The Great Southwest

Friends, 14 years ago we took our first of many National Park Trips.  On that maiden voyage into the parks, we drove an RV.  The kids loved it....but Big T and I were less impressed, and never went the RV route again.  This spring break was our last continental USNP Trip, and we thought it only fitting to wrap this chapter up the way we began: in the RV.  (Plus, being a rectal cancer survivor...it was pretty awesome having a bathroom on board!) 

 We covered quite a bit of territory....

We all met in LA where we stayed at the Hotel California.  I highly recommend it...full of character and great location.  We checked in and then walked 2 minutes to the Santa Monica Pier to ride the ferris wheel.

The next morning we walked across the street to this great place for the best breakfast of the trip.  Then we biked down to Muscle Beach Venice--we could not miss that famous landmark.  

We rate the National Parks using a top/middle/bottom 50% system.  Our first stop, Channel Islands, is way down in the bottom 50.  

Next up was Joshua Tree.  It was way better than Channel Islands...but still in the bottom 50.

We continued to improve with Saguaro-- a solid middle 50.  Those cacti are super cool, but that is all there is...

Carlsbad Caverns is definitely a top 50.  The good news is that if you are claustrophobic, you are just fine in these caves.  They are big...in fact the "Big Room" is the size of 6 football fields.  The bad news is you have to walk one mile down, descending 750 feet.  Walking back up almost killed me.

But it was worth it.  My I phone photos do not do it justice. Trust me...it was like being in another world.

Big Bend National Park is beautiful, but in the middle of nowhere, so I have to put it in the middle 50. 

 The kids did have fun walking across the Rio Grande to Mexico while I was freaking out that they would get arrested.  

We had some great Mexican food on this trip.  Big T is never afraid to stop...anywhere.

Whataburger v In-N-Out Burger...
Whataburger wins.

We stopped in LA, Phoenix, El Paso and San Antonio.  Top three must sees in San Antonio (loved this city!):
1.  Alamo..they call it the Shrine of Texas Liberty.

2. River Walk--we had a great lunch at Boudros....incredible guac made table-side.

3.  San Fernando Cathedral---they claim it is the oldest church in the US.  The inside is stunning.

We left the Southwest in the middle of the week and headed to Nashville to meet up with M and his buddies for his 21st birthday...but that is another blog for another day...