… Los Angeles…

So lots of celebrating has occurred in the past few days… Including a special delivery to our dinner table from our friends Tisha and Rob Nagel from across the country :):)

(sorry about the fuzzy photo… Bad blackberry camera…)

Some of that celebrating has also occurred with some of our friends in Pasadena (and beyond :-D)! Over the weekend we went to Venice Beach…

… And did a little bike riding along the famous Venice Beach bike trail…

So now we are on our way back east… (wow I don’t believe our trip is more than half-way over)!
But what a trip it has been so far 🙂 :)!
-r. & j. (&c.)

… We [heart] Yosemite…

… no we really do…

… Anyone who has had a 5 minute conversation with me knows that. But now that place and the areas surrounding it…

holds a very (extra special) place for both Joe and I – as well as Capone (since he was there too)…

This is our self-timer photo FAIL but we both kinda love it.

We love it so much because this is also now where WE GOT ENGAGED! :):)
We both are extremely happy! (obviously!!)

We are definitely out celebrating but we still have alot of photos from our camp out that evening…

the east side of Yosemite…

And Mono lake…

We are so very excited :). Looks like this little roadtrip is the start of many more fun trips together for us in the future.

-r. &j. (&c.)

… Santa Cruz, California…

A nice break in our cross country travels!

Spending a great few days in Santa Cruz and the Bay Area…

Our friends Jared and Lisa got married over looking the beautiful Pacific Ocean…

…and Capone enjoyed the Northern California sunshine, oceans and adventures…

Its been a great few days of relaxation… but now we are back on the road again!
Heading out again…
But its good we were getting too antsy anyways … :):)!
r. & j. (&c.)

… Hippy Town, USA…

…or Santa Cruz!!! And Joe is dressed the part…

After we left Lake Tahoe we started our trek down Interstate 80 then 680 towards the Bay…

… With a quick stop for a photo op with Capone and my family dog, Uno.

We were off, old man UNO must have worn Capone out because he slept..

…on and off all the way to…

After following the windy highway 17…

We made it!
Now for a few days of relaxing and wedding festivities until we are back on the road!
– r. & j. (&c.)

…Nevada, California…

…we headed out early afternoon from Twin Falls, ID and were on the road towards the Golden State! But first we had to pass the Silver State, Nevada.

Nevada was a whole lotta dessert…

…Sometimes with hills…

…Sometimes through tunnels…

…and Capone did a whole lotta….

Right outside of Fernley, NV we noticed that people had written their names or initials in the sand with rocks…

…we were tempted to stop but we were focused on the goal…

… After a quick overnight stop in Lake Tahoe we are on our way to Santa Cruz to see the nuptials of our friends Jared and Lisa!
-r. & j. (&c.)

…Idaho…

Yesterday we spent the morning hiking on the Boundary trail – a trail just inside of Yellowstone National Park on the Montana side which was a great local find since Yellowstone is largely not pet-friendly :(.

It was a beautiful day with comfortable weather …

…and then headed back to the car and headed west towards the forever potatoes state, Idaho…

Idaho… was a landscape of mostly (pretty much all…) Potato fields…

… which went on FOREVER (literally hours…)..

We ended up in Twin Falls, ID which from the map didn’t look like much, but was the home to a failed motorcycle jump across the Snake River by Evel Knievel in the 1970s. However this little town was breathtaking…

… now on to more familar territory… Lake Tahoe!

-r. & j. (&c.)

Yellowstone… Part 2…

… as promised more photos (and also a video!)… from Yellowstone National Park…

-r. & j. (&c.)

Yellowstone … Part 1…

Yellowstone National Park…

…definitely lives up to it’s name … It was spectacular!

(More photos to come…they’re on the other camera)
With it’s amazing, waterfalls, lakes, wildlife, hot springs – to name a few… We’d love to come back here again!

After heading through the park we made it to Montana…

…aka big sky country…

…from there we got settled at our campsite for the night

Which wouldn’t be complete without a Joe built fire while we roasted marshmallows ….

…yum! :):)
-r. & j. (&c.)

…Wyoming…

Made it to Wyoming and got to experience some of the most unbelievable scenery!

First stop though was in The Badlands…

The sight sprung as if out of nowhere out of the flat green plains…

From there it was on to Mount Rushmore…

Right outside of the black hills we saw an immense amount of smoke… Although we couldn’t see or smell the fire – the smoke was still a picturesque sight…

The evenings drive however culminated in an amazing sunset!

We are trekking into Yellowstone today :)- Capone is loving the sights…

-r. & j. (&c.)

…hot…

… Heat wave in the Midwest and we are definitely in the middle of it!
The thermostat on the car at triple digits… The temperature finally topped out 104 degrees!

-r. & j. (&c.)