It was "Carmageddon" weekend in Los Angeles when we were due to fly out – they were closing the 405 freeway over the Sepulveda Pass all for two straight days to do construction. Fear was rampant so we left an extra two hours early for the airport. Turns out it was the best traffic ever and we made it to LAX in record time! We even had time for a leisurely dinner at Encounters, the iconic “Space Age” restaurant in the middle of LAX. That all ju...

Moving on from Utah, we rewarded ourselves with a one-night stopover at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas before heading through the Mojave Desert back to California.  It was 105 degrees when we passed the world's largest thermometer in Baker... and it was still getting hotter.  When we hit Santa Monica, we unpacked the car and immediately walked down to the beach to stick our toes in the Pacific Ocean, take a deep breath, and let it sink in ...

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If you took a giant volcano and deflated it like a fallen soufflé, you would have Yellowstone National Park. The site of an ancient volcano, it is now an enormous valley where the Earth's insides literally ooze, sputter, and explode to the surface. We toured the mud pots, sulfurous steam vents and geysers of the park. Most of the pools have an unbelievably clear blue center as the water is too hot for any organisms to grow and taint the aqua hue. We then en...