Arriving at Google – I couldn’t stop taking photos of all the neat sights! We were taken around to different photo ops! We also visited the official Google Store, which was open only to employees to purchase (for guests who want to buy something, you must have an employee show his/her badge to buy something). I picked up a soft android stuffy and some YouTube magnets for souvenirs! We then encountered a special BBQ day outdoors and grabbed a bite to eat. There were several cafeterias and we kept learning more about the perks Google offers its employees – which is why they are one of the top employers!

After our bellies were full, we made our purchases and visit of Google, we said our goodbye and departed to drive the 45 minutes into San Francisco, where we rented an apartment from airbnb, which was more feasible than downtown hotels (cheaper, includes a kitchen, laundry facilities, and safe free street parking!). We stayed in Outer Sunset, a neighborhood with lots of Chinese restaurants and stores on Noriega Street. It reminds me of Vancouver’s Joyce Street or Victoria Drive area.

We arrived on a cold, cloudy day – so our pictures of Golden Gate Bridge were not as great as we had hoped. After dropping off our luggage at the apartment, we ventured out to Chinatown – the largest in North America! I love visiting San Francisco’s Chinatown – as it has a mix of new and old Chinatown – the old being the heritage buildings, the Chinese associations, seniors busking on the street playing their classical Chinese musical instruments, and the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie company (made by hand)! The new part of Chinatown includes all the souvenir shops – some with new western-fused souvenirs. We managed to pick up some $2.99-$4.99 bobbleheads – including an Archie & Jughead bobbleheads! My favorite Haribo candies were also available cheaper in Chinatown!

As we were getting hungry, we headed to Boudin Bakery at Fisherman’s Wharf for a bowl of their famous clam chowder in sourdough bread. We didn’t want to eat too full, as my bf was taking me to a surprise dinner for my birthday. We walked around Jefferson Street along the Wharf, but as it got too cold, we decided to save Pier 39 for the next day.

For my birthday dinner, I was surprised my bf took me to the House of Prime Rib near Nob Hill. This restaurant was busy on a Thursday night – we were told there would be a 25-30 minute wait – luckily the wait was more around 20 minutes. While waiting we could sit at the bar and order a drink and snack on some nuts. Great bar service staff and ultra friendly servers!

The House of Prime Rib menu consisted mainly of Prime Rib – you had 4 choices of sizes of prime rib – each comes with a special house salad, baked or mashed potato, yorkshire pudding and either creamed spinach or creamed corn. There was also sourdough bread on the table prior to our meal. We ordered The English Cut (3 thinner slices of Prime Rib) and shared the dinner, as it was quite a bit of food – they charge an extra $7 to share so that you can get an extra salad serving for the two people. As it was my champagne birthday, I ordered a bottle of champagne ($11) for a toast.   The prime rib was delicious! The salad could have been better if it was not drenched in salad dressing. Next time I come back, I’ll be asking for less dressing on the salad – otherwise very good size and quality! The mashed potatoes and yorkshire pudding were really well done and I wish there was more – should have ordered my own! There was enough for us (especially since we had the clam chowder prior), so we did not order dessert. I think my next visit to San Francisco I’ll try to head to this place again for their Prime Rib!

After dinner, we went for a walk at the top of Twin Peaks to check out the night view of the San Francisco city lights – however it was really cold that evening and cloudy – so we called it a night after an eventful birthday.

The next morning we set off early to Fisherman’s Wharf – where we enjoyed brunch at Sabella & La Torre. We had a seafood brunch filled with clam chowder and fresh seafood! After a full stomach, we took a walk on Pier 39, where we took in all the various shops and window shopped. We saw the sea lions sunbathing on the pier, and went to purchase some Ghirardelli’s chocolates before we lined up to take the historic cable cars.

Half walking up a giant hill on Hyde Street, we eventually caught a cable car to Lombard Street – where it hosts the world’s most crooked street. We then had trouble catching the cable car downtown, so we walked down 4 large blocks to catch the Mason-Powell cable car instead and got to hang on the cable car to truly experience the cable car!

Downtown, we took some photos at Union Square, and then shopped all the various shops. To those UNIQLO fans – they are opening up a store downtown in Fall 2012!

Hungry and tired – we ventured back to Outer Sunset, where we consulted Yelp! for a Chinese restaurant recommendation, as I had a craving for Chinese food. We enjoyed delicious shrimp-filled wonton noodles at Ming Tai Wun-Tun Noodle. The price was good and the food quality was comparable to some of the places in Vancouver. For $7.99 you can get a bowl of shrimp wonton noodles with a small side plate of gai lan, and a milk tea! The wontons had ample shrimp in it – really great quality – something similar to what I would find in Vancouver!

After dinner, we went to Fluffy Snow, a Taiwanese bubble tea and shaved ice/dessert restaurant. We shared a large lychee shaved ice, with lychee poppers, mochi, tapioca and honeydew with condensed milk. I found it only to be ok – great for San Francisco standards, although in comparison to Vancouver such as Frappe Bliss, I still prefer Frappe Bliss.

We took a drive around the Castro district, and then again to Twin Peaks to enjoy the night lights on our 2nd night in the city – a clear evening that allowed us to even see the Golden Gate & Bay Bridge from up top. It was a beautiful night to end our San Francisco stay.

San Francisco, I will return and visit soon!

Leaving LA – we stopped off in the morning at Beverly Hills and The Grove in Los Angeles. At The Grove, after some window shopping, we saw Mario Lopez tape for the TV show, Extra. Another star sighting moment for me! We then went to Beverly Hills to take a picture before leaving LA.

There’s several ways to get to San Francisco from Los Angeles – we decided to take part of the coastal highway 1 before merging onto the 101 and up to Hayward – this route would take 9 hours roughly. Although it’s a longer route than I-5 highway, this would allow us to stop off at Malibu and Santa Barbara. Santa Barbara reminds me a little bit of San Diego – we took a walk along Stearns Wharf (if you buy something and get your receipt validated at one of the shops on the pier, your 1 hour parking is free). If I came back to California, I would love to see more of Santa Barbara!

Reaching Hayward, my friends took us to a sushi restaurant called Old Town Sushi in Newark, California. This place had some giant sushi rolls! My friends ordered several rolls in which I forgot the names to, however the one roll that stood out was the Number One roll – the largest sushi roll I’ve seen and eaten! This roll looked like 3 rolls combined into one! What it was – a normal sushi roll, but piled with two times the amount of crab meat/mayo combo on top! It was really delicious and I surprised my friend by eating more than 1 piece, plus pieces from the other 3 rolls before I was full – I must have been quite hungry! Between the 4 of us, especially with my bf and I being super hungry, we finished all 4 of our rolls! I was surprised the sushi quality was quite creative and tasty for California. It was our first sushi experience on our trip and we were quite satisfied by that!

After dinner, we went back to the house, where my friends surprised me with a birthday cake as the next day was my birthday Thanks Vermont & Erika! The cheesecake was delicious!

We called it a night in preparation for a busy day visiting the Silicon Valley and then driving into San Francisco for my birthday weekend!

Day 20:

Our morning started with a drive to Arcadia from Anaheim where we would be staying for a few days. This quiet neighborhood close to the famous Santa Anita racetrack was interesting! There were peacocks roaming freely in some areas and are protected by the city.

We walked around Chinatown in LA but not much stood out for us there. We then went for dinner with our family friends to El Torito for Mexican food. We had to wait 15 minutes for our table but the servers were nice enough to serve us chips and salsa at the bar while we waited. The menu had a large selection to choose from. I had the Cajun Baja Shrimp Tacos and my bf had the Macho Platter (chile relleno, enchilada, beef crispy taco, and carnitas tamale, with rice and sauteed vegetables). It was made for a macho man! LOL

After dinner, we went for a walk in Old Town Pasadena, where we caught a trio singing Motown and Old School hits acapella.

Day 21:

After a relaxing day in Arcadia/Pasadena, we ventured out to Hollywood to check out what all tourists see – Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, Hollywood Walk of Fame, and the Hollywood sign. All can be seen on the famous Hollywood Blvd in Los Angeles. I was forewarned that the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, Walk of Fame, etc wasn’t as glamorous as what TV made it out to be, and boy was that correct! There were lots of people dressed up in costumes soliciting for you to take pictures with them in exchange for money. Because it was a Sunday, the Walk of Fame (especially right outside the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre) was PACKED with people – so packed it was hard to walk through the crowds and look at the handprints and footprints, so I pushed my way through and ignored the theatre. Instead we took some photos from across the street and just looked at the stars up and down the street. I even found Marilyn Monroe’s star!

After an uneventful trip to Hollywood Blvd, we made our way to Santa Monica Beach & Pier, where we walked on the boardwalk and saw a demonstration regarding the war and people against the war. Both the beach and the pier was packed with locals and tourists enjoying the sunshine.

We then made our way to the infamous Venice Beach, now popular for its medicinal marijuana stores, throngs of tourist gift shops and Muscle Beach (didn’t see anyone walking out there so didn’t take a photo of it)! It felt a bit grimey and lots of weird people. However we did check out some local street performers.

We finished off the night with some delicious In-N-Out Burgers and Fries! Great ending to a long day!

Overall this tourist experience of Los Angeles was a bit overwhelming and quite tiring. I was tired of people soliciting for me to take photos with them for money or take and pay for a CD of some up and coming LA singer. People were aggressive on the road and in person!

Day 22:

We went to Universal Studios with a friend of ours. Thanks to my wonderful friend we got some hookups and ended up skipping the line-ups for some of the rides! The new Transformers 3D ride was amazing! The special 3D effects made it feel quite real. The best ride at the park. I also liked The Mummy rollercoaster in the dark – similar to Space Mountain at Disneyland. I was not a huge fan of The Simpsons ride, which made me feel a small bit of motion sickness. Overall Universal Studios was a bit smaller than I expected, but quite neat to do the backstage tour to see the sets and King Kong 3D. I liked the Universal CityWalk, where we went to Pink’s Hot Dogs to pick up some dinner on the way home.

Day 23:

This was a super special day for us, as we had made it onto the reservations list for tickets to watch a taping of Conan O’Brien! We went to the WB studios around 11:00am and spent some time making our signs that we wanted to show Conan. We then waited in line at 11:30am (position #7) for our wristbands. After we got our wristbands at around 12:30, we were told to come back around 3:15pm to lineup to get to the studio for the taping.

For lunch we ended up on Urbanspoon’s top rated restaurant in Burbank – Porto’s Bakery & Cafe. This place was an amazing find! I will definitely be back again next time I’m in LA! They have the best pastries! For lunch we ordered a Cuban sandwich (which came with Plantain Chips), a side salad (which looked more like a full size salad but only cost us $2.99), an almond croissant and a guava strudel! In the end we were so full we had to save the guava strudel for later. We left with a few more almond croissants and other baked items for our hosts and ourselves for the next day’s breakfast. Two thumbs up for this bakery – and prices were really reasonable!

Back to the WB studio parkade, we waited at 3:15pm to be lined up in order of our positions, ushered by buses over to the studio stage 15, where we were then seated according to our position. My bf and I managed to sit in the 2nd row, far right, near Andy Richter’s podium where he does his jokes in the opening with Conan. The taping started at 4:30pm and ended within an hour. The guests we saw were actress Isla Fisher, Dean Norris (Breaking Bad) and Andrew W.K. (punk rock band). We loved that Conan came up to where my bf was sitting in the aisle and sang to a couple next to us for his goodbye song (not aired on TV, at the ending of the show). We were quite close to him!

After the show, we went back home, packed up and spent the night in Pasadena before our trip to San Francisco.

This Los Angeles part of the trip was more tiring than I expected – must have been all that summer heat as the temperatures rose each day we were there. However, we got to see a show taping, celebrity sightings (my bf swore he saw Wyclef Jean at Universal Studios and Tracy Morgan pull out of one of the parking lots near the WB studio), and eat some great California food!

When we arrived, we bought our tickets and went in with minimal lineups. It was a bit cloudy in the morning and school started for some people in the states already, so lineups were quite minimal.

We started the day with some rides – Indiana Jones, Splash Mountain,  etc. No lineups!  We didn’t have to get and use a fastpass until we got to Tomorrowland in the afternoon and had to get one for Star Tours, the Star Wars ride.

We skipped Its A Small World and some of the kids rides but made sure we rode the teacups and Dumbo!

Highlights of our Disneyland experience: Big Thunder Mountain coaster, Space Mountain and the crazy spinning of the teacups! The dinner we had at one of the restaurants onsite was surprisingly better than we expected. We had a fried chicken dinner at the Celebration restaurant near the parade route and Main Street. $13 for a 3 piece chicken dinner that comes with green beans, mashed potatoes, biscuit and gravy! The quality was quite good and the chicken pieces were quite big. We had enough for the two of us considering we had dessert before dinner with the Mickey Mouse ice cream sandwiches! Delicious!

In between dinner and the fireworks, we watched the parade and then ventured out to Downtown Disney to window shop and check out the stores and restaurants. We then rushed back to Disneyland by 9pm to catch the Fantasmic show and the fireworks to end our night.

If Disneyland happiness was measured by how sore your feet are from walking, then I was super happy! I’ve now visited 4 of the 5 Disney theme parks. I’m now one away (Euro Disney) from completing another bucket list item! Can someone please sponsor my next trip to Euro Disney? LOL

After arriving in San Diego and checking into our hotel, we went to Coronado Beach, recommended by our friends. We were told this beach had super fine sand and that the Naval Base was situated there so we would see Black Hawks and perhaps people training. We didn’t reach Coronado Beach til after sunset so we didn’t see many people on the beach, but we did see a couple of Black Hawks flying by. The sand was super fine and soft, and the water was still quite warm. It turns out we were lucky to have known about this place! According to Wiki, Coronado Beach this year was ranked the best beach in the United States by the Laboratory of Coastal Research.

As it was dark and getting late, we took off in search of food. I wanted Mexican and Urbanspoon suggested Miguel’s Cocina, located on the hotel/restaurant strip of Coronado as the top rated in the area. Reviews mentioned they had really good fish tacos and grilled swordfish tacos. We were immediately seated as the restaurant was not that busy at 9pm and the server promptly brought us our glasses of water and a piping hot basket of tortilla chips with salsa and their signature jalapeno cheese sauce. We loved the chips with the jalapeno cheese sauce! The sauce was not too spicy and was super creamy. We ordered a plate of the Grilled Swordfish Tacos (Fresh swordfish fillets with red cabbage and shredded cheese, salsa fresca and ranch dressing in two warm corn tortillas), and a cup of Albondigas (Classic mexican meatballs in tomato-vegetable broth) soup. The Grilled Swordfish Tacos were delicious – especially if you put some jalapeno cheese sauce in it! The cup of Albondigas was not spicy, and the meatballs were tender.

After a filling dinner, we went back to the hotel and called it a night since the next morning would be Sea World and quite a busy day.

The morning of Day 18, we headed to Mission Bay area – where Sea World was located. However since Sea World didn’t open until 10am, we had breakfast at Pacific Beach, at a diner called Kono’s Surf Club Cafe. It’s a greasy hole-in-the-wall but the pancakes are quite light and fluffy and for $5.50 you get pancakes, eggs and either sausage or bacon. After breakfast, we souvenir shopped and walked along the pier and the beach at Pacific Beach. The sand is not as nice as Coronado Beach, but is very popular with surfers and runners.

After some morning ocean air, we had the energy to conquer a day at Sea World. We watched the One World Shamu show, the Dolphin show Blue Horizons, and the Sea Lions Live show. We went on the two water rides, Journey to Atlantis, and Shipwreck Rapids – both which got us wet, but we were prepared with poncho/rain jacket and quick drying clothes – unlike some people we saw that came off the rides! We also spent time checking out the various exhibits including the sea otter feeding, penguin encounter, shark tank, watch the polar bear sleep, etc. We ended up leaving the park around 4pm, already tired but feeling like a kid!

As we didn’t want to fight afternoon rush hour traffic from San Diego to Anaheim, we spent our Happy Hour rush hour at Phil’s BBQ. Urbanspoon ranks Phil’s BBQ as the most popular restaurant in the city. When we arrived, there was already at least 15 people in front of us in line. It turns out the lineup was short! We were greeted while in line by a friendly worker who told us that Phil’s BBQ has won many awards and offers the best baby back ribs in the city and maybe even in the US! He also mentioned that during dinner, the average wait time to order and get a seat is 45 minutes, so we were lucky to arrive early. We were eager to try what the fuss was about. As we weren’t too hungry, we ordered a 1/2 order of baby back ribs, which came with either 2 small sides or 1 large side, so we decided on 1 large order of coleslaw. We were glad we shared as it was quite a lot of slaw and ribs! What’s special about Phil’s BBQ is that they make the ribs out of their own special house BBQ sauce – and do not offer any other sauces. I found the sauce to be a tad too tangy for my liking, but the ribs themselves are juicy and fall off the bone! You can also taste the smoke flavor of the ribs. I loved their coleslaw as it was not overly saucy. I wouldn’t say they were the best BBQ ribs I’ve had, but I’m not surprised if they are #1 in San Diego! When we left, the lineup had wrapped around the building and was roughly 25-30 minute wait already!

With a full tummy, we made our way from San Diego to Anaheim, California along the I-5 freeway. It takes roughly 1 1/2 hours to make the drive and the traffic was still quite continuously busy on the busy freeway. When we arrived at our hotel in Anaheim, we were lucky to have caught the fireworks that were in action at Disneyland (which is located behind our hotel). Definitely a great way to start our two-night stay in Anaheim, and a great end to a busy day.

Stay tuned to our Disneyland adventures next!

After some browsing we got too hot so we made a pit stop at Sugar Bowl, which is an old-fashioned soda shop. This shop has been referenced several times in the comic Family Circus. We picked up a couple of ice cream drinks to go. They were delicious on a hot Arizona day (40+ degrees Celsius).

With the heat getting more intense with every hour in the afternoon we couldn’t do much outdoor sightseeing we had originally wanted to do. Instead we made shopping stops to cool down in AC rooms.

We took a late lunch break at a restaurant called the Ribshack BBQ and shared a 1/2 platter of ribs and a side of potato salad and side of green beans. The ribs were slow roasted for 4 hours and came out tender and moist. They weren’t overly saucy but there were bottles of special BBQ sauces at the tables you could dip your meat in. The green beans were cooked in some spices with small slices on pork. More flavorful than I expected! The potato salad was average.

We then headed to Chandler, Arizona just outside Phoenix and 20 minutes from Scottsdale. That evening we were to stay at a friend’s  vacation home. Chandler is an interesting city as it is home to some tech offices such as PayPal, EBay and Intel. There were also multiple gated communities and ritzy shopping areas. We didn’t do a lot of shopping as the tax rate was higher (8.8%).

For dinner our friends took us to a chain restaurant called Gordon Biersch. This place reminds me of Yaletown Brewing Co. Our friends recommended their homemade tacos. We ordered a crab and artichoke dip to share. My bf ordered the Cajun fish tacos while I ordered the Seafood Cobb salad.

The Cajun fish tacos consisted of a crispy taco holding the fish and lettuce and wrapped with a soft taco, melted cheese in between. I liked the Cajun flavor fish with the cream spicy sauce. My bf ordered garlic fries with the tacos but I found them too garlicky.

My Seafood Cobb salad was HUGE! It looked like this salad was to serve our whole table. It had grilled prawns and crab meat along with your typical Cobb salad items such as bacon, egg, tomatoes, avocado. My only complaint was the egg was chopped too much. I prefer bigger chunks do I can eat it properly.

After dinner we realized it was pouring rain outside so we called it a night and stayed indoor watching the thunderstorm.

We then headed off on a 6-7 hour drive to Arizona. Although our GPS did not take us on the Route 66 historic route (which takes you from Illinois to California, famous for various landmark stops across the states), we did travel to different parts of the truck stops that distinctively connected Route 66 and the interstate highway I-40.

One of which we stopped off in for gas and bathroom break was a town called Holbrook, which lives off of being on the Route 66 due to its shops all having “Route 66″ on the outside to attract people.

The odd thing about following a GPS is that sometimes it takes you the shorter route, but not always on the main highway. For the last half of the trip, we went off the interstate and took the Beeline Hwy, which took us on back routes of Arizona. We saw large forest areas when we were expecting desert. For a moment it felt like we were driving the Oregon/Washington highways with all the forested trees! Eventually we started seeing cactus and LOTS of it and we knew we were heading the right direction.

We checked into our fancy 4* hotel resort in Scottsdale. This place felt like a resort you could find in Mexico or Cuba. However I was disappointed to find out my cellphone reception (which is also my internet on the road) was spotty and couldn’t be received in our room, as well as that there’s only free wifi in the business center and in the lobby. We gave up on getting internet and headed out for dinner.

Urbanspoon listed LoLo’s Chicken & Waffles as a great spot near our hotel. We had to check this out as we loved chicken & waffles that we had on our New York trip last year.  My bf ordered the 3 piece chicken and waffles meal (which included 2 large waffles). I ordered 1 piece of catfish, 1 cornbread, and candy sweets (sweet yams).

The chicken and the waffles were delicious – however we still felt that the New York chicken & waffles we had were out of this world. However, the catfish I ordered was…WOW! Melt in my mouth delicious. I would come back time and time to eat this if I could! After the initial crunch of the batter, the catfish was fluffy and melted in your mouth like butter. The cornbread was nice and fluffy, however we were both too full to finish it so we brought it back to the hotel for breakfast snack tomorrow. The candy sweets (yams) were pretty delicious but I found them a tad too sweet for me so I treated them like dessert. We didn’t even have room when the server came by to tell us they had banana pudding, some cakes, etc. Luckily we didn’t order any drinks otherwise we wouldn’t have probably been able to finish them! The drinks were in really big jars and they have various pop, Kool-aid, sweet tea and lemonade. Definitely this is a place worth trying in Scottsdale if you want Southern cooking. Remember to try the catfish! They also have a location in Phoenix.

We then went back to the hotel to relax and work off the food with a dip in the “heated” pool (honestly I think they tried to keep the water cold, but the heat outside just kept it warm..like a bath!) before calling it a night. We’re off to Phoenix to stay with a friend and enjoy some more good eats! Stay tuned!

It’s a 6-7 hour drive between Colorado to Santa Fe/Albuquerque, New Mexico. The scenary at first is quite similar to the plains between Minneapolis and Colorado. However, it was getting hotter, and we started to see more dessert shrubs. As we reached Santa Fe, we saw that most of the houses were adobe homes, made out of sand, clay and water. This gives it a really unique look to the landscape/architecture of the neighborhoods. The roads were not always paved, which gave it a more “Mexico” feel to it – especially since some roads felt more like alley ways or off-roading – which explains why most people owned SUVs or trucks.

Santa Fe is also one of the top artist locations in the country, second to New York City. We went to Canyon Road, which is a street lined with houses of artists. Most of the galleries were closed by the time we got there, but the outside of the galleries had displays of art that we took some photos of.

After a quick sightseeing tour through Santa Fe, we took off for Albuquerque, located just an hour from Santa Fe. We checked into our hotel and went for dinner at Frontier Restaurant. This New Mexican restaurant was featured on Man vs. Food and Urbanspoon rates it as one of the top restaurants in Albuquerque. I read that the huevos rancheros (two eggs, beans & sauce on corn tortillas served with flour tortilla) and anything with the green chili stew was the best! This restaurant is self-serve – you walk up to order your food, then your number is called when the kitchen has made it. The wait is quite short, and the restaurant is big enough to find a seat. It’s open from 5am to 1am everyday.

My bf ordered the huevos rancheros with the christmas sauce (red and green chili sauce), while I ordered the 1/2 enchilidas (1 enchilida with beef, rice, lettuce/tomato) with the green chili stew. My enchilidas order was amazing!! Really well seasoned, not overly spicey for the green chili stew, and just the right portion for me. I would have over-ate if I had gotten the full order. The price was quite cheap too! It came to only $13 for the two of us. We may have to come back for breakfast!

After dinner, we took a quick drive down the street from Frontier Restaurant, in the Nob Hill district, which is an university-district with tons of bars, restaurants and boutiques. Time to call it a night now! Tomorrow we venture out to downtown Albuquerque before we head to Scottsdale, Arizona! Stay tuned!

Driving through Keystone, South Dakota, a small tourist attraction town, we stopped off for some All-You-Can-Eat Breakfast at Keystone Family Restaurant, did some souvenir shopping, and off we went up the mountain drive to reach Mount Rushmore.

Since 1941, this national memorial has been a popular attraction in the South Dakota hills. Situated in Keystone, South Dakota, it costs $11 for cars to park and venture near the monument to take photos. We managed to pull over on a small side of lookout point for a quick minute to take some photos.

From Mount Rushmore, it would take another 6 hours for us to get to Denver, Colorado, our next major stop of our trip. We made a detour in Custer, South Dakota. We saw that there was a Flintstones Park there so we had to pay Bedrock City a visit! Since 1966, this park had been an iconic pit stop for kids of all ages. It is $10 for admission but allowed you to take a train ride, ride a Flintstones car and walk through Bedrock City. We got to meet Barney and Fred!

We managed to arrive at our hotel in Aurora, Colorado before dinner time. As per recommendations from UrbanSpoon, we found a diner called Jus Grill close to the hotel. It was rated one of the top Mexican restaurants in Aurora. This place had a huge menu of all-day breakfast items, lunch sandwich/burger specials, and dinner entrees that included chicken fried steak, grilled salmon, and a whole page of Mexican entrees. I ordered the Asada tacos, grilled steak on soft tortillas with pica da gallo and avocadoes. My bf ordered the Fajita Burrito plate (with grilled steak meat). Both were really delicious and the portions made us regret ordering two dishes when we should have shared one. Looking around at the restaurant, several people were ordering breakfast skillets – if we ever venture back, we’ll have to try one of those! Luckily we finished both plates and took a walk around Walmart afterwards before we called it a night.

The next morning, Day 13, we decided to head to Hammond’s Candies factory for a tour of the factory to see how the famous ribbon candy is made. The tour is free and a great way to find out how candy canes and ribbon candy is made by hand. This location has been featured in Food Network’s Unwrapped TV show. Be forewarned, you will leave buying something! We bought a whole bunch of candy canes and taffy, as well as their famous Mitchell Sweets (vanilla caramel marshmallows). This is for a kid of all ages to enjoy – they also give you a sample to take home after the tour!

We then ventured downtown to check out the Capitol building, which looked very similar to that of other capitol buildings in the states. We also walked, ate and shopped along 16th Street Mall, the heart of where everyone was on a sunny Saturday afternoon. 16th Street Mall is a pedestrian and electric bus only street, filled with shops, food carts and restaurants, and for this weekend we were there, local artists and vendors selling handcrafted goods. They offer a free electric bus that goes up and down the street for those tired of walking down the street after all the shopping and eating. This weekend there was also a music sound stage setup, promoting local Denver musical artists! While we were there a local rock band was playing. We used the bus on the way back up the street so our feet thanked us!

We then drove around the LoDo (Lower Downtown) district, along Larimer Square, which is the equivalent of Vancouver’s Gastown or Yaletown areas. This area was full of restaurants and bars and lots of boutique shops.

Getting a bit hungry, we then ventured to one of Denver’s top rated UrbanSpoon restaurants, The Cherry Cricket. Located in its Cherry Creek district outside of downtown Denver, The Cherry Cricket has also been featured on Man Vs. Food and various television shows and magazines. It’s famous for it’s custom burgers and large menu of beers on tap. When we arrived we were quite hungry. I ordered a beer, as it was happy hour, along with their special soup of the day, the Spicy Tomato Bisque. My bf ordered a side salad to start. Our server, Jason, was outstanding and was really helpful in assisting us with our orders. He was quick and the overall service of the restaurant was superb! Even though it was really busy, our food came in a very timely manner.

I then went on to order the Alice Chicken Sandwich. Yes, I had to as it had my name on it! Loaded with bacon strips, grilled chicken, mushrooms and cheese, and topped with honey dijon sauce, this sandwich was quite juicy and tasty. I loved the charbroiled flavor of the chicken breast. My bf ordered a custom cricket burger, the one recommended by our server Jason, featured on Man vs Food. It was a 1/4-lb patty, with a fried egg, bacon, and peanut butter! An odd combination, but boy was it delicious! The sweet and savory makes it something I’m going to start trying at home – peanut butter and fried egg! We were beyond stuffed after eating everything – considering my burger was more than half the size of my face! Next time we’re in Denver, we’ll come back and try their fries as well. People were ordering baskets of their steak fries and looked quite delicious!

We ventured over across the street to Cherry Creek Shopping Center, the fanciest mall in the city housing Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, Louis Vuitton, and other brand name retailers. We didn’t buy anything but liked to look at the fancy Prada shoes at Nordstrom! After walking off our stomachs, we ventured back to the hotel for some R&R before another 7 hour drive tomorrow towards Santa Fe & Albuquerque, New Mexico!
     

The drive got quite boring, similar landscape to that of our Calgary to Winnipeg drive. But Americans know how to capitalize on tourism dollars! Along the way expect lots of billboards telling people to drop by visitor towns and check out attractions. For example, we stopped  off at 1880 Town, promoting a small western town built from old buildings and used for movie and TV shoots such as Dances with Wolves and American Pickers. It costs $9 to explore the town so we just got a picture outside.

Since I was fighting a cold, I slept through most of the drive, trying to conserve energy for the more exciting adventures ahead.

We arrived in Rapid City, South Dakota around dinner time to setup camp for the night and headed into the city to explore. It turns out Thursday nights in Rapid City was their weekly Summer Nights street party! A local country band was playing on the main stage while people were enjoying a nice cold beer in the beer garden.

We called it an early night to rest up so we could head to Mount Rushmore in the morning, about 30 minutes away from Rapid City.