The final chapter! We've been in Carmel, CA for a couple of days now and it's been lovely. My Dad flew out to meet us and my brother and his girlfriend joined us from Berkeley. It's been a restful (and informative) couple of days as I transition to life here. The western journey of our trip included Wyoming, Utah, Nevada and California and was really a final push, one that while scenic, we pushed onwards at a quicker pace, ready to arrive.
Wyoming, like South Dakota, was beautiful. Once we crossed into the state though, we experienced the most frightening part of our trip. The straight secondary road we were taking led us into navy skies. I was driving and my Mom checked the storm radar as we pulled over at a rest area. Radar sections of orange, red and pink were heading in our direction.
Large raindrops fell, followed by hail that shifted from pea to marble sized, but was so loud hitting the car and bigger than any hail we had seen. The wind picked up and a wooden and metal garbage can in front of our car detached from it's ground attachment and began to move a few inches. I was worried it could hit the windshield as the gusts of wind were blowing road signs and we felt our car moving gently. The worst parts of the storm lasted only 6-7 minutes but felt stronger than any thunderstorm we had experienced before.
In Utah, we stayed with my aunt, uncle and cousins and I fell in love (once again) with their lovely rabbit. I had visited southern Utah earlier this year and found that the northern part of the state didn't look too much like it, but there were a few reddish rocks like the one above. The most remarkable and unfamiliar scenery of the entire trip were the salt flats west of Salt Lake City. They sprinkled the landscape as white round pieces of land and walking out on one felt like walking on patted down snow. It was 95 degrees out, but the images look so wintery to me.
Truthfully, I-80 through Nevada was the least scenic and most desolate chunk of road we had experienced. It's an enormous state to drive across and I hope that drive doesn't need to happen again soon.
Nevada.
Once in California, the Sierra Nevada was gorgeous! Such tall pine trees and mountains. We were a bit south of Lake Tahoe but I'm looking forward to visiting it soon. As we approached the Monterey peninsula, the agricultural towns began to smell like garlic and peppers and we saw fruit stands on the side of the road. The peaches and strawberries purchased were SO delicious.
It was great to reunite with family in Carmel and walking along Point Lobos (above on the left) with my brother and his girlfriend was incredibly beautiful.
I can't say I've been to too many aquariums, but I had heard the Monterey Bay Aquarium was the best in the U.S. and I can say it was the most amazing I've ever seen. The background music throughout the aquarium was beautiful and relaxing and paired particularly well with the jellyfish!
As beautiful as California is, it's natural disasters were evident today. Despite knowing of wildfire, we drove about 20 miles south to Big Sur, planning to attend a lighthouse tour. On the way there, firetrucks lined highway 1 and smoke filled the air. We saw flames in the hills and turned back when it was too smoky outside of the car. We watched the smoke rising from the hills (pictured above) a few steps from our home this afternoon.
There's so much beauty here and as I get settled in the coming weeks, I'll certainly be writing about it.
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