I don't have much to say in this wrap-up.
I had an amazing time. I learned a lot. And I made it home.
Nick and I did an impressive job of not killing each other.
America is gigantic and for the most part, the people are great everywhere you go. They are welcoming, accommodating and eager to show off their cities, towns and homes.
There are places in America where I might be able to live and places where I probably wouldn't want to.
There are numerous places that I will need to visit again and no clear cut best or most enjoyable destination.
I'm going to end my contribution to the blog with a series of top five lists. None of them are in any sort of order nor have they been scientifically chosen.
top 5s
Animal spottings outside of the san diego zoo
Herd of Buffalo in Yellowstone
Elephant seals on the California coast
Thousands of bats flying out from underneath a bridge in Austin
Road Runner In New Mexico
Mountain Goat at the Grand Canyon
Animal Spottings inside the San Diego Zoo
Lion
Panda
Capyberra
Elephant
Rhino
Meals at restaurants
Chicken and Waffles at Rosco's Chicken and Waffles, Los Angeles, California
Tacos at Pico De Gallo, Touscan Arizona
Green Corn Tamales at El Bravo, Phoenix, Arizona
Beef Brisket at Louis Mueller's BBQ in Taylor, Texas
Sandwich at Primanti Brothers, Pittsburgh Pennsylvania
Hikes
Into the Grand Canyon
Up to that cliff in Yellowstone where you could see all the geysers
Through the Badlands
Canyon trail in the Grand Tetons
Grouse Grind
Celebrity sightings/encounters
Barack Obama at Health Care Rally in Minneapolis Minnesota
Conan O'Brien on The Tonight Show in Los Angeles California
Chris Tucker at the Stax Museum of Soul Music
Reba McEntire on the Red Carpet for the CMAs in Nashville
Robert Pattinson staring me down on the street in Vancouver
Most Unique Foods Sampled
Beef Tongue Tacos at Pico De Gallo in Touscan Arizona
Chitlins at Mama Dip's in Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Fritos Pie at Beans n' Things Amarillo Texas
Broasted Chicken (50's era cobination pressure cooker deep frier) at Bob's in Sioux Falls South Dakota
New Mexican Chili, numerous establishments, best at Peggy's in Albuquerque, New Mexico
Scenic Drives
Highway 1, The California Coast, especially Big Sur
Up, Through and out of the mountains in Whyoming towards Yellowstone
Highways around Sedona, Arizona
Mississippi River Road in Wisconsin and Minneapolis, (River looks like a lake here)
Roads in Yellowstone
Worst Drives
8 hours on I-95 between D.C. and New York on the day before thanksgiving
People who actually drove the Chevy
Nick
Shannon
Courtney
Lindsay
Steve
Most Random hosts
Anthony in Memphis
Those girls in Austin
Oscar in Nashville
Shannon's buddy Chris at Texas tech in Lubbock
Bars
Che's in Touscan Arizona
That Mexican Wrestling themed joint in Seattle Washington
The Maple Leaf, New Orleans, Louisiana
That Place with 50 cent Wells in Lubbock Texas
That Shack in East Austin where you could bring your own booze but not mixer
Ernestine and Hazel's in Mephis, Tennessee
Nights Out
Saturday Night in New Orleans
That night out in Touscan where Courtney handled herself with admirable self-control and dignity.
The Party Bus in Lubbock which contained not an ounce of either self-control or dignity
Freak-Folk Concert and 6th Street Halloween in Austin, Texas
Steve's Mo-vember Kegger in D.C.
Musical Performances
Monsters of Folk, Phoenix, Arizona
That Albino Blues singer and his band the monday night in Austin
Astral Project at Snug Harbor in New Orleans
Dr. Feel Good Potts in Memphis, Tennessee
The Trio in New Orleans
Honourable Mention: The Backstreet Boys on the Tonight Show
National Parks
Yellowstone, Whyoming
The Grand Canyon, Arizona
Saguaro, Arizona
The Badlands, South Dakota
Grand Tetons, Whyoming
Places that looked and felt the most like Endor, home of the Ewoks as depicted in George Lucas's 1983 classic Return of the Jedi
Avenue of the giants in the redwood forest, Northern California
Nick's Basement, Brooklyn, New York
Hiccups Along the way
Flat Tire near Surgess, South Dakota
Lost Bank Card in Chicago, Illinois
Ongoing License Testers strike in Ontario
That time we followed the GPS onto a dirt road and into someone's backyard on the Navajo Reservation, Arizona
Trying to get from D.C. to NY on the day before thanksgiving
Don't keep it too real,
Chris
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Friday, December 4, 2009
Nick and Chris go to Washington
Hello Friends,
Sorry for this large delay between posts. We are safely home now. We got back to NY in time for Thanksgiving dinner, which was as good as expected. However, We both wanted to tie things together with regards to the blog, which I never got around to doing last year. So im going to write this one about our last stop, Washington, DC, then Chris is going to write his final entry whenever he gets around to it, after which I will write my concluding entry. So for those of you who are still with us, stay tuned...
When we were in touch last, we were hanging out with Shaunee in Chapel Hill, NC. From there we went up the dreaded I-95 to Washington DC. DC was one of the places that we had most been looking forward to visiting the whole trip, so we did not relegate it to lame-duck status, road trip wise. We did up DC like we did up the whole rest of the country, Two Guys and a Chevy style.
We stayed with my cousin, and resident guest blogger, Courtney, for the first night, and went out with her and her roomates. While out, we were followed by a very creepy older man with a moustache, who actually turned out to be one of our best friends, Mr. S.P.F. Winstanley. We hadn't seen him since he started law school, and the reunion was quite heartfelt (mostly because he didnt think wed make it that far). It was great to see him, as he should have been the third guy in the Three Guys and a Chevy family. Next time buddy, next time.
The next night we went out to my Aunt Lisa's house for a great dinner and a meeting of the neighborhood homeowners association, which they very graciously always schedule so that I am able to attend. It was great to see her and my Uncle Clay, who had recovered from the hip pointer that he was struggling with last time I saw them. It was just really nice to spend the last couple of stops of the trip with family, a perfect reintroduction back home.
Even in the face of rain, which usually causes me to pack it in and call it a day, Chris and I were determined to see the sights in DC. We spent a day at the American History Smithsonian, which is really incredible, and free, and then spent the next day checking out all the monuments. The highlight was probably the FDR memorial, which I didnt even know existed before we randomly walked right through it on our way to the Jefferson Memorial. It is really moving and quite idylic, out of the way from the bustle of the mall.
The next day I got to go into Courtney's class and speak to her first graders on life and the way things are. She has the greatest group of kids and has done a fantastic job so far. They were incredibly respectful and had great manners. I read them my favorite children's book, The Butter Battle Book by Dr. Suess, and then told them an even more incredible tail, one of great adventure, about two guys and a chevy traversing the good old US of A. When I was about halfway through the story of our trip, talking about the west coast, a first grader wise beyond his years raised his hand and asked quite sagely, "Why didn't you just take a plane?" They really are making them smarter these days.
After class, Courtney, Steve, Chris and I, braved the largest traffic jam of the year, I-95 between DC and NY on the day before Thanksgiving, to finally make it home. Steve, the naive Canadian that he is, had graciously offered to drive the whole way at the beginning of the trip, thinking it would be a nice 4-hour drive. Well, 8 hours later we were finally there, ready to sit on our throne as the Princes of Just About Everywhere.
Before I finish, I want to thank Courtney for dealing with us road weary travellers yet again, she was quite essential to the road trip. Thanks to Steve for putting us up for a night and for making that drive, which the rest of us barely made it through and we werent even driving. And finally, a big shout out to my Aunt Lisa, who cooked us a great home-cooked meal and didn't even make fun of my unkempt hair, which everyone else in the family did when they first saw me. I love all of you very much!
Keep it real,
Nick
Sorry for this large delay between posts. We are safely home now. We got back to NY in time for Thanksgiving dinner, which was as good as expected. However, We both wanted to tie things together with regards to the blog, which I never got around to doing last year. So im going to write this one about our last stop, Washington, DC, then Chris is going to write his final entry whenever he gets around to it, after which I will write my concluding entry. So for those of you who are still with us, stay tuned...
When we were in touch last, we were hanging out with Shaunee in Chapel Hill, NC. From there we went up the dreaded I-95 to Washington DC. DC was one of the places that we had most been looking forward to visiting the whole trip, so we did not relegate it to lame-duck status, road trip wise. We did up DC like we did up the whole rest of the country, Two Guys and a Chevy style.
We stayed with my cousin, and resident guest blogger, Courtney, for the first night, and went out with her and her roomates. While out, we were followed by a very creepy older man with a moustache, who actually turned out to be one of our best friends, Mr. S.P.F. Winstanley. We hadn't seen him since he started law school, and the reunion was quite heartfelt (mostly because he didnt think wed make it that far). It was great to see him, as he should have been the third guy in the Three Guys and a Chevy family. Next time buddy, next time.
The next night we went out to my Aunt Lisa's house for a great dinner and a meeting of the neighborhood homeowners association, which they very graciously always schedule so that I am able to attend. It was great to see her and my Uncle Clay, who had recovered from the hip pointer that he was struggling with last time I saw them. It was just really nice to spend the last couple of stops of the trip with family, a perfect reintroduction back home.
Even in the face of rain, which usually causes me to pack it in and call it a day, Chris and I were determined to see the sights in DC. We spent a day at the American History Smithsonian, which is really incredible, and free, and then spent the next day checking out all the monuments. The highlight was probably the FDR memorial, which I didnt even know existed before we randomly walked right through it on our way to the Jefferson Memorial. It is really moving and quite idylic, out of the way from the bustle of the mall.
The next day I got to go into Courtney's class and speak to her first graders on life and the way things are. She has the greatest group of kids and has done a fantastic job so far. They were incredibly respectful and had great manners. I read them my favorite children's book, The Butter Battle Book by Dr. Suess, and then told them an even more incredible tail, one of great adventure, about two guys and a chevy traversing the good old US of A. When I was about halfway through the story of our trip, talking about the west coast, a first grader wise beyond his years raised his hand and asked quite sagely, "Why didn't you just take a plane?" They really are making them smarter these days.
After class, Courtney, Steve, Chris and I, braved the largest traffic jam of the year, I-95 between DC and NY on the day before Thanksgiving, to finally make it home. Steve, the naive Canadian that he is, had graciously offered to drive the whole way at the beginning of the trip, thinking it would be a nice 4-hour drive. Well, 8 hours later we were finally there, ready to sit on our throne as the Princes of Just About Everywhere.
Before I finish, I want to thank Courtney for dealing with us road weary travellers yet again, she was quite essential to the road trip. Thanks to Steve for putting us up for a night and for making that drive, which the rest of us barely made it through and we werent even driving. And finally, a big shout out to my Aunt Lisa, who cooked us a great home-cooked meal and didn't even make fun of my unkempt hair, which everyone else in the family did when they first saw me. I love all of you very much!
Keep it real,
Nick
Friday, November 20, 2009
The Low Country
Another Double Post, Read Nick's First Below for any of this to make Sense!
So we're getting tired. We're getting a little lazy. Blog posts may be coming fewer and farther between and we may be up to a little less than we were earlier in the trip. I wouldn't say that either of us are eager to finish but I think that we are both winding down into being ready to finish. Which is great. After 2 and half months on the road, we better be tired. It means we've been doing the trip right. We've left all our energy on the road.
After Memphis and Nashville we headed over to Atlanta, Georgia where we spent a relaxing weekend hanging out with Nick's uncle Keith. Like I said, we're getting a bit tired and we are especially getting tired of sightseeing in every place we go. Walking around a city all day and going out every night takes its toll on you. It's a rough life! We needed to cut something out of the equation. SO we opted out of exploring the city too much during the day. Keith took us on a great driving tour around midtown and downtown but we didn't get out much ourselves during the day, opting instead to relax. We went out at night to a few bars around midtown and even rekindled some love with our favorite culinary combo: Chicken........AND......Waffles. We went to Gladys Knight's restaurant, which specializes in the pairing. On Sunday, Keith took us for a ride in his plane. We had an amazing time flying over the lakes and subdivisions north of the city and then coming back around to get a great view of Atlanta from the west. Then, we hung out near the runway watching a few planes, helicopters, a bi-plane and a jet take-off (not all at the same time). We capped off the relaxing weekend by watching the Sunday night nail biter between the Colts and patriots with Nick's cousin Brett, his friend Jeremy and dog Buddy. Atlanta is a great city with a lot of trees and greenery, a beautiful new up and coming midtown and, of course, chicken and waffles.
Rejuvenated from the Low-key weekend spent watching football and hanging out in Atlanta, we spent the next two days touring around Savannah and Charleston. Both towns have amazing antebellum architecture and are beautiful places to wander around. Which is what we did. In Charleston, we stayed with Katy's friend Wanda who was a great host and was a lot of fun to hang out with.
Leaving Charleston, we drove up the Carolina Coast and through Myrtle Beach, popular tourist destination and mini-putt center of the universe. With nothing to do that day we went from course to course, at last finding one that was open at 10am on a rainy day during the off-season. The guy was so nice, he let us play the pirate-themed course twice. And I only lost one ball in the water trap. Continuing up the coast, we became dead-set on jumping in the Atlantic. I mean you gotta hit both oceans on a coast to coast road trip. So despite cloudy conditions, cooler weather and not a single other brave soul in the water we braved the frigid ocean which we both agreed is much more foreboding than the pacific. We braved the cold water but we didn't spend much time in it. We got back into the car after a few minutes and headed to Chapel Hill, home of the UNC Tar Heels and, more importantly, Nick's sister Shaunee. Last night we had a So You Think You Can Dance marathon (don't look at me). I'll admit it, though. I enjoyed it.
We're still in Chapel Hill. We had an extremely jam-packed day.
A big thank you to our hosts on this leg of trip Keith, Brett, Wanda and Shaunee.
Don't keep it too real,
Chris
So we're getting tired. We're getting a little lazy. Blog posts may be coming fewer and farther between and we may be up to a little less than we were earlier in the trip. I wouldn't say that either of us are eager to finish but I think that we are both winding down into being ready to finish. Which is great. After 2 and half months on the road, we better be tired. It means we've been doing the trip right. We've left all our energy on the road.
After Memphis and Nashville we headed over to Atlanta, Georgia where we spent a relaxing weekend hanging out with Nick's uncle Keith. Like I said, we're getting a bit tired and we are especially getting tired of sightseeing in every place we go. Walking around a city all day and going out every night takes its toll on you. It's a rough life! We needed to cut something out of the equation. SO we opted out of exploring the city too much during the day. Keith took us on a great driving tour around midtown and downtown but we didn't get out much ourselves during the day, opting instead to relax. We went out at night to a few bars around midtown and even rekindled some love with our favorite culinary combo: Chicken........AND......
Rejuvenated from the Low-key weekend spent watching football and hanging out in Atlanta, we spent the next two days touring around Savannah and Charleston. Both towns have amazing antebellum architecture and are beautiful places to wander around. Which is what we did. In Charleston, we stayed with Katy's friend Wanda who was a great host and was a lot of fun to hang out with.
Leaving Charleston, we drove up the Carolina Coast and through Myrtle Beach, popular tourist destination and mini-putt center of the universe. With nothing to do that day we went from course to course, at last finding one that was open at 10am on a rainy day during the off-season. The guy was so nice, he let us play the pirate-themed course twice. And I only lost one ball in the water trap. Continuing up the coast, we became dead-set on jumping in the Atlantic. I mean you gotta hit both oceans on a coast to coast road trip. So despite cloudy conditions, cooler weather and not a single other brave soul in the water we braved the frigid ocean which we both agreed is much more foreboding than the pacific. We braved the cold water but we didn't spend much time in it. We got back into the car after a few minutes and headed to Chapel Hill, home of the UNC Tar Heels and, more importantly, Nick's sister Shaunee. Last night we had a So You Think You Can Dance marathon (don't look at me). I'll admit it, though. I enjoyed it.
We're still in Chapel Hill. We had an extremely jam-packed day.
A big thank you to our hosts on this leg of trip Keith, Brett, Wanda and Shaunee.
Don't keep it too real,
Chris
The Music State
Hello Everyone!!
The last time we saw you, we were in New Orleans. We are now in Chapel Hill, a stones throw away from home (never thought id say that a 10 hour drive was a stones throw, but thats what a three month road trip will do to you). Due to our delayed blogging, I will be blogging on Memphis and Nashville, while Chris will be blogging on Atlanta and Charleston.
After New Orleans, we mosied up the Great River Road/Blues Highway up the Mississippi Delta to Memphis, Tennessee, home of the blues. Going up through the Delta was a very cool experience for me because my senior thesis was written about events of the Civil Rights Movement in the Mississippi. To actually see the terrain and the areas that I wrote about was a very visceral experience. I couldnt help but look back at the events that I wrote about.
Fittingly, our first stop in Memphis was the Civil Rights Museum, which is very well put together and really informative. I was worried that because it is located in the hotel that Martin Luther King was shot that it would just be totally MLK centric, and not give credit where credit is due to other smaller organizations that had as large or larger an impact on the movement. However, this was not the case and the museum really gives a very full treatment to all aspects of the movement. Definitely a must see in Memphis.
However, the big draw to Memphis is the music. We went down to the famed blues clubs on Beale St. both nights, seeing two very good blues acts. We also got great barbecues while we were in Memphis as well. What is it about blues and barbecue that always seem to go together? I dont know, but i sure enjoy the combination (probably up there with chicken and waffles for best combination).
Our second day in town, we went to the Stax Records Studio and Museum, which was heaven for me, a big fan of the whole catolog. There we had our first celebrity experience since Christian Slater followed us around LA. We got to the museum early and were basically the only people there, other than Chris Tucker, the guy from Rush Hour. We struck up a conversation and walked through the museum together for a bit, talking about the music and our road trip. You know that youre doing something cool when you meet a celebrity and hes the one that is impressed. Anyway, Chris Tucker is very chill and cool guy, nothing like his character in the movies.
From Memphis we followed the music highway up to Nashville, home of Country music. We happened to get there the night of the Country Music Awards, and went straight to the red carpet for some stargazing, even though we wouldn't be able to recognize probably 90% of the people there. We did see Reba McEntire though, which was very cool. (No Taylor Swift though, which is what everyone who has asked about it wanted to know) My parents, who came to Nashville a couple of years ago, hooked us up with some great recommendations, including a great songwriters circle the first night and an amazing family style restaurant where we ate soul food to our hearts content on the second night, capping Chris' birthday with a bang.
We also checked out the downtown strip, which was full of honky tonks blaring incredible live country music. My mom told me to expect everyone down there to have incredible voices, and on our first night we were walking down the strip and heard this girl with incredible pipes. Thinking this was a great band, we went in for a closer look, and lo and behold, it was a kareoke bar! What a city!
Thanks to our new friend Anthony for showing us great hospitality in Memphis, and thanks to Megan for letting us stay with her and allowing us to sleep in even though she had to leave at 8 am. Very clutch for some road weary trippers.
Keep it real
Nick
The last time we saw you, we were in New Orleans. We are now in Chapel Hill, a stones throw away from home (never thought id say that a 10 hour drive was a stones throw, but thats what a three month road trip will do to you). Due to our delayed blogging, I will be blogging on Memphis and Nashville, while Chris will be blogging on Atlanta and Charleston.
After New Orleans, we mosied up the Great River Road/Blues Highway up the Mississippi Delta to Memphis, Tennessee, home of the blues. Going up through the Delta was a very cool experience for me because my senior thesis was written about events of the Civil Rights Movement in the Mississippi. To actually see the terrain and the areas that I wrote about was a very visceral experience. I couldnt help but look back at the events that I wrote about.
Fittingly, our first stop in Memphis was the Civil Rights Museum, which is very well put together and really informative. I was worried that because it is located in the hotel that Martin Luther King was shot that it would just be totally MLK centric, and not give credit where credit is due to other smaller organizations that had as large or larger an impact on the movement. However, this was not the case and the museum really gives a very full treatment to all aspects of the movement. Definitely a must see in Memphis.
However, the big draw to Memphis is the music. We went down to the famed blues clubs on Beale St. both nights, seeing two very good blues acts. We also got great barbecues while we were in Memphis as well. What is it about blues and barbecue that always seem to go together? I dont know, but i sure enjoy the combination (probably up there with chicken and waffles for best combination).
Our second day in town, we went to the Stax Records Studio and Museum, which was heaven for me, a big fan of the whole catolog. There we had our first celebrity experience since Christian Slater followed us around LA. We got to the museum early and were basically the only people there, other than Chris Tucker, the guy from Rush Hour. We struck up a conversation and walked through the museum together for a bit, talking about the music and our road trip. You know that youre doing something cool when you meet a celebrity and hes the one that is impressed. Anyway, Chris Tucker is very chill and cool guy, nothing like his character in the movies.
From Memphis we followed the music highway up to Nashville, home of Country music. We happened to get there the night of the Country Music Awards, and went straight to the red carpet for some stargazing, even though we wouldn't be able to recognize probably 90% of the people there. We did see Reba McEntire though, which was very cool. (No Taylor Swift though, which is what everyone who has asked about it wanted to know) My parents, who came to Nashville a couple of years ago, hooked us up with some great recommendations, including a great songwriters circle the first night and an amazing family style restaurant where we ate soul food to our hearts content on the second night, capping Chris' birthday with a bang.
We also checked out the downtown strip, which was full of honky tonks blaring incredible live country music. My mom told me to expect everyone down there to have incredible voices, and on our first night we were walking down the strip and heard this girl with incredible pipes. Thinking this was a great band, we went in for a closer look, and lo and behold, it was a kareoke bar! What a city!
Thanks to our new friend Anthony for showing us great hospitality in Memphis, and thanks to Megan for letting us stay with her and allowing us to sleep in even though she had to leave at 8 am. Very clutch for some road weary trippers.
Keep it real
Nick
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Cajun Style
After leaving austin with our stomachs full of slow smoked beef we stopped over for a night in houston to visit my mom's cousin John and his wife Rose. Thank you very much to them for showing us welcoming texas hospitality and serving a delicious breakfast!
Hopping on out of Texas and over to Louisiana, we stopped at a roadside shack serving cajun specialties such as Boudin (in fact it was called Boudin King) and gumbo. Boudin is a fantastic invention involving the stuffing of chopped meat and rice into a sausage casing filled with cajun spices. You got your grains and you got your protein all rolled into one. Full meal. Delicious.
Our destination in Louisiana was, of course, New Orleans. If any city has a distinct feel the minute you walk in, it must be this one. It could be the smells in the air from the lush vegetation. We're talking scents I've only ever before experienced in air fresheners. Our host for the weekend, Alex Buckner, a friend of Nick's cousin Jimmie hosted us in his fantastic house in the uptown neighbourhood. Beautiful area. The houses, though not the signature french quarter buildings, just scream new orleans. I don't know what it is. Just some intangible swampy kind of vibe.
We had one goal in the city: see some jazz. Luckily Alex is an expert on the local scene. He took us to a musician's hangout the first night, called the maple leaf, where we saw this incredible trio featuring Russell Batiste, a local legend, on drums. The trio had a new-jazz-spacey funk groove. Ivan Neville, another local-well-known was in the crowd and he joined the band on stage for part of the show. It was a lot of fun, there was a lot of dancing, and the bar had a lot of character and characters.
After a lunch of oyster po-boys, we spent the next day doing a bit of driving tour of the city and then walked down to the garden district in uptown, full of old gigantic southern style mansions. We went down to the french quarter to see a more traditional new orleans band play jazz standards at preservation hall. The band played three great sets and was headed by leroy jones on trumpet. (keep name-dropping and name-dropping, just wait for nick's next post!) We also took a walk along the (in)famous burbon street, which really isn't that appealing. I mean it has history and mardi gras and all but it's mostly just filled with drunken tourists. They make for good people watching but not really for hanging out.
Saturday we finally made our way down to the french quarter during the day. The buildings are really cool, unlike any I've seen before. Brightly couloured, old and purty but built for the Louisiana wetness and warmth. We happened to catch the same jazz band from the night before at an NPS site. This time they had a really amazing vocalist, whose name I unfortunately do not know so cannot drop. We also saw the best wedding procession ever. They had this jazz marching band and everybody was waving umbrellas and they were all just marching down the street. Would have been a great time to have a suit handy.
After heading back to Alex's to rest we went back downtown to catch yet another jazz show. Another amazing spacey kind of jazz band as indicated by their name Astral Project. Fantastic. They were followed by an octet from the university of New Orleans playing mostly Thelonius Monk compositions. Also great. We went on to see a great reggae band next door and then a jazz quintet of teenagers out on the street. They were phenomenal. Future legends. Pity I didn't get their names. We punctuated the night with late night beignets at cafe du monde which was unapproachable during the day (too big a line) and a late night schlitz at alex's local dive.
New Orleans is amazing. If you love jazz, partying, unique cities, characters or fun in general, the city is a must visit. Thanks to Alex for showing us an awesome time!
Don't keep it too real,
Chris
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Keeping Austin Weird, Two Guys and a Chevy Style
Hello Everyone!
When we first started the trip, one of the cities I was most excited to visit was Austin, Texas, because I had never been there and Ive constantly been hearing amazing things about it. Well, folks, the hype is real. Austin is a fantastic city. Great music, great nightlife, great barbecue, and great scenery, all with a really chill atmosphere. All in all, we had a fantastic time in Austin.
We got into town on Halloween day, which was quite lucky because we could have ended up in transit on Halloween, but instead we were in Austin. We had decided to dress up as Lewis and Clark for our costume as an ode to our current journey, and we had put the costume together using stuff that we had and a well timed and fortuitous trip to a Goodwill in Albuquerque. The costume ended up coming out great, but because we were in Texas and I had a coon-skin hat on, I kept on getting yells of "Yo Davey Crockett!" We did get one girl who recognized our costume though, which made our night. For Halloween, we went down to the main bar strip in Austin, 6th st., and went to see this bluegrass style swing band who were playing at one of the bars downtown. After the show, we hit up 6th st., which was absolutely packed with people. It was a pretty ridiculous time, tons of drunk people just milling about.
After a very long night, we woke up in the early afternoon and immediately had an achin for some good old Texas barbecue. So we checked out our trusty old Roadfood book, drove out to some random smokehouse in the farm country outside of town and had the best barbecue weve ever had. We repeated this every day we were in town. Simply stupendous food, and a perfect way to start the day. We had brisket, ribs, sausage, and some great chicken fried steak, all of which were mouthwateringly delicious.
While barbecue was our daily routine in Austin, live blues music was our nightly routine. Our second night in town, we just strolled around 6th st doing a little barhopping. As youre walking, you just hear great live music flowing out of bar after bar. We ended up at this great little dive with a great little blues band playing some great blues and soul music. The next night the girls we were staying with brought us to this sweaty hole in the wall place way out on the east side of town. It was this rickety old joint that had live blues music blaring and was packed to the brim with people gettin down to the music. Our last night in town we went to Antone's which is supposedly THE blues club in Austin. We saw a group of local legends who brought the house down. The whole feel to the scene was very cool because you felt like it existed for the locals and the musicians, not the hipsters or tourists. Everywhere we went we felt like we seeing some legendary stuff.
The city itself is very laid back and has a really chill feel. The University of Texas is right in the center of the city and has like 70'000 students, so theres constantly young people around. It really feels up and coming. On our second night we were walking across the main river in town around dusk and saw all these people just sitting around on the riverside. We went down and checked it out, and it turns out that Austin has the biggest urban bat colony in the world, and they all come out from this cave at dusk in this big flock. It was ridiculous to see the bats fly out and literally cover the sky. Definitely adds to the bluesy ambience of the city.
Keep it real,
Nick
When we first started the trip, one of the cities I was most excited to visit was Austin, Texas, because I had never been there and Ive constantly been hearing amazing things about it. Well, folks, the hype is real. Austin is a fantastic city. Great music, great nightlife, great barbecue, and great scenery, all with a really chill atmosphere. All in all, we had a fantastic time in Austin.
We got into town on Halloween day, which was quite lucky because we could have ended up in transit on Halloween, but instead we were in Austin. We had decided to dress up as Lewis and Clark for our costume as an ode to our current journey, and we had put the costume together using stuff that we had and a well timed and fortuitous trip to a Goodwill in Albuquerque. The costume ended up coming out great, but because we were in Texas and I had a coon-skin hat on, I kept on getting yells of "Yo Davey Crockett!" We did get one girl who recognized our costume though, which made our night. For Halloween, we went down to the main bar strip in Austin, 6th st., and went to see this bluegrass style swing band who were playing at one of the bars downtown. After the show, we hit up 6th st., which was absolutely packed with people. It was a pretty ridiculous time, tons of drunk people just milling about.
After a very long night, we woke up in the early afternoon and immediately had an achin for some good old Texas barbecue. So we checked out our trusty old Roadfood book, drove out to some random smokehouse in the farm country outside of town and had the best barbecue weve ever had. We repeated this every day we were in town. Simply stupendous food, and a perfect way to start the day. We had brisket, ribs, sausage, and some great chicken fried steak, all of which were mouthwateringly delicious.
While barbecue was our daily routine in Austin, live blues music was our nightly routine. Our second night in town, we just strolled around 6th st doing a little barhopping. As youre walking, you just hear great live music flowing out of bar after bar. We ended up at this great little dive with a great little blues band playing some great blues and soul music. The next night the girls we were staying with brought us to this sweaty hole in the wall place way out on the east side of town. It was this rickety old joint that had live blues music blaring and was packed to the brim with people gettin down to the music. Our last night in town we went to Antone's which is supposedly THE blues club in Austin. We saw a group of local legends who brought the house down. The whole feel to the scene was very cool because you felt like it existed for the locals and the musicians, not the hipsters or tourists. Everywhere we went we felt like we seeing some legendary stuff.
The city itself is very laid back and has a really chill feel. The University of Texas is right in the center of the city and has like 70'000 students, so theres constantly young people around. It really feels up and coming. On our second night we were walking across the main river in town around dusk and saw all these people just sitting around on the riverside. We went down and checked it out, and it turns out that Austin has the biggest urban bat colony in the world, and they all come out from this cave at dusk in this big flock. It was ridiculous to see the bats fly out and literally cover the sky. Definitely adds to the bluesy ambience of the city.
Keep it real,
Nick
Monday, November 2, 2009
Albufelubland
We're in Texas. And we're stuffed with brisket.
Albuquerque New Mexico is a beautiful medium sized city sitting at the foot of a mountain in central New Mexico. We stayed 3 nights in the city with my aunt and uncle's good friend Peggy, a native of new mexico whom they visit every year. Peggy welcomed us with open arms, tortillas, chile and guac. She sent us out the first night with her niece who showed us the downtown strip, the old town which is made up of traditional southwestern buildings and is only a little spooky at night and the frontier restauraunt, a local hangout for university of new mexico students.
Peggy took us on a driving tour of the city and along the rio grande river. Surprisingly, to us, new mexico had some extremely vibrant fall coulours. Bright golden leaves on every tree. Central New Mexico has a very high elevation (albuqurque is higher than denver) and consequently gets some real fall weather. Heck, we went up the mountain one day and found ourselves in a winter wonderland. We're talking freezing weather and a good 5 inches of snow on the ground. Winter is so beautiful in bite size doses.
New Mexico is particularly known for their chiles which are unlike any I've ever tasted before. They're made primarily from pureed chile peppers which are roasted for different lengths of time in order to create both red and green chiles. This makes for a very vibrant spicy taste on the much lighter side of texas chili. Sits better imho.
After leaving the warm hospitality of Albuqurque, we spent a day in Santa fe where we pretended we were aging yuppies. Beautiful place, a little quiet, looks like a lot of fun twenty years from now. You know, when I can buy stuff at the art galleries that line every street. Santa Fe is the state capitol with the highest elevation and is home to some of the oldest buildings in the united states. The state capitol itself is a beautiful brand new building housing a great collection of local new mexican art. We went to the georgia o'keefe museum, which had a stunning collection and a gene Hackman narrated documentary and visited the supposedly oldest church in the united states. Like I said, it was an aging yuppy day.
After staying a night outside Santa Fe we left New Mexico for Texas. The panhandle of Texas ia the flattest expanse of nothing (narrowly beating out South Dakota) we've hit on this trip so far. We stopped for lunch in Amarillo where I indulged in another ungodly meal: Fritos pie. You take fritos (yes THOSE salty snacks) pour chili on top and melt some cheese (this particular concoction had added chopped brisket). O man this stuff makes you feel warm (and fat) on the inside. The fritos stand up well to the chili mixing crunchiness with heartiness and gooiness from the cheese. The artificial barbecue taste seeps out of the fritos and into the chili and wow. So good. I feel like every meal I have in Texas I find myself thinking "damn, Cam-ron would love this stuff." Bold unrestrained flavours. That's what Cam-ron and Texas are all about.
That night we arrived in Lubbock Texas staying with Shannon's friend Chris. Now we did not expect much from Lubbock, home of texas tech University, but apparently the town expected a lot out of us. One of Chris's friends was having his 21st birthday party and had rented a "party bus" for the night. Said Party bus was a converted old-skool RV (chrome plated all-over) with bench seating for 20 people in the back, ambient red lighting and a banging sound system. The night turned out to be a crazy one, hitting all of Lubbock's hotspots in a bus full of great people happy to take in two weary roadtrippers. Lubbock has never seen a better wednesday night. Heck we had so much fun we decided to stay an extra day! (actually there was a freak sleet storm in texas that kind of forced us to stay but we did have an amazing time)
From Lubbock we crusied down to Midland. West Texas loves their high school football. So much so that they build 15 00 person stadiums for it. This is that Friday Night Lights stuff you see on TV, no joke. We were lucky enought to see a game between the best (Odessa) and third best (Midland) teams in the district. We ended up sitting with Odessa fans who outnumbered the homeside and getting into that game as much as anyone there. High fives and chest bumps as our Odessa Broncos won a nail biting 28-21 game with some trick plays, expert passing and powerful running.
Now we're in Austin and have been for a few days. The drive fom midland brought us to our first authentic barbecue stop: Cooper's Pit BBQ in Mason. A shack with a gigantic bearded pit tender and some darn juicy brisket.
Big thank yous to Peggy for her unsurpassed New mexico hospitality and to Chris and the Lubbock crew for a darn comfy couch and a great night out.
Don't keep it too real,
Chris
Albuquerque New Mexico is a beautiful medium sized city sitting at the foot of a mountain in central New Mexico. We stayed 3 nights in the city with my aunt and uncle's good friend Peggy, a native of new mexico whom they visit every year. Peggy welcomed us with open arms, tortillas, chile and guac. She sent us out the first night with her niece who showed us the downtown strip, the old town which is made up of traditional southwestern buildings and is only a little spooky at night and the frontier restauraunt, a local hangout for university of new mexico students.
Peggy took us on a driving tour of the city and along the rio grande river. Surprisingly, to us, new mexico had some extremely vibrant fall coulours. Bright golden leaves on every tree. Central New Mexico has a very high elevation (albuqurque is higher than denver) and consequently gets some real fall weather. Heck, we went up the mountain one day and found ourselves in a winter wonderland. We're talking freezing weather and a good 5 inches of snow on the ground. Winter is so beautiful in bite size doses.
New Mexico is particularly known for their chiles which are unlike any I've ever tasted before. They're made primarily from pureed chile peppers which are roasted for different lengths of time in order to create both red and green chiles. This makes for a very vibrant spicy taste on the much lighter side of texas chili. Sits better imho.
After leaving the warm hospitality of Albuqurque, we spent a day in Santa fe where we pretended we were aging yuppies. Beautiful place, a little quiet, looks like a lot of fun twenty years from now. You know, when I can buy stuff at the art galleries that line every street. Santa Fe is the state capitol with the highest elevation and is home to some of the oldest buildings in the united states. The state capitol itself is a beautiful brand new building housing a great collection of local new mexican art. We went to the georgia o'keefe museum, which had a stunning collection and a gene Hackman narrated documentary and visited the supposedly oldest church in the united states. Like I said, it was an aging yuppy day.
After staying a night outside Santa Fe we left New Mexico for Texas. The panhandle of Texas ia the flattest expanse of nothing (narrowly beating out South Dakota) we've hit on this trip so far. We stopped for lunch in Amarillo where I indulged in another ungodly meal: Fritos pie. You take fritos (yes THOSE salty snacks) pour chili on top and melt some cheese (this particular concoction had added chopped brisket). O man this stuff makes you feel warm (and fat) on the inside. The fritos stand up well to the chili mixing crunchiness with heartiness and gooiness from the cheese. The artificial barbecue taste seeps out of the fritos and into the chili and wow. So good. I feel like every meal I have in Texas I find myself thinking "damn, Cam-ron would love this stuff." Bold unrestrained flavours. That's what Cam-ron and Texas are all about.
That night we arrived in Lubbock Texas staying with Shannon's friend Chris. Now we did not expect much from Lubbock, home of texas tech University, but apparently the town expected a lot out of us. One of Chris's friends was having his 21st birthday party and had rented a "party bus" for the night. Said Party bus was a converted old-skool RV (chrome plated all-over) with bench seating for 20 people in the back, ambient red lighting and a banging sound system. The night turned out to be a crazy one, hitting all of Lubbock's hotspots in a bus full of great people happy to take in two weary roadtrippers. Lubbock has never seen a better wednesday night. Heck we had so much fun we decided to stay an extra day! (actually there was a freak sleet storm in texas that kind of forced us to stay but we did have an amazing time)
From Lubbock we crusied down to Midland. West Texas loves their high school football. So much so that they build 15 00 person stadiums for it. This is that Friday Night Lights stuff you see on TV, no joke. We were lucky enought to see a game between the best (Odessa) and third best (Midland) teams in the district. We ended up sitting with Odessa fans who outnumbered the homeside and getting into that game as much as anyone there. High fives and chest bumps as our Odessa Broncos won a nail biting 28-21 game with some trick plays, expert passing and powerful running.
Now we're in Austin and have been for a few days. The drive fom midland brought us to our first authentic barbecue stop: Cooper's Pit BBQ in Mason. A shack with a gigantic bearded pit tender and some darn juicy brisket.
Big thank yous to Peggy for her unsurpassed New mexico hospitality and to Chris and the Lubbock crew for a darn comfy couch and a great night out.
Don't keep it too real,
Chris
Monday, October 26, 2009
Big Red Rock Country
Hello Everyone!
Hope things are going well with all. Hope you all enjoyed Courtney's blog post. I know I did! We had a great time with her and Lindsay and were definitely sad to see them go, but were pushing forward without them. Thanks for the great blog post and all the fun Courtney. See you in DC in a month or so! For all of you picture hounds who refuse to believe that were not just sitting home in NY making everything up (ahem, Shaunee), Courtney has also come through with a great photo album from the week she was with us. Enjoy it at http://picasaweb.google.com/cdouglas2. The rest of the photos will come at the end of the trip.
After the girls flew out from Phoenix, we beelined for the Grand Canyon. My dad told me that nothing really prepares you for just how vast and impressive it is, and I will second that statement. I mean, they tried their best to prepare you by calling it Grand, but I think a more fitting name would be "The Biggest and Most Impressive Thing You'll Ever See in Your Whole Life" Canyon. Much more fitting, and slips off the tongue just as well in my opinion. It really is just mind-boggingly impressive. We stayed for a couple of days, first checking out all the viewpoints on the South Rim. The second day we woke up at sunrise, which we saw come up over the Canyon's edge, another dream of mine fulfilled. After that, we made our way down into the canyon, going down 4000 feet in elevation and seven miles in distance to a bluff overlooking the Colorado River. As amazing as the views from the rims were, they pale in comparison to the feeling you get from standing down in the middle of the canyon. It was a truly breathtaking experience. If anyone ever makes it out to the Grand Canyon, it has to be seen from the inside. Its a grueling hike down into the Canyon floor, but its worth every step.
From the Grand Canyon, we went through Sedona, which is a small city comepletely encircled by incredibly beautiful red rock formation. This was basically Northern Arizona in a nutshell. The scenery is larger than anything Ive ever experienced, and its filled with these enormous Red Rocks everywhere you look. Truly spectucular, and oddly suspicious. How did these rocks form? They are just there, right in the middle of everything, without any explanation. If any geologists are reading this and could help us out with some explanation, Us two guys, and especially the Chevy, would be much obliged.
After a brief sojurn back into Phoenix for a great concert (Monsters of Folk, check them out theyre great), we headed up into the enormous Navajo reservation at the Northeast corner of Arizona. It was my first time on an Indian reservation, and I was a little nervous about it, but the people were all very friendly, and the scenery was again spectacular. We explored giant red cliffs with ancient Native American cliff society ruins that originatef over 1000 years ago, and drove through Monument Valley in Utah which was more incredible red rocks, and then ended in Canyon de Chelly, which can be described as a more accessible version of the Grand Canyon that is filled with Ancient cliff dwellings. After our trip through Big Red Rock Country, I can definitely understand why the Navajo believe that all life originated there. It is definitely the most unique, and maybe the most beautiful, thing that I have seen on the whole trip.
Anyway, were in New Mexico now, which Chris will fill you in on in a couple of days. Were heading east now, and theres only a month left, but we have some big plans for the last stretch, so stay tuned for more and more action.
Before I go, since I wont be making the next entry, Id like to wish a happy early 18th birthday to any little sisters of mine who may have their birthday in three days. Hope you have a great birthday Katy and hope you and Sarah are having a great time in Santa Cruz! Love you both!
Keep it real,
Nick
Hope things are going well with all. Hope you all enjoyed Courtney's blog post. I know I did! We had a great time with her and Lindsay and were definitely sad to see them go, but were pushing forward without them. Thanks for the great blog post and all the fun Courtney. See you in DC in a month or so! For all of you picture hounds who refuse to believe that were not just sitting home in NY making everything up (ahem, Shaunee), Courtney has also come through with a great photo album from the week she was with us. Enjoy it at http://picasaweb.google.com/cdouglas2. The rest of the photos will come at the end of the trip.
After the girls flew out from Phoenix, we beelined for the Grand Canyon. My dad told me that nothing really prepares you for just how vast and impressive it is, and I will second that statement. I mean, they tried their best to prepare you by calling it Grand, but I think a more fitting name would be "The Biggest and Most Impressive Thing You'll Ever See in Your Whole Life" Canyon. Much more fitting, and slips off the tongue just as well in my opinion. It really is just mind-boggingly impressive. We stayed for a couple of days, first checking out all the viewpoints on the South Rim. The second day we woke up at sunrise, which we saw come up over the Canyon's edge, another dream of mine fulfilled. After that, we made our way down into the canyon, going down 4000 feet in elevation and seven miles in distance to a bluff overlooking the Colorado River. As amazing as the views from the rims were, they pale in comparison to the feeling you get from standing down in the middle of the canyon. It was a truly breathtaking experience. If anyone ever makes it out to the Grand Canyon, it has to be seen from the inside. Its a grueling hike down into the Canyon floor, but its worth every step.
From the Grand Canyon, we went through Sedona, which is a small city comepletely encircled by incredibly beautiful red rock formation. This was basically Northern Arizona in a nutshell. The scenery is larger than anything Ive ever experienced, and its filled with these enormous Red Rocks everywhere you look. Truly spectucular, and oddly suspicious. How did these rocks form? They are just there, right in the middle of everything, without any explanation. If any geologists are reading this and could help us out with some explanation, Us two guys, and especially the Chevy, would be much obliged.
After a brief sojurn back into Phoenix for a great concert (Monsters of Folk, check them out theyre great), we headed up into the enormous Navajo reservation at the Northeast corner of Arizona. It was my first time on an Indian reservation, and I was a little nervous about it, but the people were all very friendly, and the scenery was again spectacular. We explored giant red cliffs with ancient Native American cliff society ruins that originatef over 1000 years ago, and drove through Monument Valley in Utah which was more incredible red rocks, and then ended in Canyon de Chelly, which can be described as a more accessible version of the Grand Canyon that is filled with Ancient cliff dwellings. After our trip through Big Red Rock Country, I can definitely understand why the Navajo believe that all life originated there. It is definitely the most unique, and maybe the most beautiful, thing that I have seen on the whole trip.
Anyway, were in New Mexico now, which Chris will fill you in on in a couple of days. Were heading east now, and theres only a month left, but we have some big plans for the last stretch, so stay tuned for more and more action.
Before I go, since I wont be making the next entry, Id like to wish a happy early 18th birthday to any little sisters of mine who may have their birthday in three days. Hope you have a great birthday Katy and hope you and Sarah are having a great time in Santa Cruz! Love you both!
Keep it real,
Nick
Friday, October 23, 2009
Two Guys, Two Girls and A Chevy
Well the mystery blogger is here....Nick's cousin Courtney. I was lucky enough to join the boys and the chevy for a week of their trip with my friend Lindsay. This was our journey...
Although, I am supposed to pick up after Chris, I have to comment about our arrival in LA. We were greeted right as we left the terminal by two shaggy haired boys, I guess Chris was more shaggy than Nick but for how long Nick ever has his hair we might as well call it shaggy, and the cleanest Chevy I have even seen. I knew it was going to be a fabulous trip!
Ok, now on to my post...After our crazy time at Venice beach, we headed to Pasadena. One of my best friends just moved to Pasadena so I was very excited to visit her and everybody else was all too happy to have a free place to stay. That night we headed out to Old Pasadena to grab some dinner and drinks. It was great to catch up with my friend and catch up with the boys, although nothing special to comment on about LA.
After staying in our cramped quarters and many alarm clocks going off, the teachers were having a hard time parting with their routine, we loaded up the Chevy. The loading of the Chevy throughout the trip was a very funny experience. To give a visual, we had Nick taking everything out of the trunk to put everything back in, we had Chris saying, "I just don't think everything is going to fit" and Lindsay and I just trying to stay out of the way....everything always fit. For our drive down to San Diego I was behind the wheel, had to earn my keep on the trip. We headed out on Highway 1 where the views were great although the cloudiness was a bit of a bummer. On Highway 1 in Orange County we stopped at a great little restaurant for fish tacos, one of many fish tacos stops on the trip. The food was great and the sun came out, we were happy road trippers.
For the next three days our destination was my Grandma's in San Marcos, a city about 20 miles north of downtown San Diego. What would these boys have done without me? Luckily enough for me my Dad was also at my grandmas for the night. He was ready for some young company so after arrival we jumped back in the car and headed to the beach. It was a perfect Sunday evening. We had a few things we really wanted to accomplish in San Diego but most of the time we just went with the flow of things. We went to the San Diego Zoo which was a great time. We got to see so many of the animals d as the zoo is the perfect size to get around and even got a to see a few animals in action. It was fun being a kid at the zoo, again. We got dinner downtown that night, the food was great and nice to spend some time outside of the retirement community, not that I ever would complain about our fabulous accommodations. Being in San Diego we had to make it to the beach and got IN the water even though the forecast was a high of 70. Three of us got in and Linds sat huddled under layers of towels. After we came to our senses, we headed out for another lunch of fish tacos at a fav San Diego restaurant, the Brigintine. Our last night was spent hanging out with my grandma, cooking out and preparing for our next part of the journey. Although Nunum is not a blog reader, nor Internet goer, I must give her a shout out for the cozy beds and wonderful aussie bites.
The next morning we loaded up the Chevy, and I was behind the wheel again as we headed for our next stop, Tucson. The drive was really great going through mountains which changed into the desert but it was certainly an adjustment from driving the Civic. Nick was a little on edge as Linds, and I were driving... It built character. For lunch we stopped in Yuma which looked a bit Wild West. The roadtrip book lead us to a great spot in Yuma. As we walked in someone was playing the piano and we knew then we were in the right spot. Lindsay took one for the team that meal and ordered the Lutes special, cheeseburger with hotdog on top. Her response was, "why haven't I thought of this before?" Back on the road and Lindsay behind the wheel.
Arriving in Tucson, we were all curious what we were in for but had heard great things. Our first meal was at restaurant that claimed to have started making mexican food as we know it. The meal was great and the beginning of the wonderful service that we had throughout our time in Tucson. After dinner we found a great spot near University of Arizona to hang out, people watch and play some Pac Man. Our next day was spent in Saguro National Park. We found a trail and headed off onto a massive area filled with Cacti that were taller than you could imagine. We found a few spots to sit and just enjoy the view of the mountains and the lack of people and buildings around us. From there we headed to Gates Pass which was touted as one of the best sunset spots around. Another mexican dinner and life was good.
On our last morning in Tucson we had a wonderful breakfast with the view of the mountains in the background. We all decided that Tucson was a really great city. The people were all very friendly, it has a very laid back feeling, lots of great food and the scenery is beautiful. What more could you ask for?
Back on the road and our next stop was Phoenix,with a quick a stop along the way...SKYDIVE ARIZONA!! I did not want to spoil earlier but we had decided the first day we HAD to go skydiving so there we were. Lindsay, Nick and I had no reservations but for those of you who don't know Chris he is very scared of heights. I have to say I am very impressed that he was all for it and even enjoyed it, I think. After a very short video that basically explained to us that we would be signing our life away, and then actually signing our life away we were ready to go. Our instructors called us up to get suited up. The girls were tough and stepped right in our harness, while the boys had to wear the skydiving suit. At this point we were in our instructors hands. The plane was full but we were the only tandem jumpers which was pretty cool, we were right in the plane with real skydivers, yes we were fakes. The ride up was amazing, and crazy to think that as high as we went up, we would be falling down. When we got to our altitude of 13,000 ft, the door opened and people starting jumping out. Lindsay was first for our group and I still have the image of Lindsay flying out of the plane, next was was me! Nick actually had a wait a bit as the plane was not at the correct altitude, probably too much time to think about what he was actually doing. After being lunged out of the plane, the free fall was an absolutely amazing feeling. I yelled a bit and the instructor would spin you around which was so cool. You are in free fall for about a minute and then they pull the parachute, except for Nick who pulled his own parachute, insane I know. Once the parachute was pulled, you were just hanging out in the sky. This was truly my favorite part which the others would disagree as they loved free fall, and Chris would completely disagree as this is where you realized how high you are. The instructor would spin you around and your feet were just dangling, and the views were amazing with mountains off in the distance. Once we landed I was shaking from the thrill. Each of us had the biggest smile and were just rambling about how awesome it was. A story and bond we will have forever.
Next stop was Phoenix. We didn't get to see much as I was told everything is really spread out but all we wanted to do at that point was lay by the pool. For our last night we had a nice dinner sitting outside and then just hanging out as we were getting a little sad to part ways, atleast I was, the boys could have been ready to get rid of us. The next morning we boarded the shuttle and headed back home to Washington D.C. I have to say thank you to Nick and Chris our fabulous road trip hosts. It was a perfect mix of beautiful scenery and wonderful company. Can't wait to see you on the D.C. part of the trip. I also hope I made you proud with my blog post!
xo
Courtney
Although, I am supposed to pick up after Chris, I have to comment about our arrival in LA. We were greeted right as we left the terminal by two shaggy haired boys, I guess Chris was more shaggy than Nick but for how long Nick ever has his hair we might as well call it shaggy, and the cleanest Chevy I have even seen. I knew it was going to be a fabulous trip!
Ok, now on to my post...After our crazy time at Venice beach, we headed to Pasadena. One of my best friends just moved to Pasadena so I was very excited to visit her and everybody else was all too happy to have a free place to stay. That night we headed out to Old Pasadena to grab some dinner and drinks. It was great to catch up with my friend and catch up with the boys, although nothing special to comment on about LA.
After staying in our cramped quarters and many alarm clocks going off, the teachers were having a hard time parting with their routine, we loaded up the Chevy. The loading of the Chevy throughout the trip was a very funny experience. To give a visual, we had Nick taking everything out of the trunk to put everything back in, we had Chris saying, "I just don't think everything is going to fit" and Lindsay and I just trying to stay out of the way....everything always fit. For our drive down to San Diego I was behind the wheel, had to earn my keep on the trip. We headed out on Highway 1 where the views were great although the cloudiness was a bit of a bummer. On Highway 1 in Orange County we stopped at a great little restaurant for fish tacos, one of many fish tacos stops on the trip. The food was great and the sun came out, we were happy road trippers.
For the next three days our destination was my Grandma's in San Marcos, a city about 20 miles north of downtown San Diego. What would these boys have done without me? Luckily enough for me my Dad was also at my grandmas for the night. He was ready for some young company so after arrival we jumped back in the car and headed to the beach. It was a perfect Sunday evening. We had a few things we really wanted to accomplish in San Diego but most of the time we just went with the flow of things. We went to the San Diego Zoo which was a great time. We got to see so many of the animals d as the zoo is the perfect size to get around and even got a to see a few animals in action. It was fun being a kid at the zoo, again. We got dinner downtown that night, the food was great and nice to spend some time outside of the retirement community, not that I ever would complain about our fabulous accommodations. Being in San Diego we had to make it to the beach and got IN the water even though the forecast was a high of 70. Three of us got in and Linds sat huddled under layers of towels. After we came to our senses, we headed out for another lunch of fish tacos at a fav San Diego restaurant, the Brigintine. Our last night was spent hanging out with my grandma, cooking out and preparing for our next part of the journey. Although Nunum is not a blog reader, nor Internet goer, I must give her a shout out for the cozy beds and wonderful aussie bites.
The next morning we loaded up the Chevy, and I was behind the wheel again as we headed for our next stop, Tucson. The drive was really great going through mountains which changed into the desert but it was certainly an adjustment from driving the Civic. Nick was a little on edge as Linds, and I were driving... It built character. For lunch we stopped in Yuma which looked a bit Wild West. The roadtrip book lead us to a great spot in Yuma. As we walked in someone was playing the piano and we knew then we were in the right spot. Lindsay took one for the team that meal and ordered the Lutes special, cheeseburger with hotdog on top. Her response was, "why haven't I thought of this before?" Back on the road and Lindsay behind the wheel.
Arriving in Tucson, we were all curious what we were in for but had heard great things. Our first meal was at restaurant that claimed to have started making mexican food as we know it. The meal was great and the beginning of the wonderful service that we had throughout our time in Tucson. After dinner we found a great spot near University of Arizona to hang out, people watch and play some Pac Man. Our next day was spent in Saguro National Park. We found a trail and headed off onto a massive area filled with Cacti that were taller than you could imagine. We found a few spots to sit and just enjoy the view of the mountains and the lack of people and buildings around us. From there we headed to Gates Pass which was touted as one of the best sunset spots around. Another mexican dinner and life was good.
On our last morning in Tucson we had a wonderful breakfast with the view of the mountains in the background. We all decided that Tucson was a really great city. The people were all very friendly, it has a very laid back feeling, lots of great food and the scenery is beautiful. What more could you ask for?
Back on the road and our next stop was Phoenix,with a quick a stop along the way...SKYDIVE ARIZONA!! I did not want to spoil earlier but we had decided the first day we HAD to go skydiving so there we were. Lindsay, Nick and I had no reservations but for those of you who don't know Chris he is very scared of heights. I have to say I am very impressed that he was all for it and even enjoyed it, I think. After a very short video that basically explained to us that we would be signing our life away, and then actually signing our life away we were ready to go. Our instructors called us up to get suited up. The girls were tough and stepped right in our harness, while the boys had to wear the skydiving suit. At this point we were in our instructors hands. The plane was full but we were the only tandem jumpers which was pretty cool, we were right in the plane with real skydivers, yes we were fakes. The ride up was amazing, and crazy to think that as high as we went up, we would be falling down. When we got to our altitude of 13,000 ft, the door opened and people starting jumping out. Lindsay was first for our group and I still have the image of Lindsay flying out of the plane, next was was me! Nick actually had a wait a bit as the plane was not at the correct altitude, probably too much time to think about what he was actually doing. After being lunged out of the plane, the free fall was an absolutely amazing feeling. I yelled a bit and the instructor would spin you around which was so cool. You are in free fall for about a minute and then they pull the parachute, except for Nick who pulled his own parachute, insane I know. Once the parachute was pulled, you were just hanging out in the sky. This was truly my favorite part which the others would disagree as they loved free fall, and Chris would completely disagree as this is where you realized how high you are. The instructor would spin you around and your feet were just dangling, and the views were amazing with mountains off in the distance. Once we landed I was shaking from the thrill. Each of us had the biggest smile and were just rambling about how awesome it was. A story and bond we will have forever.
Next stop was Phoenix. We didn't get to see much as I was told everything is really spread out but all we wanted to do at that point was lay by the pool. For our last night we had a nice dinner sitting outside and then just hanging out as we were getting a little sad to part ways, atleast I was, the boys could have been ready to get rid of us. The next morning we boarded the shuttle and headed back home to Washington D.C. I have to say thank you to Nick and Chris our fabulous road trip hosts. It was a perfect mix of beautiful scenery and wonderful company. Can't wait to see you on the D.C. part of the trip. I also hope I made you proud with my blog post!
xo
Courtney
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Straight West Coastin Pt. 2
Note: We double posted again. Nick's is below.
Rewinding to about a week and a half ago, we left Santa Cruz with our new travelling companion, one Shannon Raison, and headed down the pacific coast highway through the area known as Big Sur. Now, all through California, everyone we talked to told us about how spectacular Big Sur was and how we had to see it. But noone really explained to us what it was. I mean Big Sur kind of sounds like an object not an area don't ya think? Turns out it's just the most magnificent coastline ever, anywhere. You know all those car commercials with the rolling hills and the winding road and the ocean and the gigantic rock outcrops? That's big sur. We found a great campsite on a cliff overlooking the ocean that was totally empty and Shannon gave us a bit of a crash course in camp cooking with her hand dandy backpack sized gas stove. The next day we continued on our drive to Los Angeles seeing slightly less magnificent coastline. We also had another fantastic wildlife encounter. As we were driving Shannon spotted this beach full of grey blobs and we stumbled onto about 100 elephant seals lieing around in the sun, belly flopping out of the water and onto shore and even getting into tussles with each other. Yes hormones were running high among the bulls as it was mating season. Probably the most otherworldly creatures I've ever seen. Just these big ole fat things being lazy and scratching themselves with their half fin half hands and yawning. Hilarious, and spectacularly ugly.
We dropped off Shannon in Santa Barbera so that she could catch a bus back up the coast and made our way through malibu and into Santa Monica where we were staying. The next day we woke up bright and early and headed over to universal studios in order to get tickets for the tonight show. Turned out the backstreet boys were performing and most of the other people in line were girls about our age behaving like hysterical teenagers. The two girls in front of us sporting matching BSB track jackets were quite proud to inform us of every Backstreet Boys event they'd ever attended. Anyways, the tonight show itself was amazing. Conan is twice as funny live. He does a great job of roping in his audience and making them laugh at even his least funny jokes. Christian Slater was his main guest and was a bit of a bore but NASCAR champion Jimmy Johnson seemed like a great dude and got some good banter going. He then raced Conan around the lot in golf carts. The backstreet Boys were actually kind of really good live. I've never seen a boy band perform in person before but I've got to say there's something really entertaining about the choreographed dancing, the male vocal harmonies and the impassioned solos. Is it too late for me to start my own??? We headed down to the Santa Monica Pier that night, which unfortunately was a little bit dead but it was cool to see the Ferris wheel and the coastal view of Los Angeles at night.
The next morning we had a culinary experience like nothing else. Chicken and Waffles. Roscoe's house thereof, to be exact. Fried chicken accompanied by waffles is mindblowing and belly filling. It's one of those ungodly seeming combinations that comes together for pure bliss in your mouth. You kind of sit there and go back and forth between the two, each being so good you can't choose which you prefer. You eat the chicken for a bit and totally forget about the waffles and then you're all like "O YA! there's waffles!" and you go back to shoving those fluffy cinnamon treats into your mouth until its strikes you that the chicken on your plate is being neglected. And don't even get me started on what happens when you "accidentally" get some syrup on the chicken. We went on the warner bros lot tour that afternoon saw a bunch of really cool sets, including the coffee shop from friends and the stock city street used in EVERY movie. Oddly enough the only celebrity we saw was Christian Slater who we saw the day before on Conan. I feel drawn to him.
The next morning we picked up Nick's cousin Courtney and her friend Lindsay at the airport and headed down to Venice beach, perhaps the people watching capitol of the world. Just the strangest people selling everything from t-shirts to freak shows to magic wands (no joke). A basketball court (made famous by White Men can't Jump) where they do more arguing than playing and a skate park so packed you can barely move. There was a dude in an american flag speedo two sizes to small and another who could ride his bike standing on his handle bars. There were hippie vans covered in pigeons, and lawn furniture and children's slides. There were drum circles and boardwalk food and tourists and locals all mingling in the coolest strangest human hodge podge I've ever been a part of. A big thank you to Nick's aunt Gina for her hospitality in Santa Monica. We are in Tuscon right now and were in San Diego before but I'll leave that to our "mystery" guest blogger next week.
Don't keep it too real,
Chris
Rewinding to about a week and a half ago, we left Santa Cruz with our new travelling companion, one Shannon Raison, and headed down the pacific coast highway through the area known as Big Sur. Now, all through California, everyone we talked to told us about how spectacular Big Sur was and how we had to see it. But noone really explained to us what it was. I mean Big Sur kind of sounds like an object not an area don't ya think? Turns out it's just the most magnificent coastline ever, anywhere. You know all those car commercials with the rolling hills and the winding road and the ocean and the gigantic rock outcrops? That's big sur. We found a great campsite on a cliff overlooking the ocean that was totally empty and Shannon gave us a bit of a crash course in camp cooking with her hand dandy backpack sized gas stove. The next day we continued on our drive to Los Angeles seeing slightly less magnificent coastline. We also had another fantastic wildlife encounter. As we were driving Shannon spotted this beach full of grey blobs and we stumbled onto about 100 elephant seals lieing around in the sun, belly flopping out of the water and onto shore and even getting into tussles with each other. Yes hormones were running high among the bulls as it was mating season. Probably the most otherworldly creatures I've ever seen. Just these big ole fat things being lazy and scratching themselves with their half fin half hands and yawning. Hilarious, and spectacularly ugly.
We dropped off Shannon in Santa Barbera so that she could catch a bus back up the coast and made our way through malibu and into Santa Monica where we were staying. The next day we woke up bright and early and headed over to universal studios in order to get tickets for the tonight show. Turned out the backstreet boys were performing and most of the other people in line were girls about our age behaving like hysterical teenagers. The two girls in front of us sporting matching BSB track jackets were quite proud to inform us of every Backstreet Boys event they'd ever attended. Anyways, the tonight show itself was amazing. Conan is twice as funny live. He does a great job of roping in his audience and making them laugh at even his least funny jokes. Christian Slater was his main guest and was a bit of a bore but NASCAR champion Jimmy Johnson seemed like a great dude and got some good banter going. He then raced Conan around the lot in golf carts. The backstreet Boys were actually kind of really good live. I've never seen a boy band perform in person before but I've got to say there's something really entertaining about the choreographed dancing, the male vocal harmonies and the impassioned solos. Is it too late for me to start my own??? We headed down to the Santa Monica Pier that night, which unfortunately was a little bit dead but it was cool to see the Ferris wheel and the coastal view of Los Angeles at night.
The next morning we had a culinary experience like nothing else. Chicken and Waffles. Roscoe's house thereof, to be exact. Fried chicken accompanied by waffles is mindblowing and belly filling. It's one of those ungodly seeming combinations that comes together for pure bliss in your mouth. You kind of sit there and go back and forth between the two, each being so good you can't choose which you prefer. You eat the chicken for a bit and totally forget about the waffles and then you're all like "O YA! there's waffles!" and you go back to shoving those fluffy cinnamon treats into your mouth until its strikes you that the chicken on your plate is being neglected. And don't even get me started on what happens when you "accidentally" get some syrup on the chicken. We went on the warner bros lot tour that afternoon saw a bunch of really cool sets, including the coffee shop from friends and the stock city street used in EVERY movie. Oddly enough the only celebrity we saw was Christian Slater who we saw the day before on Conan. I feel drawn to him.
The next morning we picked up Nick's cousin Courtney and her friend Lindsay at the airport and headed down to Venice beach, perhaps the people watching capitol of the world. Just the strangest people selling everything from t-shirts to freak shows to magic wands (no joke). A basketball court (made famous by White Men can't Jump) where they do more arguing than playing and a skate park so packed you can barely move. There was a dude in an american flag speedo two sizes to small and another who could ride his bike standing on his handle bars. There were hippie vans covered in pigeons, and lawn furniture and children's slides. There were drum circles and boardwalk food and tourists and locals all mingling in the coolest strangest human hodge podge I've ever been a part of. A big thank you to Nick's aunt Gina for her hospitality in Santa Monica. We are in Tuscon right now and were in San Diego before but I'll leave that to our "mystery" guest blogger next week.
Don't keep it too real,
Chris
Straight West Coastin
Hello Everybody!!
Sorry for the massive delay in blogging, weve been very busy enjoying the California weather and only just got around to getting to a library. Its very hard to think about blogging when youre so relaxed. Because of the long time between posts, were gonna do another splitsies. Im going to tell you all about our Bay Area and Santa Cruz times, and Chris will fill you in on our Big Sur and Los Angeles escapades (Just for a small preview, Christian Slater was involved multiple times, but thats all ill say now).
After a beautiful drive down the California coast and some amazing Pacific views, we entered the Bay Area by way of the Golden Gate Bridge. We could have gotten to my Aunt Debbies place in Oakland much quicker by avoiding it, but it was definitely worth the detour, and the six dollar toll. After spending a day in Oakland walking around and enjoying the beautiful weather that is significantly hotter than San Francisco even though its only right across the bay, we ventured into San Fran for a day of some good old fashioned touristing, Two Guys and a Chevy Style (actually the Chevy stayed in Oakland in a primo parking spot that it didnt want to give up. Lazy Chevy!)
We walked from downtown all the way to the waterfront, passing through Chinatown and Little Italy. From there we went on the Alcatraz tour, which was one of the only things I didnt do the last time I was in San Fran. It had come highly recommended from multiple sources and definitely lived up to its billing. I even almost got to rid myself of Chris by locking him in solitary containment and quietly slipping back on the boat (To my great surprise though he escaped and braved the icy waters with some help from Nicolas Cage and Sean Connery and somehow found his way back to San Fran by the time my boat got back to shore.) We then took the most exhilariting Trolley Car ride up and down the hills of the city hanging off the side of one of the cars. It was actually an amazingly fun time, and went much faster and smoother than we expected.
We spent the next couple days in the Haight area with all the former hippies and Dead-heads, exploring the city a little bit. Then on Saturday we somehow stumbled upon a giant free Bluegrass festival in Golden Gate park where we got to see some great shows and tons of Steve Earle, who I had never seen live before. He had a headlining set with a small bluegrass band. They were all crowded around one microphone and the wind was swirling around everywhere, and they just brought the house down. Very Epic.
The next day the Two Guys, the Chevy, and our friend Shannon, who we met up with in San Francisco, drove down to Santa Cruz to meet up with everyones favorite new Californian, Katy Tosh! Shes a freshman at UC Santa Cruz, which is this incredible school built right in the middle of the redwood forest on a bluff overlooking the ocean. That sounds like its too good to be true, but its not. Its very real and very idylic. Katy really did a hell of a job choosing her college. And to think I spent the last four years trudging through the coldest place in the world when I could have been beaching it and redwooding it in sunny California. (Im just kidding Montreal, you know I love you!)
We had a great time in Santa Cruz reliving our freshman year experiences for a few days, down to staying in a dorm room and eating caf food. I have to say, it made me a little nostalgic for the good old days. (Not that my life is too shabby right now). For those who are concerned, Katy is doing great in Santa Cruz, she has a great new group of friends, and has seamlessly adapted to her new forest life, not that anyone expected any different.
Before I finish, id like to give special thanks to Debbie, Natalie and AJ, and the best little sister anyone could ask for, Katy, for their great hospitality in the Bay area and Santa Cruz. Hopefully we were as good guests as you guys were host. Much love to all of you!
Anyway, I gotta go now, be sure to check Chris' post too, which is on top of this one, and check back in a couple days for a special guest post (and its not the Chevy!)
Keep it real everyone!
Nick
Sorry for the massive delay in blogging, weve been very busy enjoying the California weather and only just got around to getting to a library. Its very hard to think about blogging when youre so relaxed. Because of the long time between posts, were gonna do another splitsies. Im going to tell you all about our Bay Area and Santa Cruz times, and Chris will fill you in on our Big Sur and Los Angeles escapades (Just for a small preview, Christian Slater was involved multiple times, but thats all ill say now).
After a beautiful drive down the California coast and some amazing Pacific views, we entered the Bay Area by way of the Golden Gate Bridge. We could have gotten to my Aunt Debbies place in Oakland much quicker by avoiding it, but it was definitely worth the detour, and the six dollar toll. After spending a day in Oakland walking around and enjoying the beautiful weather that is significantly hotter than San Francisco even though its only right across the bay, we ventured into San Fran for a day of some good old fashioned touristing, Two Guys and a Chevy Style (actually the Chevy stayed in Oakland in a primo parking spot that it didnt want to give up. Lazy Chevy!)
We walked from downtown all the way to the waterfront, passing through Chinatown and Little Italy. From there we went on the Alcatraz tour, which was one of the only things I didnt do the last time I was in San Fran. It had come highly recommended from multiple sources and definitely lived up to its billing. I even almost got to rid myself of Chris by locking him in solitary containment and quietly slipping back on the boat (To my great surprise though he escaped and braved the icy waters with some help from Nicolas Cage and Sean Connery and somehow found his way back to San Fran by the time my boat got back to shore.) We then took the most exhilariting Trolley Car ride up and down the hills of the city hanging off the side of one of the cars. It was actually an amazingly fun time, and went much faster and smoother than we expected.
We spent the next couple days in the Haight area with all the former hippies and Dead-heads, exploring the city a little bit. Then on Saturday we somehow stumbled upon a giant free Bluegrass festival in Golden Gate park where we got to see some great shows and tons of Steve Earle, who I had never seen live before. He had a headlining set with a small bluegrass band. They were all crowded around one microphone and the wind was swirling around everywhere, and they just brought the house down. Very Epic.
The next day the Two Guys, the Chevy, and our friend Shannon, who we met up with in San Francisco, drove down to Santa Cruz to meet up with everyones favorite new Californian, Katy Tosh! Shes a freshman at UC Santa Cruz, which is this incredible school built right in the middle of the redwood forest on a bluff overlooking the ocean. That sounds like its too good to be true, but its not. Its very real and very idylic. Katy really did a hell of a job choosing her college. And to think I spent the last four years trudging through the coldest place in the world when I could have been beaching it and redwooding it in sunny California. (Im just kidding Montreal, you know I love you!)
We had a great time in Santa Cruz reliving our freshman year experiences for a few days, down to staying in a dorm room and eating caf food. I have to say, it made me a little nostalgic for the good old days. (Not that my life is too shabby right now). For those who are concerned, Katy is doing great in Santa Cruz, she has a great new group of friends, and has seamlessly adapted to her new forest life, not that anyone expected any different.
Before I finish, id like to give special thanks to Debbie, Natalie and AJ, and the best little sister anyone could ask for, Katy, for their great hospitality in the Bay area and Santa Cruz. Hopefully we were as good guests as you guys were host. Much love to all of you!
Anyway, I gotta go now, be sure to check Chris' post too, which is on top of this one, and check back in a couple days for a special guest post (and its not the Chevy!)
Keep it real everyone!
Nick
Thursday, October 1, 2009
All things considered
Ok, first off, what Nick said about Canadians coming up for air is a little bit (a lot bit) true. America, while a beautiful country with the friendliest of people and most fattening of foods, in large doses, can be overwhelming for a Canadian. There's something about identical endless stretches of fast food chains and discount department stores in every single small town that just creeps me out a little bit. Why can't we just stick a Tim Hortons next to a zellers and be done with it? And how can so many people talk so much about sports and yet neglect to mention the only one that's worth its weight in ice? I mean sure it's cool to analyze every step (and misstep) that lead to University of Washington upsetting USC (you know you've been in America for a long time when you can make a single college football reference) but what about legions of non-Sid, Al, or Evs who toil on third and fourth lines across the country in complete anonymity? Poor Jordin Tootoo has to bum around Nashville all his life, only ever getting recognized once when some explorer full of recent McGill grads runs in to him at a random bar. It just ain't fair. To be honest, the bay area is actually a hot spot for hockey. They love their sharks here. They're all over the radio and I've even seen at least three people repping Marleau and Co. on their T-shirts.
My favourite thing about America so far is NPR(national public radio). I can't get enough of it. I had a bit of passing flirt with the station this summer when a friend recommended that I listen to "this American life" on the interweb. But after listening to hours of top notch news programming, and cultural analysis, the flirt has become a full on romance or at least a fall fling. It's refreshing for a Canadian, who has been brought up on a fairly heavy dose of inferiority complex-fueled condascension towards americans and their value system(this bringing up was not by my parents but by Canadian Culture in general), to hear a constant barage of such level-headed rational political and social analysis. And everyone's voice is so damn soothing. SUch a pleasure to listen to.
So ya, the trip. We got to Vancouver a week ago and spent three days there. Special thanks to Katherine who showed us around the city one day. Taking us to the sea wall, stanley park, Grandville Island market, and her home neighbourhood of Shaugnessy. Vancouver is such a pristine and beautiful place. It's kind of hard to fathom that it's a city and not some protected national monument made to be an idealized replica of a city. We stayed with our good buddy Matt Charleton who has a 26th floor downtown apartment with a spectacular view. Matt threw a housewarming party which was most definately NOT a sausage-fest (please excuse the vulgar imagery of this term, I swear it's common parlance among the youth of today.) Matt also took us up the grouse gind. A 2km hike straight up stairs. Nick and I were all like yo 2km that's nothing. We been hiking like 17km a day, yowhatever, we got endurance. An hour and twenty minutes and several rest stops later, we reached the top of grouse out of breath. I could barely muster enough energy to take a pic of the incredible view of the Couv. That same night we hunkered back over to North Van for dinner with the Winstanley family. Thanks to Dianne for a delicious pacific salmon meal.
The only part of vancouver that was a little unimpressive was the nightlife. I mean it was cool and ritzy and chichi (or chachi according to monsieur Charle-ton). But like what up with BC liquor prices yall? 7 bucks for domestic taps and 27 for a 12 at the beer store. And not a dive in sight? Maybe we were just in the wrong neighbourhood.
Oh ya I had my first brush with celebrity in Vancouver. I was walking down the street when this way-to-well-dressed to be a crack-head, but crack-head looking nonetheless, with his hood up and his scraggly beard and bushy eyebrows and messed up hair, is staring me down as he walks past me (probably daring me to recognize him). I didn't recognize the guy, but one of the dudes we were with, turned around two minutes later and exclaimed hat we had just seen Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart. I don't rightly know who exactly these people are so I can't verify that this story is 100% true but the dude was 99% and I later picked out the crack-head from a lineup on the cover of some ragmag. Pattinson is not a good looking gentleman. Let me reitirate, he looks like a bum.
We left the Couv, Sunday morning, heading down the coast . We camped in Oregon and then met the pacific coast Highway the next morning. Hwhat a view! Magnificent! and it only gets better as you head south. We camped near a beach in the redwoods, and then headed out to the central attraction of the redwoods, the avenue of the giants, a 37 mile stretch of the biggest trees in the forest (some say the world!) The best way to describe the redwoods is that it looks exactly like the forest moon of endor. Mostly because the redwoods were the location for the forest scenes from return of the Jedi. Nick wanted to re-enact the movie but I refused to put on the ewok costume that Nick keeps in his glove compartment for just such an occasion (don't ask). Seriously, though, these trees are ridiculus. Some of the biggest are about 350 feet and you can't even come close to seeing the top. The trunks are like 15 feet thick. And there are bunch that have fallen (having produced zero noise as there was noone there to hear them hardiharhar). You can see the underside of there roots. Like looking into another world. We drove down through northern california (surprisingly less commercialized than the oregon coast) taking the windy hilly coastal highway. The views and the ocean air, and the azure shallows. Yikes! most beautiful scenery I've ever seen? Quite possibly.
-end transmission-
My favourite thing about America so far is NPR(national public radio). I can't get enough of it. I had a bit of passing flirt with the station this summer when a friend recommended that I listen to "this American life" on the interweb. But after listening to hours of top notch news programming, and cultural analysis, the flirt has become a full on romance or at least a fall fling. It's refreshing for a Canadian, who has been brought up on a fairly heavy dose of inferiority complex-fueled condascension towards americans and their value system(this bringing up was not by my parents but by Canadian Culture in general), to hear a constant barage of such level-headed rational political and social analysis. And everyone's voice is so damn soothing. SUch a pleasure to listen to.
So ya, the trip. We got to Vancouver a week ago and spent three days there. Special thanks to Katherine who showed us around the city one day. Taking us to the sea wall, stanley park, Grandville Island market, and her home neighbourhood of Shaugnessy. Vancouver is such a pristine and beautiful place. It's kind of hard to fathom that it's a city and not some protected national monument made to be an idealized replica of a city. We stayed with our good buddy Matt Charleton who has a 26th floor downtown apartment with a spectacular view. Matt threw a housewarming party which was most definately NOT a sausage-fest (please excuse the vulgar imagery of this term, I swear it's common parlance among the youth of today.) Matt also took us up the grouse gind. A 2km hike straight up stairs. Nick and I were all like yo 2km that's nothing. We been hiking like 17km a day, yowhatever, we got endurance. An hour and twenty minutes and several rest stops later, we reached the top of grouse out of breath. I could barely muster enough energy to take a pic of the incredible view of the Couv. That same night we hunkered back over to North Van for dinner with the Winstanley family. Thanks to Dianne for a delicious pacific salmon meal.
The only part of vancouver that was a little unimpressive was the nightlife. I mean it was cool and ritzy and chichi (or chachi according to monsieur Charle-ton). But like what up with BC liquor prices yall? 7 bucks for domestic taps and 27 for a 12 at the beer store. And not a dive in sight? Maybe we were just in the wrong neighbourhood.
Oh ya I had my first brush with celebrity in Vancouver. I was walking down the street when this way-to-well-dressed to be a crack-head, but crack-head looking nonetheless, with his hood up and his scraggly beard and bushy eyebrows and messed up hair, is staring me down as he walks past me (probably daring me to recognize him). I didn't recognize the guy, but one of the dudes we were with, turned around two minutes later and exclaimed hat we had just seen Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart. I don't rightly know who exactly these people are so I can't verify that this story is 100% true but the dude was 99% and I later picked out the crack-head from a lineup on the cover of some ragmag. Pattinson is not a good looking gentleman. Let me reitirate, he looks like a bum.
We left the Couv, Sunday morning, heading down the coast . We camped in Oregon and then met the pacific coast Highway the next morning. Hwhat a view! Magnificent! and it only gets better as you head south. We camped near a beach in the redwoods, and then headed out to the central attraction of the redwoods, the avenue of the giants, a 37 mile stretch of the biggest trees in the forest (some say the world!) The best way to describe the redwoods is that it looks exactly like the forest moon of endor. Mostly because the redwoods were the location for the forest scenes from return of the Jedi. Nick wanted to re-enact the movie but I refused to put on the ewok costume that Nick keeps in his glove compartment for just such an occasion (don't ask). Seriously, though, these trees are ridiculus. Some of the biggest are about 350 feet and you can't even come close to seeing the top. The trunks are like 15 feet thick. And there are bunch that have fallen (having produced zero noise as there was noone there to hear them hardiharhar). You can see the underside of there roots. Like looking into another world. We drove down through northern california (surprisingly less commercialized than the oregon coast) taking the windy hilly coastal highway. The views and the ocean air, and the azure shallows. Yikes! most beautiful scenery I've ever seen? Quite possibly.
-end transmission-
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Always Take the Road Less Travelled
Hello Everyone!
After falling off the grid for a week or so, were back in civilization, and blogging once again (Hurrah!) Since we last talked with you the public, we have been in the states of Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, and Washington, and are currently stopping briefly in Canada so that Chris can mingle with his people before heading back down to the US (you know how whales and dolphins have to come up for air every once in a while because they can't breathe underwater? Its similar with Canadians. They have to resurface up to Canada every so often or else they drown in the United States. Its more about heat reduction in this case though.)
Our first major stop after the last blog post was Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. It was our first trip into the Rocky Mountains, and it was spectacular. Yellowstone is known for its geologic activity, and the geysers were incredible. Truly unlike anything I have ever seen. We took a couple of great hikes to see great views of the geysers and all of Yellowstone.
However, the single greatest thing that we saw in Yellowstone, and maybe on the whole trip so far occured on our first morning in the park. After getting up before 7 o clock (When youre camping you go to sleep basically when it gets dark out because theres really little to see after that other than stars and its too dark to do anything, so our days started quite early), we decided to drive up and see Old Faithful. On the way there we saw a turn off that led to a small side road. On a whim, I turned to Chris, and said "You want to turn right here?", and he responded "Yeah, why not?" Best nonchalant agreement hes ever made in his whole life right there.
Once we turned, we drove for about a mile through mist covered fields before we broke through some of the fog. Once we could see a little bit, we were astonished to see about 50 buffalo surrounding the road on both sides. We pulled off the road and got out to take some camera footage, and it was incredible. They were less than ten feet away in some cases and were just grazing along the road. For someone whose sole goal on this trip was to see just one buffalo, this was more than a dream come true. To wake up and just end up in the middle of a mist covered field full of buffalo was absolutely legendary. I mean, probably on 75% of the days of my whole life, i'd still be asleep at that time and maybe dreaming this was happening, but instead, due to a fortuitous turn, I was truly experiencing it. Imagine if Chris had said, "Nah, lets just go to Old Faithful" instead of "Yeah, Why Not?" My life would probably be very different today.
After a couple of nights in Yellowstone with the geysers and the buffalo, in order to satisfy Chris' insatiable desire for breasts, we travelled to Large Breasts National Park (sometimes known as Grand Tetons, its French translation), just south of Yellowstone. We stayed at Jenny Lake, which my mom had gone to when she was younger and absolutely loved. It was an idylic location right on a glacial lake surrounded by gigantic peaks (Grand Tetons). We spent a couple of days there hiking through the mountains and relaxing by the lake.
After we left Grand Tetons, we had been camping for over a week, and we were very ready for a warm bed and some good old social contact. So we hightailed it to Seattle (and by hightail it I mean spent an excruciating amount of time in Montana and Idaho before finally getting to Seattle), where we were among the people yet again. We hung out one night with my cousin Courtney's friend from Ireland, who showed us a good time downtown despite having to wake up for work at 430 am the next day (I know, that is absurdly early, although my dad somehow wakes up that early by choice everyday) Courtney has now aided us greatly in two cities so far despite living on the opposite coast, so id like to give her a shout out for that, and shes also coming to meet us in LA in a couple weeks, so will also be contributing to the blog.
On our second day in Seattle, we had another, small world, only can happen while travelling moment. After spending the day walking around downtown, we ended up chilling be the waterfront after one of the museums we were at closed unexpectedly early. There were a bunch of people going for runs, and one guy looked exactly like a buddy of ours from college, but he was from the east coast and there was no way he could be running along the waterfront in Seattle. Lo and behold however, it was him. After buzzing for like an hour about how truly random the meeting was, (He had moved to Seattle less than a week ago, and what were the odds in such a big city that hed literally just happen to run into us) he took us out for a great night in Seattle. Its just so completely random that I still cant get over it. What craziness will this road trip bestow on us next? Stay tuned....
Keep it real
Nick
After falling off the grid for a week or so, were back in civilization, and blogging once again (Hurrah!) Since we last talked with you the public, we have been in the states of Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, and Washington, and are currently stopping briefly in Canada so that Chris can mingle with his people before heading back down to the US (you know how whales and dolphins have to come up for air every once in a while because they can't breathe underwater? Its similar with Canadians. They have to resurface up to Canada every so often or else they drown in the United States. Its more about heat reduction in this case though.)
Our first major stop after the last blog post was Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. It was our first trip into the Rocky Mountains, and it was spectacular. Yellowstone is known for its geologic activity, and the geysers were incredible. Truly unlike anything I have ever seen. We took a couple of great hikes to see great views of the geysers and all of Yellowstone.
However, the single greatest thing that we saw in Yellowstone, and maybe on the whole trip so far occured on our first morning in the park. After getting up before 7 o clock (When youre camping you go to sleep basically when it gets dark out because theres really little to see after that other than stars and its too dark to do anything, so our days started quite early), we decided to drive up and see Old Faithful. On the way there we saw a turn off that led to a small side road. On a whim, I turned to Chris, and said "You want to turn right here?", and he responded "Yeah, why not?" Best nonchalant agreement hes ever made in his whole life right there.
Once we turned, we drove for about a mile through mist covered fields before we broke through some of the fog. Once we could see a little bit, we were astonished to see about 50 buffalo surrounding the road on both sides. We pulled off the road and got out to take some camera footage, and it was incredible. They were less than ten feet away in some cases and were just grazing along the road. For someone whose sole goal on this trip was to see just one buffalo, this was more than a dream come true. To wake up and just end up in the middle of a mist covered field full of buffalo was absolutely legendary. I mean, probably on 75% of the days of my whole life, i'd still be asleep at that time and maybe dreaming this was happening, but instead, due to a fortuitous turn, I was truly experiencing it. Imagine if Chris had said, "Nah, lets just go to Old Faithful" instead of "Yeah, Why Not?" My life would probably be very different today.
After a couple of nights in Yellowstone with the geysers and the buffalo, in order to satisfy Chris' insatiable desire for breasts, we travelled to Large Breasts National Park (sometimes known as Grand Tetons, its French translation), just south of Yellowstone. We stayed at Jenny Lake, which my mom had gone to when she was younger and absolutely loved. It was an idylic location right on a glacial lake surrounded by gigantic peaks (Grand Tetons). We spent a couple of days there hiking through the mountains and relaxing by the lake.
After we left Grand Tetons, we had been camping for over a week, and we were very ready for a warm bed and some good old social contact. So we hightailed it to Seattle (and by hightail it I mean spent an excruciating amount of time in Montana and Idaho before finally getting to Seattle), where we were among the people yet again. We hung out one night with my cousin Courtney's friend from Ireland, who showed us a good time downtown despite having to wake up for work at 430 am the next day (I know, that is absurdly early, although my dad somehow wakes up that early by choice everyday) Courtney has now aided us greatly in two cities so far despite living on the opposite coast, so id like to give her a shout out for that, and shes also coming to meet us in LA in a couple weeks, so will also be contributing to the blog.
On our second day in Seattle, we had another, small world, only can happen while travelling moment. After spending the day walking around downtown, we ended up chilling be the waterfront after one of the museums we were at closed unexpectedly early. There were a bunch of people going for runs, and one guy looked exactly like a buddy of ours from college, but he was from the east coast and there was no way he could be running along the waterfront in Seattle. Lo and behold however, it was him. After buzzing for like an hour about how truly random the meeting was, (He had moved to Seattle less than a week ago, and what were the odds in such a big city that hed literally just happen to run into us) he took us out for a great night in Seattle. Its just so completely random that I still cant get over it. What craziness will this road trip bestow on us next? Stay tuned....
Keep it real
Nick
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Camping, Deer and Flats
Note: Today we have two entries. Scroll down for Nick's post about Minneapolis. Read it first for correct chronological order.
We are in Sheridan Wyoming, at the public library. The gentleman sitting next to me is buying a Gibson guitar from Canada. He is also giving off a terrible odor. And this is coming from someone who hasn't showered in 3 days. Now he is singing along to the death metal on his headphones.
We've been camping ever since we left Minneapolis. Neither of us are much of woodsmen (Nick's only other camping outing was to buy Red Sox tickets) but we're learning as we go. We had a bit of an incident two nights ago involving a pocket knife can opener and a can of beans. Neither of us was really aware (and believe me we still aren't) of the proper method for using the tool. After a half hour of jabbing and stabbing and prying and bending, we decided that the can had won and resorted to peanut butter and peperoni sandwiches.
A friend of Nick's Grandfather in Chicago told us "You haven't seen space until you've been to South Dakota." Yup. The eastern half of south Dakota consists of vast expanses of fields and corn and flat. The western half consists of vast expanses of prairies. And then you get to the Bandlands. Half Prairie, Half Moon. Jagged ridges, canyons, rock formations and cliffs intermingled with prairie land. It's awesome. It's so good to be out of cities. I spend most of time in them and as unique as each one is they can really feel start to feel like the same thing one after the other. But the plains, the great plains, it finally feels like we've actually hit that freedom focused spirit of the road trip. You know? The goal of the whole shabang. No beds and comfy and easy. Just two guys a chevy and a tent that is just a wee bit too small. Yup ruffing it in these national park campsites with legions of RVs surrounding us. If we were a little more competent campers I'd want to do some backcountry.
We have been and intend to continue doing a bunch of hiking. We warmed up with a good 8 miles or so in Badlands. Some of the national park marked hikes are surprisingly badass. We took one up a rope ladder and out along some pretty thin ledges over looking some pretty deep drops out to some pretty amazing views. Another hike took us out through that prairie moonscape and apparently into the heart of deer country. We must have spotted 5 different groups of single mothers and two babies and one seven or eight large heard. We got some great shots and got within about 15 feet of one of the mother-kid groupings. This put the mother a little on edge and into an aggressive defensive stance. We shimmied along the edge of the trail as far as possible so as not to upset mama dear. I wanna see a mountain goat Nick wants to see a buffalo and both of us are tired of seeing cows.
After Badlands we set out to that All-American icon of South Dakota (it's on all the license plates) Mount Rushmore. It's funny after seeing it in so many movies and whatnot it feels like you've already been there. I mean it's so far away from the viewing deck it looks like a picture. But the intricate details (did you ever notice Roosevelt has his specs on?) carved into the rock are pretty awe-inspiring in real life. I got a great shot of Jefferson's nostrils. They forgot or ommitted Washington's.
After Rushmore we drove to Devil's Tower which is a gigantic rock plateau that crops out of the ground, is America's first national monument and was used in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. We walked around it and got a campsite in view of it. What a jaw-dropping natural specimen. Google image it. Or wait for our pictures.
Oh ya, earlier that day we blew a tire on the Highway. Luckily AAA was there to rescue us and the local mechanic (In Sturgiss SD) was the nicest guy on the face of the planet. He was a large man. It was 90 degress in the sun. He specified that this WAS NOT big man weather. The layover took maybe two hours. We met some locals: a girl about our age working the desk at the air conditioned gas station who enlightened us about the Kanye West Taylor Swift incident at some music awards and an older gentleman who showed me a magazine from the mid eighties purporting to be about the annual Sturgiss motorcycle event but mostly focusing on dirty pictures of women on harleys. Seriously every page I turned to.
And that brings us to Wyoming. We will be in the wild for the next five days split between yellowstone and grand teton national parks. We would also like to apologize about our malfunctioning comments section. Our Technical service department is working round the clock to fix these problems. Please be patient.
Don't keep it too real,
Chris
We are in Sheridan Wyoming, at the public library. The gentleman sitting next to me is buying a Gibson guitar from Canada. He is also giving off a terrible odor. And this is coming from someone who hasn't showered in 3 days. Now he is singing along to the death metal on his headphones.
We've been camping ever since we left Minneapolis. Neither of us are much of woodsmen (Nick's only other camping outing was to buy Red Sox tickets) but we're learning as we go. We had a bit of an incident two nights ago involving a pocket knife can opener and a can of beans. Neither of us was really aware (and believe me we still aren't) of the proper method for using the tool. After a half hour of jabbing and stabbing and prying and bending, we decided that the can had won and resorted to peanut butter and peperoni sandwiches.
A friend of Nick's Grandfather in Chicago told us "You haven't seen space until you've been to South Dakota." Yup. The eastern half of south Dakota consists of vast expanses of fields and corn and flat. The western half consists of vast expanses of prairies. And then you get to the Bandlands. Half Prairie, Half Moon. Jagged ridges, canyons, rock formations and cliffs intermingled with prairie land. It's awesome. It's so good to be out of cities. I spend most of time in them and as unique as each one is they can really feel start to feel like the same thing one after the other. But the plains, the great plains, it finally feels like we've actually hit that freedom focused spirit of the road trip. You know? The goal of the whole shabang. No beds and comfy and easy. Just two guys a chevy and a tent that is just a wee bit too small. Yup ruffing it in these national park campsites with legions of RVs surrounding us. If we were a little more competent campers I'd want to do some backcountry.
We have been and intend to continue doing a bunch of hiking. We warmed up with a good 8 miles or so in Badlands. Some of the national park marked hikes are surprisingly badass. We took one up a rope ladder and out along some pretty thin ledges over looking some pretty deep drops out to some pretty amazing views. Another hike took us out through that prairie moonscape and apparently into the heart of deer country. We must have spotted 5 different groups of single mothers and two babies and one seven or eight large heard. We got some great shots and got within about 15 feet of one of the mother-kid groupings. This put the mother a little on edge and into an aggressive defensive stance. We shimmied along the edge of the trail as far as possible so as not to upset mama dear. I wanna see a mountain goat Nick wants to see a buffalo and both of us are tired of seeing cows.
After Badlands we set out to that All-American icon of South Dakota (it's on all the license plates) Mount Rushmore. It's funny after seeing it in so many movies and whatnot it feels like you've already been there. I mean it's so far away from the viewing deck it looks like a picture. But the intricate details (did you ever notice Roosevelt has his specs on?) carved into the rock are pretty awe-inspiring in real life. I got a great shot of Jefferson's nostrils. They forgot or ommitted Washington's.
After Rushmore we drove to Devil's Tower which is a gigantic rock plateau that crops out of the ground, is America's first national monument and was used in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. We walked around it and got a campsite in view of it. What a jaw-dropping natural specimen. Google image it. Or wait for our pictures.
Oh ya, earlier that day we blew a tire on the Highway. Luckily AAA was there to rescue us and the local mechanic (In Sturgiss SD) was the nicest guy on the face of the planet. He was a large man. It was 90 degress in the sun. He specified that this WAS NOT big man weather. The layover took maybe two hours. We met some locals: a girl about our age working the desk at the air conditioned gas station who enlightened us about the Kanye West Taylor Swift incident at some music awards and an older gentleman who showed me a magazine from the mid eighties purporting to be about the annual Sturgiss motorcycle event but mostly focusing on dirty pictures of women on harleys. Seriously every page I turned to.
And that brings us to Wyoming. We will be in the wild for the next five days split between yellowstone and grand teton national parks. We would also like to apologize about our malfunctioning comments section. Our Technical service department is working round the clock to fix these problems. Please be patient.
Don't keep it too real,
Chris
Lesson #1: Always Watch the Local News
Hello Everyone!
I am writing this from the Great State of Wyoming, home of Yellowstone National Park, and very few people. However, as we have not had the internet for a few days, I will be writing about our experiences in Minneapolis, while Chris will be filling in everything after that.
First, I want to say that when Chris described my awe at small town America in the last post, he was not exaggerating. I have been completely in awe of every little bit of rural and small town life that we have experienced. After living in the biggest city in the country for most of my life, it is amazing to see smallness, and space (soo much space!). So when I saw the Mississippi River for the first time, it was completely breathtaking. Its like a lake that travels the entire distance of the United States from north to south. It was something I had read about my whole life, whether in Mark Twain books or in history class, and it was incredible just to see it in person. It reminded me why I started this trip in the first place, to just see my own country after years of seeing other countries.
In Minneapolis, we got to walk along the river and skip rocks from the shore, just like Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer did, although they were much further south. This was one of my favorite experiences so far, not only for the sheer novelty of skipping rocks on the Mississippi, but also because I was able to make fun of Chris for his utter and complete lack of throwing ability (seriously cannot throw at all. At one point he almost hit me with a throw from the shore and I was standing next to him. It gives literal meaning to the phrase "couldn't hit water if he was standing in a boat. Truly hilarious)
We also went to the Mall of America, which might be the most soul-sucking location in the whole world. Ive never been so exhausted in my whole life than after spending the day there.
However, the highlight of our whole trip began on Thursday night, what was supposed to be our last night in Minneapolis. After watching the Steelers eke out a victory over the Titans, we were waiting for Conan to come on, and we decided to watch the local news just for kicks. This was the best decision weve made so far, for the headline story was the impending visit of President Obama to speak at a rally on Saturday in Minneapolis!! If we hadn't been watching the local news, we would have missed him completely and driven off to South Dakota blissfully unaware of what we could have seen.
But we were watching that local news, so after another excruciating day wasting time at the Mall of America, we woke up bright and early at 530 am on Saturday morning and waited in line for four hours to see my President, and some dude that Chris really wanted to see speak, address the Minnesotans on health care reform. And while I have been disappointed so far with the President on this issue, theres just something electrifying about seeing him in person and hearing him address the issues directly to you. Chris and I left the rally completely fired up and ready to go! Which is good because we have 2 weeks of camping in the national parks ahead of us!!
Keep it real
Nick
I am writing this from the Great State of Wyoming, home of Yellowstone National Park, and very few people. However, as we have not had the internet for a few days, I will be writing about our experiences in Minneapolis, while Chris will be filling in everything after that.
First, I want to say that when Chris described my awe at small town America in the last post, he was not exaggerating. I have been completely in awe of every little bit of rural and small town life that we have experienced. After living in the biggest city in the country for most of my life, it is amazing to see smallness, and space (soo much space!). So when I saw the Mississippi River for the first time, it was completely breathtaking. Its like a lake that travels the entire distance of the United States from north to south. It was something I had read about my whole life, whether in Mark Twain books or in history class, and it was incredible just to see it in person. It reminded me why I started this trip in the first place, to just see my own country after years of seeing other countries.
In Minneapolis, we got to walk along the river and skip rocks from the shore, just like Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer did, although they were much further south. This was one of my favorite experiences so far, not only for the sheer novelty of skipping rocks on the Mississippi, but also because I was able to make fun of Chris for his utter and complete lack of throwing ability (seriously cannot throw at all. At one point he almost hit me with a throw from the shore and I was standing next to him. It gives literal meaning to the phrase "couldn't hit water if he was standing in a boat. Truly hilarious)
We also went to the Mall of America, which might be the most soul-sucking location in the whole world. Ive never been so exhausted in my whole life than after spending the day there.
However, the highlight of our whole trip began on Thursday night, what was supposed to be our last night in Minneapolis. After watching the Steelers eke out a victory over the Titans, we were waiting for Conan to come on, and we decided to watch the local news just for kicks. This was the best decision weve made so far, for the headline story was the impending visit of President Obama to speak at a rally on Saturday in Minneapolis!! If we hadn't been watching the local news, we would have missed him completely and driven off to South Dakota blissfully unaware of what we could have seen.
But we were watching that local news, so after another excruciating day wasting time at the Mall of America, we woke up bright and early at 530 am on Saturday morning and waited in line for four hours to see my President, and some dude that Chris really wanted to see speak, address the Minnesotans on health care reform. And while I have been disappointed so far with the President on this issue, theres just something electrifying about seeing him in person and hearing him address the issues directly to you. Chris and I left the rally completely fired up and ready to go! Which is good because we have 2 weeks of camping in the national parks ahead of us!!
Keep it real
Nick
Thursday, September 10, 2009
This post brought to you by the Mall of America
Yep, Im in the mall. THE MALL............OF MURCA!
This place is the most disgusting/awesome bastion of consumerism I've ever experienced. I swear I just walked like a full blown mile from our parking spot to the apple store. This mall is a glorious behemoth that makes you want to puke and explode with happiness at the same time.
SO we haven't posted in a while. I guess it's been like a week so we'll have to rewind to the beginning of last weekend when I had my first encounter with that truly American ritual, the friday night lights. Nick's grandpa, a former high school athletic director, football coach, basketball coach and all round ideal role model took us to see a high school football game featuring his former team the York Dukes. Coming from Canada, the notion of supporting public school athletics both financially and emotionally is a bit of a foreign concept to me. So the whole thousand plus people at a high school football game was a real eye opener. It was awesome. And apparently it was a poor turnout as the away games are nowhere near as crazy as York's home games. York mustered a pretty convincing win with the only blemish being a few suspect snaps. Nick and I have decided we're going to try and make this a weekly thing, trying to catch the local high school football team wherever we are on a friday night. It's a great way to get a feel for a community and is a ton of fun to watch.
Chicago itself was amazing. Like truly incredible. It smelt good, the people were nice, there was always a cool wind coming off the lake and the selection of truly bad-for-you/delicious-for-you street treats was unbelievable. We walked around millenium and grant park, checked out a blues band at the beautiful outdoor amphitheatre (nicest I've ever seen) and caught a couple of shows at the Chicago jazz fest (great but not a candle to the flame of montreal's). We got some serious italian beef at Mr. beef, a Jay Leno fav. Mounds of thin beef piled on a bun dipped in gravy. Who needs dinner? We went up to wrigleyville, the bar scene outside historic wrigley field, got some beers watched some football, met a couple of new friends (and old, what up emily ross), and did some serious bro watching. Chicago seems like a place I could really live. The cleanliness the midwestern friendliness (everybody says hello) and the ammenities. I just don't know if I could get into the sports craziness that rules the city. I just don't know. Don't know.
Sunday we checked out a white sox red sox game. My man J-Bay (CANADA) got an RBI in the 6-1 win. Kind of funny to go to a Sox/Sox game. When the people start chanting, and the fan numbers are equal all you hear is go RHETE SOX GO! or was it GO WIRED SOX GO! ANd then some guy shouted SOX more like SUX and noone really knew what was going on.
Hey Nick remember that time we went to the city with quite possibly the most beautiful architecture in North America? And remember when we went on the architecture boat tour with the most idyllic cityscape views I've ever seen? Ya and remember when we left the camera in the car both days? Oops. So uh no pics of chicago. Only mental images.
We made our way to milwaukee on Monday, where the miller brewery, our only reason for going, was closed for labour day. LAME. Labour day is huge in Mil-city, parades, and people in masks, and everything closed. The city actually has a great waterfront with a beautiful (from the outside) art museum that looks like a ship.
We then hopped over to madison wisconsin to visit nick's cousin jimmy at the university of wisconsin. A 60000 person school known to have the best party scene in America. Unfortunately we were there early in the week after a long weekend so the partying was not in full swing. But we went out low-key both nights. Who can argue with some delicious 1 dollar wisconsin taps? Spotted cow is an incredible beer.
Yesterday we headed to the twin cities via the historic Great river road along the mississippi, which at most places looks more like a lake than a river. We passed through a bunch of sub 2000 people towns and got ourselves a lunch at a nice little bar and grill in Alma wisconsin. Going through small towns with a big city kid who has never seen the country is hilarious.
Man, this is America. This is it Chris. This is like where real people like really actually live. I wonder what they think about? Do they like it here? OHMAGAWD it's an old chevy pickup driving onto a farm! NOWAY! SMALL TOWN AMERICA IS REAL!
The novelty of small town america is certainly not lost on nick.
K, I gotsta go buy some stuff in this bigole mall, check out the city and eat some WALLEYE (state fish o Minnesota).
Don't keep it too real,
Chris
P.S. a big thank you to our hosts on this leg of the trip. BeBe, Papa, addy and seven (this cat smelled that I was allergic and rubbed up against me the whole time I was there, great animal though) showed us some true midwestern hospitality in elmhurst. And Jimmy and his roommates who showed us a fun time in Madison.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Midwestin' It
Hello Everyone!
I am writing this from Chicago, Illinois, as is now indicated on the map. (you have to zoom out to see the full map, were working through some kinks in the program.) Chris is going to write a more detailed post about Chi-town, but im here now to bring you up to date on our post-Pittsburgh road trippin.
After checking out an incredible view overlooking Pittsburgh, we headed to Athens, Ohio, home of the Bobcats and my cousin Logan. We got off the interstate for the first time on the way there and drove through some sweet old main streets in small-town Ohio. For a big city boy, this stuff was really cool. Athens is a cool little college town, and Logan showed us this great little lake near the town that we hiked around a little.
We headed to Cincinnati the next day to see cousins from my mom's side that I hadnt seen in years. They showed me all around Cincinnati, and we sampled some real Cincinnati Chili.
Now we're staying with my grandparents in Chicago, where BB and Papa are showing me great hospitality.
When I was planning out the trip, I was so busy getting excited about the places that I havent seen, the different sites, the national parks, that I looked past the first segment of the trip, the family segment. Ive had an amazing time seeing cousins and relatives that I haven't seen in years. After being in school for so long and not really doing a good job keeping in touch with everybody, I forgot how much fun I have with my large extended family. Now that Im back in the country, I realize how important family is to me. When we were in Cincinnati, we pulled out these old videos of the family when I was between six and ten years old. It was just such a surreal experience to watch myself and my family way back in the day. It was hilarious watching how ridiculously energetic we all were back then, and how similar we are to our fifteen years ago selves.
I apologize if this entry was a little boring, Its hard to describe the fun of hanging out with family for a week.
Also, for all you visual readers out there (I see you Shaunee!), were working on getting pictures up. Weve run into some camera issues, but once they get fixed, its picture city! and youre invited.
Keep it real!
Nick
I am writing this from Chicago, Illinois, as is now indicated on the map. (you have to zoom out to see the full map, were working through some kinks in the program.) Chris is going to write a more detailed post about Chi-town, but im here now to bring you up to date on our post-Pittsburgh road trippin.
After checking out an incredible view overlooking Pittsburgh, we headed to Athens, Ohio, home of the Bobcats and my cousin Logan. We got off the interstate for the first time on the way there and drove through some sweet old main streets in small-town Ohio. For a big city boy, this stuff was really cool. Athens is a cool little college town, and Logan showed us this great little lake near the town that we hiked around a little.
We headed to Cincinnati the next day to see cousins from my mom's side that I hadnt seen in years. They showed me all around Cincinnati, and we sampled some real Cincinnati Chili.
Now we're staying with my grandparents in Chicago, where BB and Papa are showing me great hospitality.
When I was planning out the trip, I was so busy getting excited about the places that I havent seen, the different sites, the national parks, that I looked past the first segment of the trip, the family segment. Ive had an amazing time seeing cousins and relatives that I haven't seen in years. After being in school for so long and not really doing a good job keeping in touch with everybody, I forgot how much fun I have with my large extended family. Now that Im back in the country, I realize how important family is to me. When we were in Cincinnati, we pulled out these old videos of the family when I was between six and ten years old. It was just such a surreal experience to watch myself and my family way back in the day. It was hilarious watching how ridiculously energetic we all were back then, and how similar we are to our fifteen years ago selves.
I apologize if this entry was a little boring, Its hard to describe the fun of hanging out with family for a week.
Also, for all you visual readers out there (I see you Shaunee!), were working on getting pictures up. Weve run into some camera issues, but once they get fixed, its picture city! and youre invited.
Keep it real!
Nick
Monday, August 31, 2009
Chris's Guide to a Successful American Road Trip
Step 1: Gain entry to the country.
Border guards do not seem particularly fond of YMCWRGLTEAFTMWNPNFs (young male canadians with rugged good looks trying to enter America for three months with no proof of necessary funds.)
How long will you be staying in America Sir?
I could have lied. Maybe I should have lied. But I feel like when you're trying to do something entirely legal (and you know dealing with customs officers) Its best to tell the truth.
3 months???!!! And how exactly do you intend on paying for your trip sir?
I have 50 bucks in my pocket and no proof of any other funds, it's all in the bank.
Border guard was not so impressed.
SO i got taken over to the suspicious characters area and had my bags searched. Luckily I had proof of three months of travel insurance on me. Apparently this was the only document that got me in and even then it's a good thing I didn't have any stains on my shirt.
On my way out I had to collect my bags from the suspicious characters area. The other border guard there was extremely impressed that I was being allowed through. He congratulated me, saying that people who get taken to the area I was in don't usually get let in to the states.
I felt a little badass being the last guy back on the bus.
Damn straight I got border trouble, I'm dangerous.
Today we set off to and arrived in Pittsburgh. The city is actually really nice! Very spread out. Except for downtown, the buildings are all fairly old and short. It's very, like, midurban (is that a word?). Hilly city, some great views. We're staying with Nick's cousin Lauren in a neighbourhood called shady side which she assures is not so shady. It's fairly close to the carnegie mellon and UPITT campus. UPITT had some beautiful buildings including this massive structure called something like "The cathedral of learning."
We had dinner at what is supposed to be one of the best sandwich shops in America, Primanti Bros . They pile a serving of fries and super peppery coleslaw onto all their sandwiches. Amazing.
Shout out to the third pseudo-member of our roadtrip who promises to call us every day. Mr. Akira Gillingham. The man killed his first med-exam today and has already reached local celebrity status in Albany. Atta boy.
Border guards do not seem particularly fond of YMCWRGLTEAFTMWNPNFs (young male canadians with rugged good looks trying to enter America for three months with no proof of necessary funds.)
How long will you be staying in America Sir?
I could have lied. Maybe I should have lied. But I feel like when you're trying to do something entirely legal (and you know dealing with customs officers) Its best to tell the truth.
3 months???!!! And how exactly do you intend on paying for your trip sir?
I have 50 bucks in my pocket and no proof of any other funds, it's all in the bank.
Border guard was not so impressed.
SO i got taken over to the suspicious characters area and had my bags searched. Luckily I had proof of three months of travel insurance on me. Apparently this was the only document that got me in and even then it's a good thing I didn't have any stains on my shirt.
On my way out I had to collect my bags from the suspicious characters area. The other border guard there was extremely impressed that I was being allowed through. He congratulated me, saying that people who get taken to the area I was in don't usually get let in to the states.
I felt a little badass being the last guy back on the bus.
Damn straight I got border trouble, I'm dangerous.
Today we set off to and arrived in Pittsburgh. The city is actually really nice! Very spread out. Except for downtown, the buildings are all fairly old and short. It's very, like, midurban (is that a word?). Hilly city, some great views. We're staying with Nick's cousin Lauren in a neighbourhood called shady side which she assures is not so shady. It's fairly close to the carnegie mellon and UPITT campus. UPITT had some beautiful buildings including this massive structure called something like "The cathedral of learning."
We had dinner at what is supposed to be one of the best sandwich shops in America, Primanti Bros . They pile a serving of fries and super peppery coleslaw onto all their sandwiches. Amazing.
Shout out to the third pseudo-member of our roadtrip who promises to call us every day. Mr. Akira Gillingham. The man killed his first med-exam today and has already reached local celebrity status in Albany. Atta boy.
Friday, August 28, 2009
Welcome to the Terrordome
Hey Friends, Welcome to Nick and Chris' Road Trip 2009 blog!
Were going to try to blog as much as possible throughout the trip to keep you all updated on our magical mystery tour. This is Nick at the moment, although Chris will be posting as well (Well make sure to let you guys know which one of us is posting for all of you who don't want to read Chris' excruciatingly awful posts. I know I won't be reading them).
Thanks to this sweet interactive map that I have adapted from Ron Jacobson's riveting South America blog (which I will be trying to live up to the whole trip), we will be able to keep you guys posted on exactly where we are and where we have been on the trip. Just to give a little preview, we will start out driving across the northern United States, then move up into Canada for a brief sojourn in Calgary and Vancouver, before heading back down the West Coast. Once we get down to San Diego, were going to head east across the South, then down into Florida, before coming back up the East Coast and finishing in New York on Thanksgiving (November 26 for all you Canadian followers).
Im ready to get this thing started already. After being unemployed all summer, I dont know if Ive ever been so restless in my whole life. Im literally chomping at the bit to get going and hit the open road.
Thats about it for now. At some point I will get into what this trip is really about for me and what im looking to see, but that can wait until were on the road and can better express these thoughts. Now ill just say that undertaking this journey has been a goal of mine for a long time, and what I really want to do is just see my country. What I am looking to find or what Id like to accomplish is still unknown to me. All I know is that I just want to hit the road and go where I go, see what I see. I will let the journey itself articulate my motives. Hopefully you'll stay on for the ride!
Keep it Real.
Nick
Were going to try to blog as much as possible throughout the trip to keep you all updated on our magical mystery tour. This is Nick at the moment, although Chris will be posting as well (Well make sure to let you guys know which one of us is posting for all of you who don't want to read Chris' excruciatingly awful posts. I know I won't be reading them).
Thanks to this sweet interactive map that I have adapted from Ron Jacobson's riveting South America blog (which I will be trying to live up to the whole trip), we will be able to keep you guys posted on exactly where we are and where we have been on the trip. Just to give a little preview, we will start out driving across the northern United States, then move up into Canada for a brief sojourn in Calgary and Vancouver, before heading back down the West Coast. Once we get down to San Diego, were going to head east across the South, then down into Florida, before coming back up the East Coast and finishing in New York on Thanksgiving (November 26 for all you Canadian followers).
Im ready to get this thing started already. After being unemployed all summer, I dont know if Ive ever been so restless in my whole life. Im literally chomping at the bit to get going and hit the open road.
Thats about it for now. At some point I will get into what this trip is really about for me and what im looking to see, but that can wait until were on the road and can better express these thoughts. Now ill just say that undertaking this journey has been a goal of mine for a long time, and what I really want to do is just see my country. What I am looking to find or what Id like to accomplish is still unknown to me. All I know is that I just want to hit the road and go where I go, see what I see. I will let the journey itself articulate my motives. Hopefully you'll stay on for the ride!
Keep it Real.
Nick
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