So it looks like I am going to have to become the ultimate morning person, as I have an 8:00am or 8:30am class every day during my first semester. Boo! Maybe I can convince my body to stay on east coast time and then all my classes will begin at 11:00...? But in happier news, I did figure out how to register for classes today and only bothered 3 or 4 people with inane questions about the registration process, so that is good.

Due to a *slight* error made by Door to Door Shipping (LAME, do not ever use them!!!), our stuff won't be arriving until Tuesday the 12th, so we are basically camping out in our apartment until then. Needless to say, we are NOT pleased, especially since we have hardwood floors, but that is another story for another day. It was probably a bad idea on the part of Door to Door to irritate two very stubborn, OCD people who are unemployed and actually have nothing better to do than sit around and think about taking you to small claims court because they are annoyed that you can't get their stuff to CA in a timely manner.

Since we really didn't have a ton to do, we decided to paint the new apartment (we didn't ask our landlord as we figured it would be better to beg forgiveness then ask permission), which may or may not have been a good idea since we will eventually have to paint back and I selected bright red paint (obviously). The paint looks awesome (pictures soon!) and since we had to leave our ground floor windows open to air out our apartment several neighbors poked their heads in the window from outside (literally) to say hi. They seem like a pretty interesting bunch...

In addition, we are struggling through the moving-to-a-new-place-and-registering-for-a-zillion-services process. I have been trying to explain to Mike that living in the land of liberals means that so much stuff is regulated and many fees must be paid for different services, which was going well...until he got a parking ticket…

Day 5 on…July 30-August 5, 2008:
Yellowstone National Park; Grand Teton National Park; Boise, Idaho; Lake Tahoe; CALIFORNIA!!!

Passengers: 3
Speeding tickets: 2

We have been traveling through national parks galore and haven’t had reliable access to the Internets or cell service, which is why I have not been answering your calls and letters in a timely fashion ☺. But tonight I bit the bullet and paid $4.95 to use the Internet at our campground so I thought I would post to the blog. Mike isn’t a big fan of paying for the Internet, but I think that if I post to the blog I can convince him that we are getting a better Internet “unit price.”

Tonight we are camping on the south end of Lake Tahoe in California and tomorrow we arrive in Berkeley. For the past week or so, we have traveled through Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park which were rife with small children and adults with fanny packs. But the scenery was beautiful. Even the forests in Yellowstone that were burned by a huge fire (a “control burn” that got out of control in 1988) were eerily peaceful. It was a strange feeling to drive through a forest of burned trees, but it reminded me of how big the park is and how people really only experience a very small part of it. Hopefully we will go back and get off the “beaten path.” (And hopefully we won’t have to…exit, pursued by a bear...hehe. Sorry, I couldn’t resist!)

Grand Teton was by far our favorite park as it was less crowded and full of easily accessible outdoor activities (we hiked and kayaked before I got cranky and needed food that was not PB and J…). And we saw bison which kind of look like their faces are covered brown shag carpet. In fact, when we saw a bison it was sticking its head into a bush, I think to scratch its itchy carpet-face?

We also had a fabulous time visiting the Curtis-Heidt-White family in Boise, which is in the thick of wedding preparations. I am sure I will have tons of stories and pictures after I return to Boise in a week and a half for the big event. (I have to wait to post embarrassing stories about Jenn online until AFTER she has left for her honeymoon and interviewed for important lawyering jobs for next summer…)

Tonight we had by far one of the most hilarious experiences of the trip. We decided (I honestly can’t remember why…it totally SEEMED like a brilliant idea) to eat at the “Lake Tahoe Chinese Buffet.” Normally, I am totally anti-Chinese buffet because they seem like a public heath nightmare. But we were starving and having something other than a sandwich sounded amazing.

Every single shady person in the Lake Tahoe area (I didn’t know there were ANY!) was dining there, including a man who seriously ate every piece of shrimp in the restaurant. As we left, a California police officer came in to eat. We later drove by again and saw him shaking down some youth in the parking lot. I think perhaps the delinquent youth of Tahoe frequent the Chinese Buffet and cause trouble?

I have loved this trip, which ends tomorrow, but I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more if I had a source of income and did not have school hanging over my head. Don’t get me wrong…I am looking forward to starting school, but all of the move-in and registration and such will be stressful. I am the kind of person who needs to have all of her markers lined up in color order before the first day of school and that has been difficult while traveling. I think this has been taking a toll on my normal level of patience…