Days 12-13: NM to Cali!

Day 12: Santa Fe, NM to Flagstaff, AZ

Before leaving Santa Fe we spent a couple of hours on a walking tour of the area near our hotel; read: Hillary wanted to see all the various shops/boutiques/etc.. 

Kiva!

Aside from the classy shops we found some goodies for us to decorate our new home with:

Caliente!

Sadly, none of these were the right fit

Otherwise, no offense to all the lovers of Santa Fe, but this is not a place we will visit again. Aside from the REALLY cheap gas (lowest we saw: $2.96/gal!!!) New Mexico was a dud. Sure there was a nice little area of shops and we stayed in a nice hotel with a inappropriate name for a spa:

  but otherwise it didn't do it for us.From there it was on to Arizona. Our drive showed us some nice scenic views:

We even hit some important landmarks, like the continental divide: 

Driving through Arizona we weren't expecting to make any non-pit stops until we saw signs for the Meteor Crater, something I immediately wanted to see (google maps link). So we high-tailed it to the site but arrived at 5:01p, 1 full minute after closing. Even my sweet face couldn't convince the security guard to let us in. (All we wanted was a picture!)

[Snooze Alert] Our night activity after checking into our hotel in Flagstaff, AZ was something very exciting. Being the astronomy buffs we are ( I did take a Astronomy 101 class in YU ) we decided to take the 5 minute drive to the Lowell Observatory where we saw some truly fascinating things. To start with there were two powerful yet portable telescopes that enabled us to see andromeda  and many other stars/constellations. The guru there even pointed out the shine from the rings of the milky way visible to the naked eye. Next we went to the big telescope where we saw Jupiter! The guru pointed out the moon of Jupiter and the storms that were taking place. All very interesting stuff, great way to end the night. (Hillary may say she felt like she was on a class trip, but I know she secretly loved it)

the big telescope

Day 13: Flagstaff, AZ to Palm Springs, CA
Logistically it made sense for us to stop somewhere in between Arizona and La Jolla- we picked Palm Springs. Once again the weather cooperated and we were treated to stunning views:

yes, you can see the moon

our new time zone

our new state

 Aside from a crazy ~100mi byway in the Mojave Desert getting from I-40 to I-10 on which there was construction that shut down everything, things moved pretty quickly.

traffic in the mojave

Luckily we got to Palm Springs, where the weather was 75f and sunny, with enough time to enjoy some of the amenities:

Pool and Hot tub- view from our balcony

golf club - view from our balcony

After which we took another tour of the surrounding area; read: we went to Outlet Shopping.

This is the end of our journey- tomorrow morning we drive to La Jolla to sign the lease and have our stuff moved in. And so begins Our So Cal-ed Life.

-A