TravelStream™ news feed for member alifebeinglived on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/alifebeinglived en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sun, 06 Dec 2009 17:02:01 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alifebeinglived/3/1259678894/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alifebeinglived/3/1259678894/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alifebeinglived/3/1259678894/tpod.html Sun, 06 Dec 2009 17:02:01 -0500 Somehow Utah Has Become the Epicenter of my World

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Las Vegas, Nevada, United States

I've driven through Vegas at around a dozen times, it seems to be en route to so many things. This however, was my first time in Vegas at age 21. Of course I just have to be with my younger brother, who is only 18! We just walked around the strip for a while, spending most of our time at Caesar's Palace, The Venetian and Treasure Island.

I saw my third Indiana Jones wax figure (first in London, second in Niagara Falls). He just so happens to be my favorite person-who-isn't-real-but-I-wish-he-was. Female version of Indiana Jones, that's me! I wish!! ha, highlight of my day.



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San Diego, California, United States

We decided to cross the border back to the USA. From our last drive through Mexico I remembered all the locals walking up and down between the stalled cars trying to sell food, blankets and other random items. They are definitely still there! It was a great way for me to get rid of all my change, since I can't exchange it anyway. I bought a creme-filled pastry, not sure what it was, but I do know it was delicious. Mmm.

Each time I come back to the USA from a lesser-developed country, I do have a much greater appreciation for it than before. San Diego was only about a 45-minute drive. We went into downtown. As I was driving I noticed an old sailing ship. I've been really interesting in sailing lately, so I thought we should go over and take a look. It turned out to be the Maritime Museum! Luckily it was open, despite the fact that it was Thanksgiving day and 6:00 p.m. It stayed open until 8:00, which gave us enough time to explore all the ships. The ships were the San Salvador, which was the first ship to reach the west coast of America, the Star of India, which is the oldest sailing ship still afloat, the HMS Surprise, which was used for the filming of Masater and Commander: The Far Side of the World, the Californian, the Steam Ferry Berkeley, the Steam Yacht Medea, a B-39 Soviet submarine and the USS Dolphin submarine, which they claim is the deepest diving submarine ever.

After exploring the ships we drove to the Seaport Village. The Seaport Village is a favorite childhood memory of mine. We came with our parents when I was about 6 and Logan age 4, I distinctly remember the Seaport Village and the Marriott Hotel we stayed in.

From there we drove to the Gaslamp Quarter. We had pizza and watched football in a tiny corner shop for Thanksgiving dinner, then went to the Ghirardelli Soda Fountain & Chocolate Shop. Logan had a regular ice cream sundae and I had a peanut butter and dark chocolate sundae. A good food day and a lot to be thankful for.
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Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico

From Cantamar we drove to Ensenada. We were lost another couple hours there, getting the Mex 1 highway confused with the Mex 1D. We finally found a place to camp, called Playa Saldamando. Basically this guy has just created this quirky, awesome beach park. A lot of work has been put into it. There's a little trailer/house community, where one can be rented out, and over a dozen spaces for tents. We found a great spot right on this little cliff with stairs going down the "beach," which was more just dirt and rocks next to the ocean, but it the cliffside camping was great. It was $15 for a spot for the night. Somewhat pricey for camping, but it did have built-in steps going down to the beach.

It was night when we go there, which always makes the view in the morning that much better. I woke up early and sat alone watching the sun rise up above the cliffs. In the morning under the shade of the cliffs the ocean is a dark blue. A wave begins to swell and creates these deep hues of green. The sun begins to rise and the ocean sparkles and the color of the water shifts from a darker to lighter blue in the more shallow areas, transitioning colors the closer to shore and the shallow water, and ever-changing with the pull of the waves.

I like the unpredictability of the waves and the weather, the pull of tide and its connection with the moon, the mysteriousness of the creatures lurking beneath and the vastness of it all. I like the sound of waves crashing, seagulls and the salty aroma, cool breeze and beautiful colors. I like the peace it brings.

I also like enjoy my solitude. I really, really like my solitude. Nobody can always be alone all the time and be happy, in my opinion, but I think to be capable of being perfectly content when alone is important. It's important to be independent and happy before anything else. People seem to latch on to something in search of happiness. Lots of friends, or status, popularity, relationships, even addiction. I think, or hope, I am quite content myself.

From our Playa Saldamando camp we drove back into Ensenada. Since it was Thanksgiving day today we decided to splurge at a nice restaurant for breakfast. Well, I splurged, since my brother is totally broke. I decided to try something new. I tried chiliquiles, this tortilla-cheesy-bean-thing and papaya juice to wash it down. My brother stuck with hot cakes.

Our morning memories of Thanskgiving used to be spending time at Grandma and Grandpa Truman's house in the tiny town of Enterprise, Utah, putting together massive puzzles, scrounging around for old games like Candyland and Battleship and repeating the same answers over and over again to my grandma's questions. She suffered from Alzheimer's, but you know at the same time, she was adorable. Loved her. Her funny phrases like, "oh my, you're getting so tall. What is your mother feeding you, growing beans?" We ate the traditional turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and pumpkin, with the addition of my grandpa's specialty, called "pink cow." Cranberry juice and ice cream blended together, not quite as thick as a milkshake. Had to be just the right constistency. Each year I after Thanksgiving dinner I would help Grandma put up the Christmas village. Since my grandma died last year and my grandpa moved up to Salt Lake City, those Thanksgivings are over.

Last year I was a road trip on the Big Island of Hawaii, this year a road trip to Mexico. Maybe it will be my new Thanksgiving tradition. So here we were, in Mexico.

We walked around Ensenada. The two cruise ships here the night before were gone now, and there weren't many people around at all. We walked around the main plaza, posed with giant head statues, got bored and decided to get back on the road.

Pics will be up soon.


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Rosarito, Baja California, Mexico

We drove to Rosarito, walked around the city and the beach and ate some delicious dinner for U.S. $2.50 each. Logan had a quesadilla and I tried a Mulita. I swear that's what it was called, but whenever I look it up on google images a bunch of pictures of armadillos comes up. I'm pretty sure I didn't eat an armadillo, because she asked me if I wanted beef or pork, but who knows? We were bored after a couple hours in Rosarito, so we decided to hit the road again and head south toward Ensenada.
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Cantamar, Baja California, Mexico

We drove along the coast to Cantamar. As we were driving along we saw this statue in the distance. We couldn't tell what it was, but as we drove closer we started noticing what it was. Our conversation went like this:

"Is that a giant Jesus statue?" I asked.
"Um..maybe. I think it is!" Logan said.
"It is, it is a giant Jesus statue!!!" I exclaimed.

Yes. Random, I know.

In my guidebook under the town of Cantamar it mentioned sandboarding, which I've always wanted to try. We couldn't find the sandboarding place, but at a convenience store this man was renting ATV's. Well, we were too poor to rent them. It would cost us about $50 U.S. dollars for an hour, and my dad owns them and we have sand dunes in Utah, so we've done that before. Besides, it was going to be dark soon. He did let us go through his house to the sand dunes behind it, which was nice because it's normally $5 just to get into the dunes. We were there just in time for the sunset.
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Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico

My brother and I woke up, got our passports handy and prepared for the border crossing to Mexico. Obviously nobody cared much, since we drove right through and our passports were never even checked. I don't know if that's normal, but there wasn't any place where we were forced to stop and everyone just waived us right though. There were places to stop and buy car insurance, but I bought it a couple days earlier online. We began to wonder whether we were actually in Mexico until we noticed the backed up cars on the opposite side of the road, all trying to leave Mexico. Miles and miles of backed up cars. Obviously everyone wants to get out, not in. It was also apparent once we were next to the giant border fence, which literally spans the entire border, even along a mountainside, we noticed.

We also noticed the creative thought that must have been put into the city names in Mexico, such as "Calexico," which is right next to "Mexicali."(there's my sarcasm coming out!) Let's just combine Mexico and California in as many ways as we can. How about "Mecal" or "Calico" or "Mexifornia?" We spent a few hours lost in Mexicali. We found ourselves in some poor neighborhoods. Watching kids play baseball without mitts or a real bat, but it's nice to see they still have fun and a happy attitude. The houses were tiny and run-down, dirt roads, makes us appreciate our home more.

After lost in Mexicali for a while, we ended accidentally in a long line to go back across the border. I know, we're so dumb. It took us a while to realize it, we thought we were just in heavy traffic. Also I ran through nearly a dozen "Alto" (stop) signs. They just happen to pop up the most random places. And my brother can vouch for me on this, I seriously drove the wrong way on a one-way street and ran an Alto sign in front of not just one, but two police cars. Neither of them pulled me over.

We then ended up asking a police for help, although my Spanish is poor.

"Hablo ingles?" I asked, meaning "do you speak English?" That is the extent of my Spanish language knowledge. OK, well, I know a bit more than that, but only enough to get my by. Pretty much you can add an "o" or "a" to any word and it will make more sense. I'm kidding. Kinda. I was trying to communicate with this guy, saying we were trying to pass the border. In trying to understanding pass, he said "ah, paso?" I thought the word was pasar, but he did say paso! When I was trying to get gasoline for my car, I ask an attendant at the station about it. "Gasolina?" She asked. See what I mean?! o's and a's.

Anyway, back to the police officer. We asked him how to get to Tijuana, but he didn't know English and I don't know enough Spanish. He tried calling someone who might know English, but to no avail, so he ran out on the street and started asking people, which was nice. Maybe a bit too nice. He found this man who spoke excellent English and helped us out incredibly, giving us extensive directions. The only directions he didn't mention were where to go strait ahead of us, as the highway split in two different directions. We started driving toward that and realized we didn't know whether to go right or left. I still remember him yelling at us "LEFT! LEFT!" And we went on our way.

Finally we were on the right highway toward Tijuana. I've had bad experiences before with not having cash on me, as many countries outside the USA don't accept credits cards as widely as we do and ATM's aren't as available. Not only have I had past bad experiences with not having enough cash on me, but I knew there we toll roads. I read about it before we left. We should have brought cash with us across the border, as U.S. dollars are widely accepted. In fact, people everyone always expected us to pay in U.S. dollars, rather than Mexican pesos. I thought we come across and ATM in Mexicali, but I never saw one, and we were lost anyway, so once we found the highway to Tijuana we just stayed on it. Well, guess what? After an hour of driving in the desert we reached a toll booth. No cash. I only know basic Spanish and the lady in the booth didn't know any English. I wasn't sure what to do, we tried to communicate but there was that huge language barrier. I finally found two dollars in my car to pay the $1.50 toll.

We drove another couple hours, passing the city of Tecate. I was driving still, and my brother suggested we go there to find an ATM. Nah, I said. Why? Because I'm dumb, I suppose. We come up to another toll. Six U.S. dollars to cross. They had to take my brother's phone as collateral while we drove into Tijuana to a bank. I took out $200, we drove back and paid it. No more bad decision-making from here on out.

We didn't plan on hanging around Tijuana, it was just the first big city on the way to Rosarito. After driving all day in Mexico, we were relieved to finally be on our way to the beach.

When misadventures happen, it's always awful at the time. But for some reason they seem to be the best things to look back on and laugh about. I always try to keep that in perspective. Always your attitude and how you handle a situation isn't going to alter the fact that it is taking place, so just keeping calm and positive is always best, although difficult at times. I seem to learn most things the hard way and wish I could figure them out beforehand. Sometimes though, I like to take on these challenges, learn how to overcome them and take what I can from them. Perhaps life would be to boring without them.

Things I wish I would have brought:
- CASH, I should have know this from previous travel experiences
- A book to read
- A camping guide book
- My Spanish phrasebook
- Compass
- GPS Navigation System (if I had the dinero)

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Imperial, California, United States

After my class I left at 9:00 a.m. for Price, my hometown, which is where my brother Logan lives with my mom.  It's about two hours away, so I stopped in Price to get him, pack some camping gear, eat lunch, and we went on our way.  We drove about 10 hours to Imperial Sand Dunes and camped there that night.  Just a lot of driving.  Nothing too exciting about that!  
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Salt Lake City, Utah, United States

Baja California: An alternative Thanksgiving.

My brother and I are driving there tomorrow. Yes, MEXICO. I obviously can't go longer than a few month without leaving the country. It's a road trip. Road trips are my absolute favorite kind of trips! Driving, camping and beachin'. I won't have internet, so I'll have to update when I'm back in Salt Lake next week.

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Washington DC, District of Columbia, United States

I've been taking a class called International Communication: War and Memories at the Univeristy of Utah. We spent a couple weeks discussing the Holocaust, so I'm so thankful that the morning on the day of my flight I still managed to make it to this museum. I even had time to eat lunch at the overpriced, overcrowded Smithsonian Castle and tour the Air and Space Musuem.

I think it's best to visit the Holocaust museum on a day you don't like feel like being particularly chipper, it's a sombering experience. I really wanted to cry, but not in front of all the people! When I have time I can write about the experience in further detail.
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Patras, Peloponnese, Greece

From Delphi we headed to our hotel but drove a few hours, we stayed in Patmos on the Ionian Sea. The views during the drive were fantastic I couldn't stop taking photos the entire time. There were many people reading, or playing games, or sleeping, but I feel like if I hadn't of been paying attention to the views outside I would have missed out!

Once we got to our hotel we were excited to head to the beach, only to find that it wasn't really much of a beach, more just rocks. Many of us jumped off the pier and went swimming in the sea, the water was surprisingly cold. I was standing there in the water up about to my knees when I felt something on my leg. I looked down and started screaming...there was a huge octopus wrapping around my leg!!! I ran out of the water and then everyone came over and we all just looked at it for a while. It seemed to be looking at us too as it stayed for a while in the shallow area. I heard they are curious.

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