Hrmm...the first day of my trip went alright...I went through it a bit dazed, tho. I had just finished finals week Monday thru Thursday. Friday was graduation. Well, I wasn't exactly graduation, being a former Sophomore, anyway... (glad I didn't! Having to do graduation and then grad nite and then this first in the morning would've been horrid!) But I was there playing with band, so I had to get there early and then sit through the whole ceremony, anyway.
I have no idea when I found the time to pack;)

Well, it was up and early on what would have been my first day of summer vacation. My plane left from Oakland at a little after 9am. There I was supposed to meet Owen, but I guess we didn't see eachother until later, sooo...
I spent the first plane ride mostly reading Huckleberry Finn, one of my English summer reading books. It fit kinda nice, I guess...boring and bland, a nice compliment to my tired self. I spent some time reflecting on my Sophomore year, and missing the seniors who had I had just been saying goodbye to yesterday. I wondered how my grades would look - many teachers didn't post them and so it would be two weeks...
It was hard to think about the trip - I had been in such a bustle of end-of-the-year activity at school.

When we got to Phoenix, I got off the plane and as I went to the other gate I finally met Owen:) "Uhhh...he's got a goatee-beard thing going on..." Hehe - in his picture, he didn't have one, so it took me a second to realize it was him. Anyway, we sat and talked. And I ate - I had some ice cream and a pretzel - great lunch, eh? We didn't see Corinne and Holly until quite a bit later - about the time that the plane started to board, actually... They had also been there for a while, but I guess we just hadn't noticed eachother:o)

So, another plane ride... We were the last group to get to NM, so everyone was there to greet us:o) We got our stuff off the carousel and loaded into our van and took some pictures, etc.

Our first stop was the New Mexico Museum of Natural History. We had some time, so we got to explore - some general science exhibits were there, and there was a section on astronomy which we wandered through.
First, we went on this ride - one of those Star Tours things. Only, of course, it wasn't nearly as good as Star Tours. I mean, in Star Tours, you get the whole room moving, so you're really into it. When you're just in chairs - well, we were in thse elevated box things, but you could still totally tell.... - it just doesn't feel real at all. Anyway, it was something about a comet hitting the earth and we had to go and destroy it.. (why they're allowing civilians on this trip, I dunno;) Wouldn't it be some top-secret space mission or something? At least Star Tours had a scenario that made sense!:o) [Hehe - can you tell I'm a fan of Disneyland and Star Wars...well, I'm sure you'll see more of my random obsessions in later entries, soo I'll refrain from getting too carried away for now;)]
Well, I'm afraid I thought it was pretty lame. Compared the theme park rides, that is. Considering it's in a museum, I guess that's pretty cool:o) Hehe - too many rides on rollercoasters and on rides like Star Tours and Indiana Jones have spoiled me a bit;)

Next was a planetarium show. There was a giant I-max like screen and comfy seating:o) The show wasn't terribly interesting(again, I've been spoiled in this department, soo...). It was a nice review of som constellations, tho:) And the pictures were pretty:o)

Dinner back at Old Town (ie: back across the street to where we parked the car;)) was next. Aha! Time to finally get to know everybody:) At first, we had some segreation of the tables (why don't guys socialize?;)) So, we females had to get up and mix the tables a bit;)
I was introduced to Sopapillas:) (Did I spell that right? Sorry - it probably's wrong!) We also learned the difference between red and green chile:o)

After a nice, filling dinner, we headed back into the van and to Los Alamos. It was a long and boring ride;) Hehe - we were all sleepy and didn't talk hardly at all:o)
New Mexico looks different than I had expected, though:o) The area we were driving through was really green! Well, first of all , I was expecting New Mexico to be desert like, like Phoenix, Arizona or something. And with the recent fire, I was looking for something like the Oakland Hills - but wow! Everything was all green and pretty:o) Greener than where I come from, actually! (Well, when you compare the summer, anwyay. Silly Mediterranean climate...green winters, brown summers:o)
We had a stop *somewhere*:) Well, I know now after the trip, it was Soda Dam - but at the time, it was roped off and stuff, so we didn't exactly have a reason to go out and look and play around as it past years:o)
We had another stop at this giant plain - the site of an ancient volcanic flow. Poor Owen! It seems the motion ride we had earlier didn't go well with him and the winding road didn't help either...
more pictures with Galen's digital camera:o) And some interesting quotes from Corinne (Hehe;)) Ahh! How much longer is the drive?:o)

It was at least another hour or so and then we were in Los Alamos. Wow - check out the tiny town:o) Hehe - I grew up in a suburb of San Fransisco, so there was always the big city only about 30-40 minutes away and the city I lived in wasn't too small either. Don made some comments about how the town is normal, unlike what people may think with its Manhattan Project image...(which I had totally forgotten about until now, actually;) Of course, I also live near Livermore Labs, so I guess I'm used to the idea...I mean, Livermore is a normal town in my eyes, so why shouldn't Los Alamos be normal, too?:o))

Ahah:o) The Hotel:o) Our home for the next two weeks. We signed in, only to find that we each had separate rooms! We had to go change our rooms so we were sharing, which involved a lot of moving. I didn't have to move at all, tho - the room I was in already had two beds (unlike everyone else's) and so Corinne, my new roomie, just movie (from next door:)) into my room:o)
We each claimed beds and all was happy. I wonder if the guys were okay. I don't understand guys and needing their own beds and all that...Hehe - I think it's kinda funny, tho...seeing all the guys on Band tour and other trips having to do the whole bed rotating thing and everything... *sigh* Guys are so weird;)
Ah! I'm tired! Time for bed! Hehe! Nice fluffly big queen bed! I wonder what we'll be doing tomorrow... oh wellz, for now, Good night!^^

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This page last updated September 4, 2000.