Tinypony

We had a great day in Cloudcroft today. It started with breakfast at the Western Cafe, shopping along Main St., and a quick stop at the ranger station to pick up information about places to hike. While we were at the ranger station it started raining and hailing like crazy. Which actually was great timing because I was ready for a nap! There is no rain in the forecast for tomorrow so we're planning a morning hike on the Osha Trail and a trip to Ruidoso for dinner. ... read more

Today we visted Occidental College in Los Angles and Claremont McKenna in in Claremont. We had scheduled tours and information sessions for both schools, combined, it took about 5 hours. Occidental was pretty bland but the campus was nice. Claremont McKenna was very cool. We learned a lot about the history of the Claremont College Consortium and the formation of all the colleges that make up the consortium. The town of Claremont is actually pretty nice but it was pretty hot. After the tours we went back to Ana's house in Lake Arrowhead (actually it's located in a town called Twin Peaks!) we hung out wth Ana's friends and family and played a game called Rummikub - we weren't good enough to win any hands but it was a lot of fun! We've got a long ... read more

We were back in San Francisco again today and boy, was it crowded!! We got on a double-decker tour bus and learned a lot about the city. We took the tour bus from Union Square to Haight-Ashbury, the Golden Gate Park, and the Golden Gate Bridge. We explored Cow Hill and the Marina district. I'm exhausted. I'm going to post photos then go to sleep. ... read more

Our day began with a tour of UC Berkeley. It was Catie's first college tour and I think it was an excellent place to start. We learned a lot about the school and it's history - including its rivalry with Stanford. At the start of our tour it was 58° and foggy but by end of it (at 11:30) it was sunny and almost 70°. After a quick lunch on campus, we took the BART to San Francisco. Negotiating mass transit systems is not one of my strong suits. I have a long history of getting confused and turned around and BART was no exception to my misadventures. Catie is an excellent traveling partner and so we only got turned around once and thankfully we noticed our mistake early and were able to get on the ... read more

Today we drove from Mesa Verde NP to Salt Lake City, with a stop in Moab to visit Arches National Park. We drove 372 miles today. The best part about the drive was going through Arches NP. The worst part about the drive was the heat. When we arrived at Arches National Park, the first thing we did was hike the Delicate Arch Trail. Omg! It was an intense hike. The heat, the altitude gain! Two and a half hours! We were exhausted but it was totally worth it! We left Moab for Salt Lake City and had dinner at the Red Iguana. We're looking forward to tomorrow when we depart for Oakland. ... read more