Today (5/25) Rob and I spent almost 12 hours walking in and around the mall. Our first stop was the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum. Since we hadn't had breakfast we ate there. I had a nice brisket with some mac/cheese and some broccoli. For my brunch dessert I grabbed a really nice looking pudding cup, not like the ones you get at the grocery store...it was really a drink cup filled with pudding, whipped cream and chocolate chips. Yums! However, this smörgåsbord came at a steep price: $18.26. It might be free to go in but it sure as hell isn't free to eat there :)
The museum was really interesting. The first floor had a nice exhibit about a variety of animals from each of the major continents. This was comparable to the exhibits I saw at the Field Museum in Chicago. They also had a number of fossils and life size skeletons of dinosaurs and a timeline which covered the origins of organisms to the end of the dinosaurs in so much as it could. I liked how the exhibits left room for some interpretation and where needed said things like 'this is our best guess' or 'we're not sure but here are two points of view on the issue'. They also did a really good job of re-creating habitat and making the scenes depicted seem realistic. For example, one of them had a cheetah who had pulled an impala up a tree while a hyena was on the floor scrounging for droppings.
After the museum we walked out around the mall some more and hit some stops we'd missed the day before. We wandered through the national sculpture garden first. I just don't get a lot of these sculptures. Most of them just look random to me. I guess I'm not deep enough :) While we passed through the garden we noticed the National Archives building just across the street so we thought we'd pop in really quickly. Unfortunately you can't really do that. There was a 10 minute line to get into the building and then a 30 minute line to get up to see the Documents. I'm sure almost everyone has seen them at one time or another but it's still really neat to be able to see the originals. The Declaration of Independence is pretty faded and had some water marks on it. A few of the words seem to have been retraced or something because they showed up a lot clearer than the others. The constitution is in amazingly good shape for coming from the same time period. A theory I have is that the Declaration had to be hidden away during the war while the Constitution has been publicly visible and cared for the entire time. The last document is the Bill of Rights and it's in a really sad state. The paper seems to be moldy or something and most of the words are illegible. Still, it was really exciting to see the documents and sort of feel the history that surrounds them.
Following our 'quick' detour through the archives we decided to check out some of the other memorials we had missed. The first of these was the Jefferson Memorial. This one is done in the style of the Lincoln memorial and has a pretty nice vantage point on the tidal flats. I liked how this memorial is open air on three sides (around the supporting columns of course) so you got some more breeze and it didn't feel quite as stuffy. Unfortunately I don't think a lot of people get around to this monument because it's off of the beaten path. On the plus side that meant we could take more photos. Also, if you stand on the walkway across the flats from the monument you can watch airplanes come in and the angle at which they fly in makes them look like they are going to run right into the monument. I did not get a picture of this phenomenon because when I tried to take one at a closer vantage point the planes were flying behind trees and it was pretty obvious that the plane was not really anywhere near the monument. Alas...
Just around the bend from the Jefferson monument is the FDR monument. This one is fairly new, having been dedicated in 1997 and doesn't really the style set out by the others. Instead of a single monument it's a timeline walk which looks back at scenes from FDR's 4 terms in office. We, as usual, started on the wrong side so we went back in time much like Michael J in Back to the Future, only on foot instead of a Delorean. Rob really liked it and I like a few of the sculptures but I think I like the monolithic monument style. We both agreed that FDR was one of our greatest presidents. He is the only one who has a monument in D.C. without having a face at Mt. Rushmore.
After completing the loop back to the Washington Monument we decided we should get something to eat. Finding food in D.C. is a huge pain. You'd think with all of the tourism around the mall that restaurants would be plentiful but this is not the case. Most of the buildings are owned by the government and I guess they have cafeterias in them because you can't eat at any of them. We decided to try and find a restaurant that was listed on the map we had but we couldn't find the road we were supposed to be on and somehow ended up at the water's edge where there were a ton of seafood restaurants/shops. Most of these sold both fresh seafood and cooked stuff. We stopped at Jimmy's which we think is more of a Jimmy Woo than a Jimmy smith. I was underwhelmed with all of the things I got except for the sweet rolls. Those were great. Rob had fried scallops and shrimp so of course it was awesome. Afterwards we went back for some soft-serve but I think the milk they use in the mix had gone bad. I'm really not sure that the meal could have been much worse but at least I didn't get sick :)
Part of the reason we were out so late was that Rob wanted to see the monuments at night. Therefore we headed back to the mall to check it out. The Washington monument is lit up really nicely...I wish you could go up there at night because I have a feeling the view would be amazing but I'm guessing national security precludes that. I took some pictures of the monument but I'm not sure how they turned out. I forgot to grab a good tripod so all I had was the little crappy one and it can't handle me putting my camera on the side so I had to take it by hand. Rob and I both spent some time trying to get good pics of the Lincoln Memorial from the Washington one but weren't having much luck so we walked out the WW II memorial again. I got some nice pics there and took some okay ones of the Lincoln Memorial across the reflecting pool. I wish there was some sort of causeway through the middle of the reflecting pool but I guess that would sort of defeat the purpose :) The Lincoln memorial was packed with people but not quite as many as we'd seen during the day. We both tried to get nice pictures of the Washington Memorial in the reflecting pool with the Capitol behind it but there was a fence and some concrete barriers in the way at one place and then the lights from the memorial were causing a halo type effect when I tried to take pictures higher up so I said screw it and just took some of Lincoln bathed in the light.
By this time we were both foot weary and we headed back to the hotel. The subway was almost as far away from the memorial as the hotel but we figured it would be worth it to ride the subway so we headed up to the Foggy Bottom station and then home. I am looking forward to a good night's sleep and hope my feet are well rested for tomorrow.
D
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Rocky Steps and Our Nation's Capitol
Despite the crappy night of sleep I got up early so I could get in line for a ticket to go on the Liberty Square tour. Leann didn't seem to be too keen on going so I headed out all by my lonesome back to the visitor's center. It wasn't open yet but I was among the first 10 in line so I figured I'd get one for sure. Since the next day was July 4 they had put out cardboard headstones to memorialize the troops that have died in the Iraq/Afghanistan conflict. I though that was pretty touching.
Once the doors opened up I got in line and was able to score a ticket to the first tour of the day (they are free). Since I had time to kill before the tour (9 a.m.) I read through the exhibits I'd missed the day before and had a little bit of breakfast. The tour was pretty interesting and the tour guide was hilarious. They take you through a few different buildings and give you some interesting history to the place. It was sort of electrifying to think of the great decisions that had been made here and the people who had once sat there. Both the constitution and the declaration of independence were signed in Liberty Hall.
After the tour I headed back to the hostel to collect Leann and our bags and go find the Philadelphia Museum of Art which is where Rocky actually ran up the steps and the Rocky statue is outside the grounds. The GPS did a great job of getting us there and we ran up the steps ourselves and took pictures with the statue.
There was also a really neat water fountain with a statue of George Washington in front of the museum that we took pictures of.
Getting out of Philly sucked it big time. Apparently the road we were on is a major artery to the art museum as well as the zoo and everyone and their dog was trying to get to those places. It probably took us more than 20 minutes to go maybe a mile. Once we were on the freeway we made good time though and got into D.C around 11. I dropped Leann off at her hotel and made it over to my brother's hotel to pick him up and then we headed into VA where our hotel was. After getting settled in we caught the metro into the city. The entrance to the metro is this long escalator ride deep into the pits of hell which I thought was pretty cool.
After we got off the metro we headed straight to the Smithsonian museum of natural history. Our first stop was the restaurant as we were both starving and after paying our arm and leg we had a fine meal. We probably spent 2-3 hours in the museum, wandering from room to room. They have this neat 'life on earth' timeline that you follow as you walk through the museum with lots of modern animals, extinct animals, and dinosaur skeletons. They also have a really need room with precious stones and just a bunch of different minerals from mines around the world.
We really didn't have a plan on where to go next so we wandered toward the capital building, into a sculpture garden, and stumbled upon the National Archives. Since it didn't look too busy we decided we'd go see our famous documents. Standing outside in the heat was terrible...it was in the mid 90's with probably 80% humidity so the ice cream lady was making a killing. Once inside we saw an introductory video and then stood in line for maybe half an hour before getting to see the documents. Some of the documents were in way better shape than others but it was still pretty cool to see these originals and think back to the climate of the day and how brave and forward thinking these people were.
Next up was the Washington monument. I later learned that the reason it's called the Washington monument and not memorial is that construction was begun while he was still alive. Since the Lincoln memorial is just a little bit further down the mall we headed there next. Before you get to the reflecting pond there is a WWII memorial with some beautiful fountains that we stopped to take pictures of. At the other end of the reflecting pond is the Lincoln memorial which was probably my favorite thing to see in D.C. Lincoln was such a force and his untimely death was a tragedy for the American people. It gave me tingles to sit there and thing of all that he had accomplished and what he stood for.
Since we still didn't have much of a plan we just sort of wandered around. We saw the back side of the White House and some older administrative buildings and then found ourselves some dinner at this good pizza place. Since we were both pretty beat we just found our way back to the hotel and called it a night.
Washington Pics
Once the doors opened up I got in line and was able to score a ticket to the first tour of the day (they are free). Since I had time to kill before the tour (9 a.m.) I read through the exhibits I'd missed the day before and had a little bit of breakfast. The tour was pretty interesting and the tour guide was hilarious. They take you through a few different buildings and give you some interesting history to the place. It was sort of electrifying to think of the great decisions that had been made here and the people who had once sat there. Both the constitution and the declaration of independence were signed in Liberty Hall.
After the tour I headed back to the hostel to collect Leann and our bags and go find the Philadelphia Museum of Art which is where Rocky actually ran up the steps and the Rocky statue is outside the grounds. The GPS did a great job of getting us there and we ran up the steps ourselves and took pictures with the statue.
There was also a really neat water fountain with a statue of George Washington in front of the museum that we took pictures of.
Getting out of Philly sucked it big time. Apparently the road we were on is a major artery to the art museum as well as the zoo and everyone and their dog was trying to get to those places. It probably took us more than 20 minutes to go maybe a mile. Once we were on the freeway we made good time though and got into D.C around 11. I dropped Leann off at her hotel and made it over to my brother's hotel to pick him up and then we headed into VA where our hotel was. After getting settled in we caught the metro into the city. The entrance to the metro is this long escalator ride deep into the pits of hell which I thought was pretty cool.
After we got off the metro we headed straight to the Smithsonian museum of natural history. Our first stop was the restaurant as we were both starving and after paying our arm and leg we had a fine meal. We probably spent 2-3 hours in the museum, wandering from room to room. They have this neat 'life on earth' timeline that you follow as you walk through the museum with lots of modern animals, extinct animals, and dinosaur skeletons. They also have a really need room with precious stones and just a bunch of different minerals from mines around the world.
We really didn't have a plan on where to go next so we wandered toward the capital building, into a sculpture garden, and stumbled upon the National Archives. Since it didn't look too busy we decided we'd go see our famous documents. Standing outside in the heat was terrible...it was in the mid 90's with probably 80% humidity so the ice cream lady was making a killing. Once inside we saw an introductory video and then stood in line for maybe half an hour before getting to see the documents. Some of the documents were in way better shape than others but it was still pretty cool to see these originals and think back to the climate of the day and how brave and forward thinking these people were.
Next up was the Washington monument. I later learned that the reason it's called the Washington monument and not memorial is that construction was begun while he was still alive. Since the Lincoln memorial is just a little bit further down the mall we headed there next. Before you get to the reflecting pond there is a WWII memorial with some beautiful fountains that we stopped to take pictures of. At the other end of the reflecting pond is the Lincoln memorial which was probably my favorite thing to see in D.C. Lincoln was such a force and his untimely death was a tragedy for the American people. It gave me tingles to sit there and thing of all that he had accomplished and what he stood for.
Since we still didn't have much of a plan we just sort of wandered around. We saw the back side of the White House and some older administrative buildings and then found ourselves some dinner at this good pizza place. Since we were both pretty beat we just found our way back to the hotel and called it a night.
Washington Pics
Philly time
After getting into Philly late and helping out the lost Frenchman, Leann and I slept in a little and woke up to find our roomates about to go out on a jog. I hurriedly dressed in my own running gear and went on a short run myself. The are where we had chosen to stay turned out to have been an area where the elite of the city had built mansions on generous estates. At some point the majority of the land was purchased by the city and turned into various parks with a nice jogging path running alongside the road. I went past a couple of other mansions that offered tours and ran back to the hostel. We showered up and hopped in the car for the drive into Philly proper. The drive was pretty uneventful though when we got into the downtown area Betty went crazy. First she didn't tell us to turn onto the street we needed to until we had already passed it and then she tried to get us to turn down this 'road' that might have been a road for horses back in the 1800's but certainly wasn't wide enough to accept any sort of modern automobile. We finally found our way in and parked (perhaps illegally...) and got to the hostel right as they were 'closing' for the morning. What a weird place...they basically shut down for the afternoon (9 a.m. to 4 p.m.) so you have to be out and about in the city. The girls that were closing up the place seemed to be pretty annoyed that we were there so we took off and found a nice place to park the car by Penn's landing.
After selecting our travel gear from the car we headed off to find a nice place to breakfast. There was an older looking diner with a bar counter that wrapped around the inside so we thought that would be a nice place to eat. It turned out to be a great little eatery and had been around for some time (50 yrs+) and our waitress looked like she had been working there since day 1 :) She was quite old and had a bit of a palsy so she shook a bit when she was talking. Our food was good and afterwards we headed out to the liberty square area to see what was there. They have a great big visitor's center with plenty of exhibits to look at but after we found out that they didn't have any more tickets to go visit Liberty Hall we left. While Leann grabbed some Z's I went over to the Constitution center which turned out to be a lame exhibit with an copy of the constitution which you had to pay to see. After leaving I picked up Leann and we headed over to the visitor's center for the Liberty Bell. The building is pretty new and has some neat exhibits as well as the Liberty Bell itself. We took our pictures with it and then headed out to meander around the city and see some of the other sites (like Betsy Ross' house).
The downtown area is littered with various historic buildings, monuments, and interpretive sites. They have a set of people who actual come in character to a location and discuss the events that transpired there but we didn't get to see any of those. We eventually made our way to the chinatown area and then found this really neat place called the Terminal Market which is basically a bazaar inside of this building. Lucky for us the Amish were there that day. They had a wide variety of jellies to try and I had some Dandelion (tastes like honey), Tomato (too sweet)and Spicy (just as it sounds)jell as well as some Pumpkin Butter. I ended up getting a jar of the Dandelion, Spicy, and Pumpkin butter to take home. I also tried to talk to the sales-guy about how the Amish reconciled using electricity at the market and he said it was okay with them (still not sure why) and that many of them were Mennonites which use more modern technology but try to take the best of things and ignore the worst (i.e. pr0n). I remembered reading that the Mennonites were granted some time when they turned 19 or so to go out into the world and decide if they wanted to remain Mennonites and that often times they are quite debaucherous. However, this dude didn't seem inclined to talk about it only muttering that some friends of his had gone to Denver to see a football game. While I was talking to him Leann ordered some BBQ and then we went outside to eat it. Man, that was some good BBQ! After we ate we went back into the market and grabbed some of the, if not THE, best ice cream I've ever had. It was so creamy and flavorful...yums! However the people were not interested at all in talking to me...I guess they just wanted my money :)
After we left the market we decided to try and find the Rocky statue. We both thought it was at the city hall building so we walked up there and then all around it only to find out that no, the Rocky statue is not in fact found at the city hall building. It was a beautiful structure though and there were several other interesting buildings in the immediate vicinity so it wasn't a total wash.
Since we'd been out wandering for quite a while the hostel was finally open so we headed back to the car to pick up our bags and then went back to the hostel to check in. Luckily they had a room for Leann and since our clothes were pretty much all dirty she did wash for us while I sat and blogged. By the time we were finished it was pretty late and time for dinner so we asked about where to go to get a philly cheese steak. Apparently the two 'original' places, Gino's and Pat's, were quite a ways away from where we were staying so she recommended we go to Steve's (I think...) which was a lot closer and she said tasted essentially the same. I think it was about half a mile to walk there and the street it was on was packed with clubs and 20 somethings. The restaurant itself is pretty non-distinct and you get into a big line with everyone else and order it. I got mine with provologne and no onions but I think I should have got it with 'the whiz' (yes, cheeze whiz). The guy cooking the meat (huge black dude) kept putting water on the meat so it wouldn't burn but I think it ended up just making the meat taste like water. To be honest I wasn't that impressed with it. I think it would've been better with some grilled peppers on it but the meat was just so bland that I really couldn't taste much of anything. On the plus side, I had a yoohoo for the first time in years and that was really good. I think Leann's was better as she got the onions and peppers on hers but she wasn't all that impressed either. At least we tried it though :) The walk back to the hostel was uneventful and we pretty much just went to bed when we got back. Sometime in the middle of the night these guys came in and turned on the lights which made it really hard to sleep plus I kept alternating between hot and cold so I ended up getting a terrible nights sleep.
After selecting our travel gear from the car we headed off to find a nice place to breakfast. There was an older looking diner with a bar counter that wrapped around the inside so we thought that would be a nice place to eat. It turned out to be a great little eatery and had been around for some time (50 yrs+) and our waitress looked like she had been working there since day 1 :) She was quite old and had a bit of a palsy so she shook a bit when she was talking. Our food was good and afterwards we headed out to the liberty square area to see what was there. They have a great big visitor's center with plenty of exhibits to look at but after we found out that they didn't have any more tickets to go visit Liberty Hall we left. While Leann grabbed some Z's I went over to the Constitution center which turned out to be a lame exhibit with an copy of the constitution which you had to pay to see. After leaving I picked up Leann and we headed over to the visitor's center for the Liberty Bell. The building is pretty new and has some neat exhibits as well as the Liberty Bell itself. We took our pictures with it and then headed out to meander around the city and see some of the other sites (like Betsy Ross' house).
The downtown area is littered with various historic buildings, monuments, and interpretive sites. They have a set of people who actual come in character to a location and discuss the events that transpired there but we didn't get to see any of those. We eventually made our way to the chinatown area and then found this really neat place called the Terminal Market which is basically a bazaar inside of this building. Lucky for us the Amish were there that day. They had a wide variety of jellies to try and I had some Dandelion (tastes like honey), Tomato (too sweet)and Spicy (just as it sounds)jell as well as some Pumpkin Butter. I ended up getting a jar of the Dandelion, Spicy, and Pumpkin butter to take home. I also tried to talk to the sales-guy about how the Amish reconciled using electricity at the market and he said it was okay with them (still not sure why) and that many of them were Mennonites which use more modern technology but try to take the best of things and ignore the worst (i.e. pr0n). I remembered reading that the Mennonites were granted some time when they turned 19 or so to go out into the world and decide if they wanted to remain Mennonites and that often times they are quite debaucherous. However, this dude didn't seem inclined to talk about it only muttering that some friends of his had gone to Denver to see a football game. While I was talking to him Leann ordered some BBQ and then we went outside to eat it. Man, that was some good BBQ! After we ate we went back into the market and grabbed some of the, if not THE, best ice cream I've ever had. It was so creamy and flavorful...yums! However the people were not interested at all in talking to me...I guess they just wanted my money :)
After we left the market we decided to try and find the Rocky statue. We both thought it was at the city hall building so we walked up there and then all around it only to find out that no, the Rocky statue is not in fact found at the city hall building. It was a beautiful structure though and there were several other interesting buildings in the immediate vicinity so it wasn't a total wash.
Since we'd been out wandering for quite a while the hostel was finally open so we headed back to the car to pick up our bags and then went back to the hostel to check in. Luckily they had a room for Leann and since our clothes were pretty much all dirty she did wash for us while I sat and blogged. By the time we were finished it was pretty late and time for dinner so we asked about where to go to get a philly cheese steak. Apparently the two 'original' places, Gino's and Pat's, were quite a ways away from where we were staying so she recommended we go to Steve's (I think...) which was a lot closer and she said tasted essentially the same. I think it was about half a mile to walk there and the street it was on was packed with clubs and 20 somethings. The restaurant itself is pretty non-distinct and you get into a big line with everyone else and order it. I got mine with provologne and no onions but I think I should have got it with 'the whiz' (yes, cheeze whiz). The guy cooking the meat (huge black dude) kept putting water on the meat so it wouldn't burn but I think it ended up just making the meat taste like water. To be honest I wasn't that impressed with it. I think it would've been better with some grilled peppers on it but the meat was just so bland that I really couldn't taste much of anything. On the plus side, I had a yoohoo for the first time in years and that was really good. I think Leann's was better as she got the onions and peppers on hers but she wasn't all that impressed either. At least we tried it though :) The walk back to the hostel was uneventful and we pretty much just went to bed when we got back. Sometime in the middle of the night these guys came in and turned on the lights which made it really hard to sleep plus I kept alternating between hot and cold so I ended up getting a terrible nights sleep.
Salem? Why go to Salem?
On my last morning in Boston I managed to get yet another good run in. I went further than I had before and explored a bit but didn't find anything mind-blowing to report back on. Back in the hostel I collated pictures, ate breakfast, and waited for Leeann to show so I could take her to Salem before heading to Philadelphia. She finally came down around 10 and I went to get my car from the parking garage. Luckily my homing sense was working at least a little bit because I managed to find the car and bring it back. When I got back to the hostel it turned out that Leeann had decided she was coming to Philadelphia with me so we loaded up and headed out to Salem.
We went to the Park Service visitor's center where I learned that there is a lot more to Salem than just witch trials (duh). There used to be a lot of ship building that went on here and then of course it went through an economic downturn but is now back on the upswing. There were a lot of neat old houses there that had been saved and restored. Well, they looked nice from the outside because we didn't go into them. The next stop was this Salem Witch Trials museum. This place was a total crap-ola. On the way in we heard someone saying that the presentation ended up being the biggest waste of money they had ever seen. We figured we'd go anyway but our opinion was basically the same. The building was an old church so they took the large open area and had put up dioramas on the wall of the time period and had flat benches on either side of this open space you could sit on. The voice acting was terrible...one of the women was supposed to be screaming in terror but sounded like she was in the throes of an orgasm. As the story progressed they spot lighted another diorama. Of course instead of having this all on one wall they did it in a circle about the entire space so you had to get up in the middle of the presentation if you wanted to see the rest of the dioramas. Following the presentation they led us out this back door for the next part of the tour and I seriously thought they were just taking us into the gift shop. We only went through about half of the gift shop and then we entered this room with more static displays and some guy talked about how witches had evolved over time. Although this wasn't as crappy as the diorama presentation we still ditched out early and wandered the streets to find something to eat. Turns out there is a neat hot dog shop that serves different styled hot dogs from around the country. I had a Texas dog which came with chili, jalapenos, and bacon. I've never had this sort of hot dog in all my years in Texas but it was still good as was the Chicago dog I got.
After we ate we hopped in the car and left Boston behind us. My plan was to route the trip through Rhode Island so I could goto Newport and see some of the houses which would also put me into Connecticut so that I could say I had visited another couple of states on my trip. Newport was very pretty and quiet. I could see that it would be quite busy and crowded in the summer. They have several mansions you can actually go in and tour but we just drove around looking at them and then left town. Dinner was in Connecticut at a Bennigan's where I got their yummy monte cristo sandwich. There's is the best I've had and we don't have one in Salt Lake so I usually try and stop for one when I can.
By this time it was dark so the drive through New York City was a breeze as was the trip through New Jersey. The hostel we were heading to had this strict midnight deadline for checking in...the person at the front desk just leaves at that time so I guess you sleep in your car if you don't make it. We called as we were getting close to make sure they would hold on for a couple of minutes and I think we made it there at 12:01 a.m. The room was super cheap at $19 so I wasn't too miffed that they wanted to charge for towels. That's why I'd bought that nice pack towel in the first place!
Since I had to call Rob I went outside after we got settled into the room and while I was talking to him I noticed this guy walking around. He was sort of an unsettling fellow. His left arm was crooked against his body like it was crippled and he was walking with a limp. I seriously wondered if he was going to knife me! He came over and asked about the receptionist and I said she'd gone home. Turns out the guy had come from France to visit some friends and the bus he had taken from Washington D.C. had taken two wrong turns which made him several hours late and then the taxi driver seemed to just be driving him around aimlessly so he didn't make it in time. I whipped out the GPS and we called a few hotels and found him a room and then I drove him there. He was in fact crippled because he had had a seizure while he was working in D.C. and had been in rehab for several years. He also told me that he had tried to desert the army when he was younger (most European countries have mandatory stints in the armed forces) but they caught him and sent him to Cambodia to work in the peace corps. Interesting fellow. Anyways, I was glad he was able to get a room and I drove back to the hostel and watched some TV before turning in.
D
We went to the Park Service visitor's center where I learned that there is a lot more to Salem than just witch trials (duh). There used to be a lot of ship building that went on here and then of course it went through an economic downturn but is now back on the upswing. There were a lot of neat old houses there that had been saved and restored. Well, they looked nice from the outside because we didn't go into them. The next stop was this Salem Witch Trials museum. This place was a total crap-ola. On the way in we heard someone saying that the presentation ended up being the biggest waste of money they had ever seen. We figured we'd go anyway but our opinion was basically the same. The building was an old church so they took the large open area and had put up dioramas on the wall of the time period and had flat benches on either side of this open space you could sit on. The voice acting was terrible...one of the women was supposed to be screaming in terror but sounded like she was in the throes of an orgasm. As the story progressed they spot lighted another diorama. Of course instead of having this all on one wall they did it in a circle about the entire space so you had to get up in the middle of the presentation if you wanted to see the rest of the dioramas. Following the presentation they led us out this back door for the next part of the tour and I seriously thought they were just taking us into the gift shop. We only went through about half of the gift shop and then we entered this room with more static displays and some guy talked about how witches had evolved over time. Although this wasn't as crappy as the diorama presentation we still ditched out early and wandered the streets to find something to eat. Turns out there is a neat hot dog shop that serves different styled hot dogs from around the country. I had a Texas dog which came with chili, jalapenos, and bacon. I've never had this sort of hot dog in all my years in Texas but it was still good as was the Chicago dog I got.
After we ate we hopped in the car and left Boston behind us. My plan was to route the trip through Rhode Island so I could goto Newport and see some of the houses which would also put me into Connecticut so that I could say I had visited another couple of states on my trip. Newport was very pretty and quiet. I could see that it would be quite busy and crowded in the summer. They have several mansions you can actually go in and tour but we just drove around looking at them and then left town. Dinner was in Connecticut at a Bennigan's where I got their yummy monte cristo sandwich. There's is the best I've had and we don't have one in Salt Lake so I usually try and stop for one when I can.
By this time it was dark so the drive through New York City was a breeze as was the trip through New Jersey. The hostel we were heading to had this strict midnight deadline for checking in...the person at the front desk just leaves at that time so I guess you sleep in your car if you don't make it. We called as we were getting close to make sure they would hold on for a couple of minutes and I think we made it there at 12:01 a.m. The room was super cheap at $19 so I wasn't too miffed that they wanted to charge for towels. That's why I'd bought that nice pack towel in the first place!
Since I had to call Rob I went outside after we got settled into the room and while I was talking to him I noticed this guy walking around. He was sort of an unsettling fellow. His left arm was crooked against his body like it was crippled and he was walking with a limp. I seriously wondered if he was going to knife me! He came over and asked about the receptionist and I said she'd gone home. Turns out the guy had come from France to visit some friends and the bus he had taken from Washington D.C. had taken two wrong turns which made him several hours late and then the taxi driver seemed to just be driving him around aimlessly so he didn't make it in time. I whipped out the GPS and we called a few hotels and found him a room and then I drove him there. He was in fact crippled because he had had a seizure while he was working in D.C. and had been in rehab for several years. He also told me that he had tried to desert the army when he was younger (most European countries have mandatory stints in the armed forces) but they caught him and sent him to Cambodia to work in the peace corps. Interesting fellow. Anyways, I was glad he was able to get a room and I drove back to the hostel and watched some TV before turning in.
D
The Freedom Trail Pt 2
My second day in Boston started off with another great run. This time I went a bit further and came back through a community gardens. These were started as victory gardens during WWII and have either been kept up or re-created since then. Plenty of veggies as well as flowers.
Back at the hostel I went through the normal breakfast/internet routine. Leeann came in at some point and instead of going to Salem she wanted to go do the Freedom Trail. Since I wanted to re-trace it myself we went out together. This time I got to be the tour guide! We spent more time in the commons than I had the day before and found some neat statues including a large one dedicated to veterans of the civil war. We went by the new State House which had a large Boston Celtics banner on it. I thought it was quite crass to take a historical building like that and place something so out of place on it. Putting it on the city hall is one thing but this seemed totally inappropriate and really destroyed the historic context for me. On a funny note, one of the entrances is called the Hooker Entrance so named for General Joseph Hooker. After googleing that I found that I'm probably the millionth person to pick up on that joke :)
Since Leeann wasn't as interested in the history of the place as I was (if you were from Australia would you be?) we made swift progress down the trail. I did get to spend more time in the burial ground and found out that the obelisk with Franklin's name on it was actually for his parents and not for Ben Franklin. We stopped by the grave yard at King's Chapel and basically walked the rest of the stops to Faneuil Hall. I stopped in at the park service building directly opposite the Old State House to pick up a pin for Melanie and when I came out Leeann had acquired a couple of rubbermaid vacuum sealer's from some people who were giving them away. Score!
From Faneuil Hall we wandered along the trail to Paul Revere's house, stopped for pictures, then carried on to the Old North Church and Copp's Burying Ground. We didn't really stop at either of these sites and kept moving across the Charlestown Bridge to the Charlestown Naval Yard. This was one of the largest and most active shipworks in its time but is now open to the public as a museum. Admission is free and you can visit a few ships in the harbor. We grabbed a lobster roll for lunch from the deli on site but it wasn't nearly as good as the one I had at the lobster pound in Maine. After lunch we took a quick tour of the USS Constitution. This is the oldest commissioned warship still afloat. If they wanted to, the US Navy could put her out to sea tomorrow. The ship was neat to see and the tour guide did a great job of explaining how the sailors lived and operated on the boat.
After the tour we took some pictures of the area and the went up to the monument at Bunker Hill. This was the site of one of the first major battles of the American Revolution and even though the British one it was quite costly to them and showed that Americans were truly willing to stand up and fight. On an interesting note, the battle was actually fought on Breed's Hill but is named for Bunker Hill because that's where the American general was supposed to construct fortifications. He thought that it would be better to construct them on Breed's hill however so that's where the site is. The obelisk affords a great view of Boston but has 294 steps leading up to it so make sure you're up to the task. Many people arrived at the top panting and had to sit on the bench in the observation room to rest.
Bunker Hill marks the end of the Freedom Trail so we just wandered back through the city with plans to go eat at the original Cheer's bar. Originally called the Bull & Finch pub, they changed the name once the tv show took off to alleviate confusion. The exterior is the same that you saw in the show but the interior layout is different. In fact, it's hard to find anything in the pub to show that you are in Cheers except for the etching into the glass behind the bar. I had the Boston baked beans which aren't really anything to write home about and Leeann had some really tasty chowder. For dessert we tried the Boston Cream Pie which was, again, not really that great but at least I tried the two signature 'Boston' dishes.
That evening was pretty tame. I had planned on going to the art museum which is free on Wednesdays after 4 but decided thhat my feet had had enough walking about and that I wanted to get to bed a little early so I would be fresh for the drive to Newport and Philadelphia so I just stayed in.
Boston pics
D
Back at the hostel I went through the normal breakfast/internet routine. Leeann came in at some point and instead of going to Salem she wanted to go do the Freedom Trail. Since I wanted to re-trace it myself we went out together. This time I got to be the tour guide! We spent more time in the commons than I had the day before and found some neat statues including a large one dedicated to veterans of the civil war. We went by the new State House which had a large Boston Celtics banner on it. I thought it was quite crass to take a historical building like that and place something so out of place on it. Putting it on the city hall is one thing but this seemed totally inappropriate and really destroyed the historic context for me. On a funny note, one of the entrances is called the Hooker Entrance so named for General Joseph Hooker. After googleing that I found that I'm probably the millionth person to pick up on that joke :)
Since Leeann wasn't as interested in the history of the place as I was (if you were from Australia would you be?) we made swift progress down the trail. I did get to spend more time in the burial ground and found out that the obelisk with Franklin's name on it was actually for his parents and not for Ben Franklin. We stopped by the grave yard at King's Chapel and basically walked the rest of the stops to Faneuil Hall. I stopped in at the park service building directly opposite the Old State House to pick up a pin for Melanie and when I came out Leeann had acquired a couple of rubbermaid vacuum sealer's from some people who were giving them away. Score!
From Faneuil Hall we wandered along the trail to Paul Revere's house, stopped for pictures, then carried on to the Old North Church and Copp's Burying Ground. We didn't really stop at either of these sites and kept moving across the Charlestown Bridge to the Charlestown Naval Yard. This was one of the largest and most active shipworks in its time but is now open to the public as a museum. Admission is free and you can visit a few ships in the harbor. We grabbed a lobster roll for lunch from the deli on site but it wasn't nearly as good as the one I had at the lobster pound in Maine. After lunch we took a quick tour of the USS Constitution. This is the oldest commissioned warship still afloat. If they wanted to, the US Navy could put her out to sea tomorrow. The ship was neat to see and the tour guide did a great job of explaining how the sailors lived and operated on the boat.
After the tour we took some pictures of the area and the went up to the monument at Bunker Hill. This was the site of one of the first major battles of the American Revolution and even though the British one it was quite costly to them and showed that Americans were truly willing to stand up and fight. On an interesting note, the battle was actually fought on Breed's Hill but is named for Bunker Hill because that's where the American general was supposed to construct fortifications. He thought that it would be better to construct them on Breed's hill however so that's where the site is. The obelisk affords a great view of Boston but has 294 steps leading up to it so make sure you're up to the task. Many people arrived at the top panting and had to sit on the bench in the observation room to rest.
Bunker Hill marks the end of the Freedom Trail so we just wandered back through the city with plans to go eat at the original Cheer's bar. Originally called the Bull & Finch pub, they changed the name once the tv show took off to alleviate confusion. The exterior is the same that you saw in the show but the interior layout is different. In fact, it's hard to find anything in the pub to show that you are in Cheers except for the etching into the glass behind the bar. I had the Boston baked beans which aren't really anything to write home about and Leeann had some really tasty chowder. For dessert we tried the Boston Cream Pie which was, again, not really that great but at least I tried the two signature 'Boston' dishes.
That evening was pretty tame. I had planned on going to the art museum which is free on Wednesdays after 4 but decided thhat my feet had had enough walking about and that I wanted to get to bed a little early so I would be fresh for the drive to Newport and Philadelphia so I just stayed in.
Boston pics
D
Boston, Day 1
I ended up in a room with 5 asian people, 2 of whom snored so I didn't get the best sleep of my life that night but it seemed to be enough because I was finally able to run the next morning! How wonderful! I don't think I went all that far but I got in 20 minutes at least. There was a trail close to the hostel that ran through what they call the 'fens' (ergo, Fenway Park). After the quick but glorious run I had some breakfast at the hostel and mapped out my plan for the day. I really only had 2 things that I wanted to do while I was in Boston..walk the Freedom Trail and go to a Red Sox game. Getting tickets for the Red Sox was a pain because they are so popular there aren't very many tickets available online. To be honest I'm surprised Boston doesn't have 2 teams like Chicago and New York do. My tickets were for Tuesday night but of course the night I get into town the Red Sox pitcher throws a no-hitter! Oh well, at least I got to see it on TV and hear some people from the hostel who had gone to the game talk about it.
I set out for the trail around 10 o'clock. The Boston subway takes you right to Boston Commons and there was a stop quite close to the Hostel. I love the subways! I do wish I had purchased a multi-day pass but all-in-all still a good value. Once you come up in the Commons there are a plethora of vendors. I tried to find a Red Sox hat I liked but came up empty handed. The visitor's center for the Freedom Trail was close at hand so I headed over there. Once inside I decided that I should spring for the 'tour' so that I would get a little more of the history than I could glean myself. I also picked up a guide book for a self-guided tour because the paid tour only covers part of the trail.
Boston Commons
Our tour guide's name was Ebenezer (who knew people still had names like that these days). This guy loved to stir up trouble and was very outspoken. He got into a political debate with one guy right away and the two of them kept throwing good-natured verbal jabs throughout the course of the tour. Perhaps the best thing he did was when we were all walking across the street and he started arguing with a bus driver. The driver was saying 'I have the light' but the light was red so he shouldn't have been in the crosswalk. Pretty funny stuff. My only problem with the tour was that we didn't get any time to wander around on our own. For example, in the burial ground we went to, there were several famous people but we only hit a few and then wandered off. You really end up having to do the tour twice, once for the added information the tour guide gives you and then once again for completeness. Even though I think he was trying to goof on one of the guys in our group, the tour guide did a very good job of relating historical actions to recent ones. For example, he talked about how today we would never be okay with a vice president shooting a lawyer and then not telling anyone (in this case he was talking about Aaron Burr and John Hancock but it certainly would apply to Dick Cheney as well).
Quick note on the 'burial grounds' in the city. Apparantly the Puritans didn't really care about people's bodies, only their souls, so they basically dumped people into these burial grounds where they would re-use the same plot over and over so some of the people are only buried inches from the top of the ground instead of the customary 6 feet. One of the governors of Boston had a Unitarian church built on top of one of the old burial grounds because the Puritans refused to sell him any land. He is quoting as having said 'the dead won't complain' :)
Our tour ended at Faneuil Hall which is a good place to stop for a bite of lunch. The Quincy Market building is filled with little restaurants on either side of a walkway. I ended up getting some pizza and then some little cookies (sorry, can't remember the name of the place) and also found a Red Sox baseball hat I liked.
Faneuil Hall
My next stop was the home of Paul Revere which was built in 1680. It's amazing to me that something that old would still be around, particularly something made of wood. 90% of the home is original and it has been restored to the late 17th century time frame and includes several items either made by or owned by the Revere's. During our tour it was pointed out that Paul Revere did not traverse the countryside yelling the 'British are coming' seeing as how his voice would not really have carried that far and if it had the British would clearly have heard him. He rode with 2 others and actually got captured by the British and totally ratted everyone out. Only one of the 3 riders actually made it past the British blockade/roadblock and even then he merely went to the homes of specific militia leaders to tell them what had happened. I went ahead and took the tour which was okay and probably worth the money to help preserve it. Every time I hit one of these 'pay' places I am thankful it's only me I'm paying for and not an entire family!
Paul Revere's former home
The next stop on the trail is the Old North Church where the lanterns were hung to signal where the invasion would come from...'one if by land, two if by sea'. Leading up to the church is a plaza with a statue of Revere and several plaques placed on the walls commemorating various things in Boston history. The church itself is not particularly spectacular but the history there is interesting and the old style pews were cool to see. Instead of just long rows of pews they had what I consider to be 'box seats' that patrons could buy and use for their family. In fact one of them is still owned and used by the Revere family. It would have been really cool to go up into the bell tower but they would not let you do that.
Notice the 'private boxes' instead of long pew benches.
From there I headed out to the Copp's Hill burying ground where there were a number of very old gravestones but none that were particularly famous. By that time my feet were hurting a bit and I needed to head back so that I could catch the Red Sox game so I hoofed it back to Boston Commons, getting lost a couple of times. For some reason I totally lost my sense of direction somewhere near the beginning of the trip and have had a hard time getting around since then. It's really frustrating and I'm beginning to wonder if that part of my brain shut down because I have the GPS.
Copp's Hill Burying Ground
After getting back to the hostel and freshening up quickly I headed out to Fenway Park which is a short trip from the hostel. I have to say the hostel was really well located and the price pretty reasonable considering where I was. Back to Fenway...the park is the oldest in the nation and while I'm not a major fan of the Red Sox I think they've always been one of my favorites. Back in the day when I collected baseball cards they had Wade Boggs and Roger Clemens who were both really big stars. Nowadays they have new faces but their team is now the defending World Champions having won the world series last year. The stadium is not 'huge' but really feels like a park like Wrigley where baseball is the primary concern and nothing else. They had a large number of food vendors but they were all selling pretty much the same thing. I ended up getting myself a Boston dog which turned out to be a boiled hot dog on the funky hot dog buns they had in Chicago. It was okay, but not as good as the Chicago dog. Same thing with the park...it was nice but at least at Wrigley I fit into my seat. The seats at Fenway probably are 90 years old and were designed to fit people who were not as tall as I am. I fit but it was a little cramped and uncomfortable. Luckily the people around me were decent and I talked to an middle-aged couple who were sitting on my left. They lived in Boston and had for some time. When we got to talking about the Freedom Trail the husband mentioned that they didn't really ever do the things in the city even though they probably should. I feel the same way about home...we always seem to want to get away even though there are plenty of undiscovered treasures close to home for us to find. I'd like to try to explore the Salt Lake area a little more this summer and try to find some of those hidden gems.
Andrew at the old..ball...game!
The Red Sox won, though it was close up to the finish. On the way back home I noticed a nice picture waiting to be taken where this old stone bridge crossed a placid river with a carriage type lamp on top of it and decided I would come back the next night. There were still plenty of people up and about at the hostel when I got back so I popped down to the kitchen to offload my pictures and catch up on my email. While I was talking to Melanie a girl who was from Australia asked if I could help get her laptop connected to the internet. Turns out she had been on a Jet Blue flight and they had lost her luggage. This was the day after Melanie had gotten stranded in New York because of Jet Blue so I'm starting to wonder about whether I really want to fly Jet Blue anymore or not. The girl from Australia, Leeann, used my laptop while I was on the phone and when I hung up we started chatting. Another Australian girl was sitting close and had been at the Red Sox game. Turns out she is a HUGE Red Sox fan and was following team across the country for a month! How amazing, who would ever think to find such a big baseball fan from Australia. And how did she get into baseball you ask? Well, I found out that she had been forced to take 8 weeks off by her job (!!!) because she had accrued too much leave. I can tell you that would never happen to me but Americans don't get 4 weeks of leave per year plus an additional 4 weeks after 10 years of service. In fact, I'm often confounded by our system of providing people with such measly leave. Hasn't anyone read studies showing that people who take vacation usually come back to work feeling much less stressed and are far more productive? Anyways, during her time off her friend made some bet with her about baseball so she had to watch a game and it just happened to be a Red Sox game. One of the players on the Sox is Coco Crisp (no lies) so that name stuck with her and because she was bored she just kept watching games and eventually got hooked. I told her someone ought to write a newspaper article about her and her journey because I think it would be cool to read something like that. I guess she'll just have to get her notoriety here :)
I made tentative plans with Leeann to goto Salem the next day since I didn't really have any major plans other than retracing the freedom trail and went off to bed.
D
I set out for the trail around 10 o'clock. The Boston subway takes you right to Boston Commons and there was a stop quite close to the Hostel. I love the subways! I do wish I had purchased a multi-day pass but all-in-all still a good value. Once you come up in the Commons there are a plethora of vendors. I tried to find a Red Sox hat I liked but came up empty handed. The visitor's center for the Freedom Trail was close at hand so I headed over there. Once inside I decided that I should spring for the 'tour' so that I would get a little more of the history than I could glean myself. I also picked up a guide book for a self-guided tour because the paid tour only covers part of the trail.
Boston CommonsOur tour guide's name was Ebenezer (who knew people still had names like that these days). This guy loved to stir up trouble and was very outspoken. He got into a political debate with one guy right away and the two of them kept throwing good-natured verbal jabs throughout the course of the tour. Perhaps the best thing he did was when we were all walking across the street and he started arguing with a bus driver. The driver was saying 'I have the light' but the light was red so he shouldn't have been in the crosswalk. Pretty funny stuff. My only problem with the tour was that we didn't get any time to wander around on our own. For example, in the burial ground we went to, there were several famous people but we only hit a few and then wandered off. You really end up having to do the tour twice, once for the added information the tour guide gives you and then once again for completeness. Even though I think he was trying to goof on one of the guys in our group, the tour guide did a very good job of relating historical actions to recent ones. For example, he talked about how today we would never be okay with a vice president shooting a lawyer and then not telling anyone (in this case he was talking about Aaron Burr and John Hancock but it certainly would apply to Dick Cheney as well).
Quick note on the 'burial grounds' in the city. Apparantly the Puritans didn't really care about people's bodies, only their souls, so they basically dumped people into these burial grounds where they would re-use the same plot over and over so some of the people are only buried inches from the top of the ground instead of the customary 6 feet. One of the governors of Boston had a Unitarian church built on top of one of the old burial grounds because the Puritans refused to sell him any land. He is quoting as having said 'the dead won't complain' :)
Our tour ended at Faneuil Hall which is a good place to stop for a bite of lunch. The Quincy Market building is filled with little restaurants on either side of a walkway. I ended up getting some pizza and then some little cookies (sorry, can't remember the name of the place) and also found a Red Sox baseball hat I liked.
Faneuil HallMy next stop was the home of Paul Revere which was built in 1680. It's amazing to me that something that old would still be around, particularly something made of wood. 90% of the home is original and it has been restored to the late 17th century time frame and includes several items either made by or owned by the Revere's. During our tour it was pointed out that Paul Revere did not traverse the countryside yelling the 'British are coming' seeing as how his voice would not really have carried that far and if it had the British would clearly have heard him. He rode with 2 others and actually got captured by the British and totally ratted everyone out. Only one of the 3 riders actually made it past the British blockade/roadblock and even then he merely went to the homes of specific militia leaders to tell them what had happened. I went ahead and took the tour which was okay and probably worth the money to help preserve it. Every time I hit one of these 'pay' places I am thankful it's only me I'm paying for and not an entire family!
Paul Revere's former homeThe next stop on the trail is the Old North Church where the lanterns were hung to signal where the invasion would come from...'one if by land, two if by sea'. Leading up to the church is a plaza with a statue of Revere and several plaques placed on the walls commemorating various things in Boston history. The church itself is not particularly spectacular but the history there is interesting and the old style pews were cool to see. Instead of just long rows of pews they had what I consider to be 'box seats' that patrons could buy and use for their family. In fact one of them is still owned and used by the Revere family. It would have been really cool to go up into the bell tower but they would not let you do that.
Notice the 'private boxes' instead of long pew benches.From there I headed out to the Copp's Hill burying ground where there were a number of very old gravestones but none that were particularly famous. By that time my feet were hurting a bit and I needed to head back so that I could catch the Red Sox game so I hoofed it back to Boston Commons, getting lost a couple of times. For some reason I totally lost my sense of direction somewhere near the beginning of the trip and have had a hard time getting around since then. It's really frustrating and I'm beginning to wonder if that part of my brain shut down because I have the GPS.
Copp's Hill Burying GroundAfter getting back to the hostel and freshening up quickly I headed out to Fenway Park which is a short trip from the hostel. I have to say the hostel was really well located and the price pretty reasonable considering where I was. Back to Fenway...the park is the oldest in the nation and while I'm not a major fan of the Red Sox I think they've always been one of my favorites. Back in the day when I collected baseball cards they had Wade Boggs and Roger Clemens who were both really big stars. Nowadays they have new faces but their team is now the defending World Champions having won the world series last year. The stadium is not 'huge' but really feels like a park like Wrigley where baseball is the primary concern and nothing else. They had a large number of food vendors but they were all selling pretty much the same thing. I ended up getting myself a Boston dog which turned out to be a boiled hot dog on the funky hot dog buns they had in Chicago. It was okay, but not as good as the Chicago dog. Same thing with the park...it was nice but at least at Wrigley I fit into my seat. The seats at Fenway probably are 90 years old and were designed to fit people who were not as tall as I am. I fit but it was a little cramped and uncomfortable. Luckily the people around me were decent and I talked to an middle-aged couple who were sitting on my left. They lived in Boston and had for some time. When we got to talking about the Freedom Trail the husband mentioned that they didn't really ever do the things in the city even though they probably should. I feel the same way about home...we always seem to want to get away even though there are plenty of undiscovered treasures close to home for us to find. I'd like to try to explore the Salt Lake area a little more this summer and try to find some of those hidden gems.
Andrew at the old..ball...game!The Red Sox won, though it was close up to the finish. On the way back home I noticed a nice picture waiting to be taken where this old stone bridge crossed a placid river with a carriage type lamp on top of it and decided I would come back the next night. There were still plenty of people up and about at the hostel when I got back so I popped down to the kitchen to offload my pictures and catch up on my email. While I was talking to Melanie a girl who was from Australia asked if I could help get her laptop connected to the internet. Turns out she had been on a Jet Blue flight and they had lost her luggage. This was the day after Melanie had gotten stranded in New York because of Jet Blue so I'm starting to wonder about whether I really want to fly Jet Blue anymore or not. The girl from Australia, Leeann, used my laptop while I was on the phone and when I hung up we started chatting. Another Australian girl was sitting close and had been at the Red Sox game. Turns out she is a HUGE Red Sox fan and was following team across the country for a month! How amazing, who would ever think to find such a big baseball fan from Australia. And how did she get into baseball you ask? Well, I found out that she had been forced to take 8 weeks off by her job (!!!) because she had accrued too much leave. I can tell you that would never happen to me but Americans don't get 4 weeks of leave per year plus an additional 4 weeks after 10 years of service. In fact, I'm often confounded by our system of providing people with such measly leave. Hasn't anyone read studies showing that people who take vacation usually come back to work feeling much less stressed and are far more productive? Anyways, during her time off her friend made some bet with her about baseball so she had to watch a game and it just happened to be a Red Sox game. One of the players on the Sox is Coco Crisp (no lies) so that name stuck with her and because she was bored she just kept watching games and eventually got hooked. I told her someone ought to write a newspaper article about her and her journey because I think it would be cool to read something like that. I guess she'll just have to get her notoriety here :)
I made tentative plans with Leeann to goto Salem the next day since I didn't really have any major plans other than retracing the freedom trail and went off to bed.
D
Monday, May 19, 2008
To Acadia
I woke up too early Friday morning (so tired...) and had probably the best breakfast I had enjoyed on the trip thus far. I'm not sure if it was really that good or I was just so tired anything tasted awesome. I was able to make it Portland, ME in time to pick up Melanie from the airport and we took the long way around to Bar Harbor.
The first stop was at the Delorme store where we checked out the world's largest globe, Eartha. Turns out this store was started in some guy's garage and is now the largest supplier of map data in the world!
After that we grabbed a quick lunch because we worth both ravenous. We stopped at something called a lobster pound which is basically a road side diner where you can get fresh lobster and crab. I had a lobster roll and Melanie had a crab roll. To be honest, it was hard to tell them apart. Most of the Lobster I've had was pretty bland and sort of fishy. This was a really sweet meat and it really tasted a lot like crab. Either way it was delicious.
The next stop was a quick drop by the L.L. Bean original store in Greenwood, ME. They had a huge boot there that we took pictures with and other than that we just drove on. Along the route we kept getting distracted by various mansions and other amazing structures so we did a lot of stopping. We hit the Owl's Head lighthouse and the Rockland-Breakwater along the way. Both of them were neat to see but we couldn't go into either of them :(.
We were behind so we sort of hoofed it the rest of the distance to Acadia and didn't do much in the way of stopping. When we got to the Hostel we were greeted by Erin and Nova, both of whom were very gracious hosts. Nova actually ended up 'wasting' a lot of our time by being so much fun to talk to. She recommended a good place for us to have dinner called 'Poor Boys'. Melanie got the crab cakes (way to be adventurous!) and I had a Lobster Feast which consisted of Clam chowder, a whole boiled lobster, and a dessert. I've never eaten the lobster so that was pretty fun. I ended up having to get some pointers from both the waitress and the couple sitting next to us. I think the lady might have been a cougar but... The dessert was a blueberry crumb cake thing. I was so lucky, I got my 2 favorite things in one meal! Plus, they had a really good blueberry beer. Since I had already been a little sleepy that day the beer just took me over the top and I passed out soon after we got back to the Hostel.
The next day we started the day off at a place called Cafe This Way which Nova had described as fun and funky. It was pretty fun, not really that funky, and super yummy! I had the blueberry pancakes (surprised?) and Melanie had the Monte Cristo. I've never seen a breakfast Monte Cristo before but it was pretty good. They use French Toast for the bread and didn't really fry it much. After breakfast we were walking back and happened upon the Man Store. The place had some fun 'guy' stuff but the best were these Life is Crap t-shirts which plays on the 'life is good' brand of clothing. I got this one for myself (t-shirt).
Following the breakfast and shopping we hopped in the car to goto the Acadia visitor's center. It's really not that impressive there and the gihft shop is pathetic. Not even a single shot glass! Melanie hit the jackpot with those national park pins though...they had 5 or 6 pins with different light houses on them. After that we just hit the road. I'll say it again, this is the perfect time to visit. The weather is a bit dodgey and some things aren't open but the traffic and overcrowding are non-existent. We could just stop wherever, take some pics, then drive on. The scenery was, of course, beautiful. One of the best things was that the leaves on the trees bud out in a variety of colors. Some look red, some yellow, some green. When it was cold/rainy you could almost believe it was fall and then when it was sunny you could definitely tell it was spring so we got the best of both worlds there. My favorite part of the day was finding out that Jordan Pond House was open! I'd heard this was a must see and Nova wasn't sure they had opened but they opened up the day we arrived. We didn't get to eat there because of some time issues but I was overjoyed all the same. Instead of tea and popovers, we went hiking up the South Bubble (there are 2 of them, south and north) which was a pretty easy hike. I think being from Utah makes it easier for us because this group from LA came up and they were crying out about how they had overcome the mountain! The view was really pretty up there. The thing about most of the trails in the park is that private land owner groups built them before they donated the land to the park service. It just really made me appreciate, again, their foresight and selfishness in preparing these trails for everyone.
That evening we came back and decided to try eating at the Real Pizza place which is sort of like Brewvies at home: a movie theatre with tables at your seat so you can have food and or a beverage. The pizza was alright (hard to taste the flavors) but the movie, Iron Man, was great. I wasn't really expecting much so maybe that helped but in the end I enjoyed it regardless.
Day 3 was similar to day one...more Cafe This Way (funky eggs benedict this time), more sight seeing, some Jordan Pond. The lobster stew was phenomenal at the Pond House and the popovers were great. Funny story...when the guy brought out the condiments (butter, blueberry spread, strawberry spread) I thought he had brought out two sets so I told Melanie I was going to use all of the blueberry in one popover and then all of the strawberry in the next. As I was proceeding to hork all of the blueberry she asked if she was going to get any. I then realized that there was only 1 thing of blueberry spread and 1 of strawberry! If I'd taken them both she wouldn't have gotten any! Needless to say I was a little embarrassed so I asked the waiter if he would bring some more blueberry out. This time he gave each of us our own bowls of it. After the food we went out and hiked around the lake. When we left it was warm'ish and sunny. By the time we got half way around the lake (a surprisingly long amount of time), the wind had kicked up and was bringing in some more cold air and rain storms. The walk back was not super enjoyable but the scenery was still nice. I don't think we stopped as much since it was so cold! After hopping in the car we drove on and came to Cadillac Mountain (named for Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac who was given the island by the King of France. He also founded Detroit ergo the car name). This is the highest point in the park and the views were very nice. It's also supposed to be the first place the light hits the US but if you want to see this you have to get up at 4:30 a.m. so, as you can guess, we did not make it up there for this event. We tried to eat dinner at a place called Geddy's but they were horribly understaffed and we almost left after the waitress didn't show up for 15 mins. We decided to just get a drink and an appetizer and then make our way up Wall st to look at the fancy mansions of yesteryear. I would have liked to have more information about their history but it was nice to see anyway.
Our last day started off at Cafe This Way, yet again (blueberry pancakes all around). Since it was a Monday there were far fewer people and it had a bit of a different feel. Kind of sad since there wasn't anyone around. Afterwards we hurridly did some shopping then headed off to Portland to get Melanie on her plane. As usual, we managed to hit a bunch of road construction and then the stupid GPS had us do a big loop around for a detour. I swear, sometimes I just want to throw 'Betty' (Garmin Nuvi 680) out the window. Luckily we were able to make it to the airport in time and Melanie got to sit and wait for her delayed flight ordeal through New York while I sped off for Boston where I was able to catch up on this blog a bit. All the pics for Maine are up so browse away!
Pictures for today
Mel's Pictures
D
The first stop was at the Delorme store where we checked out the world's largest globe, Eartha. Turns out this store was started in some guy's garage and is now the largest supplier of map data in the world!
After that we grabbed a quick lunch because we worth both ravenous. We stopped at something called a lobster pound which is basically a road side diner where you can get fresh lobster and crab. I had a lobster roll and Melanie had a crab roll. To be honest, it was hard to tell them apart. Most of the Lobster I've had was pretty bland and sort of fishy. This was a really sweet meat and it really tasted a lot like crab. Either way it was delicious.
The next stop was a quick drop by the L.L. Bean original store in Greenwood, ME. They had a huge boot there that we took pictures with and other than that we just drove on. Along the route we kept getting distracted by various mansions and other amazing structures so we did a lot of stopping. We hit the Owl's Head lighthouse and the Rockland-Breakwater along the way. Both of them were neat to see but we couldn't go into either of them :(.
We were behind so we sort of hoofed it the rest of the distance to Acadia and didn't do much in the way of stopping. When we got to the Hostel we were greeted by Erin and Nova, both of whom were very gracious hosts. Nova actually ended up 'wasting' a lot of our time by being so much fun to talk to. She recommended a good place for us to have dinner called 'Poor Boys'. Melanie got the crab cakes (way to be adventurous!) and I had a Lobster Feast which consisted of Clam chowder, a whole boiled lobster, and a dessert. I've never eaten the lobster so that was pretty fun. I ended up having to get some pointers from both the waitress and the couple sitting next to us. I think the lady might have been a cougar but... The dessert was a blueberry crumb cake thing. I was so lucky, I got my 2 favorite things in one meal! Plus, they had a really good blueberry beer. Since I had already been a little sleepy that day the beer just took me over the top and I passed out soon after we got back to the Hostel.
The next day we started the day off at a place called Cafe This Way which Nova had described as fun and funky. It was pretty fun, not really that funky, and super yummy! I had the blueberry pancakes (surprised?) and Melanie had the Monte Cristo. I've never seen a breakfast Monte Cristo before but it was pretty good. They use French Toast for the bread and didn't really fry it much. After breakfast we were walking back and happened upon the Man Store. The place had some fun 'guy' stuff but the best were these Life is Crap t-shirts which plays on the 'life is good' brand of clothing. I got this one for myself (t-shirt).
Following the breakfast and shopping we hopped in the car to goto the Acadia visitor's center. It's really not that impressive there and the gihft shop is pathetic. Not even a single shot glass! Melanie hit the jackpot with those national park pins though...they had 5 or 6 pins with different light houses on them. After that we just hit the road. I'll say it again, this is the perfect time to visit. The weather is a bit dodgey and some things aren't open but the traffic and overcrowding are non-existent. We could just stop wherever, take some pics, then drive on. The scenery was, of course, beautiful. One of the best things was that the leaves on the trees bud out in a variety of colors. Some look red, some yellow, some green. When it was cold/rainy you could almost believe it was fall and then when it was sunny you could definitely tell it was spring so we got the best of both worlds there. My favorite part of the day was finding out that Jordan Pond House was open! I'd heard this was a must see and Nova wasn't sure they had opened but they opened up the day we arrived. We didn't get to eat there because of some time issues but I was overjoyed all the same. Instead of tea and popovers, we went hiking up the South Bubble (there are 2 of them, south and north) which was a pretty easy hike. I think being from Utah makes it easier for us because this group from LA came up and they were crying out about how they had overcome the mountain! The view was really pretty up there. The thing about most of the trails in the park is that private land owner groups built them before they donated the land to the park service. It just really made me appreciate, again, their foresight and selfishness in preparing these trails for everyone.
That evening we came back and decided to try eating at the Real Pizza place which is sort of like Brewvies at home: a movie theatre with tables at your seat so you can have food and or a beverage. The pizza was alright (hard to taste the flavors) but the movie, Iron Man, was great. I wasn't really expecting much so maybe that helped but in the end I enjoyed it regardless.
Day 3 was similar to day one...more Cafe This Way (funky eggs benedict this time), more sight seeing, some Jordan Pond. The lobster stew was phenomenal at the Pond House and the popovers were great. Funny story...when the guy brought out the condiments (butter, blueberry spread, strawberry spread) I thought he had brought out two sets so I told Melanie I was going to use all of the blueberry in one popover and then all of the strawberry in the next. As I was proceeding to hork all of the blueberry she asked if she was going to get any. I then realized that there was only 1 thing of blueberry spread and 1 of strawberry! If I'd taken them both she wouldn't have gotten any! Needless to say I was a little embarrassed so I asked the waiter if he would bring some more blueberry out. This time he gave each of us our own bowls of it. After the food we went out and hiked around the lake. When we left it was warm'ish and sunny. By the time we got half way around the lake (a surprisingly long amount of time), the wind had kicked up and was bringing in some more cold air and rain storms. The walk back was not super enjoyable but the scenery was still nice. I don't think we stopped as much since it was so cold! After hopping in the car we drove on and came to Cadillac Mountain (named for Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac who was given the island by the King of France. He also founded Detroit ergo the car name). This is the highest point in the park and the views were very nice. It's also supposed to be the first place the light hits the US but if you want to see this you have to get up at 4:30 a.m. so, as you can guess, we did not make it up there for this event. We tried to eat dinner at a place called Geddy's but they were horribly understaffed and we almost left after the waitress didn't show up for 15 mins. We decided to just get a drink and an appetizer and then make our way up Wall st to look at the fancy mansions of yesteryear. I would have liked to have more information about their history but it was nice to see anyway.
Our last day started off at Cafe This Way, yet again (blueberry pancakes all around). Since it was a Monday there were far fewer people and it had a bit of a different feel. Kind of sad since there wasn't anyone around. Afterwards we hurridly did some shopping then headed off to Portland to get Melanie on her plane. As usual, we managed to hit a bunch of road construction and then the stupid GPS had us do a big loop around for a detour. I swear, sometimes I just want to throw 'Betty' (Garmin Nuvi 680) out the window. Luckily we were able to make it to the airport in time and Melanie got to sit and wait for her delayed flight ordeal through New York while I sped off for Boston where I was able to catch up on this blog a bit. All the pics for Maine are up so browse away!
Pictures for today
Mel's Pictures
D
NY to NH
There was a lamp in the hostel room that I assumed my 'roomate' (who apparently was a diabetic and some sort of holistic musician) would turn out. Turns out he didn't and it sounded like he was opening and closing 3 ring binders all night. It might have been that he kept getting into his insulin cooler but as far as I know you don't 'snack' on insulin so who knows. Needless to say I didn't get a great night's sleep.
I got up and showered and decided I could spare an hour to go out and walk around Buffalo. The night before I had gotten on Wikipedia and read up on Buffalo. Turns out it used to be the 8th largest city in the nation thanks to the combination of the Erie Canal going through it as well as it's growth as a rail and manufacturing hub. Apparently the downturn for the city began in the 1950's with the opening of the St Lawerence Waterway. After that the gradual downturn in American manufacturing and the loss of rail traffic took away most of the jobs and thus the people. In fact, the population now is down to 1890's levels. Wow. There were several sites worth seeing, the best being a war memorial and the radial center of the city including the city hall and the surrounding architecture.
Since I was in the area and had seen the signs for Niagara Falls I decided I might as well take advantage of the proximity and go check it out. Turns out it was a great day for it because unlike the previous day's constant rain the sun was out and it was a warm, pretty day. It was definitely worth the side trip...the falls themselves were beautiful and there were some really nice houses in the area I took some photos of. You could really do a lot there with all of the tours and boats and things and Toronto is right across the river. They also nickle and dime you for everything. $10 to get in and then another $1 to go out on the observation deck. I have no idea how much the various tours and boat trips cost but even a guided hike costs money.
After the falls it was back onto the wonderful tollway system down to Utica. I broke off there and decided to take a detour through the Adirondacks. This was another worthwhile side trip. The area is a mix of public/private land and the state of New York owns the public land. It's interesting to think about the differences in the land usage/ownership between East and West. Back east, most of the land is private/state owned and was purchased from the Indians. At some point we decided that taking by force was a better idea and so the Federal government ends up owning all of it and there are only small inholdings within public lands. Not only that but the Federal government generally has to be coerced to invoke protected status on these lands and/or people get really ticked when this happens. Back East, concerned citizens purchased lands and prompted state governments to protect lands. The roads through the area were awesome 2 lane, rolling roads with gentle curves that would probably be fun to drive in almost any sort of vehicle. I continue to be impressed with the Prius...it really handled nicely and while it's not a Porsche it has enough pep and agility to be fun to drive.
After passing through the Adirondacks I drove through Vermont to New Hampshire. I was sort of blown away by how wide open Vermont is. It really seems like the whole thing is one unbroken forest. Turns out their population is 49th in the nation which helps to explain this feeling. I didn't find any neat place that I could pop in and grab some syrup though so I was a little disappointed in that.
I drove into Hanover, NH and decided that I probably didn't want to stay at the fancy inn abutting the Dartmouth campus so I drove into town and ended up staying at a Days Inn. The lady at the front desk recommended a restaurant attached to a local gas station called 'The Fort'. Wow, this place was awesome. It's a small diner that seems to be frequented by locals, all of whom had the New England accent and seemed to know each other. It was neat to see them interacting. Another huge bonus was the discovery of the grilled muffin!!! I noticed they had some super tasty looking muffins by the door so I asked for one of them and asked if they would heat it up. The waitress asked me if I wanted it grilled. Having never had such a thing I said 'Sure, let's try it out'. Man, it was so good! They cut the muffin in half across the middle, probably a quarter of an inch below the top. I'm pretty sure it was grilled with butter before being served which made it extra delicious. Needless to say I went to bed with a happy belly.
Pics
Niagara Falls
Buffalo
-D
I got up and showered and decided I could spare an hour to go out and walk around Buffalo. The night before I had gotten on Wikipedia and read up on Buffalo. Turns out it used to be the 8th largest city in the nation thanks to the combination of the Erie Canal going through it as well as it's growth as a rail and manufacturing hub. Apparently the downturn for the city began in the 1950's with the opening of the St Lawerence Waterway. After that the gradual downturn in American manufacturing and the loss of rail traffic took away most of the jobs and thus the people. In fact, the population now is down to 1890's levels. Wow. There were several sites worth seeing, the best being a war memorial and the radial center of the city including the city hall and the surrounding architecture.
Since I was in the area and had seen the signs for Niagara Falls I decided I might as well take advantage of the proximity and go check it out. Turns out it was a great day for it because unlike the previous day's constant rain the sun was out and it was a warm, pretty day. It was definitely worth the side trip...the falls themselves were beautiful and there were some really nice houses in the area I took some photos of. You could really do a lot there with all of the tours and boats and things and Toronto is right across the river. They also nickle and dime you for everything. $10 to get in and then another $1 to go out on the observation deck. I have no idea how much the various tours and boat trips cost but even a guided hike costs money.
After the falls it was back onto the wonderful tollway system down to Utica. I broke off there and decided to take a detour through the Adirondacks. This was another worthwhile side trip. The area is a mix of public/private land and the state of New York owns the public land. It's interesting to think about the differences in the land usage/ownership between East and West. Back east, most of the land is private/state owned and was purchased from the Indians. At some point we decided that taking by force was a better idea and so the Federal government ends up owning all of it and there are only small inholdings within public lands. Not only that but the Federal government generally has to be coerced to invoke protected status on these lands and/or people get really ticked when this happens. Back East, concerned citizens purchased lands and prompted state governments to protect lands. The roads through the area were awesome 2 lane, rolling roads with gentle curves that would probably be fun to drive in almost any sort of vehicle. I continue to be impressed with the Prius...it really handled nicely and while it's not a Porsche it has enough pep and agility to be fun to drive.
After passing through the Adirondacks I drove through Vermont to New Hampshire. I was sort of blown away by how wide open Vermont is. It really seems like the whole thing is one unbroken forest. Turns out their population is 49th in the nation which helps to explain this feeling. I didn't find any neat place that I could pop in and grab some syrup though so I was a little disappointed in that.
I drove into Hanover, NH and decided that I probably didn't want to stay at the fancy inn abutting the Dartmouth campus so I drove into town and ended up staying at a Days Inn. The lady at the front desk recommended a restaurant attached to a local gas station called 'The Fort'. Wow, this place was awesome. It's a small diner that seems to be frequented by locals, all of whom had the New England accent and seemed to know each other. It was neat to see them interacting. Another huge bonus was the discovery of the grilled muffin!!! I noticed they had some super tasty looking muffins by the door so I asked for one of them and asked if they would heat it up. The waitress asked me if I wanted it grilled. Having never had such a thing I said 'Sure, let's try it out'. Man, it was so good! They cut the muffin in half across the middle, probably a quarter of an inch below the top. I'm pretty sure it was grilled with butter before being served which made it extra delicious. Needless to say I went to bed with a happy belly.
Pics
Niagara Falls
Buffalo
-D
Toll Road Heaven
I realize I owe some catch-up posts but I got to Boston a bit early today so here we go.
I was able to get out of the hostel about 10:30 and hit the road. My gameplan was to make it to Buffalo because there was a hostel there I could stay at for the night before heading on to New Hampshire. Turns out nearly all of the roads to Buffalo were Toll Roads, starting with my escape route from Chicago and continuing all along northern Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York. I probably spent about $20 on tolls driving through Chicago to NY. It was pretty spendy but on the other hand the roads were wonderful. I'm used to the freeways in Dallas and Utah and pretty much anywhere west of the Mississippi...once you get to a city there is basically a non-stop on/off situation with billboards all over the place and traffic is usually a nightmare. However, on the toll roads you have none of this. Exits are few and far between, usually every 20-30 miles and instead of getting off the freeway to find something to eat/drink/gas, there are travel plazas all along the road (again, every 20-30 miles) which are setup to accomodate these needs. This is the perfect way to travel cross country...you can really just travel on eating up the road instead of running like a jack rabbit between cities and then crawling like a turtle through them. Another bonus is that you don't really have much in the way to block out the scenery. It really makes the trip both more enjoyable and relaxing.
I don't have much of interest to report along the way. Driving through Cleveland was interesting because I'd never been there and since I'd heard Cleveland had been hit REALLY hard by the housing crisis I was curious to see if the effects were visible. I saw some dilapidated areas but the really bad spots must have been a bit off the beaten path.
I ended up getting off the interstate and onto something called the Seaway Trail when I tried to find a place to get some gas. I think I ended up in the small town of Westfield which I thought was in Pennsylvania but ended up being in NY. There were some neat little houses in there alongside Lake Erie that I took some pictures of. All of the gas stations there were closed so I had to go further inland to the center of the town. One of the stations on the road inland only had old-style pumps and was 'out' of all gas except premium. Seemed like a scam to me so I drove on further and ended up getting gas at a station that was out of all gas except regular! Crazy town. There were some nice older homes in this area as well. I'm assuming that almost any town around there will have similar homes. In fact I've found that the styles are pretty consistent throughout New England.
I ended up pulling into Buffalo around 9 p.m. Now I had this pre-conceived notion about Buffalo that it was going to be a run-down town full of dirty old factories and angry rioters. I know that sounds silly but that's how I pictured it. Right away I was blown away by some of the buildings there. My GPS chose to take me through downtown and right past the beautiful Buffalo City Hall building. There's also an Obelisk in the middle of this roundabout and then this tall building with 2 Statue of Liberty replicas. The houses downtown were all turn of the century and interesting to me as well. How odd that a hundred years ago the homes of the rich were built right alongside the main drag whereas today the rich try to get as far away from the hustle and bustle of city life as possible (at least out west). Funny story, the GPS told me to turn left on Main Street. Turns out the software needs an update because Main Street is closed to vehicular traffic because it is a mass transit line now! Good thing I didn't try to make that turn when it was running! I hurridly backed up and managed to find my own way to the hostel. It was a pretty quiet place with only a few guests. Someone was sharing my room but I didn't see him at the time and I asked the front desk where I could get something to eat and they pointed me to a local pizza place on Chippewa street. I found the place pretty easily and got 3 different slices of pizza to go.
As I was walking down the street in the rain, just checking it out, this guy came up and asked for money. I've gotten used to just telling people I don't carry cash so I gave him that excuse. He then asked for some of my pizza and I explained that I was starving and couldn't spare any. He then started telling me about how the street was normally 'bangin' but since it was raining there wasn't much going on. He then went on to tell me that he helped people get dope. Hilarious...I told him I didn't do that and walked off. I was thinking that he seemed awfully old to be trying to sell dope on the street and maybe he would be better off trying to find a job at one of the hundred clubs on that street. Just another memorable first for me on this trip :)
After all the excitement I just wandered back to the hostel and got ready for bed.
Pics for the day: http://picasaweb.google.com/high.priest.of.good.times/PAAndNY
-D
I was able to get out of the hostel about 10:30 and hit the road. My gameplan was to make it to Buffalo because there was a hostel there I could stay at for the night before heading on to New Hampshire. Turns out nearly all of the roads to Buffalo were Toll Roads, starting with my escape route from Chicago and continuing all along northern Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York. I probably spent about $20 on tolls driving through Chicago to NY. It was pretty spendy but on the other hand the roads were wonderful. I'm used to the freeways in Dallas and Utah and pretty much anywhere west of the Mississippi...once you get to a city there is basically a non-stop on/off situation with billboards all over the place and traffic is usually a nightmare. However, on the toll roads you have none of this. Exits are few and far between, usually every 20-30 miles and instead of getting off the freeway to find something to eat/drink/gas, there are travel plazas all along the road (again, every 20-30 miles) which are setup to accomodate these needs. This is the perfect way to travel cross country...you can really just travel on eating up the road instead of running like a jack rabbit between cities and then crawling like a turtle through them. Another bonus is that you don't really have much in the way to block out the scenery. It really makes the trip both more enjoyable and relaxing.
I don't have much of interest to report along the way. Driving through Cleveland was interesting because I'd never been there and since I'd heard Cleveland had been hit REALLY hard by the housing crisis I was curious to see if the effects were visible. I saw some dilapidated areas but the really bad spots must have been a bit off the beaten path.
I ended up getting off the interstate and onto something called the Seaway Trail when I tried to find a place to get some gas. I think I ended up in the small town of Westfield which I thought was in Pennsylvania but ended up being in NY. There were some neat little houses in there alongside Lake Erie that I took some pictures of. All of the gas stations there were closed so I had to go further inland to the center of the town. One of the stations on the road inland only had old-style pumps and was 'out' of all gas except premium. Seemed like a scam to me so I drove on further and ended up getting gas at a station that was out of all gas except regular! Crazy town. There were some nice older homes in this area as well. I'm assuming that almost any town around there will have similar homes. In fact I've found that the styles are pretty consistent throughout New England.
I ended up pulling into Buffalo around 9 p.m. Now I had this pre-conceived notion about Buffalo that it was going to be a run-down town full of dirty old factories and angry rioters. I know that sounds silly but that's how I pictured it. Right away I was blown away by some of the buildings there. My GPS chose to take me through downtown and right past the beautiful Buffalo City Hall building. There's also an Obelisk in the middle of this roundabout and then this tall building with 2 Statue of Liberty replicas. The houses downtown were all turn of the century and interesting to me as well. How odd that a hundred years ago the homes of the rich were built right alongside the main drag whereas today the rich try to get as far away from the hustle and bustle of city life as possible (at least out west). Funny story, the GPS told me to turn left on Main Street. Turns out the software needs an update because Main Street is closed to vehicular traffic because it is a mass transit line now! Good thing I didn't try to make that turn when it was running! I hurridly backed up and managed to find my own way to the hostel. It was a pretty quiet place with only a few guests. Someone was sharing my room but I didn't see him at the time and I asked the front desk where I could get something to eat and they pointed me to a local pizza place on Chippewa street. I found the place pretty easily and got 3 different slices of pizza to go.
As I was walking down the street in the rain, just checking it out, this guy came up and asked for money. I've gotten used to just telling people I don't carry cash so I gave him that excuse. He then asked for some of my pizza and I explained that I was starving and couldn't spare any. He then started telling me about how the street was normally 'bangin' but since it was raining there wasn't much going on. He then went on to tell me that he helped people get dope. Hilarious...I told him I didn't do that and walked off. I was thinking that he seemed awfully old to be trying to sell dope on the street and maybe he would be better off trying to find a job at one of the hundred clubs on that street. Just another memorable first for me on this trip :)
After all the excitement I just wandered back to the hostel and got ready for bed.
Pics for the day: http://picasaweb.google.com/high.priest.of.good.times/PAAndNY
-D
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Chicago, the 2nd
Today was my second full day in Chicago. I managed to catch up on some more sleep in the morning and was well rested for a full day. My first stop was the Art Institute of Chicago which is one of the places where Ferris Beuller and his friends went in the move 'Ferris Beuller's Day Off'. This movie has sort of acted as a template for my trip. Unfortunately I haven't managed to sneak into a fancy restaurant or take over float :) Also, I haven't seen Cameron's dad's Ferrari anywhere....
The Art Institute is another gigantic museum with passage-way upon passage-way and I got trapped in the time warp there, too. I was trying to only spend 3 or 4 hours there but ended up being there for 6! Highlights include the full size version of Seurat's 'Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte ' and a number of Renior's works (my favorite was 'On the Terrace'). I was surprised that I have not really noted that I love Renoir's paintings before. I'm not sure exactly what it is...I really like his color pallette and the soft glow he seems to impart to everything. Wonderful. The museum was just too big to see in one day so I was sort of glad that several sections were closed. The museum is adding a new modern art wing so I'll have to check that out when I come back.
After the museum I walked up to Navy Pier. I'd heard this place was a big deal and a must see for Chicago but to be honest it wasn't all that great. It's just a long pier with a variety of shops and tour excursions...basically another money hole. Maybe it's better in the summer when they have more stuff going on. I think I was expecting more of a Coney Island than I got. There are some great views of the city from there so it wasn't a total wash and of course I can check it off of the list of places I've been.
By the time I started back to the hostel I was pretty beat from being on my feet for the past 2 days. My lower back started hurting (probably from my heaving breasts) so I was just trying to get back as quickly as possible. I guess I hadn't realized just how far I had walked because it took me about 40 mins at my top walking speed to get back! Luckily I made it back with plenty of time to spare before I left for the Cub's game so I had some time to rest up before my next outing.
Like Sunday, I hopped the El up to the game. Unlike Sunday there was a mixture of rush hour commuters and cubs fan so the train was very packed. It reminded me of the 'human cattle' cars on the Indian railroad but it smelled a lot better. On the train I started talking with some girls about going to the Cubs game and how far I had travelled. One of them had met someone else from Dallas who was a big Cubs fan and I guess he grew up watching WGN, too. Weird. After we got off that same girl invited me to go out with her and her friends after the game. Finally I'd made contact with someone new! She was there for an alumni event with Northwestern and had brought her mom as well.
The main reason I even chose this Cubs game was because they were having a promotion where the first 10,000 people would get a Alfonso Soriano Bobblehead doll. I figured it would make a great souvenir. They still had some when I got there because I saw the ushers handing them out. The policy at Wrigley Field is no re-entry so I figured I would take some pictures and then head in and I could still get my bobble head. Well, I saw this cubs store and decided to go in to get a couple of souvenirs. Bad idea...when I shop I tend to be sort of aimless because I have a hard time picking something. I ended up wasting so much time that they were completely out of bobble heads by the time I got in :( Idiot! Next time I'm going to get my ass in the stadium and wait to buy stuff til later.
The game was pretty good and my seats were really close to the field again. Rain started coming in around the 2nd inning and it pretty much rained the rest of the game in varying degrees of intensity. I sat it out though only to watch the Cubs lose 4-3. The curse of the bobble head! After the game I called Ashley and met her down at the John Hancock building for a drink. On the way I wandered up a bit of the Magnificent Mile which I didn't think I was going to have time to see on my trip. They have a bar/restaurant on the 96th floor with a great view of downtown at night. Since the rain had blown through and it wasn't raining anymore the view was amazing and we could see some lighting flashes. I had an enjoyable time talking with Ashley...she has done some interesting things since graduating including setting up a non-profit that helps develop areas in Ghana. Always nice to meet another traveller. She said that if I came out again she'd show me around the north side of Chicago.
To get back I had to get on the train north bound to come south bound because of some construction. Then the south bound train skipped my stop so I had to get on another north bound train before I finally got back to my stop. Once again I was out past 1 a.m. so today will be another starbucks day for me!
I jumbled the pictures from yesterday in with my other Chicago pics and put up some new ones of the Cubs game.
Chicago
Cubs Game
Cheers!
The Art Institute is another gigantic museum with passage-way upon passage-way and I got trapped in the time warp there, too. I was trying to only spend 3 or 4 hours there but ended up being there for 6! Highlights include the full size version of Seurat's 'Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte ' and a number of Renior's works (my favorite was 'On the Terrace'). I was surprised that I have not really noted that I love Renoir's paintings before. I'm not sure exactly what it is...I really like his color pallette and the soft glow he seems to impart to everything. Wonderful. The museum was just too big to see in one day so I was sort of glad that several sections were closed. The museum is adding a new modern art wing so I'll have to check that out when I come back.
After the museum I walked up to Navy Pier. I'd heard this place was a big deal and a must see for Chicago but to be honest it wasn't all that great. It's just a long pier with a variety of shops and tour excursions...basically another money hole. Maybe it's better in the summer when they have more stuff going on. I think I was expecting more of a Coney Island than I got. There are some great views of the city from there so it wasn't a total wash and of course I can check it off of the list of places I've been.
By the time I started back to the hostel I was pretty beat from being on my feet for the past 2 days. My lower back started hurting (probably from my heaving breasts) so I was just trying to get back as quickly as possible. I guess I hadn't realized just how far I had walked because it took me about 40 mins at my top walking speed to get back! Luckily I made it back with plenty of time to spare before I left for the Cub's game so I had some time to rest up before my next outing.
Like Sunday, I hopped the El up to the game. Unlike Sunday there was a mixture of rush hour commuters and cubs fan so the train was very packed. It reminded me of the 'human cattle' cars on the Indian railroad but it smelled a lot better. On the train I started talking with some girls about going to the Cubs game and how far I had travelled. One of them had met someone else from Dallas who was a big Cubs fan and I guess he grew up watching WGN, too. Weird. After we got off that same girl invited me to go out with her and her friends after the game. Finally I'd made contact with someone new! She was there for an alumni event with Northwestern and had brought her mom as well.
The main reason I even chose this Cubs game was because they were having a promotion where the first 10,000 people would get a Alfonso Soriano Bobblehead doll. I figured it would make a great souvenir. They still had some when I got there because I saw the ushers handing them out. The policy at Wrigley Field is no re-entry so I figured I would take some pictures and then head in and I could still get my bobble head. Well, I saw this cubs store and decided to go in to get a couple of souvenirs. Bad idea...when I shop I tend to be sort of aimless because I have a hard time picking something. I ended up wasting so much time that they were completely out of bobble heads by the time I got in :( Idiot! Next time I'm going to get my ass in the stadium and wait to buy stuff til later.
The game was pretty good and my seats were really close to the field again. Rain started coming in around the 2nd inning and it pretty much rained the rest of the game in varying degrees of intensity. I sat it out though only to watch the Cubs lose 4-3. The curse of the bobble head! After the game I called Ashley and met her down at the John Hancock building for a drink. On the way I wandered up a bit of the Magnificent Mile which I didn't think I was going to have time to see on my trip. They have a bar/restaurant on the 96th floor with a great view of downtown at night. Since the rain had blown through and it wasn't raining anymore the view was amazing and we could see some lighting flashes. I had an enjoyable time talking with Ashley...she has done some interesting things since graduating including setting up a non-profit that helps develop areas in Ghana. Always nice to meet another traveller. She said that if I came out again she'd show me around the north side of Chicago.
To get back I had to get on the train north bound to come south bound because of some construction. Then the south bound train skipped my stop so I had to get on another north bound train before I finally got back to my stop. Once again I was out past 1 a.m. so today will be another starbucks day for me!
I jumbled the pictures from yesterday in with my other Chicago pics and put up some new ones of the Cubs game.
Chicago
Cubs Game
Cheers!
Monday, May 12, 2008
'Field' Day
Despite the noise and occasional shaking from the El I was able to get a pretty good night sleep (about 10 hours!). The only problem I had was getting out of bed because I was in the top bunk and they didn't think to put enough ladders in the room for all the top bunkers (1 ladder, 3 top bunks). Oh well, good thing I climbed trees as a kid :)
I actually didn't mean to sleep so late and barely made it down for the free breakfast they have here. It was pretty decent for such a place: Bananas, cereal, toast, muffins (banana nut and blueberry!) and coffee/juice. I've been trying to drink more coffee lately as a healthier and less caloric replacement for sodas. The only clue that I was breakfasting in a hostel was that I had to wash my plate and cup.
After a quick (and refreshing) shower I headed out for the day. About half a block down the road I tried to take a picture and the camera complained that it couldn't store the image! Whoops, I forgot to pull the SD card out of my camera (stupid Canon and their non-standard camera drivers). I had to head back to the hostel quickly and grab the card. I would've been really upset if I'd gone out and taken a bunch of pictures and didn't have any of them!
Even though it was sunny out, it was surprisingly chilly so I was glad I had a sweater on. I guess the lake really cools things down out here. I headed over to Grant's park which is a short 5 minute walk away. This park lines the shore of Lake Michigan and has a beautiful fountain (Buckingham). I got some pictures and decided I would try coming back at night to see if I could take some longer exposures.
The next stop on the trail was a hot dog stand outside of the Field Museum where I had my first Chicago-style hot dog with the works. It was quite good, the variety of flavors (mostly tangy/bright) and textures kept my palate interested. I washed it down with a cold Mt Dew (the vendor didn't have any beer :( ). The view from the North Side of the museum grounds is quite beautiful, encompassing a majority of the sky scrapers in Chicago.
Since it was the second Monday of the month, today was free day at the Field Museum and I certainly got my money's worth. I ended up wandering from hall to hall for 5 or 6 hours. I started off in this habitats area, then wandered into a mammals area, then some birds, then ancient Egypt, etc... Despite the amount of time I spent there I think I only saw about 40% of the museum! This is something that Slat Lake is sorely lacking. Downtown is basically devoid of any museums: art, history, etc... The U has some museums but they are pathetic to be honest. I guess I got spoiled by the wonderful museums in Dallas. Perhaps that is the one thing I miss about the 'big' city.
After the museum I came back to the hostel to recharge for a bit. I planned out my next trip which was to the Sears Tower observatory. I also needed to grab some dinner while I was out so I stopped at the info desk and they recommended a Chicago-style (deep dish) pizza place. Thanks to the wonderfully central location of the hostel, the tower was only a 10 minutes walk away with plenty of interesting architectural wonders to examine. I've come to the conclusion that I need to make another trip to Chicago and go on some of the walking/bus tours of the city's architecture. Salt Lake has a great walking tour of downtown that you can go on but the scale cannot compare to Chicago.
Sear's tower was great except that the windows must have gotten mucked up during the rainstorm the previous day. Several of my pictures have weird 'spots' on them from this. The view was amazing and I got up to the top just in time to see the sun set. An added bonus is the interior wall of the observation deck has a timeline of Chicago's history including music/architecture/sports/etc... I soak up the history so this was really nice for me. After the sun was mostly gone I tried to take some longer exposure night time shots. For some reason, the shots kept coming out blurry even though I had the camera on a tripod. Oh well, that's the beauty of digital: you take some good, some bad, but only publish the good so everyone thinks you're great. Whoops, I guess I let the cat out of the bag :)
On the way back I stopped at the pizza place, Giordano's. I think I got there just before they closed so I'm not sure how excited they were to see me. There was a big group of LSU kids at the table next to me and I helped them out by taking a picture of the group. I think I remember seeing most of them up at the Sear's Tower so they must have been on the same timeline as I was. The pizza was really good...the best way for me to describe it is that the crust tastes a lot like a pot pie. It's a really filling pizza and I only ate a few pieces. I also had a local beer there...gooseneck I think. Pretty standard wheat beer.
On the way back to the Hostel I detoured to the fountain to see if I could get that long exposure shot I wanted. Turns out it's not really all that lit up at night so that was sort of a wash. My best bet is probably just before or after the sun rises. I doubt I'll get out there tomorrow bc it's late now so I prob won't get up early and I have to be at the Cub's game early to try and get in on the bobble-head action. I did decide to stay on tomorrow night as well so I'll have a shot Wednesday morning before I head out to Ohio.
Well, that's all for now. Lazy pictures again today :)
Chicago
Sear's Tower
I actually didn't mean to sleep so late and barely made it down for the free breakfast they have here. It was pretty decent for such a place: Bananas, cereal, toast, muffins (banana nut and blueberry!) and coffee/juice. I've been trying to drink more coffee lately as a healthier and less caloric replacement for sodas. The only clue that I was breakfasting in a hostel was that I had to wash my plate and cup.
After a quick (and refreshing) shower I headed out for the day. About half a block down the road I tried to take a picture and the camera complained that it couldn't store the image! Whoops, I forgot to pull the SD card out of my camera (stupid Canon and their non-standard camera drivers). I had to head back to the hostel quickly and grab the card. I would've been really upset if I'd gone out and taken a bunch of pictures and didn't have any of them!
Even though it was sunny out, it was surprisingly chilly so I was glad I had a sweater on. I guess the lake really cools things down out here. I headed over to Grant's park which is a short 5 minute walk away. This park lines the shore of Lake Michigan and has a beautiful fountain (Buckingham). I got some pictures and decided I would try coming back at night to see if I could take some longer exposures.
The next stop on the trail was a hot dog stand outside of the Field Museum where I had my first Chicago-style hot dog with the works. It was quite good, the variety of flavors (mostly tangy/bright) and textures kept my palate interested. I washed it down with a cold Mt Dew (the vendor didn't have any beer :( ). The view from the North Side of the museum grounds is quite beautiful, encompassing a majority of the sky scrapers in Chicago.
Since it was the second Monday of the month, today was free day at the Field Museum and I certainly got my money's worth. I ended up wandering from hall to hall for 5 or 6 hours. I started off in this habitats area, then wandered into a mammals area, then some birds, then ancient Egypt, etc... Despite the amount of time I spent there I think I only saw about 40% of the museum! This is something that Slat Lake is sorely lacking. Downtown is basically devoid of any museums: art, history, etc... The U has some museums but they are pathetic to be honest. I guess I got spoiled by the wonderful museums in Dallas. Perhaps that is the one thing I miss about the 'big' city.
After the museum I came back to the hostel to recharge for a bit. I planned out my next trip which was to the Sears Tower observatory. I also needed to grab some dinner while I was out so I stopped at the info desk and they recommended a Chicago-style (deep dish) pizza place. Thanks to the wonderfully central location of the hostel, the tower was only a 10 minutes walk away with plenty of interesting architectural wonders to examine. I've come to the conclusion that I need to make another trip to Chicago and go on some of the walking/bus tours of the city's architecture. Salt Lake has a great walking tour of downtown that you can go on but the scale cannot compare to Chicago.
Sear's tower was great except that the windows must have gotten mucked up during the rainstorm the previous day. Several of my pictures have weird 'spots' on them from this. The view was amazing and I got up to the top just in time to see the sun set. An added bonus is the interior wall of the observation deck has a timeline of Chicago's history including music/architecture/sports/etc... I soak up the history so this was really nice for me. After the sun was mostly gone I tried to take some longer exposure night time shots. For some reason, the shots kept coming out blurry even though I had the camera on a tripod. Oh well, that's the beauty of digital: you take some good, some bad, but only publish the good so everyone thinks you're great. Whoops, I guess I let the cat out of the bag :)
On the way back I stopped at the pizza place, Giordano's. I think I got there just before they closed so I'm not sure how excited they were to see me. There was a big group of LSU kids at the table next to me and I helped them out by taking a picture of the group. I think I remember seeing most of them up at the Sear's Tower so they must have been on the same timeline as I was. The pizza was really good...the best way for me to describe it is that the crust tastes a lot like a pot pie. It's a really filling pizza and I only ate a few pieces. I also had a local beer there...gooseneck I think. Pretty standard wheat beer.
On the way back to the Hostel I detoured to the fountain to see if I could get that long exposure shot I wanted. Turns out it's not really all that lit up at night so that was sort of a wash. My best bet is probably just before or after the sun rises. I doubt I'll get out there tomorrow bc it's late now so I prob won't get up early and I have to be at the Cub's game early to try and get in on the bobble-head action. I did decide to stay on tomorrow night as well so I'll have a shot Wednesday morning before I head out to Ohio.
Well, that's all for now. Lazy pictures again today :)
Chicago
Sear's Tower
Sunday, May 11, 2008
The Drive, Part II (hellish version)
Wow, what a busy day. I started the day off right by waking up later than I had wanted to after getting to bed later than I had wanted to. So much for making sure I started the trip off with plenty of rest :)
After checking out of the hotel (the breakfast was not that great...) I drove down to Wind Cave National Park. I mostly wanted to visit this place because we bought some old national parks postcards when we went to Bryce and Wind Cave was one of the places that was featured on a card. Plus it was very close to Custer so it did not seem like much of a detour. When I got there I found out that I would have to wait 40 mins for the tour to start which meant I would be an hour and a half behind schedule right of the bat. Oh well, it's a once in a lifetime opportunity, right? Unfortunately they only have one tour open at this time of year.
I've found that I've got a significant trade off on this trip of avoiding crowds and missing out on some of the programs and things that are available at the parks in the post-Memorial Day time frame.
The cave was pretty interesting. I forgot that I had gone into some caves in Mexico when Chi/Sean/Kelly/I went back in 2001. To be honest, this cave was not nearly as cool and unfortunately I discovered that my camera does not have a great flash for taking natural pictures in low-light conditions...bummer. Overall, the cave was cool and the best part was learning about how it had been discovered, explored, and then the geology behind it. Love that stuff. No shot glasses at the gift center but I did pick up a pin for Melanie which I may take for my own :)
Upon leaving Wind Cave I drove through the adjoining Custer state park. What a pretty area! There were so many wild creatures roaming about that I had to stop to take pictures several times. I managed to snap prairie dogs, wild turkey, pronghorn antelope, deer, and a bison. Needless to say this put me just a smidgen further behind schedule :)
The byway that goes through Custer takes you right to the Iron Mountain Road leading up to Mount Rushmore. This road was a lovely winding path that would have been a major pain in the summer when more people were about because of the one lane nature of the tunnels and some bridges. Luckily, I was there on a day when there were hardly any people so I could stop and take pictures as I pleased. The Prius is the perfect vehicle for this because it will happily shut down its engine while you take pictures and then take off on battery power while it can once you decide to head out again.
Mount Rushmore in the day was AMAZING. I think this is one of those things that you have to see and learn about to truly appreciate the magnitude of the accomplishment there. I felt quite patriotic while reading about the great people memorialized in stone here and it made me wonder what they would think about the state of things today. I'm not going to get on the political soapbox here so I'll leave that for you to ruminate on :) I'd love to be able to see this again (at night this time, without the fog!) and I might one day take another trip to the Black Hills region. Unfortunately I began realizing at this point that I was getting sick (run-away nasal drainage).
My way out of dodge took me through Rapid City, SD which is pretty small and then onto the barren expanse of I-90 as it passes through South Dakota. First of all, the drive is quite long (673 miles) and really has little to break it up. Add to that the RAGING wind from the north east which was a) killing my gas mileage and b) throwing my poor car all over the road and you can imagine how much 'fun' I had while driving this one. I had to stop a couple of times to get drugs to help contain my cold and the center console of the Prius ended up resembling a small medicine cabinet. To make this LONG story short, this part of the drive was quite sucky!
I finally wheeled into Minnesota around 2 a.m. Sunday morning and was having a hard time staying away so I pulled into the 2nd rest area I saw and decided I would set my alarm for a 2 hour and 3 hour interval nap and then decide which one was more appropriate. I woke up shortly before hte 2 hour alarm was set to go off and I was getting quite cold and a little hungry so I decided to get up and head off again. I had some coffee which had finally cooled off to get my jets started and headed off for the border with Wisconsin. Around 5 a.m. I decided it was time for my last power nap before the long haul into Chicago so I stopped and had a 1 hour nap. This nap was awesome and really woke me up. Plus the Dayquil I had purchased was finally kicking in (yay!). The south eastern part of Minnesota is quite pretty as is the western part of Wisconsin. There's a tangible change in the topography as you move between them due to soil types and the effects of the glaciers and rivers on the area. The area reminded me of northern Alabama with its rolling hills but I imagine the weather is a bit more temperate and probably gets quite a bit colder in the winter. Spring was obviously in full swing as the leaves on the trees were all budding out and some of htem were flowering. Unfortunately I didn't have time to stop and the pictures I took from my car ended up being quite blurry but you have to believe me when I say it's beautiful. One of the things I liked about the area is that none of the towns are really congregated around the interstates like they are in other places. While driving the interstate you will see exit signs for highways to a major city and then that's it, no sign of the city and you are just moving on. Of course this makes it tricksy to get gas and such when you think the town is going to be right up the road you are on and it's not. Thankfully there were scattered filling stations along the route right off of the freeway. Because of this anomaly I never really saw any of the bigger cities in Wisconsin. When you leave Wisconsin you get right on the tollway that runs to Chicago. I think I ended up paying 4 different tolls. 1 dollar, 1.60, .80 and .80. The GPS doesn't really have an option to avoid such things (I believe Google maps does) so this is one of the reasons it will be going back to Costco when I get home. The drive into Chicago was uneventful except for the consistent rain we were getting which made me think the Cubs game I had signed up for would be rained out. Luckily I asked someone when I arrived at the parking garage and they recommended I go ahead and take the Elevated Train down there because a lot of people were going. After parking my car and dropping off my bag I hopped the train up to Wrigley field just in time for it to stop raining! The game started 30 minutes late and I have to be honest and tell you that I was so stoned out from the cold meds and the lack of sleep that the experience was surreal. I didn't get a cubs jersey like I wanted but found a cool cubs sweat shirt that had a neoprene like fabric on the outside so it was at least water resistant. The seats I got were great, very close to the field. The park itself is small and a throwback: no jumbotron or instant replay. You just get to see baseball up close and personal. We were losing heading into the bottom of the 8th but we staged a rally and ended up winning it 6-4. By the end of the game I was a lot more alert and really enjoyed it. My seats for Tuesday's game are similar but on the visitor's side of the field and I will be sure to take my camera so I can get some non-cell phone pictures.
When I got back from the train I checked into the hostel, put my stuff in the room, then headed down to work on this blog. Instead, I checked out the improv group they had here for a nice hour-long diversion. It was pretty funny and all of the chairs in the room were filled. I talked with this weird older guy who teaches math at a community college in Virginia. He was nice enough but had that old pervert vibe to him and his hair and teeth were kind of gross. Hopefully I wasn't getting a nice look at things to come for me! :)
I'm lazy with my pics today and will just link to them. Enjoy! I'm off to sleep after my 19 hour driving ordeal (now with head cold!)
Custer
Wind Cave
Custer State Park
Mt Rushmore
Badlands
Minnesota
Wisconsin
After checking out of the hotel (the breakfast was not that great...) I drove down to Wind Cave National Park. I mostly wanted to visit this place because we bought some old national parks postcards when we went to Bryce and Wind Cave was one of the places that was featured on a card. Plus it was very close to Custer so it did not seem like much of a detour. When I got there I found out that I would have to wait 40 mins for the tour to start which meant I would be an hour and a half behind schedule right of the bat. Oh well, it's a once in a lifetime opportunity, right? Unfortunately they only have one tour open at this time of year.
I've found that I've got a significant trade off on this trip of avoiding crowds and missing out on some of the programs and things that are available at the parks in the post-Memorial Day time frame.
The cave was pretty interesting. I forgot that I had gone into some caves in Mexico when Chi/Sean/Kelly/I went back in 2001. To be honest, this cave was not nearly as cool and unfortunately I discovered that my camera does not have a great flash for taking natural pictures in low-light conditions...bummer. Overall, the cave was cool and the best part was learning about how it had been discovered, explored, and then the geology behind it. Love that stuff. No shot glasses at the gift center but I did pick up a pin for Melanie which I may take for my own :)
Upon leaving Wind Cave I drove through the adjoining Custer state park. What a pretty area! There were so many wild creatures roaming about that I had to stop to take pictures several times. I managed to snap prairie dogs, wild turkey, pronghorn antelope, deer, and a bison. Needless to say this put me just a smidgen further behind schedule :)
The byway that goes through Custer takes you right to the Iron Mountain Road leading up to Mount Rushmore. This road was a lovely winding path that would have been a major pain in the summer when more people were about because of the one lane nature of the tunnels and some bridges. Luckily, I was there on a day when there were hardly any people so I could stop and take pictures as I pleased. The Prius is the perfect vehicle for this because it will happily shut down its engine while you take pictures and then take off on battery power while it can once you decide to head out again.
Mount Rushmore in the day was AMAZING. I think this is one of those things that you have to see and learn about to truly appreciate the magnitude of the accomplishment there. I felt quite patriotic while reading about the great people memorialized in stone here and it made me wonder what they would think about the state of things today. I'm not going to get on the political soapbox here so I'll leave that for you to ruminate on :) I'd love to be able to see this again (at night this time, without the fog!) and I might one day take another trip to the Black Hills region. Unfortunately I began realizing at this point that I was getting sick (run-away nasal drainage).
My way out of dodge took me through Rapid City, SD which is pretty small and then onto the barren expanse of I-90 as it passes through South Dakota. First of all, the drive is quite long (673 miles) and really has little to break it up. Add to that the RAGING wind from the north east which was a) killing my gas mileage and b) throwing my poor car all over the road and you can imagine how much 'fun' I had while driving this one. I had to stop a couple of times to get drugs to help contain my cold and the center console of the Prius ended up resembling a small medicine cabinet. To make this LONG story short, this part of the drive was quite sucky!
I finally wheeled into Minnesota around 2 a.m. Sunday morning and was having a hard time staying away so I pulled into the 2nd rest area I saw and decided I would set my alarm for a 2 hour and 3 hour interval nap and then decide which one was more appropriate. I woke up shortly before hte 2 hour alarm was set to go off and I was getting quite cold and a little hungry so I decided to get up and head off again. I had some coffee which had finally cooled off to get my jets started and headed off for the border with Wisconsin. Around 5 a.m. I decided it was time for my last power nap before the long haul into Chicago so I stopped and had a 1 hour nap. This nap was awesome and really woke me up. Plus the Dayquil I had purchased was finally kicking in (yay!). The south eastern part of Minnesota is quite pretty as is the western part of Wisconsin. There's a tangible change in the topography as you move between them due to soil types and the effects of the glaciers and rivers on the area. The area reminded me of northern Alabama with its rolling hills but I imagine the weather is a bit more temperate and probably gets quite a bit colder in the winter. Spring was obviously in full swing as the leaves on the trees were all budding out and some of htem were flowering. Unfortunately I didn't have time to stop and the pictures I took from my car ended up being quite blurry but you have to believe me when I say it's beautiful. One of the things I liked about the area is that none of the towns are really congregated around the interstates like they are in other places. While driving the interstate you will see exit signs for highways to a major city and then that's it, no sign of the city and you are just moving on. Of course this makes it tricksy to get gas and such when you think the town is going to be right up the road you are on and it's not. Thankfully there were scattered filling stations along the route right off of the freeway. Because of this anomaly I never really saw any of the bigger cities in Wisconsin. When you leave Wisconsin you get right on the tollway that runs to Chicago. I think I ended up paying 4 different tolls. 1 dollar, 1.60, .80 and .80. The GPS doesn't really have an option to avoid such things (I believe Google maps does) so this is one of the reasons it will be going back to Costco when I get home. The drive into Chicago was uneventful except for the consistent rain we were getting which made me think the Cubs game I had signed up for would be rained out. Luckily I asked someone when I arrived at the parking garage and they recommended I go ahead and take the Elevated Train down there because a lot of people were going. After parking my car and dropping off my bag I hopped the train up to Wrigley field just in time for it to stop raining! The game started 30 minutes late and I have to be honest and tell you that I was so stoned out from the cold meds and the lack of sleep that the experience was surreal. I didn't get a cubs jersey like I wanted but found a cool cubs sweat shirt that had a neoprene like fabric on the outside so it was at least water resistant. The seats I got were great, very close to the field. The park itself is small and a throwback: no jumbotron or instant replay. You just get to see baseball up close and personal. We were losing heading into the bottom of the 8th but we staged a rally and ended up winning it 6-4. By the end of the game I was a lot more alert and really enjoyed it. My seats for Tuesday's game are similar but on the visitor's side of the field and I will be sure to take my camera so I can get some non-cell phone pictures.
When I got back from the train I checked into the hostel, put my stuff in the room, then headed down to work on this blog. Instead, I checked out the improv group they had here for a nice hour-long diversion. It was pretty funny and all of the chairs in the room were filled. I talked with this weird older guy who teaches math at a community college in Virginia. He was nice enough but had that old pervert vibe to him and his hair and teeth were kind of gross. Hopefully I wasn't getting a nice look at things to come for me! :)
I'm lazy with my pics today and will just link to them. Enjoy! I'm off to sleep after my 19 hour driving ordeal (now with head cold!)
Custer
Wind Cave
Custer State Park
Mt Rushmore
Badlands
Minnesota
Wisconsin
Friday, May 9, 2008
The Drive, Part 1
Today took me from Salt Lake to Custer, SD (approx 640 miles). The Prius averaged about 48 mpg and I think I put in a total of $40 worth of gas to get here (yay!). I was rained on pretty much the whole time but the drive was still pretty enjoyable. To make sure I get the trip started off on the right foot I decided to stay at a hotel (this one has a pool/workout room/etc...). I don't feel all that tired or sore and I'm looking forward to getting in a good workout. I'll post some pics from the drive later on.
This is a picture from my room. The place backs onto a national forest and look, deer!
Mt Rushmore at night on May 9th, 2008 was a bad idea. It was totally foggy so I couldn't see the faces at all, there were deer everywhere (deer+fog=bad!) and then on the way home it starting sleeting like crazy! However, this is my favorite pic I managed to take:
This one made me do a double take. Does anyone else think this picture is, sort of, awkward?
Here are the links to all of the albums:
Rawlins
Highway
Mt Rushmore in the Dark
Cheers!
D
This is a picture from my room. The place backs onto a national forest and look, deer!
Mt Rushmore at night on May 9th, 2008 was a bad idea. It was totally foggy so I couldn't see the faces at all, there were deer everywhere (deer+fog=bad!) and then on the way home it starting sleeting like crazy! However, this is my favorite pic I managed to take:
This one made me do a double take. Does anyone else think this picture is, sort of, awkward?
Here are the links to all of the albums:
Rawlins
Highway
Mt Rushmore in the Dark
Cheers!
D
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Calm before the Drive
Tonight is the frantic 'packin' night where I attempt to not forget to shove anything into the Prius. For those who don't know yet, I've purchased a Toyota Prius ('06) to help me celebrate my road trip in efficiency, style, and ecological harmony. I'm impressed with all facets of this car so far except for the odd squeaking noise in the dash. I guess that's why the volume goes up to 11! I'll have it checked out when I get back but for now everything is bona fide.
Tomorrow morning I'll get up early, breakfast with Melanie, and then hit the road for a lovely 10-12 hour jaunt. My first stop is South Dakota. Hope to see you there!
Drew
Tomorrow morning I'll get up early, breakfast with Melanie, and then hit the road for a lovely 10-12 hour jaunt. My first stop is South Dakota. Hope to see you there!
Drew
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