California or Bust
He chose California on a whim. I said Arizona would be too hot and asked where else in the country he'd like to go so California it was. We sat down together to plan it all out; from Death Valley to Lake Tahoe, from Disneyland to San Francisco. It was all written down on a sheet of bright yellow paper when we asked another to join. It would be the trip of a lifetime, we said. She agreed and off we went.
We all piled into the car and mentally prepared ourselves for the twelve hour drive to Las Vegas. She took the backseat, I got shotgun, and he drove. We left the prairie of Wyoming, zoomed through the Utah valleys and finally descended into Sin City itself. After a blur of Cuban food, trapeze artists, and a bedazzled strip, we fell asleep utterly exhausted.
The next day brought us to Death Valley and its infamous heat. We staggered under arches, across salt flats, and over burning dunes. Joshua Tree was next with its towering rock piles and cholla cacti galore. We stopped at the San Diego Zoo next and worked our way around the park, hearing fantastic "brink of extinction" stories and visiting world famous pandas. From there we drove to Los Angeles where we revisited our planet's history at the Griffith Observatory and cartwheeled our way across Santa Monica beach. Up next was every child's dream, Disneyland. We laughed as he took pictures with Winnie the Pooh and sat in the shade with our Dole whips. We stayed on our feet from seven in the morning until eleven at night but wouldn't have traded it for the world. On we went to the land of giants as we visited Sequoia National Park and then to Kings Canyon where we pleasantly surprised by the most underrated park I've ever visited. Our final stop was Yosemite, where we shoved past other tourists to see Tunnel View for ourselves and to let the winds from Yosemite Falls whip our hair around our faces.
While we saw incredible things and ate incredible foods, the best part of any road trip are the little things. Lorde, Lady Gaga, and Halsey will forever take me back to the tight roads running through Kings Canyon. The word "seafood" will always take me back to chowder bowls and tall bottles of Coke. I will never again say that ninety degrees is hot and will always be wary of Himalayan salt lamps. More than anything, I will never forget the two wonderful people who humored my crazy idea and agreed to join me on an adventure we'd never forget.
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