Nevada border anticipating a Sunday spend in Las Vegas! :-)

Leaving on a jet plane...(Day 1)

So I spent day one of my vacation with absolutly no sleep for 24 hours or so. I had to work until midnight on Thursday night and had to leave at four in the morning Friday. So there simply was no time for sleep. Not with driving home from work, last minute packing, and all that.

I caught my plane to San Francisco from Cincinnatti and all went well. Jacob was right, the take off and landing were the most fun but I did get a few nice pictures from the window of the five hour flight. Flying is a nice way to put things into perspective...it gives you a bird's eye view of the world (or God's view, if you would rather look at it like that). I still prefer to drive, but flying has its advantages.

We landed at the San Francisco International Airport and picked up the rental car then drove towards Haight-Ashbury. Ahhh...Haight-Ashbury, that famous hippie hangout. Now its just a place for teenagers to hang out and tourist to get t-shirts, photos, and smoking gear from the head shops. We just drove through it. No pictures or anything. I mean, it was an interesting place and I really wanted to stop and get some Ben & Jerry's and have a look around, but I couldn't find parking. We drove around for what seemed like forever and looked down every street for parking but none was to be found. This was my first lesson about San Francisco...parking is scarce. As in virtually nonexistant.

Lesson number two is that traffic is horrendous. Never in my life have I ever experienced traffic like that. Cars, buses, cabs, and trolley cars everywhere. Riding right on your butt too. And R-U-D-E. Now granted I'm from a one stoplight town and not very used to city drivers, but this was ridiculous. Maybe it was rush hour, maybe it was Friday, maybe it was just something in the air, I don't know, but never in my life have I ever seen such rude drivers. In truth, a lot of the people in San Francisco were a bit rude. Not mean...most were quite nice, but not friendly. I'm from the South, ya'll. I like friendly people. I hate to judge the whole city based on a bad day, but just from that one bad day, I don't have a lot of good things to say about San Francisco.

What I will say is that it is an absolutely beautiful city. The homes, the businesses, the landscape...all of it is beautiful. Its windy too. And chilly...at least in May. I wore a skirt too, so you can only imagine. And no flowers in my hair because my hair was blowing all over the place (sorry Thing Two and Kayla). We stayed on Fisherman's Wharf and so we spent quite a bit of time on Pier 39. We saw the sea lions, the street performers, the boats, the trollies, and all that jazz. I took pictures, I bought souveniers. Typical tourist stuff and even for the off season (May is the tail end of California's version of Winter), there were quite a few tourists.

That night we went on a tour of Alcatraz. Now THAT was more up my alley, especially being a History major and loving historic sites. Alcatraz was beautiful, even if it was a former prison. The view from Alcatraz was nice as well, especially as the sun began to set.

Mom and I finished up our first night in California back at the hotel trying to recover from jetlag. Otherwise it was a nice day, even if it was a bit disappointing.

Guess Who's Baaaack?!

So I am officially back home after my trip out West.

Nine days spent exploring California, Nevada, and Arizona. I am EXHAUSTED.

I promise lots of photos and stories, but not right now. Right now I'm going to put this gloomy Kentucky weather to good use and take a nap while the rain pours down.

Thanks to all those that kept in contact with me via Facebook and text and random phone calls. Hope all those that asked for post cards got them from their desired locations. And especially thank you for all the prayers...especially after the car accident (don't worry, I have photos from that as well...should make for an interesting scrapbook of the vacation, huh?).

So until the next blog (I'll do a series of them, one for each day, so as not to miss anything to leave out too many photos), here are my thoughts on each state:

Nevada: Fun, but I wouldn't want to live there.
Arizona: Beautiful and I could definitely see myself living there one day.
California: Meh...it had its good points and its bad points. I'm not much of a city chick, but I like the ocean, so I'd say...its a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.

Let the Count Down Begin!!!

Only four more days of work, my friends and I'm outta here! California here I come!!!

Originally the plan was that I would drive cross country in my little car named, Maisy. Buuuuut...well, things got complicated. I have nine days total for vacation and it would take most of that time just to drive to California and back, which doesn't really leave me any time to stop and experience things. So I decided to fly. With flying comes a rental car...hotels...meals on the road (rather than out of my cooler if I drove), and quite frankly, I can't afford that on my own. Sooooo...my trusty travel buddy (i.e. my Mom)  is going with me.

I'm sure that it will be super fun, even if its not cross country driving. Plus as an added bonus, this will be my first time on a plane. I'm a little nervous but as long as I stay away from crash statistics and things of that nature, I do okay with it. :-)

So in case you are curious, here is what we have planned thus far...

I work Thursday night until Midnight and our plane leaves Friday morning from an airport roughly two hours away from home, so that means, I'm gonna be traveling on very little sleep...and that's not even factoring in jet lag. Anyway, Friday morning will find us boarding our flight (my first one ever!!!) around 9 a.m. in Cincinnatti (got the tickets there because it was cheaper for roundtrip and it was nonstop). We'll land in San Francisco, California around 11 a.m. their time. From there we are picking up the rental car and heading to the Haight-Ashbury district for a little icecream at Ben & Jerry's and to take a gander at all the hippie history. After that we will head to Fisherman's Wharf where we'll check into our hotel room (and pay ridiculous amounts of money for parking! Ugh!) and then go play. Or well, we'll go see the sites, so I guess that counts as playing. As of yet, what we do is kind of up in the air. I'm too busy with work and finals to plan too many details at the moment. All I know for sure is that we have two spots reserved for a tour of Alcatraz around 6 p.m. that evening. :-)

Saturday we are heading South to San Jose where we are going to tour the Sarah Winchester Mansion. We are going to keep heading South but we're gonna try to do it along that beautiful coastal highway, Highway 1, so that we can see some great scenery (or I've heard its great). We'll spend the night along the road somewhere, possibly Bakersfield, since I'm a Buck Owens fan. ;-)

Sunday is reserved for L.A. site seeing. Look out Beverly Hills, because you are about to get some bonafide hillbillies in your midst. :-) Sunday night will be spend in Las Vegas, Nevada!!! Woo Hoo!!! Already got our room reserved at the Stratosphere and can't wait to take some pictures of Vegas from way up on top of the hotel. :-D

Monday we will be stopping at Hoover Dam and then continuing on to the Grand Canyon. Something my Mom has always wanted to see and is extremely excited about! Monday evening we are heading to Tombstone, Arizona and will probably do a little site seeing down there on Tuesday before heading back to California. I fully intend to stop at Disneyland while I'm out there, so maybe that will be Wednesday's activities. But honestly, that is all I have planned so far. The plane back home doesn't leave until Friday night at 11 p.m., so we will have a few days in California to do what we want even after getting some of the major sites taken care of.

Should be an adventure! I can't wait!