Meteor Crater & Petrified Forest

In northern Arizona, there are two remarkable and unusual places.  One is a spot where a meteor crashed and the other is a "petrified forest."  I put that in quotations because it's not a forest at all.  It looks like this:

I couldn't see the forest for the trees.  Oh wait...

Instead, what it is is a large swatch of desert that hundreds of millions of years ago was home to a forest.  We're talking pre-dinosaur times.  Over time, some of the trees sank into a lake that grew to cover the area and got buried under the earth.  Instead of decomposing, they turned into stones and then millions of years later, the trees got pushed up onto the desert when the land rose underneath them.  So now the desert is littered with these "logs":

A lot of the prettiest petrified wood-- which became quartz, I think-- was removed long ago, before the area was a National Park.*  But even the less dazzling pieces are still pretty cool.  Other parts of the Park are also really cool, with colorful stratified hills and open vistas.

That bluish tint is in the rock, not a trick of the lighting.

The other unusual feature of the land I saw in northern Arizona is the Meteor Crater, where about 50,000 years ago, a meteor hit the planet, gouging a deep hole and sending up a ton of junk (although no where near as much as the meteor that caused the dust cloud that probably killed the dinosaurs).

The only structure on the rim of the crater, from the 1930s.

This isn't the only meteor crater on earth, but scientists think it's the best-preserved one.  There hasn't been a lot of weather to fill in the hole or blow away the dirt that got blown out of it.  And it was definitely caused by a meteor, as shown by traces of metals found in the area that are only associated with objects that crash into the Earth.

This is not my photo; it's one of many aerial photos found on the web.

Pretty cool day, and the weather was perfect to be outside exploring and taking photos.

*  If you're interested, I've found a couple articles explaining the difference between a National Park and a National Forest and between a National Park and a National Monument.  If you're not interested in the articles, the short version is that a National Park's goal is to preserve nature, while a National Forest has the joint goal of preservation and land usage (like logging, water usage, etc.).  National Park designation takes an act of Congress, while a Presidential Order can create a National Monument.  The latter is usually used to preserve either historical structures or natural features of scientific interest.

Route 66 to Arizona

Leaving California, I drove much of the way on historic U.S. Route 66.  It more or less parallels Interstate 40 in California and Arizona, at some points only a few hundred feet away from the Interstate but at other points a few miles away.  Most of the road is very sparsely populated, at least in that part of the country where it runs through the Mohave Desert.  There were a small number of roadside attractions, like this cemetery (does that count as a roadside attraction?):

I reckon they died with their boots on.

 But most of the trip between Barstow, CA and western AZ was more like:

I could have stood here for an hour without seeing another car.

My route then took me through northwestern Arizona.  I stopped in Prescott, which seemed like a charming and pretty town.  Well, the older parts at least.  The newer parts are starting to creep towards a strip mall and housing development wasteland.

Isn't Arizona's flag cool?

Quilt sample added so my mom can see it.

After Prescott, I took a pretty and steep winding road east, which took me through the town of Jerome.  Jerome is pretty famous, as nearly every single building in the town is built on the same road, which just switchbacks all the way through.  It was a mining town, back in the day, and now is home to shops and restaurants.  Fortunately, Jerome will never become another giant tourist trap because there's just not enough room to grow any more.

All those houses are on the same road, switching back and forth.

The front of the house is on one street, and the back of the house two stories down is on another.  They are all like this.

The view (hazy).

My next stop was an authentic native american ruin -- Montezuma's Castle.  As you can see below, it's hardly a castle -- just some dwellings built into the side of the cliff about 1,000 years ago.  And it got its name from Spanish Explorers who thought it was part of Mexico (dumb explorers, I guess they forgot their map), but it really has nothing to do with Montezuma.  But it must be one of the oldest man-made dwellings in North America.  It's certainly the oldest dwelling I've seen in this hemisphere.  So it felt like a treat because the U.S. isn't home to a lot of ancient ruins.

Montezuma's Castle

Several people asked if I was going, or suggest I go to Sedona, AZ.  But one friend who used to live in the state warned me if I liked spas and crass consumerism, I should go but otherwise I should skip it.  I like spas, but given my current austerity measures, I knew I wouldn't feel comfortable splurging on them.  And I've seen enough shopping districts to last me a lifetime, so I skipped it.

One last little thing.  The following photo is of Arizona Sycamore (just the trunk), which grows near Montezuma's Castle.  Does anyone else think the pattern for desert camouflage came from the bark of this tree?

Los Angeles: Part Two

In my last couple of days in L.A., I got to catch up with one of my closest friends from law school, David, who I hadn't seen in 12 years.  I'm ashamed at my part in letting the friendship fade away, although he graciously acknowledged it takes two people to let a friendship fade like that.  He still looks great (certainly not 12 years older!) and has the same deadpan humor and calm demeanor I remembered.

We started with dinner at his home, where I met his wife and daughter.  His wife Melissa is an actress and has been in a some things you might have seen, like this season's Desperate Housewives.  Very neat!  David and I then went to the Santa Monica Pier, which is a smallish amusement park.  We didn't ride on any rides, but we stopped occasionally and closed our eyes and imagined we were riding.  We faked it once or twice too.

At the Pier:  Dave's so good at pretending to have fun that he can do it with his eyes open.

Pretending like this was a fun and terrifying ride.

Then we strolled down Venice Beach, which was pretty deserted, chatting and playing on playgrounds and grabbing our second dinner of the night.

The monkey bars are almost as scary as that tiny little car.

Overall, it was the kind of evening that doesn't make for good writing (at least, not from an amateur like me) but it was a lot of fun for the two of us.

The next day, the other Dave and I went to the Getty to meet Nicky and Brian, who were in town for a wedding.  I neglected to mention it in my last post, but Dave is also an actor.  I gather he's done a lot of "extras" work, which isn't listed on IMDB.  [Update: link to Dave's IMDB page added.]

Dave, Brian, Nicky

At the Getty, we took the architectural tour, which was all outside and which talked about how the building was designed (duh), how the colors were chosen, etc., etc.

The Getty

The Garden

It's not funny!  It's art.

In fact, we saw very little of the art inside the building, but that was fine with me as I thought the building itself is a work of art.  One of the few pieces we did see was "Gray Column" by De Wain Valentine.  I'd seen another one of his pieces at the Des Moines Art Center (at least, I'm almost certain it was him, or else there are two artists doing the exact same thing).  It made me feel like I knew what I was talking about when it came to modern art.

Gray Column, reflecting Brian & Nicky

Los Angeles: Part One

I wasn't all that interested in visiting LA, but (1) I felt like I should since it's, what? the second biggest city in the country and (2) (and more importantly!) I know several people who live there and I wanted to meet them.

L.A. is the home of four guildmates (that I know of) who I not only got to meet, but I got to meet all at once, so we had a cozy little Novus Victus reunion.  (Is it a reunion if we've never met in real life before?)  Everyone was super nice, especially my hosts Augie and Chris (aka Xenjoza and Astyanaax).  Not to imply that Dave and Kris (aka Richardboone and Enchantertim) were not nice; just that they didn't have to put up with me for 4 days straight like the girls did!  :)

Chris, Dave, Augie, Kris & Gaby

When we weren't all brunching at The Abbey, a popular restaurant and bar in West Hollywood, the girls took turns entertaining me.  Sometimes just sitting around gabbing, sometimes giving me driving tours of Hollywood, Beverly Hills and the beaches, sometimes watching movies, or dining out.  Food wise, L.A. lived up to my expectations, which were high.  (I've now spent maybe 20 days total in California, and it has, by far, the best food anywhere in the U.S.  Even the salad bars at groceries are great, tasty and healthy.)

The Chinese Theater

And speaking of movies, I had a special treat courtesy of Chris, who is a press photographer.  (If you read People or InStyle or probably several other magazines, you've seen photos of the stars taken by Chris!)  She often gets free passes to movie screenings, so she took me along to see The Thing, which is -- depending on how technical and nerdy you want to get -- either a prequel to or a remake of John Carpenter's 1982 The Thing.  Sci fi horror isn't one of my favorite movie genres.  There's usually too much unexplained silliness and not a lot of character or plot.  But for a movie of its type, the current The Thing is not a bad movie.  Go in expecting a lot of gore and some scares, and not much else, and you'll be satisfied.  Frankly, I think I'll remember the movie long past when I'd ordinarily remember it because I'll associate it with doing something very "Hollywood" and hanging out with Chris.

The quintet who brunched together also went to see the La Brea Tar Pits, which are big pools of, well, tar just sitting in the middle of L.A.  They have a lot of ice age fossils in them, and at least one pool was under excavation when we stopped in.  They were much less exciting than I was expecting.  Although now that I think about it, I'm not sure why I expected a bunch of black pools to be exciting.

Not real mammoths.

An excavated pool.  Look just below the patch of sunlight, you'll see the bones of some extinct animal.

Prunedale & Santa Cruz

After Sacramento, I stayed for a few days with my friends Susan and Stephen (aka Magpiemolly and Icyhotnot), who I met in the World of Warcraft.  They live on a farm outside of Prunedale, which is about 2 hours south of San Francisco.  I met to take photos of their geese, goats and llamas, but I forgot.  :(  We had the extra treat of one of our fellow Sen'Jin friends, Brandon (aka Tigglezar) come down from Palo Alto to spend the night and hang out.  Needless to say, we spent about 8 hours total discussing Warcraft, but I won't bore you with the details of that, other than to say that Brandon is hilarious.  Can't wait to see you online soon, Brandon!

Gaby, Brandon, Stephen & Susan

Molly -- dammit, I mean Susan -- is a full-time production artist (I am always accidentally calling guildmates by their game names, but in return I am usually called "Moo" so I guess it's OK).  For the past several years Susan has worked in melted glass, where she shapes things from plates of glass, colors it with colored glass dusts, and melts it in her kilns.  Her studio is on her farm, and we took a tour of it.  While small, the tour was really interesting and Susan's work is really cool.  I wish her website did her pieces justice; they are much more sparkly and ephemeral in person.  In a year or so if I still cannot find a job, I may go and apprentice with her for a few months.  She thinks I will do the cooking, but I know I will learn to create beautiful glass art!  :P

Susan's studio (with Brandon)

Susan's most popular piece, packaged for sale.

Brandon had to return to Palo Alto, so only Susan and I were able to explore Santa Cruz, which was about an hour north of Susan and Stephen's home.  Santa Cruz is mostly a college town, although it does have its own downtown area.  It seemed a little yuppie-ish to me, at least for the home of one of the most liberal colleges in America, but it was cool and funky and I liked it.

Santa Cruz

We drove around the college for a bit and were lucky enough to find some banana slugs, which are an animal and also the UC Santa Cruz college mascot.

A banana slug

Next to a car key, for scale

A banana

UC Santa Cruz is known for being a little ... out-there.  But I liked it.  And I liked discovering random art in the middle of the woods.  Stuffy places like my alma maters don't have slugs and random art in the woods!

After touring the college and some lunch, we drove down to the beach.  The first thing I smelled as I got out of the car was some still-burning mary jane.  A little pile was lying on the ground next to the car, in fact!    Santa Cruz continued to live up to its reputation by greeting us in a super friendly way as we approached the beach:

The water was cold, but since I stood in the Atlantic a few months ago, I couldn't pass up the chance to stand in the Pacific too.

And we spent some time admiring the new-ish lighthouse before heading back home to prepare for dinner.

Dinner was in... oh, some town a little to the south, and one of Susan and Stephen's friends joined us.  She picked a sushi place for us and I was very pleased.  I was especially pleased with how fresh the fish was and how large the pieces were, especially the uni (sea urchin), my favorite.

Just look at that uni!

A lot of the time at Susan and Stephen's was spent just hanging out and chatting about life, work, families, friends, WoW, etc.  It was a really great and relaxing time with a lot of laughs.