Livin' in LA.

Yesterday was our one week anniversary of living in LA! What an insane week. I'll try and recap as best I can, but I may generalize the crap out of what we've done so far.

Dan started work at his internship at the label on Monday so we basically only had Sunday to get settled. He looked very cute on his first day and I made him a sandwich and forced him to take a couple of pictures. Proud poopfancée.

He really likes it so far. He has mornings off so we've been able to have breakfast and coffee together every day, and that's our favorite so that's great. When he was off doing that, I was either organizing unpacked boxes in a way that we could navigate around them, unpacking, or shopping for stuff we needed once I got my car. That was a whole other thing.

On Sunday Dan and I went to the VW dealership to get me a car. My first and only car was a used GTI, Dan's old GTI. And by old I mean it was purchased brand new in 2010 and I bought from him in 2012. I loved that car. It was perfectly sized for me, super good ride, in excellent condition and always keeping me safe. I was very sad to see it go, but we had a nice life together. She, Baby Car, went to a good owner who will love her as much as I did.

I wanted to get a car that I felt comfortable and safe in because of how nuts it is to drive in LA and how little I know about where everything is. Dan agreed that it'd be best to get me something new just to know I'd always be good. I have never gone to a dealership for myself before and let me just say - slime slime slime slime slime. Our guy was great at first. Took us out in a GTI and a Golf for test drives, great conversations, and then back to the office to talk $$. We had in our heads what we wanted and were willing to do. Instead of just breaking it down and being like hey, we won't make money from that, we need this from you and this from you, he just haggled with us and made me think that my offer wasn't too low. I mean he let me know it was low without just f*cking saying it, which was so dumb and a big waste of all of our time. He'd lower the monthly and add a year on to the lease, he'd lower the monthly and write "+ tax" after it, so he didn't REALLY lower it. We made the decision to walk out and his manager met us on the way and then told us to sit tight - that he could find the color I wanted and the interior I wanted for the price I wanted. He dangled THE car in front of my face and said he had to track it down at another dealership. Twenty minutes later, turns out that car was already sold BUT we can sell you this souped up, top of the line car and basically "give it away" to me for the low monthly price of MORE THAN MY BUDGET ONCE AGAIN. It was a nightmare. We left feeling exhausted and deflated after like 3.5 hours. Dan had to start work and I was going to be stuck in the apartment without a car. Luckily my friend Courtney, who has lived in LA for years and is the toughest non-lawyer negotiator I've ever known, offered to come with me during the week. Long story short, she did, I got the car I wanted at a different dealership, the guy gave it to me straight and I stretched a little bit to make it work. Having her there as a sounding board and a strong person to keep everything moving the way it should was so valuable. I drove out of there a few hours later with a fancy new carbon steel metallic VW GTI and we met up with Dan and her husband Matt after work for dinner and drinks. A big sigh of relief and one more thing checked off the list.

Those of you on social media know that one of the big things we dealt with during the week has been a pretty horrifying one - cockroaches. We have never lived in a place, together or apart, where we've had to deal with anything other than ants. And yes, we realize that we have been pretty lucky. So apparently in LA it's more common that they're coming out because of the drought. They're just hanging out by water sources and watered plants, etc. Mostly we were seeing a few on the front porch because that's where plants are. We were horrified but got some traps and spray after talking to our fellow building mates. One night I was putting a paper grocery bag under the kitchen sink to add to the collection I had and I saw a big black something run along the back of the cabinet. I knew what it was and closed the cabinet and jumped back. Dan threw a trap in there and sprayed a little bit, and also sprayed outside the house around doors and windows. We went to sit in the living room and kind of forgot about it, and then I saw that big black something come out of the cabinet and on to the rug in front of the sink. Olive did, too. She chased it around against the wall and I did NOT want to see that face off. I grabbed the cats and locked them in rooms and Dan began spraying the ever loving sh*t out of it. That thing would not die, which I knew because of a cockroach face off my sister and I had at her apartment in NYC a while back. It climbed up our WALL where Dan sprayed it more. It climbed on a stack of stools we had sitting there. It went back down to the ground and ran toward the gigantic pile of Dan's music gear and that's when Dan took a dust pan to it and ended it's disgusting life. He took it outside and I began washing everything down with hot soapy water - the floor, the stools, the dustpan, etc.. We threw everything involved in cleaning out (face cloth, tupperware I used to put the water in, paper towels) just to avoid any potential cockroach eggs or the spray to kill them remaining in the apartment, and then I did one last wash of the floor once everything was taken care of. It was about a two hour ordeal and we did not relax until we woke up the next morning after a TERRIBLE night of sleep. We were truly freaked out.

We were mostly okay the next day until we saw a BUNCH on our porch that night when our neighbor was watering her plants. We talked to her about it for a bit. Everyone seems great, and she's been in the building for 10 years. We're trying to keep that in mind when we get freaked out about the roaches. If it was that big of a problem for the person who is on the same level as us who shares the porch with us, why would she have stayed here for 10 years? But yeah, they were milling all around when she was watering so we all kind of scurried in after a few minutes of that. We also have bars in front of all of our windows and doors, and one of them was sitting on top of the bar in front of the window next to our front door, its gigantic antennas moving around under our porch light. Dan went out there and murdered him as well, haha, and sprayed a whole lot more around our door. It's been relatively cockroach-free since then and we've been sleeping better. That's great and all, but from what we hear, they just find other ways to get in. We're dealing with that when we have to. Generally we're trying to clean dishes and store food in a secure way and making sure that the cat's food dishes aren't left on the ground, etc. Pray for us.

We live in Larchmont Village. We're about a 7 minute walk from Larchmont Boulevard which has a ton of shops and restaurants. We've eaten at half of the restaurants there so far and we have loved trying them. The thing we missed when we lived in the suburbs in MA was having access to a downtown city area like that, so it's been really great having that and enjoying it. We are actually going to a farmers market that they have down there in a little bit to get some fruit and veggies. We also are a few blocks away from Paramount Studios, which is totally bananas. We walked by it on our way home from dinner on the boulevard last night. Cra-zy.

We also were eating dinner a few tables down from a guy who has been on Broad City and You're the Worst, as well as his cute daughter and his actress wife, so that was crazy. Apparently we're supposed to get used to seeing famous people. That should be interesting/impossible for me. <- total dork.

We're pretty centrally located to a lot of neighborhoods that we like, like Los Feliz, Atwater Village, Hollywood, downtown LA, so we haven't had to go too far for anything yet aside from the IKEA we went to yesterday. That was in Burbank, and even that was pretty close, but it felt like a hike because it's much hotter over there and IKEA on a Saturday? Woof. Also, we drove by Warner Bros. Studios on our way there and I geeked out because that's where Grease Live! was filmed, as well as Pretty Little Liars and other exciting things. Back to IKEA - we got in there and got cube storage for our clothes, a coffee table and a new lampshade for the one that was a casualty during the move. Last night we put everything together and had alcohol delivered to us. I know how lazy that sounds, but we have street parking and you basically can't get a spot after like 7pm. We've been uber'ing and getting delivery whenever we can. The girls really like the way we're storing our clothes now.

We're likely tipping one of these shelves on their side and making a little bureau out of it. We'll see.

We went to Santa Monica for a little beach day on Friday. It was a little traffic heavy but not too bad, and I got to show off my wheels a bit more. It was a gorgeous day to be at the beach. I got a little burnt on my back despite sunblock efforts, but I'm surviving. The water was so refreshing. I'm hoping to enjoy the beach as much as possible while we're here. I have been close to beaches my whole life and never capitalized on it.

I start PT work at Paper Source tomorrow and I'll also work on Thursday, Friday and Saturday afternoon/night. It will be nice to have a mission. I can't sit around for too long without getting bored. It literally has been three weeks since my last day at the firm which is insane. It's been good to have a break though. I really needed it after the last few months of that job. I am continuing to e-mail and network and apply as much as possible for jobs that I am excited about. Crossing fingers that my diligence during this transitional period will pay off.

Overall, we are both doing well. We're slowly but surely getting the apartment unpacked and situated. We are mostly done buying stuff aside from the bed frame that we still need. We will both be working as of tomorrow. We both have vehicles. We have made all of the necessary address changes. I applied for health and dental insurance (Dan still needs to). The cats are doing super well and actually getting along very well, which is totally strange. Olive is getting comfortable everywhere.

My favorite part is that we are both happy and feeling a bit free and like a weight has been lifted off our shoulders. Sure, we miss our family and our friends, and I don't see that ever changing. We both were feeling weighed down by priorities and by the routines we had gotten ourselves into and it made everything harder for us. This adventure tested our strength and our confidence, and navigating a new place together has been so good for us in so many ways. We haven't felt this close or happy being together this consistently for a while, and that's after being stuck in a truck with two whining cats for 9 days! We always feel close and happy being together, but when you're unhappy about the rest of your life it's different. We were relying on each other for happiness rather than just being happy, and there is a big difference there. I'm hoping it continues to build us up and make us a stronger team.

I've gotten questions from a few people who are maybe thinking of making the same move about how we did this move and about what decisions we made. I'm thinking my next post will break that down. If anyone has specific questions, write in the comments and I'll include it in the next post!

Thanks for reading, and happy Sunday!
-A

Vegas, baby.

Hi there!

This is being written a couple of days after our Vegas trip because Vegas + moving to LA = chaos. I'm splitting it up for ease of navigation later.

So on Friday we woke up in Tuba City and really took our time with hitting the road. I was writing and adding pictures furiously for the Grand Canyon post in an effort to stay on top of everything (says the girl who is writing a post about Friday on Sunday after the road trip has already ended) and we had a pretty short drive ahead of us to Nevada so we weren't in a rush. We also needed some time to prepare ourselves for whatever our girls were going to put us through. We grabbed breakfast at the restaurant next to the hotel called Hogan Family Restaurant and got the best coffee of probably the entire trip and a yummy breakfast. We went back to the room to finish packing up and I finalized the blog and we made the journey to the truck with the cats.

Remember that time I was going to marry Dan? He had the idea to prop the girls up on suitcases in the back seat for probably the whole trip. I was concerned about safety, if they would like it, and if they would be at even heights so I continued to resist. After the situation we had on the way to Arizona and knowing that drugs were not going to be an option, I was willing to try anything. And what do you know - the girls barely made a peep for at least an hour. It was incredible! They definitely complained eventually and Olive was still pretty vocal for about 70% of the drive, but it was the BEST drive we had with them. So much so that it seemed to fly by and the next thing we knew, we were in Nevada and approaching the Vegas Strip quickly. It seemed like such a piece of cake compared to all of the drives we had. Oh, and the temperature was 116 degrees when we pulled into our La Quinta's parking lot. No joke. I think it's the highest temperature either of us had ever experienced.

In that hot weather, the trips from the truck to the room seemed absolutely impossible. There was also only one working elevator and the hotel was so spread out and massive that it was quite the process to get there and actually catch an elevator. We got the girls settled in and all we wanted to do was go in the outdoor pool. We had dinner reservations at the Venetian at 7pm and I think we went out to the pool at 4:45pm knowing it would be a stretch but not giving any craps. The water was SO warm but it was still super refreshing. It was just what we needed, and barely anyone was at the pool which made it even more worth it. We stayed about 30 minutes and then went upstairs to get ready.

We had dinner reservations at a place called Aquaknox in the Venetian. It seemed fancy and we both were in a seafood/steakhouse kind of mood (minus the steak for me) so we were excited to spoil ourselves to end our trip. Dan had never been to Vegas and I went once before with friends from college in the summer before our senior year. I was excited for him to see the spectacle of it all. Before our reservation I walked him around the hotel to see how gigantic it was and, of course, to show him the gondolas in the indoor canal. He was as impressed as I had hoped he would be. 

We headed off to dinner and got amazing food and cocktails. After dinner we headed outside to walk to the Mirage for our next portion of the evening. Dan got to see a bit more of the strip on our walk and was totally in awe at how insanely rich and big everything was. He hadn't been too keen on the idea of Vegas and I assured him that it was worth seeing and totally insane, so it made me really happy that he was reacting how I did... eight years ago? Jesus Christmas. He also took some great pictures. And that beer sign, because that's right up our alley.

We entered the Mirage for one of the big splurges of our trip - tickets to see the Cirque du Soleil Beatles LOVE show. I also saw this show when I was here last and looooved it, and Dan being a gigantic Beatles fan, I was determined to get him here to see it. We were both dorking out so much on the way to our seats. One of the ushers, seeing how dorky we were, told us that two days prior Paul and Ringo had been sitting in our section two rows behind us. Dorking out continued. Someone came by to take professional pictures of us before the show started, and thank goodness they did because they took a great final photo for our trip. They also took these two, which are weird. 

#imamodel #theytoldmetodothatiswear

Our seats were fantastic.

The show was more incredible and impressive than I remembered, probably because I was drunk when I was there last and had no concept of how to appreciate amazing experiences. We loved every second of it and left there feeling on top off the world. We gallivanted off to grab a drink to walk down the strip with. The people watching on our walk was amazing. We stopped at the Bellagio so I could show him the water show. I was convinced that I was hungry so we grabbed a couple of slices of pizza and beer just after midnight, and then we had the brilliant idea to walk the 25 minutes back to our hotel. We eventually realized that this was impossible, as there were people evvvverrrywhere and it was still well over 100 degrees, so we called ourselves a Lyft and went back to the hotel to sleep, getting there a little bit before 2am. At least we got a cool picture of the ferris wheel along our failed journey.

In the morning we took our time again and decided that instead of visiting the Hoover Dam like we had planned, we would rather take the morning to swim in the pool to enjoy our time before the chaos of moving in/unpacking started. This is about when the reality of everything hit us both so some tranquility was much needed. We hit the road around noon and started the 4.5 hours to LA. This ride seemed very long, both because Olive was a whiney nightmare despite the suitcases, and I think we both were just on edge about the day. We drove in to a crazy looking California sky, which I was convinced was a really gross smog but was actually smoke from a fire in the hills.

We stopped by Time Warner to get a WiFi modem which was SUPER easy compared to our typical Comcast experiences, and then we went home! The apartment had been painted after the prior tenants moved out, so it was nice to move into a place with a nice fresh coat of paint. We ran to the grocery store pretty quickly to get provisions because we were starving, and were so excited to find a nice grocery store super close by that had a great selection of food and has so many of our favorite brands of products that I usually had to go to different stores for - like Amy's, Mrs. Meyers, Kashi, and Kind. OH AND THEY SELL BEER AND ALCOHOL.

A win for us Massachusetts kids for sure! We also ordered an insane amount of sushi to pick up on the way home and had a fabulous feast. We spent the rest of our night unpacking and organizing and had a great night of sleep because we were utterly exhausted.

I will elaborate more in a future post, but we are here, we are safe, and we are unpacking. The cats are settling in, and would be happier without all of the noise.

Olive, as curious as can be and SO HAPPY to be out of the car.

Emu is the most comfortable cat you'll ever meet, and she spends most of her time stretched out in the hallway to keep cool. Comfort is not an issue with her.

Lots of happy stuff with a whole lot of suffering because moving is the WORST, as we all know! More later when we stop sweating and don't have to climb over stuff to enter and leave rooms.

-A

Final Olive Poop in the Car Tally:

Massachusetts (7/14/16)

New York (7/14/16)

Illinois (7/17/16)

Utah (7/21/16) (2x)

Arizona (7/22/16)

Nevada (7/23/16) (2x)

Hugs, not drugs.

Ha, so today was a day. So much good, so much bad.

At 5:30am Thursday morning, so today, we mixed some kitty Xanax up into some wet food for the girls and went back to sleep once they finished eating. We got up and left our hotel in Salt Lake City this morning around 9am. We saw the Great Salt Lake from afar on on our way out. Crazy how much salt was collected at the beach before the water.

We expected that the girls would be whining like they usually do for at least the first hour or two, but hoped that the drugs would knock them on their little behinds and they would just sleep.

This was not accurate.

We had really strong game with ignoring them and letting them cry the first hour and a half. We both felt really confident and well rested and reassured knowing that we had an aid in keeping them comfortable today. This was all a great plan. But they did not stop crying. They slowly but surely became worse. We were like okay, this will be tough. And then we smelled some poop. :)

I immediately checked Olive's carrier and sure enough, she pooped in Utah. I cleaned it up, went back to my seat. Then about 15 minutes later she pooped again. It was clear that she wasn't feeling well, and the medicine and the wet food that she doesn't typically have were upsetting her stomach. I pulled her out of the carrier to clean it up and put in a new training pad. I also flipped her over to assess the damage and used a wet paper towel to assist her in her struggle. This is something I have done before and she hasn't loved it but she has let me. Well, she was slowly getting a little aggressive. I'm comfortable with restraining them and was feeling okay, I just knew I had to get her in the carrier. And when I tried to put her back in, she resisted big time. I had to get a little more aggressive with grabbing her scruff to get her back in there and zip the carrier closed and well, she attacked me. She kicked, bit and scratched the ever loving sh*t out of my hands. The one holding the scruff got it the worst. I actually at some point had said to Dan, who was still driving and very alarmed, that I was losing control of her. I could not believe how strong she was. I somehow got her in there, zipped the carrier closed, and proceeded to sob for about twenty minutes. My hands were trembling and my cuts were stinging and Dan at this point had pulled off the road. He had no idea what the damage was up until this point and was horrified when he saw my hands.

He helped me rinse my cuts with water and blot them dry, and cracked a cold compress out of the first aid kit we brought with us. (We would later stop at a rest stop and get peroxide to really clean my cuts out. They stung like a $%&@!) We continued on, and the girls proceeded to continue crying, writhing in their carriers, and trying to escape for the next few hours. Oh, and Emu did such a good job of trying to escape that she scratched a hole in the netting on her carrier. We don't think she knows of her progress, so please don't tell her.

Let me just say that anyone who knows our cats knows that Emu is the anxious and slightly aggressive one, and Olive is a little sweetie pie who wants love all the time and gives love all the time. Olive's adverse reaction to that medicine was clear to us. She was so stressed out and feeling very confused and out of it and very threatened by me putting her back in her little box of poopy hell. And we both don't blame her. I mean yeah, I hated her for about two hours after that. It took me a while to stop crying and I kept yelling at her to shut up when she was at her loudest. But we both know that they were tired, they had had enough of being in the car, and we totally get it. Truthfully, we were SHOCKED that they were so good for the first 4 or 5 days of the trip. We thought they would be awful and they weren't and we were so relieved and impressed. And I guess if we had to choose a time for them to react really badly, we're glad it's now. If the trip had started like this, we would not have enjoyed ourselves as much as we have. So cat haters, don't use this as ammo to back up your dumb points about dogs being better than cats, or cats being untrustworthy. We love our cats, we know they're sweetie pies, and I've NEVER gotten attacked before and I'm sure I won't again. If we knew that they could just spread out on blankets across the back seat like many dogs probably can, we would do it and they'd probably be much more chill having that freedom. We know we can't trust that they will stay put and not jump under the pedals on the drivers side, so carriers it is. So all that being said, we will not be giving them drugs tomorrow.

We talked for a while when we were almost halfway through the trip about our options. We could go straight to Vegas today and skip the Grand Canyon and it would actually chop off an hour and a half of driving today. Then we would just stay two nights instead of one in Vegas, it would take us 4.5 hours to get to LA on Saturday and we'd be done. We also called our vet and they recommended definitely not giving them the drugs again, and DEFINITELY not doubling the dose. Driving less seemed like the smart and right choice. But then not only do we miss the Grand Canyon, which is a BIG one on our list of places to visit, but then we also have to leave the gorgeous adventure we've been on to go to sweaty, vomit-stained Vegas and find stuff to do for two days. And don't get me/us wrong - we are psyched to go to Vegas and I'm a big fan! We have fun plans for when we are there. We just saw an extra night in Vegas as more of a loss than a win. We took a longer route to finish making this decision before we had to make the turn that would change our plans and decided to keep going. We don't know when we would have a free weekend coming up to come back and see the GC, and the whole point of this new chapter in our lives is to take chances and not settle for regrets anymore. So we went. And because we went, we saw this:

And this.

And this.

This was by far our favorite leg of the entire trip thus far, equipped with the most breathtaking views, forests, mountains and skies. We drove through the Kaibab National Forest, which brought us up into crazy winding hills that brought us to about 8000 feet elevation. The girls weren't loving that at all. But even with two mostly whiney cats in the back seat, this was 150% worth all of the pain. Every bit of it. We feel so lucky to have witnessed all of that together. The girls did end up falling asleep for at least an hour and a half, maybe two, during some of the really incredible parts. So thanks, girls. And I guess thanks kitty Xanax - for kind of but not really working at all. Thumbs up.

Our hotel is a Quality Inn on a Navajo reservation in Tuba City, Arizona. It was another crazy part of the drive to get there. Every couple of miles there would be a little hut selling jewelry and other crafts in the middle of these gigantic deserts. Most of them were empty and falling apart. There was nothing else around except for breathtaking landscapes. And then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, we're in Tuba City and there's a McDonald's and a Subway and a trading post and this pretty little inn with super high ceilings. We were hoping to go to the Grand Canyon tonight, but we knew it was an hour away from us and we weren't sure it would be worth it and would just wait until the morning. Then we found out that Tuba City is apparently an hour ahead of Arizona state time, so when we pulled in thinking it was 5:45pm, it was actually 4:45pm. We quickly got the girls in the room and settled and we peaced out with flannels and the binoculars my parents got us to see the new love of my life, the "GC" as I lovingly refer to it.

We could have done more research on the Grand Canyon and we didn't. The one article we did read was this one, which advised you to stop by the historic Cameron Trading Post on the way in for some yummy tacos. It was about 30 minutes into our hour trip to the GC, so we stopped in. We grabbed Navajo frybread taco things and jumped back in the truck. I wish I could share a picture of these magnificent meals, but they didn't last very long for me to think of doing that. I fed Dan bites of his while he was driving and I inhaled about half of mine. SO good. We also grabbed a little touristy treat at the Trading Post. That thing is made of SAND. We were impressed.

So guys, I'd get really into detail here, but the pictures speak for themselves, though they fall short of showing you just how massive and incredible it is. We made it to the Grand Canyon. We saw the sun set at the Desert View part of it. It was magnificent and spiritual and overwhelming and we both feel incredibly lucky and grateful that we made it there today. We almost missed it, and that would have been awful.

We are back at our hotel. The girls are fine and VERY needy and lovey. We are taking showers and baths and snuggling up for hopefully a great night of sleep. I think all four of us need it.

We are going to take our time getting out of here on Friday morning, which is probably when I will post this, for the 5 hour drive to Vegas. We will not be drugging the cats. We will need your thoughts and high fives to get through it. It will be tough, but only 2 more driving days until we're home. Not "home", but home.

We're still pinching ourselves that we are actually doing this. And everyone wanting to read about it and sending messages of support means mucho to me and my guy.
-A

Olive Poop in the Car Tally:

Massachusetts (7/14/16)

New York (7/14/16)

Illinois (7/17/16)
Utah (7/21/16) (2x)

Sal Tlay Ka Siti.

Hello,

It is Wednesday and it is 7pm in Salt Lake City, which is where we are. I'm selfishly saying that because I keep forgetting what day it is and with the time change and my laptop saying the wrong time still, I just need to keep things organized up here in the brain. It's been a tough day today, but let's back track.

Last I left it, we had just returned from swimming at our hotel pool, and we were going to have dinner in Denver last night. We freshened up and headed to True Food Kitchen. It was about a half hour drive from our hotel. Downtown Denver is cool. We couldn't think of a city it reminded us of, but it seems familiar to both of us. It's clean and quiet but filled with businesses and nice restaurants and stores. We took a bit to find street parking and walked the few blocks over. Ominous dark clouds were looming overhead, so we skedaddled and got there as fast as possible to avoid the rain. There was a cute outdoor patio that Dan was thinking of sitting at because he thought it'd be cool and cozy if it rained, but I thought it was a bad idea. (I ended up being right. I love being right.) We got sat in a nice booth tucked in the corner.

Our server was super nice and gave us lots of recommendations on the menu. I LOVE the menu. It is super vegetarian/pescetarian-friendly for me, and a lot of the cooking ingredients are made in house and their food is fresh. The drink menu was awesome as well. FYI, apparently there might be one opening in Boston. If that's true, I highly recommend to people at home! Soon after we sat down there it started down pouring for REALzies. I remained optimistic that it would be done once we were done. (I was wrong. Dammit.) When we finished up, it was definitely still down pouring. In true lazy fashion, we requested an Uber to bring us back to the truck. No regrets.

Our final destination for the evening was a bar called My Brothers Bar. I believe it's the oldest bar in Denver. You can look up the history or ask Dan to explain it, but basically it's famous because Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and their friend/muse Neal Cassady frequented the bar. When Cassady was locked up in a reformatory for I think stealing yet another car, he wrote a letter to someone basically saying that he owed My Brothers Bar like 3 or 4 bucks and to pay them back for him. There is a framed picture of Cassady and Kerouac hanging in the bar, as well as the letter. According to our friend the internet, they supposedly have printouts of the letter that you could ask for. My Daniel being the adorable little dork that he is totally wanted a copy of the letter and to check out the bar, so of  course I was happy to jump on board. We ordered chips and salsa and beers and hung out for a little over an hour. He wasn't going to ask for the letter, so obviously I did because I don't give a f***********k. We left there with the letter in hand and felt great about going back to be with our little ladies.

The rest of the night was pretty chill. We knew we had to get up on the earlier side to head to breakfast with friends on our way to our next destination, so we tried to get as much sleep as possible. I only have one coughing fit in the middle of the night, so that's good! We checked out this morning and I grabbed a muffin and coffees for us. Our friends Emily and Phil live in Dillon, which was a town in the mountains about an hour away from our hotel in Denver. They invited us to swing by and they would make us breakfast. Holy crap - what an epic epic drive. Many of you have been assaulted by my pictures and posts on Instagram and Facebook so you know - it was literally the most beautiful and surreal drive and we could not get enough of it. We listened to Jonsi and just took it all in.

The altitude was INSANE and our ears were popping like crazy, so of course our girls were miserable. We brought them in so we could eat breakfast with Emily and Phil for an hour and enjoyed chatting with them and eating their yummy breakfast. We stood out in their front yard marveling at their insane view for a bit before we continued on.

On our way out on the highway, we drove by a town called Idaho Springs that was a big town from the Gold Rush. It was really cool. I couldn't catch a picture. Womp womp. But it made us want to come back and do all sorts of fun touristy things in Colorado some other time.

We got back in the car knowing that we were basically starting the girls over on the drive. They've been starting out to be pretty fussy and then eventually quieting down and passing out after a few hours, specifically Olive, but it hasn't been awful. We have "kitty Xanax" that we were prepared to use, but haven't had to yet. Well guys, we think tomorrow is the day we drug the cats. They were AWFUL. They literally cried and whined and writhed in their carriers, laid on their backs pushing and kicking and scratching to get out, for the next FIVE HOURS. Usually stopping at rest stops would kind of calm them down and restart them, but nope. We stopped I think three times and they barely piped down. We both were at our wit's end for sure. They passed out when we had about 2/2.5 hours left but Olive kept waking up every now and again to whine and cry some more. And once again, due to each of the rest stops basically consisting of only a bathroom and vending machines, we didn't have lunch. There just wasn't anything on our drive through Utah so it was a bag of salted cashews and peanut M&M's. We hit traffic in our last hour and we could not stop staring at the clock. And to make matters worse, guess who woke up and started scream-meowing in that final hour? Olive. I became a crazy person and started scream-singing the Book of Mormon soundtrack to her until we arrived. She hated it, guys. Just hated it. And I REALLY hated her for a while there, too. Oy.

That all being said, the drive was beautiful.

We pulled into Salt Lake absolutely drained and starving, and it was 100 degrees. We checked into our hotel, got the girls set up with water and their litter box, and decided to wait until after we got some strength to get the rest of the stuff. We walked over to a restaurant at the Ramada Inn next door because we couldn't put forth any additional effort than that and sat like zombies at a booth next to the bar. I don't think the clientele knew what to do with us, and quite frankly I didn't know what to do with them either. It's a weird place so far. I can't figure anyone out. We split a salad and a pizza and had bottles of Hop Nosh, which we both just realized is brewed right here in SLC, Utah. We grabbed the rest of the stuff out of the truck after and here we are now, settled in the room with our brats.

Our reasoning for coming here was because we heard Park City was great. I don't remember why we didn't get a hotel there, but there was a reason. Now it's almost 8pm and Park City is like 45 minutes away, so we're both sitting here cursing our names and trying to figure out if we should make the trek over there to try and salvage this day at all. This is definitely the point in the trip when we're both feeling really tired and out of sorts. I am hoping it is an off day and we will get it together. Hopefully our cat children will follow suit.

Update: We went out to downtown Salt Lake City when we decided that Park City wasn't a possibility given how late it was. It's got a surprisingly large city area with a trolley running along the streets. Really surprised us. It took us 20 minutes to find parking. We finally did we and we get out of the car to check the signs - the sprinklers go on and get me. Fabulous. We walk down to a bar called Whiskey Street, which in theory should have been great. Long tables and counters, huge bar, super busy, outdoor patio, and a decent food menu. It took at least 8 minutes until a manager brought us waters, and then another 10 until somebody took our drink order. Strike one. Then, it became very clear that the AC was broken and our table was conveniently located right across from the kitchen. Strike two. The servers were doing silverware roll ups, loudly, at a table RIGHT next to us. Not like a table in the restaurant, like some counter against the wall right next to us that was clearly not set up as a server station. Aaaaand you're out. We finished our moscow mules, which were actually decent, and headed off to find another bar that Dan found that had just opened up. We walked to where it should be - non-existent. We then walk baack to the area that we park and we find a bar that will suffice and order a couple of drinks. They have food - pizza and caesar salad is all that I can eat. That's what I had for lunch. WHAT A NIGHT. We jammed out to Book of Mormon on our ride home, or shall I say I jammed out, and now we're back at the hotel. It was worth a shot.

Tomorrow we head on our final super long car ride (7.5 hours) to Tuba City, Arizona to check out the Grand Canyon. Depending on when we get there, we will either do that tomorrow night or Friday morning. There are more exciting things to come. Let's hope some kitty Xanax and some TLC to each other will get us through it.

Thanks for reading. I'll update you the next moment I can with the rest of our SLC adventure and our last crazy drive. Please send us all the luck in the world that tomorrow improves.

-A