One hour after I finished my last final, Drew and I were on the road heading down I-15 towards Las Vegas. Once you go south of Utah Valley, it's...vast. Seriously, there was nothing there 'cept an occasional podunk town and truck stop. After four and half hours of driving, we saw Las Vegas:

We spent the night at the house of our former Young Men's President (for those of you who aren't LDS, that's roughly the equivalent of a youth pastor.) He's retired from the Air Force and now works as a dermatologist. He and his wife are super-nice and the kids are amazing (they've grown quite a bit.)
On the morrow, we continued our journey through the Mojave Desert and finally arrived in sunny California. I should probably mention that the main objective our trip was so that Drew could visit his fiancee, Erin. She's on an internship in Glendale (a suburb of LA.) This is the house she's staying in:

Yes, I did feel a little awkward being the third wheel...but, Erin is way cool. We spent Friday afternoon walking around old Pasadena, including the park (which was full of bums.) Speaking of which, we did a little bumming around ourselves:

Wow, aren't we some brazen law-breakers?
We stayed in Drew's aunt's house down in Mission Viejo.

Nice place, huh? For four days we just crashed on their couches late at night and left early in the morning. Most of the time, I don't think they even noticed we were there.
We checked out San Diego on Saturday...including the USS Midway (a WWII-era aircraft carrier that has since been converted into a museum.) If we were sailors, this would be our living space:

If I were a bad sailor, I'd be in here:

This is my favorite part of the ship, the aircraft:

Isn't that cool? I should join the Navy (just kidding!)
We also checked out the Sunset Cliffs by the beach:

I was surprised by the number of fishermen present.
The best part of the day, however, was stopped by the San Diego LDS Temple on the way back:

What a majestic edifice. LDS Temples are a photographer's goldmine (even for those who aren't members.)
On Sunday we went to Church. Erin's chapel looks unlike any other LDS meetinghouse I've ever seen:

It's got that California/Western motif going in its style and color scheme.
On Monday morning, we piled back into the car and rode back on up to Utah Valley (in one day.) On our way there, we stopped by Las Vegas and got In-And-Out:

...and there was much rejoicing.
The End.