We left the Grand Canyon in the evening and headed toward Utah, thinking we'd get a few hours of driving in, stay at a hotel, and have less to drive the next day. Apparently, southern Utah is a really happening place because we drove and drove and could not find any vacant hotels. Finally past midnight, after five hours of driving, we found a Comfort Inn in the middle of nowhere.
The next day, we stopped for lunch in Bryce Canyon on our way to my grandparents' house.
The first thing we did with my grandparents was go to a rodeo. My grandparents are so funny at the rodeo - they know a bunch of facts about the competitors and they keep track of all the scores.
This picture cracks me up because my grandma would NOT let me get a picture of her, and this was the closest I could get.
Michael flew home on Saturday night, and the next day, the boys and I had Sunday dinner with Grandma Alley and a house full of my Alley cousins, aunts, and uncles. Love them all!
The boys and I filled up our last few days in Utah by doing some sightseeing. First we went to Temple Square, where I took a bunch of pictures of flowers. Temple Square always has the best flowers.
The boys mostly seemed bored with Temple Square, but this was a fun shot of them posing for their "wedding photos."
We also spent an afternoon floating in the Great Salt Lake at Antelope Island.
The following pictures make it look pretty nice, but the Great Salt Lake is actually a really disgusting lake where I've been told the locals never go.
As evidence...you see that black, curved line in the sand in the picture below? Those are tiny flying bugs that fill up the whole beach and scatter every time you take a step. Cole would jokingly stomp around the beach saying, "Look how powerful I am!"
It's been 7 years since my last visit to Utah, and it will probably be another 7 until my next visit, but we loved the time we were there and the wonderful family we got to visit with!
A few months ago I was sitting at my desk at work when I got an email (from pledgemusic.com) that said that the band Failure would be going on tour and that Hum would be going with them for part of that tour. I'm not joking when I say that I literally had to restrain myself to keep from leaping from my seat and squealing with joy. I have a hard time picking favorites, but if I were to pick 3 bands that I love more than any others, it would be Hum, Failure and Sunny Day Real Estate.
Hum
I was introduced to Hum in high school by the drummer of my band. I immediately fell in love and listened to their album "You'd Prefer an Astronaut" more times than is probably healthy. It was the perfect mix of loud, spacey, nerdy, layered, heavy, geeky music and was very different from anything else I'd ever heard. Who knew you could have heavy music without anger?
In college they came out with another album ("Downward is Heavenward") that I also put on heavy rotation. One day someone was walking through the hall of my dorm when they heard it playing and knocked on my door. Matt and I started talking about Hum and some other bands we liked in common and we're still friends to this day (he runs a recording studio in Baltimore).
Later on during my freshman year Hum went on tour and was going to be in Atlanta on a weekend. Four of us bought tickets and made it a road trip. Matt and I even brought some of our recording equipment along for the ride just in case. A few hours before the show started, we loaded up our arms with that equipment and knocked on the back door of the club. "We're here to record the show" we said when they opened the door. "Sure, come on in. There's a booth in the back you can use". Long story short, it was amazing. We got to meet the band after the show and they even signed my pocket protector (did I mention I'm a nerd?). Later that year when they were touring in Nashville I saw them again and talked with them after the show and they remembered me and my pocket protector.
Anyway, Hum broke up several years ago and then have gotten back together in the last few years mostly to play local shows in the Chicago area or one-off festivals. This was the first tour they've done since. I really, really enjoyed watching them play again but I can't say Erin felt the same way. She's never liked Hum and this concert did not change her mind. But as a loving husband I've learned to forgive her for her failings.
Failure
I also started to listen to Failure in high school, but unlike Hum, I've never seen them perform. Shortly after their biggest album "Fantastic Planet" came out they broke up and disappeared. Sure the individual members had solo albums and produced and recorded other bands, it's not the same. Failure is another layered, spacey, guitar rock band from the 90's and most people have probably never even heard one of their songs. Erin calls them a "band's band" meaning they influenced a ton of other musicians but never made it popular themselves. While I enjoy their previous albums "Magnified" and "Comfort" I will never grow tired of "Fantastic Planet". When Erin and I first started dating we made mix-tapes for each other and included a few Failure songs on those. As a result, Erin likes Failure, which is the only reason she agreed to drive all the way out to Charlotte for this show.
Failure recently got back together and recorded a new album "The Heart is a Monster". It's quite good and looks like it will be my favorite new album this year. It does a good job of mixing their earlier sound with the style of "Fantastic Planet" while also adding some new interesting things. And I have to say that they are the "fullest" sounding 3 piece band I've ever seen live. Listening to all the different layers they have on their recordings I was worried that it would sound thin live, but they definitely pulled it off.
The crowd was really into both bands, (singing along, banging heads at the appropriate time, etc) which made the show that much better. And since both of these bands were originally from the 90s, this was one of the few concerts Erin and I have been to recently were we didn't feel like old folks.
I highly encourage everyone to spend your hard earned money on music from both of these bands, if you don't have it all already.
In my mind, when people talked about the Grand Canyon, they were hyping it up and over-exaggerating. It's a big hole in the ground, I thought. It can't be all that.
Apparently, my expectations were so low that when I actually saw it in person, I was blown away. It was bigger and more beautiful than I could have ever imagined.
Looking back through my photos, I feel mildly let down at how poorly my camera captured this amazing place. You'll have to go see it for yourself.
If you are offended by Michael's poker hobby, think that poker is of the devil, or worry that Michael is going to develop a gambling addiction and bankrupt us, you should not read this post (Mom). Because poker is the sum and total reason we stopped in Vegas on the way to Utah, and Michael competed in not one, not two, but three poker tournaments. (And made us proud.)
Meanwhile, the boys and I walked at least five miles in flipflops at tourist pace over the two days we stayed in Vegas, and when we left, my ankles were so angry, they took a full 24 hours to recover. Also, I took a lot of phone photos.
Coke around the world: Why, Italy, why?!!
Statue of Twizzlers
Cole and Eli look like they're practicing for a career in modeling
We spent the halfway point of our trip at Josh's house in San Diego. This was my first time seeing the Pacific Ocean, and if I had to compare La Jolla Beach to Wilmington, the main thing I'd mention is seaweed. Lots and lots of seaweed. Also seals. (Sea lions?)
Driving into California, I managed to ruin my car, so I had to spend our first day in San Diego at a Toyota dealership getting it repaired. In my defense...the roads out there in the Southwest are so straight, it's easy to forget to pay attention to your driving. All you have to do is hold the steering wheel straight, put on the cruise control, and you're good to go for a hundred miles.
So there I was, admiring the scenery and chatting with Cole, when I heard a strange noise. I glanced in the rearview mirror and didn't see anything behind me, so I kept on. But the car continued to periodically make a strange noise. When we stopped for dinner, I checked out the front of the car and didn't see anything, so again we continued on. I assumed that the strange noise was something weird about California's roads, and I made a mental note to ask Josh about it.
And then we were stopped at a border patrol checkpoint. "Do you know that the front of your car is hanging off?" the border patrolman asked.
Um, no. I did not. As soon as we got through the checkpoint, I pulled over, and this time, I got down on my hands and knees to inspect the front of the car. Sure enough, the underside of the car (what I now know is called the splash guard) was bashed in and hanging loose. Thankfully, it was a relatively inexpensive repair, and I was lucky it wasn't a popped tire.
I'm still not quite sure what I hit, though I assume it was one of those loose pieces of tire you always see on the interstate.
We spent the second day in San Diego at the beach, and then Michael flew in on Friday night, bringing the rain with him. On Saturday, the rain let up long enough for us to go to the Mormon Battalion museum in Old Town, where Tessa made my favorite comment of the trip. Describing the sister missionary who led our tour, Tessa said, "She was a little weird, but that's her job." Which describes all sister missionaries everywhere.
We finished up San Diego with more rain on Sunday, and then packed up the car with one extra passenger on Monday morning to head to Las Vegas.
