california or bust!

one week ago, we left our dear little apartment in north carolina, and set out on a week-long quest to make it to california. we did not take as many pictures of the drive as we intended to, but that's all the better for you so that this post isn't any LONGER.

the funny thing is that our freeway, only 2 miles away from our apartment and the one that i took every day to get to raleigh for school, is the same exact freeway that takes you all the way to california. we could have just hopped on in durham and stayed on there for 2300 miles until we hit barstow. we didn't, because we had the VERY IMPORTANT GOAL of visiting alabama and mississippi, two states neither of us had been to. so we spent the first day on the 85 and the 20, cruising our way through south carolina, georgia, alabama, and mississippi, where we stopped in tupelo to stay the night. we saw some excellent sights, like this giant peach-shaped water tower thing (kind of reminds me of james and the giant peach, right?).

and for those of you who are NOT very knowledgeable about mississippi or elvis, tupelo happens to be elvis's birthplace. we stayed in an econo lodge about 2 miles away from his home, so we stopped by in the morning on our way out of town. we didn't pay to go in, though--we just snapped a few pictures and then snuck away. his house was about the size of a schoolbus, maybe. not very big for someone who grew up to be The King. did you know that he had a twin brother who was stillborn?

and then we drove on to memphis, where we completed our Day of Elvis by visiting graceland, the much more fitting home that elvis bought and lived in for many years. i'm putting WAY too many pictures of graceland in this blog post, but OH MY GOSH IT WAS SO AWESOME. the peacock stained glass, the golden/blue/violet curtains, the dark mirrors on all the walls, the dark wood cabinets in the kitchen, the green shag carpet on the ceiling... i loved it. it was the most fun house we've ever visited, but since we've mainly visited old presidents' homes (george washington, thomas jefferson, andrew jackson), that's understandable. the 70s decorations were equal parts tasteless and AMAZING.

and, of course, elvis is buried on the property. he was buried in a normal graveyard in memphis, but after a couple of months the estate realized that all of his crazy fans were willing to do plenty of things to his grave, so they moved him to the backyard. what a lovely, classy grave. it went perfectly with the spangled cross (not pictured) put there by the graceland staff.

even the trash cans in the visitor center got in on the fun!

and then we drove, and drove, and drove, and drove. somehow i totally missed oklahoma (even though we stayed there overnight) AND texas, so all you get are arkansas and new mexico.

and we stayed in flagstaff, drove and ate along route 66, and visited the grand canyon. here are a bunch of pictures of the grand canyon. there's not much to say about them, except that the grand canyon is so. big.

and then, without further ado, we drove to california! we made it to irvine and spent the evening with my family (since we were TIRED OF DRIVING) and then came up to santa monica on saturday to check out our new apartment. we LOVE it--it's tiny, old, and the blinds are missing some crucial elements (luckily there was an extra sheet that we hung up over the bedroom window so that we don't have to go into the bathroom to change every time), but it's in an adorable neighborhood, 2 miles away from tommy's work, 1.5 miles from the beach, and half a block away from a library. what else could you ask for? here are some pictures of our street:

we are CHAMPION road-trippers, as evidenced by our free, matching sunglasses. (mine broke somewhere in oklahoma, so we picked some up at a festival going on a few blocks away from our apartment on saturday.) 

seriously, whenever we told anyone that we were driving across the country, they always said, "i'm so sorry!" or "that sounds awful!". but we actually LIKE doing it. we spent most of our time listening to books on cd (the firm by john grisham, and patriot games by tom clancy) and occasionally singing along to music. what else do you need to keep yourself entertained? unfortunately, mr. baby is probably going to affect our road trip enjoyment levels, or so everyone keeps telling me. but i think we can chalk this one up to being a resounding success.