California, here we are!

It has been a very eventful couple of weeks. We left Rolla on June 14th and had one last sushi lunch and spent the night with my parents in Lebanon. We officially headed out on Tuesday and stayed the night in Amarillo, TX. The next day we got to Flagstaff, AZ. On Thursday we headed up to the Grand Canyon, and we learned that it costs $25 to stare at the hole for one hour or 7 days. Rip off. But it's one of those things you have to see. We also found out on the way to the canyon that we were, in fact, not getting the puppy we were promised. So, I was quite possibly the only person crying at the Grand Canyon, but that's a rant for another day.

The pain lessened with some In-N-Out. We stopped at the first one we saw on the way into Phoenix. It was excellent. We also went to the Mills in Phoenix for some retail therapy and I got my big ass california sunglasses.

This day I was also very excited to big "cactuses" (I know it's wrong, but it's much more fun to say). They are one of those things you see in movies, but you don't really expect to see them all eight feet tall and big arms just like in Wile E. Coyote or something. It's one of the few you see as a kid that is true to life. Moral of the story: I'm easily impressed. And very tired (as you can see from the picture, adding two hours in one day is a bitch)

Friday was our shortest  day of driving, but it seemed to take the longest. Mostly we were getting a little sick of each other. I guess this is normal when you are pretty much within three feet of someone for 5 days. We did get along surprisingly well, but I think that's because we knew the prize that awaited at the end. Ahhh California.

We took a deserted (no pun intended) shortcut out of Phoenix (one I was convinced was plagued by mexican gangsters/pirates...I have no idea why) and then took "the 8" (yeah, I do that now) all the way to San Diego. We hugged the Mexico/US border most of the way, literally you could see the fence. We also went through three border patrol checkpoints, luckily they weren't at all interested in the amount of crap we were hauling and waved us through. I saw the sand dunes as soon as we got into CA, then it quickly turned into a series of mountains. Under normal circumstances it's probably a pretty cool drive, but I have to say that El Cajon has never looked more beautiful.

We've been puppysitting and housesitting in San Diego while Tim's parents are on vacation, but that time is almost up. We are moving into our apartment on Thursday. We've mostly been shopping for furniture and things for the apartment. I guess we are finally adults since we bought a TV and a mattress with an actual bed frame.

Today we went up to Fullerton because Tim had a job interview, then jetted over to San Bernardino to check out our place. It's a bit smaller than what we had in Rolla for double the price, but still not terrible for CA. We're about a mile or so from CSUSB which will be nice, but Tim will have about an hour-ish commute if he gets this job.

We also went to Ontario/Rancho Cucamonga to do some shopping. We are both pretty excited that shopping no longer has to be an "event" like when we made day trips up to St. Louis. We can just jet over to the Ontario Mills (the biggest one story mall this side of the Mississippi), Target, Ikea, Costco, etc. in about 15 minutes. This is a very new thing for me since everywhere I've ever lived has hosted Wal-Mart as a main attraction. On that note, it has now been three weeks since we have been in a Wal-Mart.

We are going to be enjoying a bit of San Diego before we head out later this week, going to a casino tomorrow (mostly for a kickass free buffet) then to a Padres game on Wednesday afternoon and sushi afterwards. It's still a little hard to comprehend that we don't have to get on a plane and fly back to Missouri at the end of the week. I'm actually adjusting to Pacific time (otherwise I would totally be asleep by then). We're also pretty excited to finally be embarking on the last leg of our journey to San Bernardino. It seemed like it was so far away, and then all of a sudden we're here making a brand new start.

I'm hoping to keep up with this (hopefully in smaller installments), but I guess I need to also be looking for a car and a job. Nonetheless, that's what's up. I apologize for the blog vomit. Thanks for reading.