We took our time leaving the hotel in Phoenix, ran a few errands, and were back on I-10 heading east towards Tucson. We’d planned to spend two nights there (Tuesday and Wednesday), exploring Saguaro National Park (pronounced suh-WAH-row), and possibly camping in the backcountry. However, when we arrived in the 100°+ mid afternoon heat, we decided to forgo camping and just find a hotel. We’d been moving non-stop for several weeks, and the exhaustion finally caught up with us, particularly for Stephanie. She needed to rest. So I took the time to update my blog, respond to email, and find some place for dinner while she slept.

That night we went to Guadalajara Grill, famous for making salsa to order at the table in the same way another chain-restaurant-that-must-not-be-named makes table-side guacamole. It was very good—I ate a lot of it. I ordered a Molcajete Camarones, basically a giant basalt mortar filled with tomatoes, mushrooms, onions, peppers, cheese, and shrimp, and heated so hot that it simmers at the table for a long time. It was impressive. Stephanie was still feeling a little under the weather, so she nursed a bowl of tortilla soup. I would definitely go back to try more, if I could.

On Wednesday I went to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, which Adam and Eveline happened to visit with Zacharie a few months back. They raved about it, and since it was on the way to Saguaro, I figured I’d check it out. Suffice it to say, I never made it to Saguaro. During the hot summer months (what they call the monsoon season, when it often rains in the afternoon) the museum (it’s more of a zoo, really) closes at 2:30pm. I got there a little after 11:30, so I didn’t have much time. Of course I arrived just before a demonstration of venomous reptiles, where I got to see a Gila monster and a western diamondback rattlesnake up close. Note to self: do not get bit by a rattlesnake.

Afterwards, I had about an hour to see the rest of the place, almost all of which was outside. I have to admit that walking around in the Southwestern desert in August (coming from San Francisco) makes me a little nervous. It’s so oppressively hot, I worry about heat exhaustion and sunburn, even after slathering myself with sunscreen and bringing water along. That said, I really love the desert environment. It’s so surprisingly lush and alive, contrary to every stereotype of the desert as dry and dead. And the Desert Museum does a wonderful job of making it both accessible and real.

After several hours of driving on Monday, Stephanie and I decided to stop for dinner in Phoenix. I did a little searching on the way to find a good restaurant, but discovered that many were closed on Monday night. Conveniently Yelp has an “Open right now” option which filtered out all the non-starters, so we went with the most reviewed Mexican/Southwestern place that was closest to I-10. Which happened to be Gallo Blanco (white rooster).

When we arrived, we discovered it was slightly upscale and attached to a hip-looking boutique hotel called The Clarendon. We ordered two of their house-made margaritas, guacamole, and a variety of seven tacos to try. The guac was sweet, spicy, and full of flavor, the tacos were scrumptious (especially the pork!), and the margaritas were disappearing fast. So we asked the server out of curiosity how much the rooms at the hotel went for—he immediately said, “Let me go talk to the front desk to see if you can get my discount…” He came back and said the rooms are usually $110, but the discount makes it $67. Our jaws dropped. I said, “I guess we’ll be having another round of margaritas then!”

So we didn’t make it any further than Phoenix that night. We did, however, take advantage of the pool after dinner (in the 105° heat), and the free wireless internet back in our swank, $67 room.

For your viewing pleasure, here are a few snaps from the road:

Sunday morning, we packed up the rental car, crossed the threshold for the last time, took a deep breath, and slid the key under the door. We were on the road at 11, heading towards Los Angeles to meet up with Stephanie’s Uncle Peter and his partner Steve.

I-5 was not new ground for us, so we motored through it, getting to their place in “the Valley” by 5:30. I’d only been as far south as Santa Clarita before, so Peter and Steve took us on a personal driving tour of LA, covering NoHo, Universal Studios, the Hollywood Bowl, Hollywood Boulevard, Grauman’s Chinese Theater, Sunset Boulevard, Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive, and UCLA.

They were getting ready to take Sunset all the way to the beach, but after touring around for nearly an hour and a half, we were getting hungry, so we went back to their place for dinner. Stephanie and Peter caught each other up on various bits of family news, and Steve wowed us with tales of their favorite places around the world (they’re accomplished travelers). We didn’t get to bed until midnight.

We slipped out around 9 on Monday morning to meet up with some friends at Leona and Phil’s new loft downtown. Marcia was in town, working on the photography for her upcoming book, as was another Glitter Pony-alum, Chris Salvano and his girlfriend Ashley, both recent graduates of UCLA’s Library Science program, so they joined in the fun as well. As a bonus, the loft had direct roof access, so we threw together a little picnic-brunch up there with a stunning view of the downtown LA skyline.

Around noon everyone had things to go do so we said our goodbyes and hit the road again, heading west on I-10 towards Phoenix (and eventually Tucson).

I was in North Carolina for a wedding exactly three years ago (Abe and Kathleen’s), so it seemed only natural returning for the same last weekend (Patrick and Laura’s).

We flew out late Thursday night (technically Friday morning), but the plane was delayed in leaving, which meant we missed our tight connection in Dallas. So they routed us through Washington, and we arrived at RDU five hours late. Luckily we didn’t have anything planned for Friday afternoon, besides a hankering for some NC BBQ. Alice called just as we arrived, asking if we wanted to meet up then, rather than Saturday morning before the wedding. She took us to the Q-Shack near her house in Raleigh for a little barbecue “quatre heures“.

Then we zipped over to Phill and Susan’s house in Chapel Hill, where we’d be spending the night, in time to make a 7pm dinner reservation at Cypress on the Hill, one of the many new restaurants on Franklin Street. The food was lovely, but the best part was just catching up and talking travel. Afterwards they took us on a driving tour of some of the new developments around town and campus. It’s amazing how much growth has taken place in the last 5 years when I moved to California.

Saturday morning we bid farewell to Phill and Susan, and headed off to the mall so I could pick up a new shirt and tie for the wedding. We also stopped for a quick bite to eat, before heading down to Sanford, about an hour away. We changed our clothes in the car a few blocks from church, not an easy feat, and arrived at the ceremony with seconds to spare.

The reception was at the Carolina Trace Country Club. We sat around a table with a big group of familiar faces: Abe and Kathleen, Jean and Dave, Bev and Clark, Charles and Owen. Maybe it was the indoor light, or perhaps the conversation regarding our trip, but I was horribly negligent with the camera. I didn’t even get any pics of Laura and Patrick! But I did manage to take a nice one of me and Stephanie, her in a new dress, and me in a matching tie, during a quick break from the festivities.

Late that night we drove back to Raleigh to crash at Abe and Kathleen’s place. The next morning we stopped at the nearby Raleigh Farmers Market for a quick bite to eat, before heading back to Chapel Hill for a brunch/meetup with Anton and friends at Sandwhich. Anton, Lenore, Bob, Bora, Paul, Sally, Tucker, Brian, Ruby, and Izzy, all came out to say hi, catch up, and hear about the trip. A good time was had by all. Big thanks to Anton for making it happen.

We had a few hours before we needed to get back to the airport, so Stephanie took a nap in the car while I surfed the web on her iPhone. Later we took a walk around McCorkle Place on the UNC campus, which now has the effect of filling me with a deep sense of nostalgia. Then it was time to leave once again. We drove back to RDU, returned the rental car, had dinner at Brookwood Farms BBQ in the airport, and caught our flight to Minneapolis. We were not surprised (or amused) to discover that our flight to SFO was delayed by two hours, which meant we didn’t crawl into bed until 2am Monday morning.