After our late night at the drive-in, we got up at 9 & wanted to take a swim, but the pool was being cleaned. So we went to the Original House of Pancake adjoining our motel & had a wonderful Big Apple cinnamon-sugared baked pancake (Robert) & pecan-buttermilk pancakes (Christina). An old man at the table next to us chatted to us about Phoenix & heat + buses & malls & starting his own business & summering on Lake Michigan, & then we packed up our leftovers, checked out, + left Phoenix for good.

We took the 10 straight back to Los Angeles, stopping many times for ice cream & huge cold drinks, & skipping Joshua Tree & Palm Springs since we were sick of the desert. Pictured at left is a view out the window on the 10, just after we entered southern California from Arizona; it's astonishing to us that this landscape can even be called California at all.

All in all, we had a great trip, & saw lots of exciting things, but we have never been so happy to get back to LA. To celebrate our return to civilized life, we stopped at Dragon Mark in San Gabriel at 5pm (Cathy's shau lung bao place, which we supposedly hate) for dumplings, with a $1 pearl milk tea at the new place that opened next door (tax included).

Ending in the true spirit of a web-essay, we present you with our respective self-portraits, both somewhat inadvertent, for this journey: Robert taking a picture of the classy bathroom in the Four Seasons, and Christina taking a picture of the desert landscape out the window of the car. By 6:30 pm Saturday, we were home, & we spent the evening unpacking, watching a movie, doing laundry, & relaxing. Tomorrow, we're having Norman's air conditioner looked at.