Unpacking!

Hi Everyone,

We're still working on getting in the habit of updating the blog on a more regular basis. We're hoping to have everything caught up this week and then we can just jump on and give everyone quick little updates and anecdotes as we go.

Folks have been asking to see the new apartment and how the unpacking process went. Well the good news was that the truck was there waiting for us when we arrived in Marina Del Rey. Most of the stuff we packed was even intact! 

We had a good crew of friends helping us unload the truck, who busted their butts for 6 or so hours to get everything up to the apartment. The main pain in the butt was walking the items around the back of the building and through the labyrinth that is the inside of our building. 

Here's some shots of the new apartment immediately after we got all of the crap into it:)

The packing took approximately three days after we got everything inside. It involved a lot of shifting of items from room A to room B in order to organize room A. Then reverse and repeat the process. Plus trying to set up our internet and TV, each which took more hours than we were told to expect. And then calling in maintenance to activate more than the two phone outlets we had working. You can see here how much Fil loves unpacking. Please note the monkey t-shirt. 

The cats were also working very hard to help out. 

When they weren't looking demonic or hiding in boxes... or both.

Also for those of you curious, here's a shot of our car after our cross country trek. The pictures don't even do it justice as to how utterly filthy it was. It was so bad, that we didn't want to touch the car to open the back hatch because we ended up with dirt and road nastiness on our fingers every time. Last week we finally got it to a car wash for a great hand wash service. The guys at the car wash scrubbed it clean, dried it off lovingly with towels and gave it a protective coat of wax. Blue Steel feels much better now:)

In the next day or two we'll get some pictures up of the now pretty much finished and unpacked apartment. The final touches of hanging up shelves and photos was done this past weekend so the place is starting to feel like home. 

We miss you all!

Day 8 Recap - Arrival in LA

Hi Everyone,

Danielle and I are planning on updating the blog 2-3 times a week now that we're getting settled in. The plan is to keep everyone abreast of our adventures in LA with photos and little anecdotes. We'll see how things go:)

And now the long awaited final day of our cross-country trip!

We left Las Vegas pretty early in the day because it was a 5 hour drive and Fil's local friends were arriving at 2pm to help us unload the truck. We snagged breakfast from the Marriott lobby and took it on the road.



As Tenacious D sings, "The road is a be-a-itch my friend, but it's the only road I know." The road from Las Vegas and Los Angeles can only be described with one word - long. It wasn't the longest day we drove (far from it), but because you drive through mostly desert, you can see the road stretch out for miles. And there's nothing but cactus, power lines, and rocks all around. Everything is dusty and brown.






We stopped by one other roadside attraction in Baker, CA. Brace yourselves for the world's LARGEST thermometer. Ooooooooooo!!! Aaaahhhhhh!!!




The best part of the thermometer is that it's in the parking lot of a Bob's Big Boy. By the side of the road. Completely random. Ya gotta love middle America.



Another funny side note from this day was that we're pretty sure Ender stole some of Valentine's food in the morning when we weren't looking, because he was completely and utterly drugged out. It was like he was drunk, the poor little guy couldn't even walk straight and had trouble keeping his eyes open. Valentine in the meantime was freaking out for most of the car ride. The only thing that soothed her... licking Fil's head. Cat's are quite strange creatures!





We cruised right along until we got about 20-30 miles outside of LA and then we encountered our first taste of LA traffic. All of a sudden there are just too many people on the road and traffic slows to an idyllic 20 MPH. Which was only made somewhat comical by our extreme need to relieve our bladders.




Eventually we did make it to Marina Del Rey and after a brief pitstop at the local grocery store for a pee break, we drove to the water to officially complete our Coast to Coast trip. Atlantic Ocean to Pacific Ocean in 8 days! Woo-hoo!




Next up: Home Sweet New Home:)



As always, don't forget to check the full photo album for more shots of our trip:)

Las Vegas Recap

Hey Gang!

We're back after a few days of radio silence. We arrived in Los Angeles safe and sound on Saturday afternoon and have been busy ever since. We just regained internet capabilities yesterday after some fun times with Verizon customer service.

We'll do our best to catch you up quickly.

We kicked off our day in Las Vegas with breakfast at our hotel and then hopped the free shuttle to the Mandalay Bay.

On our way through the first casino , Filip stopped to strike a pose with a random knight. We decided we wanted to try and see the Beatles: Love by Cirque De Soliel that night. Unfortunately the show plays at the Mirage on the North End and we were at the South end of the strip that morning. So we started up the Strip passing through The Luxor, The Excalibur, New York, New York, The Bellagio, Caesar's Palace, and finally to the Mirage. The sad part is that when we arrived at the Mirage, the show was sold out for the night except for the super expensive $150 tickets. We decided that it was a bit too steep a price to pay.







So off we went to a buffet lunch which was pretty decent.

Then we opted to treat ourselves, which ended being a mixed bag. Danielle got a pedicure at the Imperial for $80, which was... well, like the Imperial a bit trashy and under-whelming. But her toes looked mighty fine in the $20 flip flops from Scoop NYC. Filip ended up getting professional shave at Caesar's Palace at Truefit and Hill. His Sicilian barber did an awesome job getting rid of the road beard, except he ended up giving him uneven sideburns?!




We ended up going to the MGM Grand and New York, New York and gambled some. Danielle hit the video poker and slot machines, while Filip sat briefly at the Poker Room. We can't say either of us did particularly well, but we had fun. We had dinner at Wolfgang Puck's Bistro at the MGM which was fun and tasty. And then we played video poker together. In the end, we didn't win big or lose big and a good time was had by us both.




The night capped with us waiting for the shuttle back to the Marriott and worrying we might have missed it. After several phone calls back to the hotel and Filip feeling quite silly and dumb with the desk receptionist, we got back and hit the sack:)

Day Seven - Hangin' In Vegas

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas...



Just kidding. We'll update our Vegas portion at some point this weekend. But first it's to bed so we can get up early, drive to LA, and start unloading that damn truck!

Day Six Recap - Next Stop: Las Vegas!

So Day 6 started off a little bit on a sour note. Filip thought that the trip from Denver to Las Vegas would take between 6-7 hours... boy, was he wrong. The trip actually takes around 12 and a half hours. So Danielle wasn't too thrilled with Filip the night of Day 5 or the following morning. But we managed to get up decently early and repack the car. A quick stop to pick up breakfast and then on the road.

Leaving Denver itself took a little longer than expected thanks to morning traffic, but once we got past the city and headed into the mountains it was smooth and clear.




The Rocky Mountains are truly breath-taking. The drive is both thrilling, scary, and tough. You climb to over 10,000 feet at the highest point and your ears constantly pop. There is nothing like the sheer size and majesty of the mountains to remind you of your place in the universe. Words don't really do it justice so we'll jump to the pictures. The pictures don't really sum it up either, but it's as close as we can get. We definitely recommend you go over to the photo album to check out the full array of images.







There were parts of the drive through the mountains where we were heading down 7% or 6% grades and the highway had runaway truck ramps going off the road.






We went through several tunnels.





We drove through famous ski resorts like Vail, Aspen, and Copper.





The cats ended up sleeping part of the trip, but the exciting parts of the drive in the beginning definitely had them excited.




After we got out of the mountains, we headed into Utah. The one thing we noticed is that the Colorado signs were nice and clean and the Utah one looked like it hadn't been cleaned or changed since it was originally put in place.




Utah was filled with new breath-taking sites, mostly grand plateaus and rock formations. We stopped at a couple of lookout points and took in the incredibly clean air, stunning views, and almost mind-boggling canyons.





We eventually got into the plateau plains of Utah and saw tons of cattle, buffalo, and isolated ranches. It struck me as the place Fil's mom and dad might want to retire to. No neighbors for miles and nothing but beautiful open nature all around you.








We looked for polygamist Mormon compounds from one of our favorite shows, "Big Love", but alas Bill Paxton was no where to be found.



We also passed Joseph, Utah. This one's for you, Joe!



We didn't get pictures after it got dark, but we entered Arizona and then Nevada without any incident. Arizona was a bit of a scary drive because it consisted of winding, fast roads heading down out of the plateaus at a sharp angle. The road was surrounded by huge rock formations, which we could only see silhouetted against the night sky. It reminded us of some racing video games. Nevada was pretty much all flat and we think we passed through desert mostly, but couldn't really see to tell for sure. The night sky in Nevada was amazing. You could see so many stars and so brightly.
One funny note was the two cities we passed on the way to Las Vegas, which each had their own casinos. We kept trying to figure out who would go to a casino which was only 50 miles away from Vegas?!
Vegas was an incredible sight driving in at night. We could see the massive spread of lights from over 20 miles away! Again, it's hard to describe but rest assured it's worth doing once in your life.

We checked in at the end of a long day to the Marriott Residence Inn in South Vegas and were pleasantly surprised to find we were upgraded to a two bedroom suite! Why is that nice? Because it meant we could lock the cats in the other room and got our first solid night of sleep in three nights! Woo-hoo!