Headin’ West Part 2

Well, 6 days and 2271.2 miles later, we’re in Folsom!!!

It’s been a long trek but a lot of fun. We unpacked the car earlier and have been settling into our new room at Chris (Jon’s brother) and Janelle’s house. Jon is ordering some pizza from his favorite place, Round Table, while I blog on our Part II of the trip.

On day 3, we did our little self-guided tour of Wupatki Indian Ruins which was very cool and then went to the beautiful Grand Canyon. It was very cold to say the least!! But, we bundled up and tried to stay in the sun and that helped a lot. We first went to the Desert View Watchtower down on the east entrance of the park. Really beautiful architecture by Mary Colter inspired by the style of local Indian ruins.

Desert View Watchtower

December Sunset at the Grand Canyon

The next day, we drove into California through the hills into beautiful yet smoggy LA. We stayed with some of Jon’s friends, Todd and Lisa, for a few days. They are so sweet to let us stay with them and it was great hanging out and getting to meet them. We went to Huntington Pier for a little bit on one of the days and then to Fashion Island, an outdoor mall with restaurants. They cut down and brought in a real 110 foot tree and decorated it for Christmas. It was huge!!!

Surfer at Huntington Pier

On Friday, we headed out to Simi Valley (definitely my favorite area near LA) to the Ronald Reagan Library. It is a beautiful Library and uber-cool to walk through the Air Force One used by 7 of our former Presidents from 1973 to 2001. We had seen the plane and the Library in the background of one of the Republican nominee debates a few months ago and “had to visit” so we were excited to see that it was on our route to northern California.

Air Force One (and the view from the Library)

Jon and Marine One

Me in the Oval Office

It was overall a great walk through Reagan’s life and presidency. However, we do wish there had been more info on his policies and plans. The Heritage Foundation should partner with them and get some info in there to educate Americans on Reagan’s conservative principles. That’s our idea at least. So, anyway, back to the trip. We stayed in Bakersfield after our visit to Simi Valley and drove into Folsom earlier this afternoon. It’s nice to finally be settled in and not be living out of a suitcase like we have the past week and a half.

Jon has now got our nephew, Cameron, hooked on his iPhone game Fieldrunner as I finish up this post. That’s about all going on with us for now. Hope everyone is doing well!!

Love,

J+B