Mr. and Mrs. Grand Marshall (Bishop, CA)

this summer garrison made a phone call to bishop; a small town in california, asking for a fishing badge to put on his fishing vest. he wanted one because he wanted to remember his great uncle who lived there and was the founder of the "blake jones fishing derby" a fishing derby that the town is famous for. but, instead they offered us the title of Grand Marshall instead. when someone offers to pay for your vacation so that you can be the grand marshalls in their town's christmas parade, you don't really turn it down. :)

not. a. joke. 

that really happened. 

this is my life.

the trip was really fun, we got to drive on "america's loneliest road" or highway 6 by it's traditional name, we only saw 20 total cars on the drive, unluckily one of those twenty was a cop, so yes, we did get a ticket. and we also got to stop and see tons of little old houses and small towns, small enough that you don't even have to pull off the freeway in order to see them because the freeway is their main street. 

i promised some stories so, here's some of the most memorable ones:

we stayed in Ely, Nevada for one night on the drive to California because Bayli was done with being in the car. So, while we were out to dinner that night we went to the biggest restaurant in town; a small diner run by two girls and a cook. Camo coushioned benches, pictures of the customers and their dead elk as wall decorations and everything. literally, all the customers were wearing camo, pink for the girls and brown or green for the boys. the food was pretty good though. anyway... just as we got up to leave one of the two boys in the next booth over (yes, their beanies were camo, and they were only missing a few teeth), leans to the other and points to me and says "i ain't seen a looker like that in a looong while." HAHAHAHAHA 

best. line. ever. 

the next day we went to Bishop and took a stroll around the town. we realized that it wasn't as small as we thought it would be, more like the size of Midway in Utah, we did some shopping and watched them light the Christmas tree. literally people drove for miles and miles to see this. flipping a switch. but, in their defense, it was pretty. and... santa came to visit, and although the picture doesn't show it, surprisingly, bayli was a fan of santa. it must be because her grandpa has trained her not to be afraid of a beard.

the next day we woke up early and went to the place that we needed to meet for the parade, we unknowingly parked our car in the motorcyclists space for the parade... so, after we got yelled at by a feisty motorcyclist or two we finally found where we were supposed to be and sat on our spot in the trailer practicing our waves while waiting for the parade to begin. the marching band was in front of us so as we drove down highway 395 along all the stores, the people lined up to wave at us sure got a good laugh out of watching us dance with bayli. it was a great sight i assume. spit bubbles and all. :) we might as well just give her the sole title of "grand marshall" because everyone was looking at her cuteness, i don't think they even noticed us.

later that day we decided to drive up into the mountains and see some of the towns/sights up there. mona lake was pretty cool with its unique mineral deposits, the mammoth lakes area was awesome. the lake was almost completely frozen over. beautiful. apparently it's where all the people from LA come to ski and snowboard, it's got a similar feel to park city and was really beautiful. but, one of my favorite places was convict lake. we met an australian couple that had gotten married there the year before, and were able to watch the sun set over the mountains. i'm not even gonna try and describe how beautiful it was because no picture or description i have will do it justice. 

seriously, it was such a fun trip and a once in a lifetime experience. i'm so glad that garrison called that day to ask for a badge for his fishing jacket. -he never got a badge by the way- :) for sure it was my favorite and most unique vacation of 2012. good luck beating this one 2013, go ahead and try. 

p.s. i definitely recommend watching the Disney movie Cars before going on a drive like this, it makes the movie so much cuter and more relatable. cause seriously, there are really towns that don't get visitors anymore, and there are rusty ol' Mader tractors out there tipping cows. i swear.