oh boy

home! happy to be back. it was an amazing time. we saw everything.

so san francisco is an interesting city, but i probably ruined our time there by being siiiiick. now when i think of the city i feel nauseated. so that sucks. but the trip to the redwoods with ronnie and burnie was completely rejuvenating. the trees were intensely beautiful and everything was so green and clean. then we got to the beach where we camped for one night. it was a strange and beautiful, yet almost desolate place covered in fog and driftwood. we met some odd people who seemed to enjoy educating us about the music industry, or just educating us in general. ronnie and jesse sat around the strangers' fire while they drank whiskey, and i slept next to our fire with burnie in my lap. yep, that chunky little dog will still crawl into my lap when he gets sleepy. i think the only part of him that has grown since i've seen him last is his head. in the morning we climbed big rocks by the ocean and saw a few seals!

next we went to yosemite. during the drive there we discovered the most amazing radio station. MEGA100. during our time spent in the park we sang along and danced to the best hip hop and slow jams from the 90s. it was good. yosemite was gorgeous.

now we are spending our second night in sacramento. last night we stayed with jesse's second cousin elizabeth and her two daughters rachel and anna. elizabeth is super nice and welcomed us into her home so cordially. we ate popcorn and rachel made friendship bracelets for jesse and me. tonight we are staying with jesse's great aunt and uncle, ingrid and fritz. they are german and fed us sausage. in the afternoon fritz showed us around old sacramento and the capitol building. we saw arnold schwarzenegger's office. then we bought german beer and brie at trader joe's and went swimming.

tomorrow we will arrive in salt lake city. tuesday we will visit arches national park!

driving from amarillo i watched the plains turn into hills and the hills turn into mountains. then we arrived in flagstaff, arizona. its a small and busy place so there was a lot going on and the scenery around the town was beautiful. we stayed in a hostel where we met a lot of interesting people from all over. i wish i could have stayed longer. the hostel was so cozy and everyone we met was interesting and friendly. then we saw the grand canyon. then we felt the heat in the mojave. then we arrived in tehachapi, a tiny valley town in california. we drove up the steep and windy roads of tehachapi mountain to camp under some amazing stars. next we drove up the coast to san francisco. the coast was amazing. i was on the edge of my seat the whole time. we pulled over to sit by the ocean and we found a little paradise.









now we are in san francisco. and we're tired. the hostel is pretty nice. its really big and full of people from everywhere. today we walked to china town and fisherman's wharf. on the way back to the hostel we saw lombard street (the really windy one). it was weird. i thought that sf would be the most fun part of the trip but today was just kind of tiring and touristy. and the hills, oooh the hills. they're beating me up. but tonight is wine and cheese night at the hostel, so maybe we'll meet some people. tomorrow we're going to twin peaks and haight-ashbury. we're going to the kid robot store! yeah! so hopefully the other side of the city will be more interesting. on wednesday we'll cross the bridge and meet ronnie and burnie in the redwoods. i can't wait to see them! after that we'll be half way through our trip and headed south to yosemite! then we're headed east.

so we finally left memphis... two weeks off schedule but it was worth the wait.

the drive to amarillo was long and having had 4 hours of sleep the night before it was so tiresome.
after six hours of driving we arrived in oklahoma and this is how we felt:





we ate sandwiches and felt better. then we found a pita chip that kinda sorta resembled the state of oklahoma. we celebrated it for a moment then ate it.









then we got tattoos. jesse got a skull with flames and mine says "baby cows forever"





we drove through oklahoma city and passed a ton of wind turbines.






then we got to texas.



once we arrived in amarillo jimmy's friends jennifer and yvonne very generously welcomed us to their home. they're really nice and we are so thankful!

tomorrow is gonna be another loooong day of driving. flagstaff and the grand canyon are just waiting for us.

summer of everything.
i'm missing memphis already. but this is all part of it.