mountains

California Day 7 (driving and Las Vegas)

I was sad to leave Los Angeles yesterday, but I love road trips and I was so excited to get to see a part of the country that I've never seen before! The drive has been amazing so far. Huge sky, and incredible mountains.

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A lot of times when I have a long driving day I catch up on phone calls, listen to music I've been meaning to download, and listen to audio books.

When my eyes start to get a little droopy, I'll take out my sneakers and go for a quick jog.

I wasn't tired at all yesterday, so when I got to Las Vegas I decided that a really great way to see the main strip would be to run on it!

One thing I though was odd...

Casinos apparently like you to believe that you're somewhere other than Las Vegas. Perhaps Paris or New York, for example.

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A few other things I noticed-

The entire city has music playing out of the bushes, and it's very loud.

Parking is free.

There are a lot of billboards for divorce lawyers.

After my run, I decided I needed to at least play one slot machine, and decided that Caesar's Palace was clearly the place for me.

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I don't mean to be a jerk, but I wasn't really that into it. People were smoking around me, the lights and noise were making me feel a little crazy, and to be honest it was smaller than if expected.

But, not all was lost.

I put in $1 at the penny slots, and yep- cashed out with $1.04.

I don't know what I'll do with my winnings yet, but I'm thinking about some kind of investment.

I'll keep you posted.

Off to Denver today! Kristen

Ps...maybe now that I'm a few states away, I should stop referring to this purely as a California trip?

California Day 4 (Golden Gate, Modesto and lots of driving)

Yesterday morning I got up early (unlikely, I know) to go and see the Golden Gate Bridge before leaving Oakland and San Francisco. It was so worth it! It's pretty windy in this photo, so I actually had to hold my dreads down...

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There's a quote, often attributed to Mark Twain, 'the coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.' It was chilly and all, but obviously whoever said this never spent a winter in South Dakota.

Anyway, the views were amazing and totally worth suffering through the crazy road blocks thanks to a crazy costumed event called Beta Breakers.

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After a three day stay with my friends at Camp Williams, I took off for Modesto. I met wonderful people, and it wasn't as boiling hot as everyone warned it would be!

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I'm pretty sure this photo is of me talking about Pete Seeger...

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I arrived at my friends' house last night in Ojai where they left me sweet notes because they knew I'd be arriving late and tired! Today we'll be checking out the town and the farm they live on. More adventures to come!

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