September 13-20, 2015 we did a road trip from Colorado, through Utah, Arizona, Nevada, and ending up in California.
Reid and I are obsessed with San Diego. We had both been there as kids, and decided that our second road trip needed to be to California. I had been on this exact road trip as a kid, so it was fun to re-live that adventure with Reid.
This was one of my favorite vacations of all time. Reid and I actually had fun on our road trip, listening to books on tape, enjoying the scenery, and laughing together as we drove over the Rocky Mountains to the desert ultimately to the Pacific Ocean.
Not going to lie, it's going to be hard to check off all our 50 states because we just want to keep going back to California.
September 13, 2015
Utah | Arizona | Nevada
We left Colorado bright and early because we wanted to eat dinner in Las Vegas. We drove through Western Colorado, through Utah (and the only thing we stopped at was this weird Burger King for lunch), and through the little corner of Arizona (still counts!). I don't think I took out my camera once until we got to our hotel in Las Vegas, so there's only cell phone shots of that portion of the road trip. I need to get better about having my camera out the whole time, it's just so bulky that it's easier to travel without it on me.
We made it into Las Vegas by about 6:00 and had dinner at Rainforest Cafe. I remember that place being a lot tastier as a kid, now, not so much. We walked around the strip for a little bit and then headed back to the Stratosphere, which is where we stayed the night. We went to the top of the Stratosphere and I got over my fear of heights for 0.02 seconds to take the bottom right picture.
September 14, 2015
California
We left Las Vegas later than we wanted to, and headed to California. Our hotel was in Pacific Beach, but we stopped in Oceanside for dinner beforehand. We were so happy to see the beach!!
September 15, 2015
Our first day in San Diego was pretty gloomy and rainy so we couldn't go to the beach. We decided to check out the Gaslamp district in downtown San Diego instead. We also had lunch at In-N-Out for the first time ever, and we were underwhelmed - probably because the anticipation had built too high!
September 16, 2015
Our third day we went to La Jolla and saw the seals on the beach. It was one of the coolest things! We then went back to Oceanside and took the picture under the pier. After that we went to dinner at Alta Marea in Pacific Beach and it was incredible Italian food. We were the only ones in the restaurant, and I have no clue why, because this food was seriously legit. For dessert we stopped by The Baked Bear for delicious ice cream sandwiches.
September 17, 2015
We didn't take many pictures this day. We checked out of our hotel on Pacific Beach and moved to a hotel on Huntington Beach. On the way out of Pacific Beach I grabbed a pitaya bowl from Northside Shack - I could seriously eat that every day! I wish those were a thing here in Colorado.
I didn't take many pictures this day. We were both exhausted and kinda sick of eating out and we were sad to be leaving Pacific Beach. We did have dinner with Reid's cousin Jeff that evening by Santa Monica Pier, and it was really fun to see him!
September 18, 2015
This was a fun day. We got donuts in Huntington Beach in the morning and then went to the beach for a little bit. After that we went to Downtown Disney (too broke to actually go to Disneyland lol) and then met up with my Uncle Scott and Aunt Gina at The Grove in LA. We then did a little tour of LA going to LACMA, the Walk of Fame, Grauman's, and had Pink's for dinner. We also had some great pie to end the night.
September 19, 2015
Our last day in California. Neither of us wanted to leave, so we ended up leaving at pretty much the last minute. We spent the day going to beaches after we checked out of our hotel. Started in Long Beach which we found out is kinda gross, then went to Laguna Beach. We got to Mesquite, NV at about 11pm to play some penny slots before bed.
September 20, 2015
Woke up bright and early to head back to Denver. The road trip home felt longer because it's always less exciting. I loved that when we left there were no changing leaves, but as we headed home there was a ton of Fall colors.
California, we'll be back soon.
