Happy 2013!

and now its the first morning of the new year..... happy 2013!!! tim will probably not be happy with this self portrait; he couldnt keep his eyes open because of the bright sun, but i think its still a nice pic. oops, there he is, and yep; he says; nohohoohoho! but its one of the few where i look ok, and im posting the pics, so..... :P

enormous party animals as we are, we had pizza in the town of flagstaff, arizona. this is an actual town, with many, many hotels (and many were fully booked for new years eve, we discovered). the city center seemed really nice, with lots of restaurants and shops. but.... tim didnt feel too good, and we were both soooo cold! so, after the small pizza (which we could not finish), we got back to the hotel and watched some soap series, until it was midnight; time to sleep! :D

there was actually a "ball dropping" like in new york, only not with a ball, but with a giant pine cone. we saw it. it was also dropping at 10 pm, to accomodate those that didnt want to wait till midnight (isnt that weird!!? yes, that was new york new year time, but still..). around 9.15 many people were lined up to wait for that event, in the freezing cold!! but by that time we were heading back to the hotel...

anyways, its a new day, and according to our computer its -18C outside (-0.5F), thats crazy!! lets see if its really true...

Just awesome!

im not often using the word awesome, i dont think i can pronounce it quite american enough, but you wont know that when i write it down, right? :) today was awesome! i think we had the best vistas so far, and we already had seen so many beautiful sights... the weather helped too, beautiful cloud formations and the sun was often present as well.

we woke up early this morning (im still on boston time, 2 hours earlier), had a not too bad breakfast, and we were greeted by beautiful surroundings. unfortunately we had driven the last hour in the dark the day before, but it was nice to see that the strip of motels and neon signs was actually in between enormous mountains. it almost made the walmart across the street pretty... ;) we avoided the highway again and drove westwards; we got high up in the mountains, where we remained for most part of the trip. around 7000 feet (2 km!). and yes, we got snow too.... quite some snow. the road was entirely white at some parts, and just cleared at others. luckily there werent many cars and it all went smoothly. we stopped quite often to take in the stunning views; one of them above, in the magdalena mountains, new mexico. eventually we hit arizona. we spent quite a while in a shop with western wear (!!) and i bought some boots (we actually went for tim, haha). the snowy roads were behind us, and the road ahead was straight and empty; tim decided i had to drive again, and so i did, for quite a while. i now know how to drive straight, but anything else means panic....

we wanted to drive through the petrified forest (with yes, petrified wood, lots and lots of it), but unfortunately they decided the snow made for unsafe conditions and we had to turn around... ah well, the other road was awesome too. for the last bit we got onto the real highway with lots of cars (the old route 66), and now we are in flagstaff for the night.... (its freaking cold, -8C, 17F)

the new year just started; so happy new year!! more tomorrow, and can you guess where we are headed?