.. who knows how many left to go. Thursday afternoon after turning in our keys, we rushed into LA traffic so I could meet Arielle, Bobby, Nicole and her co-worker for dinner. We had Shabu Shabu style food, it was like Japanease fondue .. so cool. After a great dinner Bobby and Arielle dropped me off at Sean’s friend Drew’s place and we hung out at an irish bar.
Friday morning I woke up early and drove around Hollywood. Johnny Depp was getting imortalized in cement later on that afternoon, and the crowds were already huge. Then I went back and picked up Sean and we started heading east.
We didn’t really stop, except at a ghost town that looked totally fake and they were charging $6/ person to see it (we turned around) .. Eventually we passed the Mojave desert and talked to the information center and she told us that they had the sand dunes we’ve been looking for.
The Kelso sand dunes are one of only 30 dunes that are ‘booming’ dunes .. they make noise when the sand rolls down them! So we had to go see them, and climb them. It took us at least a half hour to drive into the Preserve to where the dunes were .. then it was at least a 2 mile hike up really soft sand dunes to get to the tall ones .. in the desert, at 3pm, with cameras. I made it maybe 3/4s of the way there .. and ended up having to hide in the shade of a dune for a little bit. Eventually I sent Sean on to the big crests, I stayed back to get pictures of him on the dune. I’m so glad I bought the video camera, Sean taped himself at the top of the dune, and you could hear the noise they’re famous for .. (I’ll try to get Sean to describe it in his own words) Then he climbed back down and hung out on a little dune with me and showed me his technique .. and I got to hear (and feel) it for myself! It was awesome. We trudged back to the car .. and drove back to civilization .. We got to see the sunset and the moon rise over the desert. So beautiful.
Last night we ended up in Vegas. Figured they’d have plenty of places to stay .. boy we were wrong. I called at least 4 hotels that were sold out. The Excalibur was nice enough to give me a list of all the hotels on the strip. Ironically we ended up at the Venetian, the hotel we both stayed at the year we met each other.
I’ll try to add some pictures before we leave here.
Now we’re off to breakfast, then onto the Grand Canyon!
Sounds like a truly amazing day! I want to see those sand dunes too! You’ll have to send me more info on them.
Enjoy the Canyon! You are probably there already, it’s pretty close to Vegas!
Sounds awesome! I hope you have a great time at the grand canyon, it really is grand!