On the Road Again...San Fran for the second time

'Oh, I've just passed the exit for the rest area. You need to pee, right?! Well, you should have said something.' 

This view is slowly becoming familiar. Well, sometimes I am the person behind the wheel. Honestly, even though it might look the same at the first glance, the nature around us changes.

As we are slowly leaving the Mojave Desert, long stretches of sand slowly transform into fields of shrubs and lines is Joshua trees. Still, the drives are long and tedious. The long grey line of freeway which stretches in front of us seems to have no end.

We're traveling up to San Francisco again. I had forgotten to book tickets for Alcatraz in advance and when we looked before out S.F. trip it was too late...this is the second attempt:) Well, I actually do have the tickets now:) First we thought we would drive from Indio, but then we went to Vegas...plans change. I booked us a room a couple of miles from San Fran, so we can get decent sleep for a reasonable price and after we're done at Alcatraz, we'll drive south to Bakersfield, hopefully to catch some zzzzs. And that's the end. We're going home on Friday... Damn.

Viva Las Vegas

Driving to Las Vegas from Indio is a wonderful journey through the Mojave Desert. We made it in a late afternoon/early evening so we got to see all those bright stars which leave you totally speechless and feeling humbled...lost in the vastness of universe. Night skies is one of the things I love the most about this place. 

We arrived to our hotel-the famous Luxor around 11pm and found the place busy and swarming with people. I wasn't feeling well the whole day and the drive was quite tiring so we took a noce long hot bath and called it a day.

One of the cool things about Las Vegas are the tinted windows and thick curtains. You can shut yourself completely out of the day and convince your body it's a middle of the night. I woke up at 10pm to almost completely blackness and had to shake Michal awake. We got plenty of rest and headed out to buy tickets for Zumanity. 

The heat is hard to describe. You gay used to the temperature, but the air in Vegas is so hot it makes your eyes water and burn. However, you get used to it quickly. 

The Strip is a mix of everything that is great about US. You've got here a giant Coke bottle right next to an enormous M&M and guitar of Hard Rock Cafe. New York New York hotel and casino takes you to the Big Apple and Paris or Venitian to those European hotspots. Vegas is a one gigantic kitch with lots of glitz and flare. It's American in its opulent best. 

Walking down the streets here, you are wrapped not only in the desert heat, but also in the attitude that really spells out 'whatever happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas'. The carefree attitude is palpable in everything. Anything goes. This is the place with cup holders in bathroom cubicles and shows like 'The Menopause: The Musical'...nothing is too shocking or too taboo. 

Day 3: The man is dying, the dog is farting, and I am planning a trip to San Francisco

Day 3 was productive like...it wasn't. Michal has been feeling sick so we went to the pharmacy to get us some cold medication. While he has been taking naps and relaxed, I was planing our trip to San Francisco. Excited to be in this wonderful weather, I sat outside and when I got in I looked like a raccoon. They say tanning your legs is difficult. Well, I got them burnt without any problems ;) I need to learn to use sunscreen when I go out :). Well, it's not that bad.

Anyway, we are leaving to L.A. on Monday. I booked us a place to stay in Pasadena. I want to see a couple of buildings downtown, Huntington's Library, Getty's Center, roam around Pasadena and etc. We'll leave the area on Friday morning and head up north. I would like to drive along the Hwy 1 all the way to San Francisco. Stop along the way when we feel like, check out Santa Barbara, Pismo beach, Hearst Castle and the beaches... I just need to reserve the campgrounds so that we'll have a place to stay. Yes, I want to go camping. Me, the girl who hasn't been camping since she was ten or so :)

We spent the morning in piece and quiet, because the whole family including all kids left down the hill to pain and fix up their new house in Indio. I cooked lunch - cheese ravioli with homemade cheese sauce and then we watched some TV and played with the animals. Surprisingly, taking care of a kitten and a puppy is almost as demanding as taking care of two little kids.    

Kitty took care of the luggage stickers for us.  

Dopey hiding under the kitchen table. He's wicked fast when something falls on the floor :)

...and they say men can't multitask ;) 

After lunch we drove down the hill to check out the new house and pick up Gavin and his girls. We returned fairly late, so...goodnight. I am beat. We'll feel better tomorrow, hopefully. 

Day 2: Palm Springs and a Dead Dog in the Freezer

The second day of our trip started very unusually. Even for California. It was 7am when I entered the kitchen and bumped into my little brother Gavin. If you know Gavin, you know that it's a rare occurrence to see him up before noon. Well, the night before at 11pm he asked me if I could drive him to Morongo to pick up his driving licence and his girlfriend, because she needed to write a scholarship essay. When we got there, it turned out that we were taking not only his GF Dana to our house, but also her friend Patricia. Yes, the same Patricia that we'd heard so much about last summer :)). Anyway, Gav's had the two girls over since...[potential blackmail material? Maybe ;)] The two girls were of course the reason why he was in the kitchen at 7am -he was making them breakfast... [yes, a shocker, Gavin was MAKING breakfast. Wish I had taken pictures.] awwwww...

I am serious, people. It's really here.

So...I have had a hankering for waffles since the previous day when we went to the stores and I laid my eyes upon the yellow box of Eggo waffles. It used to be a rule that there had always been a box of Eggo waffles in Heather's kitchen when I came over in the past. Therefore I dove into the magical box called an American freezer with great enthusiasm and high expectations of finding a treasure. I sure as hell found it. Unfortunately, no Eggos. On the other hand, there was a box that said 'Our Gogo, We <3 You'. It was a normal brown cartoon box, sealed with a clear duct tape... It took a moment before it hit me: Gogo was a dog of Ryan, Heather's boyfriend. Also, Gogo passed away a couple of weeks ago. When I looked at Gavin, I am pretty sure I must have had big fat question marks in my eyes, because he smiled and nodded: "Yup, that's the dog. Ryan wants to bury it in the new house." Needles to say I forgot all about waffles, I slammed the door shut and ran to my room to share this little fun fact with Michal...welcome to America, babe! :D

Well, since there were no waffles and neither of us felt like having a dog pop-sickle, I took last night's leftovers and turned them into a breakfast. Creativity is necessary when resources are scarce.
 

After breakfast we took a car which was provided to us by Ryan [For which we are eternally grateful to him, because that saves us a lot of money we would otherwise spend on renting one.] and went down the hill to Palm Springs. The drive took us almost two hours, because we were testing our new navigation - really bad one :). So, first stop...Ruby's Diner.

Going to Palm Springs and not visiting Ruby's is like going to Prague and not seeing the castle or the Parliament building in London. It's a tradition. I don't remember the first time I went there, but I do remember other times. Every time I went to see Art, we would go to Ruby's. It'd been four years since I was there for the last time and sitting there again after such a long time made me nostalgic and brought tears to my eyes. As much as I enjoyed the food and being there...it was a bittersweet experience. It didn't feel right without Art.
The food at Ruby's....oh my. You know how sometimes you remember a particular food as being absolutely amazing and then when you actually get to eat it again it doesn't live up to your expectations? Well, that's exactly what I was expecting to happen yesterday at Ruby's, but man, was I wrong! The food was so good even Michal was like 'I would give up sex for this stuff'.  

My T. B. A. L. sandwich with coleslaw

Michal and his Chipotle Turkey and Avocado Burger with fries and salad

Then we walked down the streets of Palm Spring and drove around the whole area stopping by Best Buy to buy a Kindle and check out if Victoria has got any new secrets worth my attention [she hasn't], and other  touristy things. We got home around eight, finding everyone lying around, eating pizza a snoozing. Ryan's dad flew down from Canada to help with the moving and fixing the new house where we should move next week... so we had a nice evening with couple slices of pizza and some beer and then went to bed fairly early because we're still jet lagging.

...or maybe we're just lazy ;)

Day 1

Well, they say a pictures is worth thousand words...so I am about to write a short story here :)))

Vaclav Havel Airport at 4:30am: Making faces for mama Heather

This one was for my mum :) 

Our Chariot of Gold which took us to L.A. from Frankfurt 

Mojave Desert

Big Bear Lake

It must have been really cold...Michal's suitcase shrunk :)

Amazingly blue sky at 7 am. I am in love with the joshua tree...so beautiful.

Dopey...he's the cutest and silliest thing in the area. When he played catch, he tried to put two tennis balls into his mouth...almost choked on them too :))

Me and Dopey chillin' in the morning sun. Also, notice my new cool shades. Pretty amazing, huh?!?!