From Beach to Canyon

It took me some time to figure out why Windows Movie Maker was crashing and to make it stop (hint: del qedit.dll), and then some more time to download proper background music over the hollow reed which this hotel calls an Internet connection. But finally, here it is, video from the first leg of our trip:



Today, we had a fantastic but tiring time at the Grand Canyon, thanks to American Dream Tours* and our guide, Daniel Maust. Photos will be up later, even though they don't do it justice. There is absolutely no substitute for being here in person.

Dinner: Yesterday's leftover chili and corn salad over brown rice. We thought about ordering a pizza, but it just seemed like too much work.

* Yes, I know their web site sucks. Their vans aren't pretty either: plain white, with the company name and DOT number painted in small block letters on the front doors. It's a small, family-run business, and they don't spend money on extravagances. They just do one thing very well.

~CKL

Overheard at Breakfast

(while watching entertainment news show "The Insider" on the hotel dining room's TV, a change from the news channel that's usually playing)

CKL: I can't decide if this is better or worse than Fox News.
D: (confused) Isn't this a commercial?
CKL: (beat) I guess that would be "worse" for you.

Pictures!

I wonder a lot about what these humans do outside all day. Well, maybe "a lot" is overstating it. Mostly I wonder why they're not inside sleeping or playing with us or feeding us. What could be more fun than that?

Well, apparently they like to spend their time walking around and taking pictures of things. I don't really see the point, because their pictures don't smell like anything, and that's what's really interesting about other places! Humans are weird. They weren't out very long today, and they didn't come back with many pictures, though they did smell like pizza and sand and salt.

Yesterday they actually brought back a whole bag of stuff, including some pictures on flat cards (not just on the computer like they usually are) and little plastic bricks. It seems that they were at a place which has tons of these little plastic things, arranged into shapes to look like other things. That might have been interesting--I love climbing on stuff!--and I would have liked playing Godzilla and chasing birds around the miniature cities, but I probably wouldn't have enjoyed all those children running around.

Legoland

The day before that, they came back with some really interesting smells! They had gone to a "wild animal park" where lots of different creatures live. I didn't recognize a lot of them, but a few of them smelled like cats--lions and tigers, apparently. It turns out there are much bigger versions of us that live outdoors and get to sleep on top of cars and rocks. Seems a little dangerous to me. And what about when you want some privacy? I prefer having lots of indoor spaces to hide when necessary. Supposedly these "big cats" are predators at the top of the food chain, but dude, you're still living in someone else's park.

San Diego Wild Animal Park

Two days ago, they brought back the biggest variety of scents, including flowers and some dust and stuff that smelled really old. I mean really, really old. Apparently that was from an exhibit about an ancient Roman city called Pompeii that was buried by a volcanic explosion that preserved a lot of artifacts. I don't really know what all that means, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have wanted to be there for that! Volcanoes are noisy.

Balboa Park

After three days of running around, they seem to have come to their senses a little. They slept in this morning, and played with me for a while tonight! Otherwise, I spent most of the day looking out the windows. There's been a film crew staying at this hotel the whole time we've been here. I think they're shooting a documentary. And there are lots of birds!

San Diego Recaplet

Having a great time, wish you were here, etc. Photos will be online after I finish organizing and captioning them. And I believe Jasper will have something to say about our souvenirs.

Meanwhile, here's what we've been doing for the past few days:

• Visiting Balboa Park, where we enjoyed the local flora, saw the "Day in Pompeii" exhibit and some Roman soldiers at the Natural History Museum, then played with sound and ferrofluid at the Science Center;
• Walking all over the Wild Animal Park, home to lions and tigers and many encroaching jackrabbits; and
• Strolling through Legoland, where Miniland USA offered a scale-model preview of our upcoming road trip.

Tomorrow, it's sleeping in to rest our tired feet, and then off to Coronado, which is supposed to have some great views of the ocean.

Dinner tonight:



~CKL

Torture is unconstitutional.

Yeah, I know feline-Americans aren't yet recognized as citizens. That'll change soon enough. We have a plan. That's all I'm saying. And when we get our full rights granted by law, some things are going to change. For one, it will no longer be legal to torture your cats by allowing strange people to come into your residence and mess with the furniture.

When the humans left yesterday to go out and have their fun, they locked us in the playpen. Which wasn't great to begin with. But then this strange woman towing a huge plastic cart bursts into the room. I was drinking at the time, and I was so startled, I kicked over the dish while I was scrambling to hide and spilled water everywhere. And of course Jasper also has to hide in the one good spot, inside the tube on the scratching post, so we're both jammed in there while this woman tears the place apart. I swear I've never heard so much noise before. It's like she was looking for hidden treasure or something.

Anyway, the noisy woman finally leaves, but now the sun is shining through the window and all over the playpen because the humans rolled up the blanket. What, do they think we like being exposed to the elements? So Jasper and I stayed holed up inside that tube until they got home. It wasn't ideal, but it wasn't as crowded as you might think. Cats are fuzzy. We can squeeze into some pretty tight spaces. Like under the bed. Which is where I wanted to be.

So that sucked, but today was a little better. The humans let us have the run of the mini-house while they were out today doing who knows what (but I suspect it involved animals of some sort because boy, did they smell funky when they got back). And they pulled the blanket down over the playpen, so I had some privacy while using the facilities. Seriously, there are birds outside. I don't want them watching me use the litter box.

Mostly, I stayed under the bed. Jasper roamed all day, except when it sounded like one of those noisy carts or other humans was coming to our door. Then he was briefly sensible and hung out with me. No one else has come into the mini-house, but they really need to do something about all these strange noises we hear outside. I don't know what's going on out there, but there are way too many people way too close to our door.

Oh yeah, that reminds me. Happy Passover.

Playpen Redux

We arrived in San Diego last night, and both cats were much more perky than at our first hotel stop. The Feliway we sprayed all over the room may have helped. This is them last night, waiting while we unloaded and unpacked all our luggage (a good 45 minutes of huffing and puffing):

 

 

We just managed to coax Bayla out from under the bed (she was down there all day), and she's now joined Jasper in checking out the sights. We're on the third floor of this Residence Inn, and Jasper has enjoyed looking out the window ("cat TV") all day long. Bayla just likes sniffing around inside the suite and rubbing her face on various things.

Dinner tonight: After a Trader Joe's run for supplies, D cooked up some gnocchi in marinara sauce with red and orange bell peppers, chicken & turkey sausage, red onion, and herbed goat cheese on top. And now we have leftovers!

~CKL