Las Vegas-San Diego

So originally I wanted to upload a video of all the places I went before starting Semester at Sea, but my laptop being the p.o.s. that it is, was taking forever to even open editing software. So, in the mean time, here is the timeline (with photos) of my road trip from Las Vegas to San Diego.

My Mom and I flew into Las Vegas December 29th, and were renting a car and leaving the morning of December 31st (to avoid all the New Year's stuff going on). With the 2 days in Vegas, we decided to just spend our time looking around. This would have been fine if either of us had looked at the weather, because it was cold and rainy the entire time we were there. (This was actually quite a surprise to me because it's the desert, it's not supposed to rain in the desert). Nonetheless, we walked the strip during the day and at night and tried to really get a feel for the essence of the city-- from the neon signs, to the designer shops, Las Vegas is something unique to itself.

The real Eiffel Tower is much bigger than this one

After leaving Las Vegas, we went to Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam for a hot second, then headed onto Route 66. I had planned on stopping in a old mining town called Oatman in Arizona, but by the time we actually got there on New Year's Eve, it was dark and everything was closed. So we continued on to our next hotel in Needles, CA, a slightly larger town also on Rt 66.

With the next day's destination being Palm Springs, we stopped along the way to see Joshua Tree National Park. (Granted we didn't actually see any Joshua Trees because my mom didn't want to spend like $30 for us to actually enter the park, but that's not the point)

Here is me (obviously) taking an ultra unique photo with the sign

After getting to Palm Springs and spending the night there, we decided to take the Aerial Tramway up to Mount San Jacinto. This sounded like a great idea because of the amazing views from both the tram and the top of the mountain. This was a poorly thought out plan. 1. The line wait time to get tickets was like an hour 2. The wait time to go up was 2 hours 3. The top of the mountain was 24 degrees, and we were not the most prepared for that kind of temperature (cite Las Vegas as precursor). Other than that though, it was pretty freaking cool. We went through clouds, the tram floors rotated for a 360 view of both the desert and mountain range, and we also met some really nice people.

After Palm Springs, we headed back into the desert, to the internet sensation, Salvation Mountain. Salvation Mountain was created by artists in basically the middle of the desert, and is honestly one of the most interesting places I've ever seen. I also apparently didn't take a photo of the front of it, so stay tuned (or google it) to see that in the video that will eventually be made.

Our last destination was San Diego, and arriving there not only meant the end of this trip, but provided the realization that I am actually going to be traveling the world for the next 4 months (and 11 days to be exact). This realization scared me and still kind of does right now. But having this opportunity is one of the most amazing things in the world, I almost can't believe its finally happening.

Yesterday my mom and I drove up to La Jolla, and I showed her around all the places I had went when I was in San Diego last March, which was really nice and allowed me to become a little more familiar with a really nice, calm town.

I took her down to the Sunny Jim Sea Cave too

Stay tuned for whatever may be coming, with the limited internet access, who knows what or when you'll here from me next.

Talk to you later,

-Karin xx