I remember the day when you left for Santa Monica

Day 7: Mesquite to Malibu
miles traveled: 710

Well, we left Mesquite around 11:20 this morning. I slept in because I was the one driving last night and this morning, so I needed a good night's sleep. Anywho, we rearranged the packing of the car to make things a little easier to get to and to free up some extra space in the back seat. We drove back through Vegas, and in a little town called Baker, CA, we switched drivers. Turtle ended up taking over. Fun fact about Baker: they have the world's tallest thermometer. Not sure why that is something to be proud of, but its whatever. Interesting note on California driving: they have individual lanes for trucks on hills. We passed an interesting road called Zzyzx along our route, which was just fun to see. After crossing over the mountains and coming back down the other side, the landscape started to turn green again and there were actual trees. I have never been so happy to see a tree before. We ran into a little bit of traffic outside of LA, but not too much because it wasn't a weekday. Jenn ended up developing a nose bleed for the dry air, but luckily, it didn't last too long, so everything was all good. We officially arrived in LA at 4:55 and proceeded to drive around the city for a bit. Sarah wanted to see the Hollywood sign and get a picture of it, but that didn't happen today. It is in the cards for tomorrow, however. We drove up towards Malibu in search of a campground. The state park that we were planning on staying was up a huge mountain. By the time we got about halfway up, we all decided to just turn around and go back to the campground that was right off of hwy 1. It has a beautiful view of the mountains and the beach, so we are all pretty happy with our surroundings. It is interesting how they do their tent camping, though. We had to park our cars in a parking lot and then tote our stuff to our spots. They had hand carts available, so it wasn't that bad. When we were walking in, Turtle and I found some guys playing beer pong and were invited to join them. Needless to say, we did not, although we seriously considered it! We set up camp, and then Sarah stayed behind to talk to Matt while Jenn, Turtle, and I headed down to the TV room in order to get some internet. Jenn sat inside while Turtle and I talked to people on the phones, and then I got onto the computer to update the blog and such. Turtle and I have been sitting outside talking and blogging for about the last hour, so we are going to say goodnight and good luck...

- Megan