Hello again. It’s been a while, but I wanted to write the conclusion to my road trip and perhaps the conclusion to a major chapter in my life. After encountering the thunderstorm at the Grand Canyon on the evening I arrived, I awoke to beautiful sunny skies the next morning. I was able to take some stunning pictures of the canyon in daylight as well as take some pictures of me sitting and standing at the edge of a ledge.
From there I left the Grand Canyon around Noon to head back to Seattle through Utah. My goal was to make it to Salt Lake City that day, which ended up being about 9 hours away in the route that I took. It just so happens that I ran into another thunderstorm of which I put together a video:
After getting to Salt Lake City it was pretty much smooth driving back to Seattle. I stayed in Seattle for about 36 hours and then flew to Washington DC to visit a good friend that lives close by in Virginia. It was my first time in the DC area. I was able to see the major landmarks plus I got to visit the George Washington estate, Mt Vernon, which was the highlight of my trip there. George Washington never actually lived in the White House and so his private mansion in Virginia was where he lived and spent most of his time when he was not out winning battles. Though the mansion is not super large by today’s standards, his entire estate was quite expansive. In those days people were more self-sustaining and so they had stations where they (i.e. slaves) made their own tools, grew their own food, tended the animals, docked boats on the river, etc. So they needed a lot of land for all the various needs of a General and President and the many people they would host over the years.
After DC, I drove to Philly, then to Pittsburgh, Kalamazoo, MI, and then Chicago where I stayed with my aunt and sister for four days and then I flew to Minneapolis for a conference. Below is a link to all the pictures that I took on my trip both on the West and East coasts. I will post Part 2 in the next day or so to summarize my thoughts on turning 30 and what might be the close of one chapter of my life to begin the next chapter.