July 7-9 - New Orleans

The days have been flying by as we lost track of the days of the week and the dates...


On the evening of the 7th, we arrived in New Orleans where we stated with Abigail, an awesome friend of Matt's. She generously housed and fed us during our three-day stint in New Orleans. That night, the three of us went out for some Po Boys, Jambalaya, and good jazz music. After some time at the Spotted Cat for live jazz, they all headed back to get in a solid night's sleep (Matt and Bill watched the end of the Dark Knight...).

The next day, we took to being tourists as we ate Beignets at Cafe du Monde, walked around the French Market, window shopped, and lost ourselves in the French Quarter.

(It's hard to look happy wearing suits in New Orleans)

We met up with our friends Emily, Mitchell, and Greg as Greg, a native of New Orleans, took us all to some great places to walk and eat.

After Abigail cooked a wonderful meal for us, the three of us met up with Greg and Mitchell (Emily had to leave for Houston) at D.B.A. for some good local music. Afterwards, we were part of a New Orleans second line in honor of the great New Orleans drummer Uncle Lionel. Most of us had never imagined or been part of anything like this and were very grateful to be accepted as a part of such a unique and meaningful New Orleans tradition. The pictures can't even begin to describe how great the experience was! Big thanks to Greg for introducing us to this.

The next day, we were Memphis-bound, and looking Seautiful.  Many thanks to the amazing friends who made New Orleans a wonderful experience, and a special shout-out to Abigail for being so welcoming!

For more pictures, please click here.

July 6 - San Antonio, Austin (TEXAS)

We arrived in San Antonio, TX very early in the morning on July 6 after driving an additional 7-8 hours from scenic Roswell, NM.


After a humid night of camping, we woke up and rode in Seautiful style to downtown San Antonio and the Alamo. The Alamo itself was very interesting and actually taught us each a few things that we didn't know about the Alamo.

We drove an hour north on Rt. 35 to Austin, where we would spend the rest of the day.  We were truly blown away by the beauty of the State Capitol Building in Austin.  Both the interior and exterior of the building were very ornate and very accessible.

Once we pledged our citizenship to the state of Texas, we decided to check out the music scene in Austin.  We sipped on Lone Star, the 'National Beer of Texas' as we watched a mediocre country-rock group, an impressive Texas blues group, and an entertaining dueling piano group at different venues on Austin's 6th street.

As any gentlemen would, we finished the evening by watching the Dark Knight in order to build some intensity for the long haul to New Orleans the next day.


As Davy Crockett once said, "...you may all go to hell and I will go to Texas..." ...where I will check out the rest of Matt and Bill's pictures from Texas.

July 4, 5 - Albuquerque and Roswell

We decided to celebrate the United States' Independence in the most American way possible: shooting guns. We started by with a 9 mm handgun and moved up to the M4, a fully automatic class three assault rifle.

The food in Albuquerque was great. Thanks to Matt's friend Siri, we're we knew where to eat for every meal (and shoot every firearm). We enjoyed some genuine Mexican cuisine at El Paisa and took in the view of Albuquerque from Sandia Peak.

Later that day we watched the city's fireworks at Balloon Fiesta Park and set off some of our own.

Before heading  toward San Antonio the next morning we made sure to suit up in Albuquerque as we had done through the rest of the country.

On the way, we made a pit stop in Roswell and visited the comically ridiculous UFO Museum and Research Center.

Feel free to check out additional pictures.

July 2-3 - Grand Canyon

On our way to the Grand Canyon, we took a quick pit stop at the Hoover Dam to satisfy our obligatory engineering curiosity.

After a long drive, we arrived at the Grand Canyon late in the evening, but made it to the South Rim in time to take in it's beauty before sunset and whet our appetite for the next day's hike.

On the way, we saw some enormous Elk that were grazing just a few steps away from our campsite.

The next morning, we came across a hilarious sign warning us not to attempt to hike to the bottom and back up in the same day.

We viewed the sign as a direct challenge to our manhood and decided to descend six miles and over 3000 vertical feet to Plateau Point along the Bright Angel Trail and immediately ascend back. We must not have been hungry when we left, because we only brought one granola bar to split between the two of us. We made the trek in just over six hours, finishing the last 100 yards strong with a jog to the finish. 

On our way out of the Grand Canyon, we decided to stop at 'Fred's Diner,' a classy eating establishment that is a part of a greater Flinstones themed attraction and RV Park complex.  Bill was not happy with the quality of his Brontosaurus Burger.

That night, we put the Canyon in our rear view as we started on the road to Albuquerque, NM.


The rest of our pictures from the Grand Canyon can be found here.

July 1 - Las Vegas

After waking up early to check out the Hollywood sign and grab some breakfast with Matt's friend MaryClaire, we set out for America's playground - Las Vegas. We stayed on the strip at the Luxor with the hope of increasing our chances of getting punched by Criss Angel.

After suiting up, we started the night with Cirque Su Soleil's awe inspiring Mystere show at Treasure Island.  After the trippy visions of adult babies and giant snails, though, we needed to throw some money away to prove that we were still human.

We decided to visit every casino that we could on our way back across the Las Vegas strip.

Bill lost the money he won in Reno, but Matt ended the night $90 up!

Vegas had been an oasis, but we're now headed back through the desert to the Grand Canyon.


For more pictures from Vegas, please click here.

Please BEAR with us

We have been struggling to put up posts regularly due to a lack of internet connection, but more importantly because we are taking the nation by storm (with little time to mess around on the web).


SO I ASK YOU (with all of my best fashion sense)

TO PLEASE

BEAR

WITH US

THANK

YOU

!!!

June 29-30 - Los Angeles

After taking in the spectacular scenery along California’s Route 1, we arrived in Los Angeles on Friday night in time to meet up with Matt’s friend Shyaam for an improv show by the Upright Citizen’s Brigade. 

Afterwards we headed towards Westchester where we were most graciously taken in by Bill’s friend Gianluca, who showed us around Venice Beach.

Later that day we saw some more of Venice and explored Santa Monica before heading back to Gianluca’s for a barbecue.

Before setting out for Las Vegas, we checked out the Hollywood sign and met up with Matt's friend MaryClaire for breakfast.

As always, we have many more pictures.