Chicago II- This time it's personal.

Location: St. Louis
Milage: 1,986
Music: Joni Mitchell (when we're not reading Jane Austin)
Funnies quote: "Nobody likes a martyr, bitch-troll" - Written on the wall next to our table in Hyde Park's Medici's Restaurant.

On Saturday we took our time getting up and out of the apartment. Our first stop (at the bright and early time of noon) was the Field Museum of natural history. This was the only major Chicago museum that we were planning on visiting that we didn’t have some sort of free pass for provided by Ariana, so we were prepared to pay what would probably be a pretty steep admissions fee since the Field Museum is on of the finest natural history museums in the country. But we lucked out and happened to visit on a free day! The first thing to see in the museum is Sue, the world’s largest, best preserved, and most complete T-Rex skeleton. After gaping at the huge dino for a while we wandered around until we found ourselves at the Evolving Planet exhibit, both Alina’s and my favorite section of the museum. The exhibit was set up like a timeline, and we started back 4 billion years ago with the formation of the solar system and worked our way through the appearance of single-celled organisms, the first land organisms crawling out of the cambrian oceans, the rise and fall of the dinosaurs, six mass extinctions, and the evolution of modern man. We learned a lot of interesting things, such as the fact that we are still technically in an ice age. Who knew?! The exhibit had a huge hall of the dinosaurs including a full sized brontosaurus (for you Land Before Time enthusiasts that's "long neck"). They also had the skeleton of Lucy, the world's most famous hominid fossil, along with a step by step informational video on how to become a fossil yourself (step one: die). The exhibit ended on a sobering note, labeling the current epoch the sixth mass extinction, which is the first mass extinction to be caused by one species: humans.

Lucy and me - two of evolution's most important developments.

Mass extinction 6 -humans. Alina, sad at how much humans suck.

As we were finishing with the exhibit Ariana called us to say that she was done with her law review workshops and ready to do something that didn’t involve legal dossiers. So she joined us at the museum and we hung around there until it closed at 5, spending most of our remaining time in an exhibit on Tibet. We then made our way back to her apartment and Alina cooked Ariana and me a delicious pasta and vegetable dinner. The plan for the evening was to go to the Hancock building and have overpriced drinks in the bar on the 96th floor where we could get a great view of the city, but Alina wasn’t feeling well (too much deep dish?) and Ariana lost her ID, so we decided that a relaxing night in was on the agenda.

Alina thought it would be funny to pretend to be afraid of Sue. Ariana just thought Alina was funny.

The next day we made our way to the University of Chicago in the morning. We toured the attractive gothic campus for a while, as well as the law school campus where Ariana spends so much of her time, before making our way to one of the area’s best restaurants, Medici’s. We all had a delicious lunch, enjoyed the strange permanent marker graffiti covering all of the walls, and made our way out of Hyde Park and back up towards the center of the city. Ariana had procured free passes for the Alder Planetarium from the Chicago library, where you can check out free museum passes the same way you can check out books. We all enjoyed the planetarium, though we were a little tired and after a few hours, when Ariana fell asleep during the film on Apollo 8, we figured we were all planetariumed out. So we made our way back to her apartment and then went to the grocery store to get something that we could make for dinner. We had a really great dinner of tilapia marinated in apple cider and zucchini with onions and white wine. Having missed out on the views from atop the Hancock we decided to improvise by bringing our dinner and a couple of bottles of wine to the roof of Ariana’s apartment building. The view was fantastic and the food delicious – both Alina and I decided that dinner up there was the highlight of our visit to Chicago.

Chicago's skyline as seen from the Alder Planetarium

A fantastic dinner atop Ariana's apartment building.

The next morning we hung around Ariana’s apartment because she had to be at school but she was also waiting for the AT&T repair man, who in classic repair man style had promised to be there between 8 and 5. So we hung around until 1 when she was able to return and then we all enjoyed a delicious omelet lunch that Alina prepared. After that we had to get on the road to St. Louis. The drive was a bit arduous because we kept running into horrible torrential downpours and hail, but we made it to St. Louis in time for a late dinner with my second cousin Dee, her husband John, and their youngest son Turner. After the delicious meal, Dee, an extremely energetic and funny lady, insisted that we go to get ice cream at a local place called Ted Drewes, which she assured us was of equal importance to the arch for St. Louis denizens. Alina and I ate way too much ice cream, and when we returned to the house it was time for bed. Today we are about to set out on foot to explore St. Louis. More on that later!

Cheers,
Paul

It really is quite windy here

Location: Chicago
Mileage: 1,650
Music: The best Chicago artists in my mind – Sufjan Stevens and Wilco.

After our enjoyable stay at the Microtel we made our way the main campus of the University of Michigan. Though our guidebook had warned that it was an unfortunately unattractive campus, we both thought it was rather nice. The city of Ann Arbor itself is quite charming, and its reputation as the quintessential college town is well earned. The area surrounding the large university is full of pleasant cafes, bookstores, and cheap ethnic restaurants. Having become used to long searches for affordable but healthy vegetarian food, we were almost overwhelmed by our options. Eventually we chose a delicious Middle Eastern place called the Jerusalem Garden, where we both enjoyed fantastic falafel pitas and I got the best Turkish coffee that I have had in a very long time. While in Ann Arbor we also visited UMich’s free archaeology museum, which featured impressive exhibits of Egyptian, Greek, and Roman artifacts.

The University of Michigan

Having enjoyed our fill of neat college town, it was time to set off towards the big city, specifically, the big Windy City. En route to Chicago we stopped at a very pleasant town on Lake Michigan called St Josephs, which the billboards on I94 promised to have one of “America’s Top 10 Beaches.” Well, I don’t know about all that, but it was a very charming sort of place with a quaint little boardwalk and beach. After procuring dinner from a supermarket salad bar we took a walk on the beach, enjoying our first views of Lake Michigan. The plan was to eat dinner on the beach, but an incoming thunderstorm made this impossible. So instead we enjoyed our dinner from the comfort of Speedblazer as the storm poured down outside.

A storm rolling in from Lake Michigan at St. Josephs

Back on the road we enjoyed some more Pride and Prejudice, got a little lost necessitating paying the Chicago Skyway bridge toll three times, and then made it to our friend Ariana’s apartment.

Chicago has one of the nation's most impressive skylines.

Ariana's quirky apartment building

Ariana is a good friend of ours from William and Mary who is now entering her second year at University of Chicago’s law school. She just moved into a new studio apartment in the South Loop neighborhood of Chicago, only a 10 minute walk from the downtown area. Wilco fans, such as myself, may find it interesting to note that her charmingly bizarre apartment building was designed by the architect who designed the two towers on the cover of the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot album. It’s been great to stay with Ariana, who has been the most gracioius of hosts and has provided us with free parking (a huge deal in Chicago, where parking garages lure customers in with inticing bargains such as “First 20 minutes of parking only $6!”) and advice learned from a year of living here. Unfortunately she’s Miss Hardworking Smartypants and has tons of work to do this weekend, so she’s been going to law firm interview training and writing law review since we got here. Luckily tomorrow she’ll be free so we can spend a day catching up with one of our favorite old friends.

Yesterday morning we got up early and hit the Chicago streets. It was one of our most walking intensive days to date, and we walked all the way from Ariana’s place, through downtown, to the trendy northern neighborhoods where we enjoyed a nice $2.99 lunch special. Next we wandered along Lake Michigan’s shores and randomly into Chicago’s free Lincoln Park Zoo. Though we weren't planning on visiting the zoo, we were both very happy that we stumbled upon it. We had a great time and spent most of the afternoon there.

Zoo lesson #1: Monkeys and apes are not the same. Monkeys have tails while apes, who are generally larger, do not.

Zoo lesson #2: Polar bears keep warm with two layers of fur coat and black skin which attracts the sun's warmth. They're also huge.

Giraffe's are both nature's funniest joke and coolest animal.

From the zoo we made our way south along Lake Michigan all the way to the Chicago Institute of Art, one of the world’s finest art museums, which Ariana had informed us is free on Friday’s from 5 to 9. The museum has a truly incredible collection, and we first rushed to the Impressionist collection, which is the world’s largest outside of Paris. We really enjoyed the exhibit, but by the time we were finished with it our feet were violently protesting being stood upon for nine hours without rest. So we rushed to a few more of the museum’s treasures, such as American Gothic, Hopper’s Nighthawks, and the Modern/Contemporary section before walking back to Ariana’s place. The three of us had a delicious (and healthy!) dinner of classic Chicago deep-dish pizza and ice cream. After the long, long day of walking and the heavy meal Alina and I were pretty much done for the day, so we retired for the evening, feeling a little guilty that we were going to sleep right in front of Ariana while she worked the night away interpreting immigration law. Now we’ve enjoyed a full morning of laziness before heading off to Chicago’s Natural History Museum.

Cheers,
Paul

Deep dish: one of the best pizza's I've ever had

Michigan: Great Lakes. Great times.

Pittsburgh was much more fun once we found out how to navigate the streets (it helped to have a native Pittsburgher in the car.) Brianne kindly guided Paul and me to Oakland, a Pittsburgh neighborhood that encompasses most of the city's universities. Our first stop was the Cathedral of Learning. It sounds impressive, doesn't it? Well, it was. The building is 42 stories, but the elevator system was quite complicated. I think we made it up to floor 36 or 37 before the elevator system 'ran out.' But it made for a nice view of the city. The best part of this building, though, which is part of the University of Pittsburgh, is that they have world rooms on floors 1 and 3 -- classrooms designed as classrooms from around the world. We saw a dozen or so of the rooms that were unlocked, such as Armenia, Poland, Japan, Israel, and Lithuania. They were really beautiful and interesting; it was unfortunate that some of the rooms (France, Russia, Norway, etc.) were locked. I highly recommend checking it out if you're ever in the city, and maybe you will even spring for the cassette guide. That comes with a key to unlock all of the rooms, so you won't have to sneak into the rooms on the first floor behind people with cassettes. :) All of the rooms on the third floor are open for free, though.

The Israeli room. And Paul. I don't really get it... But I love it!

After the Cathedral of Learning (I even love the name!!) we went over to the Carnegie buildings. We toured around the hallway of the Carnegie art and natural history museum and poked our head as far in to the Carnegie Music Hall as we were allowed, but opted not to actually go into the museum, as we were somewhat museumed out from the world rooms. We took a walk around some of the streets after that, checking out the Plaza, and then headed back to the twins' house. Alana was home from work by then, so we all hung out and chatted it up before Paul and I had to load up the car and hit the road.

Off to Ohio we went, to Uncle Bob's house (not actually my uncle, or even Paul's. Uncle Bob is actually Paul's great uncle.) En route, we popped into Youngstown to find dinner. Well, we discovered that there really isn't much in Youngstown. We continued driving until we finally found something... that something was a little bar: pool tables, a bar, and nothing else. We stood awkwardly for a moment as everyone in the bar took one look and sized us up. Everyone in the bar knew each other and the bartender, so we stood out as the young, out-of-staters that we are. We moved to the bar and placed our orders, though. And, as it was only fitting to have a beer at a place like that, we each had a Bud Light (quite the deal for me, not liking beer and all...) with our sandwiches and fries.

Our dinner joint

The bartender was very nice and talkative, though, and all in all it was a fun experience. We pulled into Bob's around 8 or so. He showed us around his farm and barn (he houses 19 horses) which was really something! It was a beautiful farm, and Paul and I went for a walk around the place, down by the river, after settling in. We also got very acquainted with Baloo, an adorable (and HUGE) rotweiler.

Baloo loved me.

The next morning, after a short chat with Uncle Bob and breakfast, we drove up to Cleveland to see the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Cleveland's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Wow, was that worth it. We deliberated for awhile on whether to go for it, as it was quite the splurge for our daily budget, but we were both happy to have done so. We actually planned to only spend about three or four hours there, but after the first floor (out of four exhibition floors) we checked the time and realized we had already spent three hours! There was so much to see, it just made my head spin! It was all very exciting, but, among much, we really liked Jim Morrison's cub scout uniform, Bob Dylan's high school report on Steinbeck, Joni Mitchell's drawing of Graham Nash, and just learning about so many musicians and so much music to which we need to listen.

After our extended visit to the museum, we headed up to Ann Arbor. To pass the hours in the car (spent driving the speed limit to conserve on gas) we have taken up reading novels to one another. Our first project: Pride and Prejudice. It's been surprisingly fun to read aloud, as we get to comment on the book as we read it together and make funny voices for each of the characters. Also we have taken up imitating the dialogue styles from Jane Austin:

Paul: Miss Harway, you do merge onto the highway with such precision, and yet your countenance maintains such complete and thorough composure as to suggest it was but nothing at all.
Alina: Oh Mr. DeBell, you compliment too freely my driving skills, though I am quite amenable to such flattery. But let us head for Ann Arbor godspeed.
Paul: Indeed. Quite. Yes. Indubitably.

We got there in time for dinner and a short stroll down Main St before checking in at our hotel. We were so happy to discover, upon arriving at our Microtel, that we had been bumped up to the junior executive suite due to overbooking ($150 normally...$52 for us.) The room is beautiful and we are big Microtel fans now. (Actually, even the regular room would have been great. Free wireless and free long distance calls!)

Our classy hotel room

We're retiring for the evening, while watching a horribly bad movie (Mr. and Mrs. Smith), so as to be ready for a long day of exploration of the city and the university tomorrow!

Morning laps are the best

Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Mileage: 1,020
Music: Regina Spektor

We left Macungie around noon, after enjoying some fried tomatoes prepared by Richie and grown by their neighbor, Curley (the chicken farmer.) A few hours of driving through the absolutely gorgeous mountain scenery put us right in the middle of the state at Greenwood Furnace State Park. We weren't originally planning to camp in central PA, but we were both ready to do some country hiking because our itinerary while we're still in the East is full of cities; in fact, we probably won't be one with nature again until somewhere after St. Louis.

Alina was unusually excited about the prospect of breaking out her fanny pack for the hike. (Please note the 2 water bottle attachments!)

We had a great time at Greenwood Furnace. After reserving our camp site and eating a quick lunch of tomato and cheese sandwiches we embarked upon our hike. The weather and scenery were both beautiful, so much so that we just strolled right by a bend in the path and had to backtrack to get back on the real trail, which then took a definite turn for the verticle. After climbing for a good bit we were rewarded with quite a stunning view of the surrounding countryside.

The view and me

Purdy

We continued on our hike from the overlook down an old logging shoot, used to slide lumber down the side of the mountains before this became state forest. We practically slid to the bottom and made it back to camp with just enough time to gather firewood and set up the tent before dark.

The next morning we slept in until 10, despite having gone to bed relatively early. We were planning on swimming in the nearby lake in the morning, but figured we should skip this so that we could make it to Pittsburgh in time to see some of the city. The drive was again extremely scenic, following Rt. 22 the whole way along Pennsylvania's Heritage Route, about which we know nothing but which seemed like the thing to do when on a road trip. We arrived in Pittsburgh right as rush hour was beginning to set in. And so after driving around the downtown area for a while and finding no parking that wouldn't cost us an arm and a leg (or get us towed) we decided to just go meet Alana and Brianne outside of the city. They are friends of ours from William and Mary who grew up in this area. We are staying with them on the farm that they are house sitting. This place is incredible: a huge house, guest house, stables, a pool, and a gorgeous stretch of property. So instead of driving back into Pittsburgh to be tourists we just relaxed here. I did some laps in the pool and by the time I got out Alana was home from work. Since she had worked two jobs that day we thought it best to just stay in and rent a movie. We rented Everything is Illuminated, which we'd all been meaning to see for a long time and I enjoyed. (Note from Alina: Mom and Dad, if you haven't seen it yet, you should. It seems like your kind of flick.) After that it was bedtime. Now we're just gearing up for a full day of touring Pittsburgh with Brianne before heading out to my Great Uncle Bob's in Ohio. Sorry for the pretty bland post, hopefully next time we'll have some crazy stories...but most likely we'll just tell you what we ate in Ohio.

Beautiful house we're staying in (plus the two dogs that are so ugly that they're cute.)

-Paul

The Amish are not like the Colonials in Williamsburg. They are REAL.

Location: still Macungie
Miles: about 600
Music: sultry Fiona Apple

The view from Speedblazer's throne

Pennsylvania is beautiful. Paul and I drove down to Lancaster, the heart of Amish country. We enjoyed the free cultural museum, where we learned a lot! For example, the reasons that the Amish do not have their photos taken are because 1) pictures of individuals can lead to self-admiration/vanity, which detracts from the whole communal thing they've got going on 2) there shouldn't be any pictures/images of God and man is created in God's image. We also learned how to weave. Well, kind of.I was even more confused than I look

After the museum, we walked just across the street to Penn Square to the Farmer's Market. We got lunch, fruit, and a bag of oats for camping breakfasts. Everything was extremely good and extremely cheap. That's exactly what we want for this trip!
Once done with the farmer's market, we realized we had seen pretty much all of Lancaster (it's not exactly big) and headed off to drive through more of Amish country. It was so nice to see all the farms, people in buggies, more farmer's markets, etc. We also were amused by the names of all of the towns: Intercourse, Bird-in-hand, Paradise, Virginville, Maiden's Creek. I don't even know what to say about those towns, except that we took a lot of pictures of things with the town's name on the sign and giggled a lot. I was praying for the town of Intercourse's church to be named "Church of Intercourse" but, alas, we never found it. Oh well. Probably better not to indulge my 12 year-old humor so much.

An image of God. Or, rather, an image of an image of God

The drive around Amish country turned into a we-got-lost-in-Amish-country drive, which proved just as fun and beautiful as when we were on the map. We took some pictures of the Amish on their horse and buggy rides, not remembering until we got home that they don't like their picture taken. Hrm. Anyhow, we found our way back home, due to some excellent navigating by Paul and maybe a handful of luck, in time for dinner with Richie and Leslie. We provided dessert: a shoo-fly pie that we had bought at one of the farmer's markets. The main ingredients are molassas, brown sugar, sugar, and cinnamon. It was delicious. After dinner, there was a hot, highly competetive game of trivial pursuit after dinner, girls against boys. I was not very good at reading the clues to the other team, as I often followed the card with a clue.

"Was it Reagan?" -- the boys, musing
"No." -- me, giving a very subtle hint

Despite my clues (I really need to learn how to be competetive...) Leslie and I beat Paul and Richie like it was our job. Leslie has an amazing stock of pop culture knowledge.

The next day was nice and relaxing. We went to check out an Indian festival, just down the road. The festival was neat, but Paul and I are holding out till the Southwest for buying our crafts and mocs. The drum circle was good, but the dancing was somewhat... subdued. Meaning, there was really only one dancer. And some kids.

He had Tweety wristbands on

The four of us went out for Mexican food that night. One other reason that I love Pennsylvania is its BYOB policy. We brought a bottle of tequila and margarita mix, which seriously helped keep the bill low (although Rich and Leslie ended up buying us dinner, which was so nice.) Good food, good conversation, and good phone call for me (I got to hear from Australia!) We headed back to Rich and Leslie's for their quasi house warming party. Honestly, folks, you'd think that Paul and I -- being the youngest, fresh out of college -- would be the hardest partiers. Not true. In fact, we were the first to bed. It was a great party and everyone was nice and interesting. I ended up spending a long time talking to their neighbor about raising chickens. Apparently after a few glasses of wine, I think I'm destined to be a farmer?
I woke up early this morning despite the later evening and finished up dishes and Paul's and my laundry. Now, we're just waiting around for Rich and Leslie to wake up so we can give an appropriate farewell before heading off for a day of hiking and camping. My feet are ready for it!
love,
Alina

Tony -- Probably the best dog in the world.

Philadelphia - the city of brotherly love

Location – Macungie, PA (near Allentown)
Mileage - 550

Philadelphia

We arrived in Philadelphia around noon on Wednesday. After spending some time in the Cosi using their wireless, it was time to go exploring. Having walked up and down South Street, one of the city’s trendiest places to shop and eat, we made our way up to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, fancied by some (not us) as the American Champs-Elyseés. We walked from the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, immortalized in the minds of movie buffs everywhere by Rocky’s training routine, all the way to the Independence Mall via Logan and JFK squares. We both really enjoy just walking around; I think it’s the best way to feel out a place. Well, if not the best, than at least the cheapest.

Alina cooling herself with mist from the fountain in JFK Square.

After a few hours of walking it was time to move Speedy lest he be ticketed and make our way back to the Museum of Art, which our guide book promised had extended hours on Wednesdays and Fridays. Well that turned out to be only partly true, and by the time we had achieved a satisfactory Rocky imitation pic the museum’s regular hours were over and we discovered upon pulling on locked doors that extended hours were strictly a Friday phenomenon despite the Rough Guide’s lies. Not to be discouraged, we took a scenic drive through the beautiful Fairmount Park and eventually ended up at the University of Pennsylvania, located in Western Philly. Part of this road trip for me, and I think also for Alina, is to visit potential graduate schools to get a feel for their campuses and student bodies – the things that you can’t get from their web sites or rankings. We were both quite impressed with the Franklin’s old Ivy League school, so much so that for the remainder of our time in Philly we’d say things like “Oh when I live here I think I’ll just buy the yearly pass to this museum,” and “I think I’ll try and get a job as one of the park rangers on Independence Mall during grad school.”

Once again working to avoid parking tickets, we made our way back to the car and drove back to South Street to find some food. Though we are both vegetarians, I always make cultural exceptions when I’m traveling to try the local flavor. In Philly, this naturally means that a philly cheesesteak was on the menu. The guidebook’s best recommendation, Jim’s Steaks at 4th and South, was the same place Alina had seen on Rachel Ray’s 40 Dollars a Day. That sealed the deal, I went in to order. Though I don’t know if Rachel Ray exclaimed “Yum-O!” or “Delish!” as she enjoyed her cheesesteak, I think either would have been appropriate. The real culinary find in Philadelphia, however, was a place called Maoz a block down South, where Alina went to get her vegetarian falafel salad. It was so good that we returned for lunch the next day – too bad it’s the only one outside of Europe.

The vegetarian and the cheesesteak - yum-o.

That night we had a pleasant though ascetic stay in the lovely Motel 6 of Maple Shade, NJ. The next day it was up and out early so that we could beat the crowds at Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell. Both Alina and I have a fine appreciation for Revolutionary War history (perhaps because we lived for four years in Colonial Williamsburg) so we really enjoyed seeing the assembly room where both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were signed and that celebrated symbol of American individual freedom, the Liberty Bell. My favorite exhibit was the Philosophical Hall, which houses to this day America’s first Philosophical Society, founded by Franklin in 1744. They had a really nice exhibit called the “The Princess and the Patriot” that charted the intellectual friendship of Ekaterina Dashkova, the director of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the first female member of the Philosophical Society, and Ben Franklin. It combined three strong interests of mine – Enlightenment Philosophy, Revolutionary War History, and St. Petersburg.

Alina and the Liberty Bell really hit it off.

Me outside of Philosophical Hall in a pose only a philosophy major has the right to pull.

After a day full of history we went back to Maoz for a lunch of falafel and deliciously seasoned veggies. Then we went to the Philadelphia Museum of Art to enjoy the culture and the air conditioning. Though we had to be relatively quick in order to beat traffic out of Philly in the afternoon, we had a good two hours which we spent enjoying the Asian art (Alina’s choice), contemporary art (my choice), and impressionism (both chose). I hope to return there one day because it is a fantastic museum, very well done with extensive collections. From the art museum we left the city and drove up the Penn Turnpike to my cousin’s house in Macungie, near Allentown. Richie and Leslie have been great hosts, feeding us pizza and allowing us to just bum around there house last night and this morning in order to rest after a few days of hard core sightseeing (all this vacation, so tiring, so tiring). Now I think we’re about ready to set out for the day and start seeing some of the Amish Country.

Cheerio,
Paul

Cosi is better than Starbucks

Location: Philadelphia
Miles behind us: around 400? I will do better at looking at the mileage next time I'm the one driving...
Music: Kate's road trip CD (although to be fair, now we're listening to whatever horrid mix is playing in the Cosi)

Ahoy hoy!
We are enjoying free wi-fi from Cosi (we now love them despite their overpriced Diet Cokes) and taking the opportunity to update. We don't want to spend a whole lot of time wasting the day in here, so here comes a fairly simplistic recap of the beginning of our trip.
We began the trek with a lengthy, arduous drive. Yes, that's right, all the way to Fairfax, VA (after a few farewell stops.) We enjoyed and appreciated a party thrown by Ms. Gaby Ellenberger and attended by friends from around the state. There was a lot of dancing, laughing, and drinking (except by the people driving home and me, for my temporary detox after a week at the beach with my family and lots of wine.) It was great to get an opportunity to have a sort of farewell bash with some of our favorite friends from W&M. It was also pretty hilarious to discuss future plans with everyone, as most everyone discussed med school and law school and real jobs and peace corps and the sort. Paul and I kind of threw our hands up and went, "meh." We figure living our of the backseat of Speed Blazer is just as prominent and successful as the rest of our friends. ;)

A goodbye from some of our finest friends in VA

From Fairfax, we drove up to Owings Mills, MD (my first time behind the wheel of the big SUV!), where we stayed with the lovely Gayle Bowerman for a few nights. Our first day was mainly spent catching up and bumming around, and watching bad TV (Jeff Foxworthy??) The next day, Paul and I headed into Baltimore to check out the scene.

I love Baltimore THIIIIIIIS much!

...but this seems a little strong a claim.

We were impressed by the Heritage Walk (3.2 miles of historical buildings and museums and statues) and by just how many green spots one could find in the city! We also toured Johns Hopkins, which had a really nice campus and a cute park/trail just down the road. We've decided Paul should go to grad school there. Gayle met us in town after she got off work and we went to Nacho Mamas, which was probably the most impressive part of the day. We split the special, which was a pitcher of margarita and fajitas. That doesn't sound that great until you find out that it was $25 and made all three of us so full that we couldn't possibly eat anymore plus we brought home leftovers. What a great deal...

The outside of the American Visionary Museum, which we had free passes to but was closed on Mondays :(

The next day put Paul and me in Annapolis, which is so cute! The town (city?) is small and quaint and it was fun to pretend to house shop. The harbor was pretty, with lots of boats (and expensive dragon paddle boats,) and we again followed a sort of Heritage Walk (this one being our own path.) One of my favorite parts of the day, though, is when we first got there. Paul and I were off in search of the Visitor's Center because he really needed a bathroom and we wanted a map so we could find what to see/do. Well, about 30 seconds after he said, "I need a bathroom so badly!" we were approached by a woman in colonial garb who started telling us about the free Heritage Museum. She went through her whole spiel about what was there and concluded with, "and it's got the best bathrooms in the city on the second floor." We were sold. And it happened to be right across the street from where we were. The museum was small but nice and informative (and prompted a newfound interest in the Revolutionary War for me) and it did, in fact, have great bathrooms.

The harbor at Annapolis.

Back to Owings Mill, we went to see the tail end of Gayle's company's softball game. I waved a lot to try to embarrass her, but probably succeeded only in embarrassing myself. We went to Don Pablo's for chips, salsa, and margaritas (which I've now sadly passed up two days in a row!) with the team and then back to Gayle's.

Up early this morning to pack up, shower, and meet Gayle for breakfast at her company's cafeteria (only 1.95 for the Deluxe Omelette!) and off to Philly we drove. I was again behind the wheel of Speed Blazer. I'm getting better, but I still am constantly reminded of just how different it is from my Volvo. We parked, found the internet, booked our hotel for tonight (a very good price for a very short drive from town center), and readied ourselves for the day. And now we are off to see Philly!

Mile zero soundtrack

I may not have finished packing (or even "started") but I have finished something of almost equal importance: my CD for endeavoring upon this road trip. I'm quite happy with it. It goes as follows:

1. The Beatles, "Magical Mystery Tour"
2. Sufjan Stevens, "Chicago"
3. R.E.M., "Wanderlust"
4. The Mamas and the Papas, "California Dreamin'"
5. Joseph Arthur, "Dear Lord"
6. Gnarls Barkley, "The Last Time"
7. Sheryl Crow, "All I Wanna Do"
8. Talking Heads, "This Must be the Place (Naive Melody)"
9. Rufus Wainwright, "Instant Pleasure"
10. Spoon, "The Way We Get By"
11. Manu Chao, "Me Gustas Tu"
12. My Morning Jacket, "One Big Holiday"
13. Jem, "Just a Ride"
14. Electric Light Orchestra, "Mr. Blue Sky"
15. The Velvet Underground, "Rock and Roll"
16. VHS or Beta, "Alive"
17. Regina Spektor, "On the Radio"
18. Ani Difranco, "God's Country"
19. Red Hot Chili Peppers, "Road Trippin'"

Well, now that I've done the hard stuff, time to get back to packing.

-Paul

Mile zero

Location - The Plains, Virginia
Miles behind us - 0
Current Music - hundreds of songs being burnt onto road trip mix cds

I just came in from an evening spent cleaning, scrubbing, and waxing Speedblazer. Except for a few dinks and rusty spots, our chariot is looking quite nice indeed.

On the eve of our departure I really can't believe that we are actually going to make this trip happen. The piles of unpacked clothes, books, and other various luggage making passage through my room impossible serve to assure me that yes, we are actually leaving, and yes, I have much work to do before we go. Ever since I had the idea nearly a year ago it's been both the most exciting and the most far fetched of the things in my life. Who really takes four months and just bums around the country? We do.

I hope that this blog serves a few purposes. First and foremost, it will be our collective travel journal - something that we can look back to in the future to remember our trip. But it will also hopefully help to keep us in touch with you, our beloved friends and family. So check back from time to time, we'll be doing our best to keep this up to date with the trip's best stories and pictures. Next time I promise to have something worthwhile to say, I suppose I'd best be off to get packed so that I may make that happen.

-Paul