Tusayan to La Jolla!

That's right, we made it!!!

We started early this morning back up at the Grand Canyon, leaving around 7 AM and heading back down to I-40. It was a crisp 55 degrees, though before too long (about 2 hours) we were in the desert of extreme western Arizona and it was approaching 100 degrees! Crazy! The Mohave Valley was beautiful, as was the desert of California. I was able to take the time to set up a bank account, sign the master promissory note on my student loans (oh, fun), and arrange my next week's worth of appointments and orientation events.

Mom made great time driving, making it from the canyon area to Barstow, California - the western terminus of I-40 - by around 12:30. From there I drove us the rest of the way, taking interstate 15/215 south through San Bernadino, then I-5 into La Jolla! The traffic picked up as did the temperature (up to 108) when we got close to LA, though the drive was pretty bearable in all. It was exciting once we got closer to the coast, the temperature moderated, and I could tell we were getting close!

We got to 549 Westbourne around 3:30PM and I finally started meeting my other roommates. Gil, an '08 graduate of UCSD in biophysics, was there to welcome us and provided a huge hand in helping unpack the Blazer. It was so good to have everything out of the car! Mom also did a huge job in cleaning the floors and windows in my room - far more than I'd expected or wanted her to do but she was relentless and wouldn't take a break! Really, though, a HUGE help!

After getting most of the stuff unloaded and starting to get unpacked we headed to Wal-Mart to check out some mattresses (which they ended up not carrying at all - strange), but not before meeting Keri and Ryan, the other two roommates I hadn't met, plus Alyssa, Gil's girlfriend. Jon also stopped through en route to a David Cook concert, which rounded out seeing the whole 549 gang! While we were unpacking and showering Gil was actually spearfishing down at the beach and ended up bringing back some perch and a stingray - the stingray, long since dead, ended up birthing two baby stingrays in the kitchen... pretty wild but the fact that folks in this house go catch dinner on a pretty much daily basis is incredible.

Mom and I had a successful trip to Wal-Mart despite not finding any bedding, picking up some pillows, a laundry hamper, some nail clippers, a tablecloth, and some other essentials! Tomorrow the goal is to scour out some real furniture - a bed, a desk, and some shelves would be great successes. Additionally I think I'll be heading to campus to check in with the department, and we might even get a trip to the beach in if we get enough done in the morning.

It feels incredible to actually be here. I'm so excited to be living where I am with such wonderful, personable, down-to-earth people. They're all incredible, interesting, and I can't wait to get to know them better - I think it's going to be a lot of fun! Keri and I are making plans to go to DisneyLand as well as the San Diego Wild Animal Park (Jon has encouraged us both to check it out).

Enough on this for now... I'm tired and enjoying just hanging out with Keri, Gil, and Alyssa. More tomorrow once I have more details to share - perhaps even some photos of the place and whatever else Mom and I go see and do.

All the best from LA JOLLA!