California KNOWS HOW TO PARTY...

Soooo.

This is AWKWARD, huh. I give you a teaser photo of fun happenings then NOTHING.

I went on this totally fun and amazing roadtrip vacation with Jaya and I was soooo hyped to share all the awwwwesome photos when we got back.

That was almost three weeks ago. Ohhhh, I'm shaking my fist at myself! I was going to write some quippy/witty crap like,

"Ohhh, isn't it the pits when people force you to look at their vacation photos? They either have too many landscape/architectural/olde-tyme church things (none of which you care about) or they have too many face photos (and don't get a sense of where they went or what they saw). And they almost NEVER put some kind of description. So, you end up looking at pictures of your 'friend' smiling like a jerk, with some olde-tyme ruins behind them, and you have no idea where they are. Then you start hating them juuuust a little because they got to go somewhere and you didn't. NOOOW HERE'S MY VACATION PHOTOS!!! Enjoy."

Now, I'm not "trying" to make excuses, but be happy that I waited this long to post because I'm pretty sure I could've done 3+ posts of just vacation photos.

Sooo, if you want to give in and look... NOW HERE'S MY VACATION PHOTOS!!

A baby description: Jaya and I drove up the scenic route of the 395, from Los Angeles to Bridgeport, CA, then down to Bishop, CA, then continued on the 190 to Death Valley. I drove approximately 1,200 miles in 3 days.

001/ MANZANAR:

002/ CONVICT LAKE:

003/ LEE VINING, CA/BRIDGEPORT, CA:

004/ BODIE GHOST TOWN:

005/ MONO LAKE, SOUTH TUFA GROVE:

006/ BISHOP, CA.

007/ DEATH VALLEY, CA/MESQUITE DUNES/BADWATER, CA.:

I've spared you the "you-had-to-be-there" jokes and commentary, but if you're interested, I have more photos on my other Flickr account (I wrote more detailed accounts). If you haven't seen it already, watch the video of Jaya and I in Bodie (it's cute; it's funny; the music is weird and frenetic; and Jaya learned how to do alll of the editing in, like, 2 hours time).

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All I gots to say now is, without all its big cities and glaring lights, California is STILL an AMAZING STATE.

In one day, we went from the highest point in California (Conway Summit @ 8,143 ft above sea level) to the lowest (Badwater, CA @ -282 ft below); I drove one of the craziest stretches of roads that was rife with "squiggly line" caution signs and 9% grade inclines [click on the link to see a beautiful panoramic shot]; there were sequoias, redwoods, joshua trees, sand, and salt flats for daaaays.

Old women hassled me the "appropriateness" of my dress. We saw an older French couple that found my keys in Bodie a day later, 300 miles away, in Death Valley. On the way back home from Death Valley, Jaya and I got crazy "lost"- meaning all we had was an incomplete AAA map and a sketchy sense of direction. For a couple hours +, I was shit scared that the car would break down and we'd be desert toast.

Gooood times were had, most definitely.

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**BECAUSE IT'S SOOO GOOD: There was one song that says it best (just replace "Watts", "South Central", and "Compton" with "Lone Pine", "Furnace Creek", and "Trona").

2Pac's California Love: