Day 56, 57 Grand Canyon National Park, AZ

 

Grand Canyon was everything we had hoped it would be! This was one of the stops that we were most looking forward to and we had really wanted to backpack down to the river and back up. Unfortunately, because of our lack of time and resources, we're going to have to save that for our next trip. But we still had a wonderful time riding along the rim on the bike and enjoying the views of this majestic landmark.

For my first look of the Grand Canyon, Alex insisted I keep my eyes closed until we were on a lookout point right over the whole canyon. I tripped a few times and felt like I was going to fall off the ledge right into the Grand Canyon, but it was totally worth it!

I couldn't believe how big the Canyon actually is. It definitely makes the world seem so much bigger and us humans so much smaller than what we normally feel. We also spotted an elk family and lots of candor birds. One of my favorite things was the painters hiding out on random ledges, painting the landscape. We also saw a park ranger on a Ruckus! Awesome!

 

We decided to take a little break from our hurried pace home and tried to get a campsite in the National Park. A big part of why we wanted to stay there was that we've had 80 - 90 degree weather almost all of the trip, and this was our first time we were actually cold the whole trip and we loved it! So everything was completely full, but we did find an amazing campground a few miles south of the park that was only 10 dollars a night and we had our own fire pit, grill and basically the whole forest to ourselves. It was amazing!

Being in such a beautiful landscape we had to initiate all our camping gear that we got as wedding presents. So we brought out the tent, chair, hot dog sticks, propane lamp, coffee cups and thermos and that's about all we have.

So we totally got into the camping spirit and bought hot dogs to roast over the fire, something I don't think I've ever done camping since our family likes to camp in style. And we brought out the super complicated card game we bought from the Amish and played it all evening, once we figured out how to! This is my attitude about camping. This is Alex's...

Look how happy we are! This was not the case the next morning... We were totally loving our little camping experience and the nature around us until that night... Temperatures dropped and we really wished we would've gotten sleeping bags and air mattresses with our other camping gear. We tried to make it the whole night, but finally around 7 AM after barely being able to sleep the whole night, we gave up and sought the warmth and comfort of the RV. Obviously, we've gone soft and are used to the luxurious life of RVing....

We also spotted the next morning a baby tarantula just meandering around. That's when we decided to leave.

 

Day 55 Painted Desert, AZ

Our first stop in Arizona was the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert. The Painted Desert was amazing! It reminded us of Badlands in SD, except bigger and more colorful. We also had fun racing a tour group of Germans, trying to get to all the lookout points before them.

When we found out that we were on the biggest Native American Reservation in the U.S., Alex and I tried to get in touch with our inner Navajo and this is what happened to me.






After we'd seen enough of the Painted Desert, we went to check out the Petrified Forest. My mom and sister had been there before and my mom had warned me that the Petrified Forest is really disappointing and there isn't really much to see. As always, my mom was right and literally these chunks of petrified wood were the most exciting thing there. Honestly my favorite part of the Petrified Forest was this bright, yellow flower bush!

Day 51 - 54 LA, TX, NM

 

From New Orleans we drove another crazy, long drive to get to Dallas, Texas for church Sunday morning. We did make it though and finally got to see Shady Grove, a church that we've heard a lot about from all of our friends we know who go there. It was another refreshing service with blunt teaching straight from the Bible and really good worship. Afterward we got to see some old friends and of course had the wonderful experience, for not the first time, of being introduced as Matti's sister to everyone. What can I say, I have a famous brother... I also got too see my friend Xaundelle who I had the pleasure of being roommates with in France four years ago. As always, Xaundelle was a wonderful host and invited us over to her house for lunch. We had an awesome time hanging out with her and her family the whole evening and they made us the best mushroom and spinach enchiladas I've ever had.

 

The next morning we had to stop at a local beach in Dallas for a little resting before we hit the road for our long trek to Arizona. The water was pretty murky, but the park was empty, now that everyone is back in school, and we had a good, relaxing break. By the time we left Dallas it was 97 degrees F and once again in our non-air conditioned RV, it was pretty unbearable. So how do you survive Texas heat? Drink a slushi the size of your head of course!

 

We also stopped for some authentic Texan BBQ before we crossed into New Mexico. It was pretty fabulous, but I'm definitely starting to miss being able to by anything fresh or green at a restaurant. You would think that after his "What are grits?" moment, Alex would've learned not to ask. But no, he asked the waitress what brisket is and we got another you're-obviously-not-from-the-south-look.

There's not much to say about New Mexico. It's pretty flat in most places and there's just a lot of open land. We did attempt to find Route 66 and found out that it's the South's best kept secret. Honestly, it's not on any map and if you google it, you're directed to Amazon where you have to pay 11.95$ to buy a map of Route 66. We would occasionally see a sign pointing to Historic Route 66, but they didn't really lead you anywhere. It took us forever to finally figure out that the Route is literally right next to the highway and intertwines with it, sometimes even overlapping.

Now I'd just like to say that the movie Cars creates a completely unrealistic picture of Route 66. I was expecting to find all these cute 50s style diners and gas stations and actually what it looks like is more like this... Abandoned, run-down buildings... Huge disappointment! Some parts of it are actually completely overrun and the only way to spot it is that there's an occasional abandoned, old car chillin in the middle of a grass field. Lame...

  

 

Day 50 New Orleans, LA

 

From Panama City, we once again drove well into the night because my dad was in New Orleans on a missions trip helping with hurricane relief and we wanted to make it there before he left. We got to meet up with him on his last day there and spent the whole day seeing New Orleans with him.

There are a lot of things about my dad that I love and I hope I've inherited from him. One of them is his love to travel and see other cultures. Another is his ability to adapt to different cultures. For example, my dad had only been in New Orleans for a week and by the time we got there he was showing us around, explaining the history, and taking us to all the locals' favorite places as if he had been living there his whole life.

So our tour began with the outdoor markets in New Orleans where they sell everything from clothes to jewelry to spices to paintings to creepy voodoo things to cell phone chargers.

From there we went to Cafe Du Monde for beignets and fake coffee. Now for those who aren't already aware of the coffee situation in Louisiana, I must explain. Even though you order coffee from their menu, it's not actually coffee. It's chicory. And for those who don't know what that is, it's a root that was used as a coffee substitute during WWII when everyone was on rations.

But after the war when the rest of America went back to drinking good, old coffee, Louisiana decided that they liked chicory better and continued to drink it. Thus when us Seattlites first took a sip of it, we just thought it was a really crappy cup of coffee. But no, it's not actually coffee at all and they didn't even bother to tell us!

Anyhow! From there we took a ferry across the Mississippi and saw lots of pretty paddle wheel boats.

After that we spent a good chunk of time just walking around the French Quarter. This was my favorite area! All the buildings are built in French style, obviously, with long, skinny windows and doors, shutters and balconies. Also every building was different in some way, from their ornate balconies to the bright colors of the houses. 

They made me want to just sit on a chair with a good cup of coffee and have long conversations with strangers. We loved listening to the birds there too! Unlike Seattle where we just have ugly crows and seagulls, New Orleans is full of small birds like bluebirds, hummingbirds and finches that sing beautiful songs while you walk by them. The best way I could describe the French Quarter is that it was very charming.

There were also bananas growing in trees above us as we were walking around! It was really hard not to steal one... But we didn't. A friend of ours wrote to us that music is the DNA of New Orleans and we could definitely see what he meant! Literally every where you go, there are people just sitting on a street corner, or performing for an outdoor cafe, playing a saxophone. It added to the charm of the city and I couldn't believe how talented some of these people are. One group of high school kids just playing in a park sounded better than many professional jazz bands I've heard.

 

Our last stop of the day was a huge park that my dad described as the Central Park of New Orleans. It felt like it with it's huge green fields and little jungles that you could stumble on, filled with tropical sounding birds. After that we went to dinner with my dad's missions team and I would just like to say that I don't understand how the people in the South can live off of the food they do. Instead of having sides like salads, carrots or that sort of thing like other places do, their sides are macaroni and cheese, potato salad, coleslaw. The only vegetables we saw were deep fat fried. They did have a salad but I didn't see a single other person in the restaurant order one.  And they put gravy on everything! It was unbelievable! But I will admit that their sweet potato fries were incredible!

 

We didn't end up seeing Burbon Street, which is arguably what New Orleans is most well known for, but we didn't mind at all. We still got to experience the Southern charm of the city and spent a wonderful day with my dad.

Day 49 Panama City, FL

 

Now as much as I don't particularly like country music, one really should listen to "Knee Deep" by Zac Brown Band while reading this blog post, to capture the feeling of Panama City.

 

Since we weren't able to make it down to Miami, we wanted to have at least one good beach day on our trip to feel like real honeymooners. So we planned to stop at a beach along the Gulf of Mexico, since we had heard that the water was nice and clear there, but we were also on a time crunch to get to New Orleans to meet up with someone. We left Jacksonville at 11 PM and were only going to drive for a couple of hours and then drive the rest of the way to Panama City the next morning to get at least a couple of hours of beach time. But Alex once again proved that he's the best husband in the world: I finally went to bed around 1 AM because I couldn't stay awake any longer, and while I was dreaming away, Alex drove the whole way to Panama City and got there at 4:30 AM, so that we could have the whole day at the beach. And as if that weren't enough, he got up in the morning while I was still sleeping and drove us to a Waffle House, because I kept talking about all these stories I've heard about Waffle House and how it's too bad we don't have them in the Northwest. It was very sweet of him and started our day off really well. We also had our total not-from-the-south moment when the waitress asked if we wanted grits or hash browns and Alex asked her what grits were. She just stared at us like we were aliens. Their pecan waffles were delicious though!

 

The rest of the day was spent at the beautiful beach of Panama City. With it's clear water and white, sandy beaches, it reminded me a lot of Hawaii and it was a much needed, almost tropical, stop.

The water was really warm too and we spent a lot of time swimming and snorkeling. Alex tried for hours to catch a fish, but failed. At one point though he noticed a big fish in the water and pointed it out to me. And as we were standing there we saw a fin come up, and sure enough, there was a 5 foot longish shark swimming 15 feet away from us. We freaked out and ran to the shore as fast as we could, where a nice couple from Georgia was walking by.

We asked them if the sharks are dangerous there and they said they see them all the time because the sharks follow the sting rays toward shore, but that they are very rarely dangerous. Right after that we noticed the sting rays swimming by us and were a little more cautious about swimming too deep. We also ate out on the beach, which we haven't really done too much of on this trip. So even though we didn't go to Hawaii or the Bahamas, we got to feel like typical honeymooners for at least a day.

Day 47,48 Jacksonville, FL

Our stop in Jacksonville was an interesting time. We stopped there to see Alex's Uncle and Aunt and his two cousins and to spend some time with them. We had a lot of fun with them, hearing old stories from Ukraine and laughing about family jokes and of course eating lots of good Russian food. We also loved their silly dog who sleeps in weird places. The city of Jacksonville though was kind of strange. Alex's cousin Vitaliy, who has an excellent stache!, took us into the city or first night and gave us a little tour. He explained that some years back they decided to turn the entire county into the city of Jacksonville, so it actually takes a half hour or so to get from one area to another in the city.

He was also telling us about how everyone just lives in the suburbs and no one really lives in the downtown of Jacksonville, so in the evenings the city is totally dead. Once we walked into the city, we saw what he meant. I've never seen a large city so completely deserted at night. Literally the only people we saw were homeless people. And it was only 10 PM! We had also just walked through this dark area along the river where there were all these sketchy looking men staring at us, when his cousin informed us that Jacksonville was the murder capital for a little while. We left pretty quickly after that. It was still fun walking around with Vitaliy though.

The next day the rain let up long enough for us to go to St. Augustine which was about 20 minutes south of Jacksonville. This city is full of history and most well known for the Castillo de San Marcos, which is the oldest military fort in the U.S. built originally by the Spanish in 1672. The history surrounding it was actually pretty interesting and it was worth going to just to see the poor park rangers who have to wear 1600s Spanish military costumes there!

The city also has the oldest wooden schoolhouse in the U.S, lots of old churches and other beautiful old buildings. It was a fun place to walk around with all its cute little shops and art galleries to pop into to escape the heat and humidity, which we hated by the way. At one cafe where I got an amazing coconut frappe, we met a retired guy who had been to Seattle so we started a long conversation about the beauty of Seattle and I'm pretty sure we single-handily convinced him to move to Seattle. We also met a really sweet lady working at an art gallery where we bought a painting. When she heard we were on our honeymoon, she got all excited and let us pick another painting for free and then encouraged us to fight for a good marriage and told us about how her and her husband had been married for 40 years. She was such a blessing!

After that Sasha hit the beaches to go treasure hunting with his metal detector (his new favorite hobby), and I sat down in the shade. Before I knew it, butterflies were swarming all around me and it was one of the most beautiful, peaceful moments of my life. I also got to talk to a sweet old man who was shuffling around behind me. You know it's going to be a good conversation when it begins with "Hey Kiddo"...