Chartered Trips

Believe Me

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i am fortunate to have more than one Canadian in my life that inspires me everyday.

US National Park Tour cont....

  k, so after the Grand Canyon putting ever petty aspect of human relationships into perspective and thus explaining the meaning of life to us, we set out to figure out wtf Mormonism was all about in SLC. 

 We didn't get very far into this hot bed of uber conservatism before we were issued our first (and only) speeding ticket. Amazingly, i wasnt driving when this happened even though i was brutally  speeding the whole time i drove because  i don't understand Canadian measurements of distance (or speed) and our van's consol was all in Canada time.  Despite the highways being over patroled,  the state of Utah is pretty gorgeous. Having grown up in the Midwest i am still really used to long drive's being painfully flat and boring. Not the case in Utah obviously.

 We were greeted by my friend's Chris & Anna.

 Who were kind enough to take us out to dinner where Josh was able to order a flight of practically non-alchoholic beers.

 The next day we took a drive out to Antelope island and had our first (of several) encounters with giant prehistoric wild life. I tried to approach this buffalo who i guess thought about charging me about 5 secs after this picture was taken. Whateves wooly mammoth looking motherf***er.

Mike and mini-Mike.

So apparently, SLC was founded when the leader of the Mormons arrived here w/ his people in exile and decided that the lake was the Pacific Ocean. Once declaring they had reached the promised land of California they settled next to this cesspool of a lake in which only brine fish (sea monkeys) can survive. I mean the lake is pretty and all, but it is 1/100th the size of the Pacific, really shallow and reeks of shrimp. 

 
 We made our way to Yellowstone, land of one thousand awesome geysers and more Jumanji type action than any of us had ever witnessed.

 Bison have their own lane on the road through Yellowstone. You can pet them as they walk by. No fences, no zoo beauracracy, nbd.

 That is a grizzly bear. IN THE WILD.

  And that is a wolf. IN NATURE.

 Mike is a PA on the new David Eliade production.

 It was spring so we had a snowball fight.

 The main thing geyser we had gone to see was closed due to pregnant bears but this is what it looks like on the internet:

  Old Faithful was still old & faithful though.

 On our way out of the park we saw the miracle of birth. And after birth.

 

We cruised by Mount Rushmor on the way home too but those dudes looked kinda stale in comparison. I mean we saw a baby bison in it's first moments on earth. Who the f**k is Thomas Jefferson?

 

How i Spent My Summer Vacation (Pt.1 of 8 million)

April 18th was my first official day of unemployment (my last was August 12th). I woke up and immediately flew to LA.

So that i could have dinner with these people.

And go to Laguna Beach.

And look at surfer memorials.

Soon after that we left on our US National State Park Tour.

Beginning with the Sequoia Forest whose whole thing is really big, old trees.

 

The only way into the park is by driving for two hours, doing 20 mph (40 kilometres in this case)up impossibly curvy one lane road on a 90 degree incline w/ an elevation of 14,000 ft. See that winding thing on the right of this photo? That's King's Road.

In fact, the biggest living tree in the whole world lives here, he has a name plate so no one misses him. 

Some of the trees are laying down and are so large you can drive cars through hollowed out portions of their trunks.

 Sequioa bark is the softest bark i've ever felt. it feels like kittens after you put them in the dryer with fabric softener.  this tree trunk is roughly the size of my living room btw.

 
Josh let out a couple primal screamadelicas and then we were on our way to Arizona.

We got to the Grand Canyon the entrance we chose seemed kinda pedestrian at first.

Guard rails, little kids, tons of Asian and Swedish tourists. It was still indescribably beautiful, but seemed a bit closed off.

We saw some people way off the beaten path and thought they were nuts.

Until after about 15 minutes, we became those people.

You can actually sit on the edge of the Grand Canyon. And it is sooooo sick.

 

 

Mike took all these photos, while cautiously urging us to come back from the edge.

 

Sandy kinda looked like this the rest of the trip.

 

If you ever get the chance you should go here at sunrise or just before sunset. The way the light illuminates the colors is a once-in-a-lifetime/ believe in god type of experience.

 

Before we left town we hit the Flinstone Diner.

 

A campground, restaurant, gift shop, and the last place on earth you can get breakfast for $3.

 

 

The gift shop was like a window into my dreams. I spent $80 on tribal paraphenalia.

 Mike did not, but was patient enough to let me do a photo shoot at 9am.

 

After breakfast we were off to SLC on an epic drive day. TBC.