# First Amtrak Trip: Three Weeks - Arizona to Boston



## Rob Sehl (Aug 20, 2011)

*June 30th: Pre-Trip Reflection*

With my solo Amtrak cross country train trip starting tomorrow night, I have decided to create a sort of “intro passage” with some basic information about the trip and quickly explain what I’ll be doing throughout the twenty two day trek. While I am traveling I’ll attempt to update everyone with pictures and quick write-ups via Facebook as best I can, so be sure to check back regularly. Now, here are some “stats” about the trip:

Trains Taken: 8

States Crossed: 18

Travel Distance: (approx.): 3,711 miles (Train): 2,293 miles (Plane)

Major Cities (stops): 8	(Cities I Haven’t Visited Before: 6)

Nights in a Hostel / Hotel: 5

Now, this trip was originally the brainchild of my Post Vacation Depression (PVD) after Spring Break when Kenny, after some brooding and a couple cold ones, mentioned that Amtrak offered a USA Rail Pass. Realizing that I could travel across the country, without having to drive a mile myself for roughly $400 really sparked my interest. It would also allow me to hit a couple major cities that I had not been before and where I could really nerd out on historic sites, New York, Philly, Boston, and New Orleans. Also, over my 22 years, I have traveled cross country on road trips with my parents, traveled by airplane hundreds of times, as well as by boat, so in essence the last mode of transportation I haven’t tried is by train. Therefore I continued to look into the trip, started booking hostels, begged family and friends for couch space and eventually everything fell into place. In the end I decided on the following cities for the final itinerary:

San Antonio, Tx Austin, Tx New Orleans, La Chicago, Il

Washington DC Philadelphia, Pa New York, Ny Boston, Ma

I will be staying in each city for at least one full day, with the exception of San Antonio, and it needs to be noted that I will only be in a hotel / hostel for 5 nights out of 21. The only way that this is possible is because of family and friends from around the country allowing me to couch surf. Without their hospitality this trip would not be possible for a poor teacher, so a massive THANK YOU is due to all of them!

For the most part I will be writing about what I saw / did / ate / drank in the various cities, my impression of traveling long distances by train, the different people I meet and experiences I have crossing our massive country. With limited access to wifi throughout the trip I will update it as best I can, so there may not be any sense of regularity. Because of the scale of the trip and the different places that I will be visiting I want to keep a record of the entire journey and share it with family and friends as it is happening, so check back throughout July for updates, comment on the posts and pictures, or just enjoy the read.

*July 1st / 2nd: Maricopa, Az to San Antonio, Tx*

We left Phoenix around 8:45 pm for Maricopa to catch the train that was scheduled to depart at 10:38 pm. Reilly, Josh, and Josiah all accompanied me on the” scenic” drive down to Maricopa and we got there around 9:15 pm. As I had read on the internet it was almost a guarantee that the train was going to be late, seeing as how we were on the west coast and how freight traffic has the right of way. Low and behold the ticker at the station said that the train was going to be delayed, but did not give a specific time. After checking in my baggage and hanging around the station for about an hour, it was revealed to us that there was going to be about a two and a half hour delay, with the train arriving around 12:45 pm. When everything was said and done we got on the train at about 1:30 am and the train left pretty quickly after that. One thing that was nice was, despite the fact that there were about 5 policemen on the platform; there was no invasive search of anyone getting on the train. A lot less hassle than the plane ride I took to Vegas a couple weeks beforehand.

Sleeping in the coach seat was not as easy as I had expected. I did have a seat mate, but due to the lateness of the train we both were quickly jockeying for a good position to sleep. Luckily I had the window seat and was able to use that to my advantage. One major downside to the seat that I was assigned is that it is directly across the hallway from the stairs, meaning that there is a light that is on 24 hours. Therefore the car did not get pitch black and made it a little more difficult to drift off to sleep. Thanks to the steady drum of the steel wheels and the slight rocking from side to side, it was enough to put me to sleep.

I woke up around 8:30 am and we were in New Mexico, nearing the Texas border. The first major stop, after our 3 am stop in Tucson, was El Paso and my seat mate got off the train. I was in the observation car, a car with lounge seats facing outward and glass on the walls and ceiling, and did not get back to my seat until I had read a chapter in my book, “The Gamble”. When I arrived back at my seat I had a new seat mate who, after talking for a bit, realized he was also heading to Boston, albeit more direct than my route. We sat in our seats for about 2 – 3 hours and just talked about train travel, the different cities and places we had been to, and just life in general. I realized he was an old hippie after all his stories of hitchhiking through the Americas, Europe and Asia, his existential mode of thinking, and passion about conspiracy theories. However, this interaction kind of sums up the people that are on this train, while some of them are a little bit strange and foreign, they are more than willing to be friendly with everyone they meet; they are more about the trip between destinations, and less about the destination itself.

We arrived in San Antonio a couple hours late, around 12:40 pm. San Antonio’s station was very large and as soon as I got off the train I heard live music at a nearby bar, and got a call from Miranda and her family, all of which got me very excited for Austin and 6th Street the following day. Little did I know, this is when the fun really started.

As soon as I got my bag from the checked baggage car I began walking toward the main street and called a Yellow Cab for a quick ride to my hotel. After waiting in front of a hotel for about 40 minutes I called them back and they apologized, and sent another cab to come pick me up. The second cab came within 15 minutes, but it was well after 1:30 am at this point, and my train the next morning left at 7:00 am! So I quickly got in the cab, and drove the .8 miles to the hotel. Now, as soon as the cab dropped me off I went up to the lobby door and it was locked, and a surprised looking man peered back at me from the other side of the glass. He opened the door and said “Can I help you?” I told him that I had a reservation at this Days Inn and proceeded to grab my confirmation sheet from my bag. He then made sure I was at the correct one because he “had no vacancies”. Surprised I checked the address and it matched up, and then handed him the confirmation. He looked it over and said, “Wow, that’s weird…” To make a long story short, the computer had marked me as checked in already and he was able to put me in the very last room that was available.

After it was all said and done it was about 2:00 am and I had to be back at the Amtrak station no later than 6:30 am. After sleeping through 2 wakeup calls, and my phone alarm, the gentleman at Days Inn was kind enough to wake me up himself. Despite the rough beginning in San Antonio, everything worked out in the end, and the only thing that I am missing out on is a little sleep. Onward to Austin!

*July 3rd: San Antonio, Tx to Austin, Tx*

For the first time I decided to eat in the dining car with real silverware and plates instead of the microwave meals that sustained me the day before and I was pleasantly surprised with the whole experience.. I ate with the hippie character I had met the day before as well as a passenger who was in a sleeper car. We mainly talked about train travel and our trips, but it was a very lighthearted and relaxed conversation. I really enjoy this aspect of the train because it forced you to sit with people who you don’t know, and in turn have an interesting, and sometimes awkward conversation.

We pulled into Austin around 9:15 am, and the fun continued when my baggage ticket was lost on the train. I was hoping that there was an alternate way to identify that my bag belonged to me, and after asking one of the attendants, I realized that my bag was the only bag scheduled to come off the train, so I just grabbed it and walked toward the parking lot. I quickly met up with Miranda and we headed to her parents house.

Once we arrived at Miranda’s parent’s house I got an extremely warm greeting, and they wasted no time in offering me breakfast of waffles, bacon and sausage. After they ate, because I had eaten already, Miranda and I decided that we were going to visit a handful of places around Austin, as much as was physically possible in about 24 hours. We went to the highest point in Austin, the original state capital, a taco food truck that was EXCELLENT, as well as a large fresh water spring in the city center. The spring was amazing because not only was it fresh water, but it stayed a chilly 68 degrees year round, the perfect antidote for the 100 degree day. After a quick nap we headed downtown to watch the thousands of bats flee from under the bridges and hunt the insects of the night. And after a great meal and some great beer (Firehouse #4 and a Live Oak Summer Seasonal) at yet another restaurant with trailers, we made our way to the infamous 6th St.

6th St. was not nearly as busy due to the fact that it was Sunday, but I was amazed at how many people there were still milling about on the street. 6th Street was much larger than anything back in Arizona, and the best part was live music could be heard from a majority of the bars lining the street. It definitely had a college feel to it, but was still a really cool strip of bars in downtown Austin. Sitting on a rooftop overlooking 6th street coupled with a Dos Equis and an Austin Amber was a perfect way to end our busy day, and we just hung out for a couple hours. We were both fairly tired and headed back to the house around midnight.

*July 4th: Austin, Tx to San Antonio, Tx*

After coming to a consensus that sleeping in was one of the best ideas ever, I slowly rolled out of bed at about 10:30 am. It was about 12 pm by the time we got on the short drive down to San Antonio, and it was a pleasant drive through the rolling hills of central Texas.

When we arrived in San Antonio we searched for a decent parking lot near downtown, which proved to be a task due to the fact it was Fourth of July. Our first stop in San Antonio was the Alamo, because I told Miranda that I needed to get my history fix at least once in each city. It turned out to be much smaller than I expected, and was extremely crowded. Unfortunately you couldn’t take pictures inside, but there were some amazing artifacts and plaques describing who and what occurred there. After walking around the grounds and fending off the peer pressure to buy an Alamo Bouie knife, we headed down to the Rivewalk.

It was around lunch time and on the famous San Antonio Riverwalk there was a restaurant suggested by Rachel called Country Line. I didn’t realize it, but the Riverwalk is below street level and after a semi intense search, we were able to find Country Line. All in all it was an excellent meal, I had the ribs and Miranda got the chicken fried chicken, both very Texas-esque. Afterward we wandered around the Riverwalk, walked most of the way around it and attempted to work off the meal that we had just eaten. We visited a couple shops, defended Miranda’s shaved ice against the extremely determined bee, and found the Alamo shortbread cookies as my Texas souvenir, we looked for a place with a little A/C.

Despite not knowing San Antonio as well as Austin Miranda did her best to answer my incessant questions about the buildings and different places along the way, and eventually we ended up at the mall toward one end of the Riverwalk. We decided to go see a movie because my train didn’t leave until midnight so we had some time to kill, and spent the extra time exploring the mall for a bookstore. The movie was decent, but not nearly as good as the white cherry/coke mixed ICEE that accompanied it.

As the sun started to fall slowly in the sky, we walked back to the car and tried to go to the Amtrak station to check in my bags. Unfortunately they were not open yet so I decided to just stash my bags at a sports bar for the Sounders vs Galaxy soccer game. She was kind enough to drop me off at the pub before her drive home and the long wait for the train began. While I was intently watching the match, a gentleman and I had a short conversation about the wings I ordered. They weren’t anything special and we joked that my beer wouldn’t be enough to wash it all down. The next thing I knew, he sent another beer my way with nothing more than a smile and a wave before he left. Luckily the soccer matches made the three hours go by quickly, and I had to grab a cab at halftime to get to the station around 10:45 pm.

All in all I was extremely impressed with my stay in Texas, Miranda and her family were more than generous allowing me to interrupt their lives for a couple days, and Miranda did an excellent job carting me around Austin and San Antonio as well as fielding all my questions, even if she had no clue. I had a great time, saw some awesome places, got to nerd out a couple of times, and got to hang out with some great people.

*July 5th: San Antonio, Tx to New Orleans, La*

Sitting in the lobby of the Amtrak station I was hoping to watch the second half of the game, but Law and Order SVU was on, so that was a lost cause. The train boarded on the scheduled time (11:55pm) but there was again, an electrical issue, so we were not cruising out of San Antonio until about 12:45 pm. My first mission on this train was to sleep, and luckily the train was not very crowded so I was able to snag two seats for myself. Curled up like a hamster I slept fairly peacefully until the Houston stop, and then fell back to sleep on our way into Louisiana.

As I was sitting in the lounge car I had a very colorful conversation with a young man, about my same age, who was from the state. It was obvious that he had some mental issues but nonetheless we sat and talked for about an hour. He was a nice you man, but it seemed like he had a pretty rough background. We talked about football, bull riding (his passion), bar fights, and his future plans. It became apparent that people around us were a little uncomfortable with this young man, but I think it was just because they didn’t know how to interact with him. However, he got off in Lafayette so I went back to reading.

At lunch I sat down with two other men traveling alone, one young man named Taylor was heading back to his home in New Orleans and another gentleman who was an Aussie named Jim. Australia being one of my favorite continents as a child I talked to Jim about why he was in the states, how he liked Las Vegas, and Australia, so he gave me an extensive laundry list of things I need to do if I can make it over there. Just like the breakfast on my way to Austin, the soup and salad I ordered was nothing exquisite, but for a train meal I was impressed. I also liked this dining car a lot more than the last one (them being different because they are two different rail lines) because it was more traditional and allowed you to look out the windows and at your table guests a lot easier.

The rest of my time on the train was spent reading my book and conversing with a recent high school graduate who sat across the aisle from my seat. We arrived in New Orleans around 2:30 pm, and waiting for us on the platform was a large terminal, enough for three separate trains and all their cargo. I took a cab to the India House, the hostel I had booked for New Orleans, and was a little worried by the neighborhood that the taxi brought me through. However, once we neared the India House the neighborhood cleared up a bit, and the actual hostel is in great shape.

I have never stayed in a hostel before and as soon as I walked in I understood why people fall in love with them instantly. There was modern music emanating from the living room, a small group of twenty year olds watching soccer in the other room, murals lining the walls of the house, all set in an old mansion near downtown New Orleans. I checked in, took a shower, and wasted no time in grabbing the red trolley to the French Quarter.

First on my list for the French Quarter was St Louis’ Cathedral in Jackson Square. After reading “Pillars of the Earth” I have a strange attraction to cathedrals and everything that is inside them. I then wandered around Jackson Square, through the side streets of the French Quarter, and ducked into a place called Oceana which was suggested by Nick, Geoff’s friend. I got the “Taste of New Orleans” and was not disappointed with anything that was on the platter. I also had a couple of the local brews, Abitza Amber and Turbodog, as well as a local IPA that I can’t name for the life of me. After a quick rain I made my way to the southern portion of Jackson Square to hit up Café du Monde for some beignets. Little did I know that the extremely good desert only comes in threes, and was forced to eat them all after an unsuccessful attempt to get my waitress to help out. They were basically Indian frybread on crack with enough powdered sugar to intimidate Tony Montana, but nonetheless they were excellent.

After letting the beignets digest for a little while I then left the café to roam around Bourbon Street and ducked into a Tequila Bar, as well as a couple Voodoo shops. I was unable to find any new beers that sparked my interest, and basically just relaxed and watched the world go by. According to my waitress from Café du Monde, Bourbon Street doesn’t get good until about midnight, and I had a long day on the train so I wandered around Bourbon Street, got a small taste of the Tuesday night crowd and eventually made my way back to the India House later that night on the red trolley.

*July 6th: New Orleans, La*

After having a fairly exhausting day on the 5th, I crashed in the 10 man dorm until about 10:00 am the next morning. There weren’t too many disruptions during the night, although anyone who has attempted to wake me up knows that I sleep like a log, so that’s not a surprise. I went to take a shower, and when adjusting the shower head, it came off. After some minor adjustments I was able to repair the head enough to take a shower, and then told the front desk about the issue. After getting dressed I walked out the side gate of India House and jumped out on the first trolley toward the French Quarter.

Being about 11:30 am by the time I got down to the French Quarter my first goal was to grab some lunch. I went again with one of the suggestions from Geoff’s friend Nick, the Napoleon House. I was extremely disappointed, especially after reading the menu on the outside of the building, when I saw that they were closed until July 13th for holiday. So I resorted to my own senses and started to wander around the French Quarter in search of a good New Orleans style restaurant.

I decided that a “po-boy” sounded like a good choice for lunch, and found Johnny’s Po-Boys just around the corner from Napoleons. The line was pretty long which I took as a sign that the food was worth it. If you’re unfamiliar with what a Po-Boy is, it’s a sandwich with any assortment of things on it (I chose the fried shrimp in conjunction with the cashier’s suggestion) garnished with lettuce, mayonnaise, tomato, and pickle. My order took a little longer than I expected, and when it finally came out I understood why. The shrimp that came on my sandwich were freshly deep fried and practically melted in my mouth. The entire sandwich was probably about a foot long, which is not an easy task when it is stuffed with its limit of fried shrimp. Fortunately I was able to tear through it and only left a small amount of bread that was left over.

Now, for the second day in a row, as soon as I was done with my meal I realized it had begun to pour outside. There were a couple of differences however, first the rain was coming down much harder this time, and second there was a massive amount of lightning. So I refilled my Dr. Pepper and stepped out under an overhang to wait for the onslaught of rain to quit. I was assured by a local that the rain “never lasted more than 20 minutes”, but this time he was wrong. About 45 minutes later, while the rain was still rushing down the street in rivers, I braved the water and ran to a bar on the corner. I stepped inside and ordered a N’awlins Golden from the Lazy Magnolia Brewery. It was a decent beer and I sat and chatted with the bartender about California, where she was from, and how confused I was being an Arizona boy with all this rain. Finally the rain let up a bit and I was able to walk down the street without running like a cockroach in the light.

I decided that I was going to head toward the green trolley for the Garden District when I walked past a bar that had the Womens World Cup on. I ducked inside, ordered an Abita Amber, and watched about 15 minutes of the game. The bar was pretty cool, it had an all wooden bar, exposed and aged brick on all the walls, and about 10 doors all open, facing the street. As I finished my beer I asked a local and the bartender if they knew of any bars that would show the MLS games, got a couple recommendations, and headed toward the Green Trolley.

I caught the Green Trolley on the opposite side of Bourbon Street, and it started off on its route west. As we pulled away from the Economic District the skyscrapers and commercial buildings slowly gave way to large mansions and even larger oak trees lining the streets. I was amazed at not only the size of the mansions that were along St. Charles Street, but also the condition that they were in. Each house that the trolley passed was bigger and more beautiful than the last one, and I probably looked like the gawking tourist that I was.

My first stop on the Green Trolley was the Lafayette Cemetery #1, again recommended by Nick. I was disappointed once again when I walked up and saw the caretaker locking up the gate. I quickly took a picture from where I was standing then headed back toward the trolley stop. Because there was not a trolley close to the stop, I decided to wander down the street and get a better look at the oak trees and mansions that were on the way. I laughed to myself when I saw one oak tree that still had Mardi Gras beads hanging from it, even in “Uptown”. I also found another old style church along the road, took a couple pictures, and had to rush to the next stop to catch the trolley.

The furthest stop that I was going to get off at was in front of Tulane University and Audubon Park across the street. Again, I was attracted to the old style church that Loyola University (directly south of Tulane) had so I walked down there and snapped a couple pictures. I then took my time to wander around Tulane and saw how beautiful the campus was. Walking through that kind of campus made me really wish I had gone back to get my masters this year, and to get back on a university campus again. After walking the campus I exited and started across the street toward the park.

Audubon Park is a massive park, with a golf course, a couple playgrounds, and even a zoo toward the Mississippi River. I walked the entire 2 mile loop around with a bunch of other people jogging, cycling, walking their dogs, or strolling like myself. It was very calming and while on this walk the sky cleared up and the sun finally came out again. I was extremely glad I walked around the park and got some great shots from the pedestrian path.

I then jumped back on the trolley and headed back toward the French Quarter to look for a good place to sit and relax as well as eat my last dinner in New Orleans. I ended up walking into a small bar on the eastern side of Jackson Square in the old Jax Brewery building. I ordered an LA 31 and chatted to the bartender while I drank. I found out he had gone to ASU for a couple years and had gotten his degree from there. He was training a young lady as well and when I learned that she was attending Tulane I started to ask her about it. After another beer (Tin Roof Amber Ale), talking about teaching, a bet involving a naked run around the Tulane Stadium, and a couple beer taste tests, I asked them where they would suggest going for good Creole food. They agreed that the place was Jaque-Imo’s, along with about 3 other staff members, so I decided to try it.

The downside to this great place was that it took about 40 minutes on the Green Trolley to get there. However, this place was completely worth it. I ordered an Abita Purple Haze (raspberry infused beer, a tad questionable and I wasn’t a big fan) and ordered my food at the bar. It came with a couple cornbread muffins (AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING) and a salad, by far way too much food for one person. Now, what I got was by far the greatest tuna dish I had ever eaten, as well as the most unique sauce to go along with it. The tuna was sitting on a bed of spinach and some crab meat, and the sauce was drizzled on and around the mountain of heaven. It also came with a side of red beans and rice and garden greens that were nothing less than spectacular. Seriously it almost brought a tear to my eye, and I barely took a breath the entire meal. Despite the enormous portions I ate the entire thing, and even as I am writing this am sitting uncomfortably in the hostel living room.

After as busy of a day as I had today I decided to head straight back to the hostel, and did not get back until about 10:30 pm. A day like today really exposed the advantages of traveling alone, I was able to hit a bunch of different areas and walk a massive distance without having to worry about anyone else and what they wanted to see. However, it was much nicer having someone to share the explorations with and talk to in Austin and San Antonio with Miranda. So I am looking forward to meeting up with some people I know for the next couple of stops, and also getting a little more direction in my wanderings and less random hiked into uncharted territory.

*July 7th: New Orleans, La to Chicago, Il*

Just like the day before I slept in a little longer than I had wanted, until about 9 am. The train for Chicago left New Orleans at 1:45 pm, which left me an awkward amount of time in the morning to squeeze in whatever I hadn’t seen of New Orleans quite yet. I quickly showered, packed up all of my things, and checked out from India House at about 10:15 am. Fortunately I was able to leave my bags at the hostel while I went in search of my last meal in the Big Easy.

I wandered down Canal Street looking for a “small hippie café” as the girl at the desk aptly described it. After about 15 minutes of walking I gave up on my quest and jumped on my old friend, the red trolley down to the French Quarter. Remembering that there was a semi famous restaurant I hadn’t visited from the day before, I headed toward the ACME Oyster House in the French Quarter.

Because it was fairly early for lunch, as I stepped into the small bar/restaurant there were only a couple other tables that were being used. I sat up at the “Raw Bar” and began to look at the extensive menu where the obvious focus was, I’m sure you can guess, oysters. As I turned over the menu I saw that they served Po-Boys and my mouth instantly began to salivate. They had one in particular which was called the “10 Napkin Roast Beef Po-Boy”. Slow roasted roast beef on a fresh French roll with all the fixings, and I was sold. I also decided I had to get something with an oyster in it because I was at a famous oyster house, so I ordered a couple oyster shooters.

Now I thought that these oyster shooters were just single helpings of oysters in the half shell, so you can imagine my surprise when the oyster shucker handed my two glasses with an oyster marinating in a shot of vodka in each. Being a little early to be doing shooters, they were not the easiest thing in the world to do, but in actuality they weren’t bad and the oysters were obviously very fresh. As I was annihilating my Po-Boy I began to talk with a younger gentleman and one of the veterans (oyster shuckers) working behind the bar. I was amazed watching them shuck the oysters and we talked about football, the futures of our teams, my trip, train travel, and seafood and just how lucrative oyster shucking was. In fact, one of the gentleman had worked there for over 5 years, did private functions in DC, Connecticut, LA and other major cities around the nation. He also told me that the people that worked at that particular ACME Oyster House were not only used to it being busy 7 days a week, but the average amount of money the employees made was about $40,000 to $80,000 a year! The younger gentleman, who obviously had just started at ACME, also told me that he had waited and applied for a job at that oyster house for over 12 years before he was hired. As we continued to chat I looked at my watch and realized it was noon and I had to head back to India House to grab my stuff and get to the train station. I shook both their hands as I said goodbye and made my way back onto the red trolley.

When I got back to India House they called me a taxi and, because of a mix up with another resident, I was able to grab a taxi that was already waiting. The gentleman who was driving the taxi was very friendly and I told him where I was going, a little about my trip and such. Once we got toward the river a little bit, we ran into a small amount of traffic. I heard him scoff under his breath and I asked him if he knew what the traffic was for. He told me that throughout this time of year downtown New Orleans is “Hollywood South”, and right now in particular there were 7 different movies being shot, hence all the traffic. He rattled off some of the names like Brad Pitt, Sylvester Stallone, Nicholas Cage, among others. This was definitely something I didn’t realize and all I could do was say, “Nice!” On our approach to the train terminal I told him that me and some buddies were thinking about going to Europe. He said when he was about 20 he rode motorcycles around Europe, and also gave me a good word of advice: When you’re in Europe, done tell them you’re from the US, but from New Orleans because Europeans love New Orleans. I paid him my fare and then made my way into the Amtrak terminal.

When I got on the train from New Orleans to Chicago, it was obvious that it was not going to be as packed as the previous trains, so I grabbed a couple seats for myself toward the front of the car and spread out. Now, I will have to reevaluate one of my previous statements made because of an experience I had on the train. I got a reservation for dinner at 6:30 pm, and showed up a little bit early. Once we were seated I was sitting with an older woman and a gentleman who was also a little older. We got our menus I started up a conversation, a couple words were exchanged, and then nothing. So again, a couple minutes later, I tried to make some lighthearted conversation and the end result was the same. Basically the entire time that we were sitting through our salad as well as the main course, a total of 3 words were exchanged. Conversations and laughter was burgeoning all around us, but our table had the intensity level of bingo. The older woman even pulled out her book and started to read, while the gentleman and I just avoided eye contact. It was extremely awkward and I spent the time closely studying the green countryside of Mississippi as it passed us by.

Now once the meal was done the gentleman, because he was in a sleeper and it was paid for already, just up and left without a word. Then suddenly the older woman and I were able to have a nice conversation for the next 30 minutes. She was from Jackson, Mississippi asked about my trip, was amazed that I was a teacher, Jamaica, and we talked about New Orleans and the ACME Oyster House (her favorite restaurant in New Orleans) for the majority of the conversation. It was very pleasant and made me wish that captain grumpy hadn’t been sitting with us the entire time. So again, that previous statement, being on my first leg of the trip, was a little preemptive and possibly needed a little more experience to back it up. I would take about 15 long, awkward conversations with strangers over a half an hour of another dinner like that.

The train was scheduled to arrive in Chicago at 9 am, so I tried to sleep a little early so I would have time to grab breakfast in the morning.

*July 8th: Chicago, Il*

Sleeping on the train from Missouri to Illinois was not as easy as it had been on the past couple times. I was able to grab a couple seats toward the front of the car again, so I had plenty of space to curl up in a ball. The biggest problem was the A/C on the car was on full blast, and only seemed to get worse as the sun went down. Seeing as how I was in a t-shirt, gym shorts, and flip flops, I was not exactly prepared for the climate so I curled up as much as I could and slept. Needless to say it was not the best night of sleep, but I was able to squeeze out a couple hours.

The train was scheduled to pull into Chicago Union Station at about 9 am, so I woke up fairly early to the sun rising over a small Midwestern town in central Illinois. For a majority of the morning I watched some tv on my computer and just took it easy, dosing off for 10 to 15 minutes at a time until the train pulled into the station.

Now, if you know anything about trains and Chicago, it is basically the crossroads for the entire United States when it comes to shipping. Therefore, when we got to Union Station, and when I was actually able to get off the train was a 45 minute time span. That left Zach waiting on the street for me and forced him to move his car about four times. Finally I was able to get my bags from baggage claim and met Zach on the side of the station. For breakfast Zach suggested that we hit up Portillos, not exactly known as a breakfast place, but I am not one to turn down a meal suggested by a local. I had been to Portillos before, and at 10 am there was nothing better than the Italian beef sandwich and onion rings. Again, not wanting to run the time out on the parking spot, we hurried and headed back to their apartment.

Driving around Lakeshore Drive, it was really nice to see a coast that was not blocked or disturbed by development and housing. According to Zach, back when the owners of the coast sold it to the city, the major stipulation they had was that the coast had to stay undeveloped and open to the public. All of this really makes for an awesome looking coast along Lake Michigan, with beach volleyball, soccer fields (and about 6 more on the way come 2016), and a nice boardwalk that goes for 15 miles.

We got back to Zach and Keily’s apartment, and between my lack of sleep in the train car ice cube and Zach playing Halo until 7 am, we both crashed for a couple hours. When we both woke up we headed downtown again to pick up Keily and go to dinner at Twin Anchors in Old Town. I ordered the ribs and to be completely honest, they were some of the best I’ve had on this trip. They fell off the bone, smothered in sauce, and the barbeque sauce was awesome. It came with creamed spinach which also had a small jalapeño kick, and a basket of onion rings. I also ordered a local beer called Berghoff Backyard Ale (wheat ale, really really good), continuing my historic/beer tour of the United States.

After dinner we picked up a family friend of Zach’s at their house in Old Town Chicago. Yes, they lived in a single family home practically in downtown Chicago and it was really freakin nice. Also after dinner we went to pick up Zach’s younger cousin for a tournament they had at midnight, and again their house was impressive. Zach’s uncle’s house was a really old style, Midwestern type home, but was massive. His uncle has five children, and I was surprised that they all lived in this house, but after taking a thorough tour of the house there was plenty of space for them all. It was a really cool old house, and just to make it that much more attractive, it was about 4 houses away from Lake Michigan. I was extremely impressed, thanked them for showing me their home, and we walked back to Keily and Zach’s apartment.

Because Keily had worked the entire day, Zach, his cousin, and his family friend all had a tournament at midnight, Keily and I decided to hang at home and watch “Paul”. Eventually we crashed out and got ready to the busy day running around that was planned.

*July 9th: Chicago, Il*

We woke up fairly early (9 am) back at the apartment, and my makeshift bed on the couch was surprisingly comfortable. We all went to breakfast at a small Ann Sather’s nearby. Apparently this place is known for their cinnamon rolls and I was extremely excited to try one. The problem was you couldn’t just get one, they came is sets of two. Secondly, they weren’t even the main dish, they were a side dish. Now, these cinnamon rolls were not small by any stretch of the imagination, and you got TWO as a side to your full meal (and you got TWO SIDES, but that’s a whole other story). Needless to say, after my Mexican omelet with guacamole, salsa, and about a pound of cheese, two whole cinnamon rolls were too much for my stomach to handle. In an attempt to work off the food we just ate we walked around the neighborhood behind the restaurant, and it was awesome looking at the old style brick houses again.

Because my Uncle Barry and Aunt Pam were in town for another wedding, they took advantage of the time to get some of the details ready for Keily and Zach’s next summer. So a majority of the morning was spent running around to different parts of the city getting things organized, ordered, priced out, and just getting stuff done. I tagged along and just looked at the buildings around downtown and checked out the different places that we passed. Out of all the cities that I am going to on this trip, Chicago is probably the city I am most familiar with. Therefore, there aren’t too many things, especially touristy things that I necessarily wanted to do, so I didn’t have too much I needed to see before I left, so it was fun to relax.

After they had taken care of a good chunk of the wedding plans for that day we headed to the bar that Zach used to/current still does work at. This bar is really cool because not only is it an Irish Pub (and we all know how Rob is with his Irish Pubs) but it was literally 10 feet from the river. They also had about every beer that any bar should have on tap, and had a good selection of bottled beers in addition to that. So, staying true to one of my goals of the trip, I perused the beer list for my selections. The first beer I had was the Goose Island 312. It was a wheat ale and it was pretty good (the 312 stands for the area code of Chicago and the tap is a telephone). The second beer that I tried while more wedding planning was going on and Uncle Barry and I watched the Women’s World Cup, was the Goose Island Honker which was the amber ale. It wasn’t as good as the 312, but it was by no means bad.

After we met up with my Aunt Sue and Uncle Carl we walked to Millennium Park to go check out the giant bean. After watching Source Code, I realized that this thing was actually in Chicago, and decided that was the main tourist attraction I was going to check out in Chicago. So we wandered across the river and checked out the bean with about 200 of our closes friends. We also walked further into Millennium Park and saw a huge water feature where large screens with people’s faces had water fountains between them. It looked kind of funny with these massive faces staring across the square at one another, and then all of a sudden they closed their eyes, pursed their lips and water began to shoot out. And then I realized just why we had come to see these giant things and I snapped a couple pictures as we left.

After our adventure to Millennium Park we decided to head back to the north part of town for Kuma’s. I was told that this was the best burger in all of Chicago, if not the entire world, so I was pretty pumped to try this place out. As we got closer to the restaurant I was also informed that the burgers were named after metal bands, they played heavy metal constantly, and every waitress had at least one tattoo, but most were more than qualified in that respect. We waited for about 40 minutes for a table outside so we could hear each other talk, and again I looked at their extensive beer menu. The first beer I had was another local beer from the Great Lakes brewery called “the Holy Moses”. It was another wheat ale and was pretty good, but had a little bit of an aftertaste that set it apart from the others. We ordered some macaroni and cheese to start us off (which in retrospect was completely unnecessary) and it surpassed all my expectations. We ordered it with corn and prosciutto, and between those things, the extremely creamy cheese, and the macaroni, it was like heaven over and over again. I basically couldn’t stop myself from grabbing more and more of it despite the fact that I had an entire meal heading my direction any second.

The second beer I ordered was from the Three Floyd’s brewery, called the “the Alpha King”. It was an IPA and was not anything overly special, but it was pretty good. The burger I ordered was called the Brujeria and had cheese, jalapeño poppers, salsa, all on a pretzel bun. When this mound of food was put down in front of me, I knew I had made a grave mistake in eating my body weight in mac n cheese. Not only was the burger juicy and delicious (especially the pretzel bun), but it also came with a mountain of home cut, home-style fries. After feeling like I was on an episode of Man vs. Food and stuffing myself until I couldn’t physically move, we got some to go boxes to save the amazingly tasty food for later.

We again went downtown to walk off the feast we had just eaten, and decided to do a lap from Zach’s bar to Navy Pier. According to Zach, Navy Pier is the second largest tourist attraction in the country, only trailing Disney World. Now, Navy Pier does not look like it is that large, but when you are walking it, and walking it with a large food baby, it becomes a trek. However, the sun was dipping below the horizon, and the lights of the skyline were beginning to shine through the twilight, which made for some excellent pictures. There was a convention center, a couple docks for some night time cruises, and a Ferris wheel, all on this one pier. As we circled back to the bar, Zach mentioned there were a couple other awesome vantage points to check out the city, so the older people went home, while Zach, Keily and I all headed out for a tour of the town.

The first place that we went was the observatory way out away from town. Now, by this time the sun had gone down and all the lights of the Chicago skyline were bright and shining. Once we were able to park and find a good place to sit down I attempted to get some pictures, and then just took in the skyline as it was. Because of the humidity in the air, there was a soft hue of light around the skyscrapers that defined the city, and made it look even more spectacular than some of the pictures I had seen. While I was enjoying the sight Keily and Zach were pointing out the different buildings, explaining what they were, which made the whole experience extremely enjoyable. We then jumped in the car and Zach said there was one more place we had to check out.

Because Zach had a sun roof in his car he opened it up as we got near Michigan Ave. and told me to just look straight up as we went down it. This was an extremely cool perspective because it really showed all the skyscrapers reaching toward the sky. It also served to really put me in my place and show me just how small I was in this massive city. As the lights zipped by my field of vision, I realized just how cool it was that I could travel to all these places, and have people in a majority of the cities as resources to show me things like this. I know I’ve said it once or twice before, but everyone that I have bummed a room or hung out with on this trip has/will make this entire trip for me, and for that I am forever appreciative.

After the amazing views of the city we decided to end the night at the batting cages by the apartment, but on our way we stopped at the gas station to an interesting spectacle. Now, I have seen a handful of altercations, but none compared to this one. As we pulled into the afore mentioned gas station, a group of Indian gentlemen were exiting the convenience store. They had raised voices, but because of our intense conversation about How I Met Your Mother, we didn’t take too much notice. However, after about 20 seconds it escalated and there was yelling, posturing, guys holding other guys back, pointing. It was going DOWN. Zach could hardly contain himself by the time he got in the car and quickly gave us the rundown of what he could figure out. Basically all he could decipher was someone questioned someone else’s sexuality, and then the whole thing happened. The best part of this whole shindig is that it was completely obvious that no one was going to throw a punch. It was just a lot of hot air and chest puffing, so we laughed about that all the way to the batting cages.

The batting cages, for yours truly, were not exactly pretty, so we are going to gloss that over. Normally there is a bet as to whoever does the worst pays for the ice cream that night, however we were all still working on the food babies from dinner earlier, so that was not in play for this session. After a couple rounds at the slow pitch baseball, just to make ourselves feel really good about ourselves, we jumped in the car and headed back to the apartment for the night.

Zach was planning on taking me to his boxing class in the morning, so we hung out at home and got ready for the intensity the next day.

*July 10th: Chicago, Il*

After the massive amount of calories that were ingested the day before, I decided that I would tag along with Zach to go boxing in the morning. We woke up around 9:30 am, threw on some gym clothes, I borrowed some tennis shoes and headed out to the gym, which was toward the southern part of the city.

One of the coolest things about this gym was just how much it looked like a neighborhood boxing gym straight from the movies. It was in an old brick building, on the second floor and was about the size of a small restaurant. However, they were able to squeeze in a couple rings, countless punching bags, and enough room for treadmills, weights and other exercise equipment. After we went to the front desk, paid our money, and I signed that waiver that said if I got injured and/or killed while boxing that I wouldn’t sue them, we started to warm up for the workout. When we walked into the gym portion of the place we saw Zach’s Uncle Mark (the guy with the massive old house near the lake) and his other Uncle Frank that were both just starting their workouts as well.

Unfortunately we weren’t able to work in with the class that was going on, so we started to work out independently. Being a desert dweller I started to sweat like a beast because all the windows were open and the sun was promising to make it a toasty one, but it felt great to work off some of the calories that I had eaten over the past couple days. After we had done some individual workouts and Zach had given me the basics for boxing, Zach talked me into a short sparring match. Now, because I am a total newbie Zach was not going to punch back and just work on his defense. One of the trainers (named Lefty) was giving me advice as we rolled around the ring and I was just throwing punches as best I could. As soon as the three minute round was up we stopped, talked to Lefty, grabbed some water, and I instantly got really light headed. After that three minute slugfest I was as close as I have ever been to passing out after exercise like that. I blamed it all on the terrible food that I had been eating, but I’m pretty sure it was a sign that I was massively out of shape. So we went for another one minute round then called it a day.

Zach’s uncles invited us to go downtown with them to grab some food at Maxwell St. and I was only told that it was an “experience”. After losing his Uncle Mark (the one that we were following) we figured out how to get down there and walked to Maxwell St. Basically the experience that they were talking about was the massive market that was being held in the middle of the street. People brought whatever wares or food they had to sell, set up a couple tables, and started to do business. We wandered around for about an hour, bought some carne asada and chorizo tacos, and they all bought some strawberries, mangos and pineapple. It really reminded me of the “Dirt Mall” down in Mexico, with Mexican music playing from loudspeakers, small kids running around, small trinkets and bootleg DVDs, all with taco stands every 10 yards. Realizing that it was getting close to 3 pm, when the Sounders were going to play the Timbers, Zach and I took off and headed back to the apartment to get cleaned up like real human beings.

After a quick couple games of Halo, we headed out from the apartment for Zach’s bar to watch the soccer game. Once we got to the bar we heard about the amazing women’s soccer game that we missed, so we got a quick synopsis from one of the bartenders while the first half of the Sounders game continued. Because Phil had just gotten back into town he was coming up from Lomberg to join us for the game as well, and he joined up about 20ish minutes after we showed up. We met up at the bar, had some drinks, enjoyed the Sounders beating up on the Timbers like they should and then decided to walk around downtown to show Phil around a little bit.

We headed to a mall to check out a couple stores and when Zach realized that the store had been moved, a couple kiosk girls asked us what we were looking for. To make a long story short both the girls ended up being Jewish and latched onto Phil (especially after they learned he was going to med school) and so we chatted with them for a couple minutes. Phil got one of their email addresses, ya an email address, and we headed out further into downtown. We also went to a high end car dealership that was down there, and we all had to wipe the drool off the windows because they were closed. Rolls Royces, Aston Martins, Bugatis, Ferrarris and other cars that we are not ever going to afford were locked inside and we finally peeled ourselves off the windows to head back to the cars.

We talked to the rest of the family and decided to head down toward Aunt Sue and Uncle Carl’s house for some dinner. After surviving the insanity of the roads on the way out to the Chicago suburbs, we sat down and for the first time since I had been in Phil with stories of the ridiculous Chicago winters, and eventually left the restaurant for Sue and Carl’s house. Keily had some stuff to try on for the wedding, and we needed to fix Zach’s door so it was a quick stop, then we headed back to the apartment. On the way home, Zach informed me that he was terrible with directions, and even notorious for getting lost in the Chicago suburbs, so I busted out my GPS and guided us into the city.

Again, nothing exciting really went down afterwards, and as I sit here writing this up we are all in the living room watching the Bourne Supremacy while Pam and Keily look at wedding things. Overall it was a pretty sweet day, especially since my Sounders are now sitting in second place, getting their three much needed points in Portland, and winning in style.

*July 11th: Chicago, Il to Washington, DC*

Nostalgically playing Halo until the wee hours of the morning was a lot of fun; however I did eventually get tired of getting beaten like a drum and called it a night around 2 am. I woke up around 6 am and heard it raining and thundering like crazy outside, but in my sleepy haze did nothing more than make a note and go back to sleep. When I woke up again at about 10 am the sun was shining and the only evidence left behind that there had been any disturbance were some downed tree branches and rain puddles in the street. Everyone else had left to take care of wedding stuff again (except Zach who continued the Halo marathon later than I did), so I decided to continue what I had started the night before and hit the guide button on the controller.

After another couple hours of getting reminded just how long it had been since I had played I started to slowly pack up my suitcase and backpack in anticipation for my train that left later in the afternoon. Zach finally woke up around 2 pm and Pam, Barry, and Sue were all coming to pick us up for an early dinner at their favorite restaurant Portillos. Once I had gotten all my things together for the train we jumped into the rental car with the aunts and uncle and drove downtown to pick up Keily from work. Keily was unable to get off work any earlier than 3:45 so we took the scenic route and Zach showed everyone where his school was and some of the other areas that we were passing.

I stayed in the car with the aunts and uncle while Zach stayed behind for Keily, and we started to wander around the block for some parking. Luckily a car was pulling out on the side of Portillos and we snuck right in. The only problem was we could only muster up about .70 cents worth of change for the meter, which bought us a grand total of 12 minutes. We actually wanted to enjoy our food so Uncle Barry sent me into a nearby Walgreens (ironically) to grab a couple dollars worth of quarters. Even this amount of change was only enough for about 40 minutes so that wouldn’t be the last time we fed the parking machine.

Portillos was just as good for lunch on my way out as it had been for breakfast on the way in and there wasn’t a whole lot of conversation going around the table while we all still had food. My chili cheese dog was excellent and the rest of my aunt’s Italian sausage was just as good as I remembered it. As we left the restaurant we said our goodbyes because Zach was going to drive me back to the train station while the aunts and uncles were dropping Kylie off before heading out to the ‘burbs. As we said our goodbyes my aunt slipped me some money and initially, because I had been in charge of all the other meter runs, I thought it was for the meter and was extremely confused. But she corrected me and told me to enjoy the rest of my trip.

Zach and I were only on the brink of death about 6 times on our 5 mile drive to the train station, which was a fairly good stint in city driving. I promised I wouldn’t leave him hanging on Xbox live anymore, grabbed my bags, and headed into the train station. One thing that I was not consciously thinking about was the fact that it was indeed rush hour in the city, so I was surprised when I saw a sea of people ducking and weaving by one another on my way to the ticket counter. The gate itself was nothing short of a complete mess with people standing in a giant mob, and 2/3rds of them not knowing what they were standing in line for. The root of the problem ended up being the fact that out of the 5 gates that were in that portion of the building, 4 of them were boarding within 15 minutes of each other. I will hand it to the employees, when it came time to separate and organize the amalgamation of people, they were efficient and quick.

I then learned that the train was completely sold out and quietly cursed to myself because I was looking forward to my own seats that I had gotten used to on the last couple trains. I was seated next to a woman who was going from California to North Carolina with her two boys, and had been held back because of an 8 hour delay. We chatted for a little bit but it was obvious that she was not exactly cheerful about her situation. Seeing the crowded nature of the cars I decided to try my luck in the lounge car with my book and headed forward in the train.

As the train pulled out of the Chicago suburbs and out into Indiana I read a small portion of my book while a majority of the riders filed into the dining car for dinner. I debated on eating a second time so I could socialize with whoever was at the table, but told myself that I had eaten enough already and went back to my book. I also decided that I would buy some of the beer that was on the train because I had not tried any yet, and obviously that goes against half of the reason I went on this trip. Looking at the selection of Heinaken, Corona, and Sierra Nevada, it was an easy decision and I went with the Sierra. I have had it before so I’m not going to delve into it, but it was a great experience sipping on a beer and watching the farmland of northern Indiana whoosh by the observation car.

Once the sun had sunk behind the horizon I began to talk to an older couple who was traveling back to Pittsburgh from Chicago. They were extremely friendly and we they asked about my trip, what I did for a living, Arizona, and how my grandmother could possibly have 14 children and still be sane. One of the subjects that they were really surprised about was just how much I had traveled around the country and some portion of the world. This naturally led into a conversation about different foods and they suggested a restaurant in Pittsburg that they are known for. Even as I write this I am seriously debating making a mad dash to grab some of their food if Pittsburg is deemed a smoke stop (making it anywhere from 30 to 45 minutes of idle time at the station).

Because of the change in time zones time was flying and around 11 pm the observation car was fairly empty with a small contingent of people playing cards at the table, as well as a small group of Amish people talking quietly among themselves. I would assume, and by assume I mean about 95% sure, that the hearts game at the table was fueled by alcohol, which quickly became loud. They also busted out a laptop and starting playing some music to the disdain of some passengers attempting to sleep in the dimly lit observation car. They played songs like “Self Esteem” , “The Middle” and other alternative songs which I didn’t mind, but around 1 am local time it was a little old.

Trying out a new technique on sleeping I went back to my seat, grab my sad excuse for a pillow, and the sweatshirt I had put in my backpack, and headed to the café car (which is below the observation car). The car was still lit, but the café was closed and I found exactly what I was looking for, an open bench seat that ran for about 7 feet on one wall. Another gentleman that I had given a hint to earlier about the café car was already fast asleep on the other side, so I quietly laid down on the bench (fully extended being the #1 attraction), put the sweatshirt over most of my face to make it dark, and listened to some music. It wasn’t long before I was asleep and got by far the best sleep of the entire trip on my makeshift bunk.

*July 12th: Washington, DC*

In the morning I woke up to the sound of a passenger and the café attendant talking toward the café itself around 6 am. The sun was just coming up on the Pennsylvania countryside so I grabbed my implements and headed back to my seat to put them away. For a couple hours I listened to music and watched the scenery pass by. For a majority of the time the train followed a small stream through the hills of Pennsylvania and it was extremely beautiful. There was green forest on all sides with small farms and towns intermittently along the ride so I naturally snapped a couple pictures through the imperfect glass of the train.

Around 8 am I headed to the dining car for breakfast and was seated with a group of three ladies from Detroit. They were heading all the way down to Florida for a family reunion on a cruise ship. Over their meals of French toast and my omelet we talked about Amtrak, Arizona, my trip, how the trains have changed in the last 50 years, and how tough you have to be to stay in coach. It was a very pleasant breakfast and the omelet was delicious despite it being completely vegetarian. The ladies also asked about some of the sights to see in Washington DC because they had a 7 hour layover to kill, so I looked at what they had already decided to see and gave them some additional suggestions. As we parted I told them not to get too crazy on the cruise and headed back to the observation car to read and relax.

The train ended up being a little over 2 hours late by the time we pulled into Union Station, and Brent was waiting to pick me up out front. Now, I think it needs to be said that every train station that I have gone to across our nation has gotten progressively nicer and nicer. The stop in Maricopa was a small building about the size of a matchbox, and Union Station in Washington DC was nothing short of spectacular. Because of the tardiness of the train Brent and I decided to grab some food, and Brent already had a place in mind.

Unfortunately the place that Brent wanted to head towards was in Annapolis, and that is not in the direction of my aunt and uncles house at all, but I digress. The place we ended up going to was famous for excellent food, but was also the scene of a Man vs Food episode, so naturally it made the list. The restaurant is called Chick and Ruth’s Deli in Annapolis, Maryland and they serve a 2 lb. Ruben and a 6 lb. milkshake. I decided that I didn’t want to die from a heart attack in the near future (because I have 3 more stops on this trip, I mean come on) so I ordered the regular mint chocolate chip milkshake, Philly cheese steak and some chili cheese fries, AKA the weight watchers option. I ate the entire cheese steak but was not able to conquer the mountain of fries, but the amount of food I did ingest was enough for a small country. Before we left Brent decided that the facilities were in way too pristine of conditions and we ducked out as soon as he exited, he’s still got it.

The other negative side to this decision was the massive amount of traffic going into and out of Washington DC. All in all it was fun driving into Annapolis because I had not spent very much time there before, and the small area that we did end up seeing was very cool. With the short tour of eastern Viriginia out of the way we headed toward Fredricksburg and toward my aunt and uncles house.

Because Brent had to work the next day he hung out with us at the house while we all just talked in the kitchen of their house. I was really interested in trying out some of Josh’s beer that he had brewed recently so he went and grabbed some from the fridge. Wasting no time we cracked open a couple cold ones and I was very impressed with the beer itself. It had an excellent flavor but was not too overbearing. We discussed what bars we needed to hit before I left for Philly in Thursday, the wedding, the wedding next summer, and Brent being an east coast newbie. They also offered us brownies, and despite the fact that we had a small feast for dinner, we didn’t turn them down.

We finished up the night by watching the last of the All Star game in the living room, and a majority of us passed out on the various couches and chairs that we were sitting in.

*July 13th: Washington DC*

As I woke up and realized that I had passed out on the couch in their living room, not my intended place to fall asleep. It was also about 10:30 am by the time I woke up, and there was a commotion going on in the kitchen. Uncle John and Aunt Donna had been having trouble with their Direct TV HD channels, so the TV guy was over at the house working on fixing it. I also looked over to the love seat that Brent had fallen asleep on and realized that he had crashed just as hard as I had.

Both of us got up, I introduced Donna to Brent for the first time, and Brent decided to head home to try and rest up before his shift at 7pm. The Direct TV guy could not fix the HD channels and he left, leaving the enormous HD TV underachieving a little longer. I decided that I wanted to feel a little more like a human being, and after not being able to shower since Chicago, there was nothing that would help more than some water and soap. So I jumped into the shower to get ready for the day.

Again, Washington DC is a city that I have been to on more than one occasion, so I decided not to do a whole lot of touristy things while I was here. My stay was also cut short due to a full train from Chicago, so I would only be in DC for one full day. Therefore, as soon as I got out of the shower, Josiah and I played a little Halo, and then we met Josh upstairs to figure out what we were going to do.

Because the Women’s World Cup Semifinals were on, we decided to head to Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the remainder of the game. Per normal I ordered a dozen Asian Zing wings and six Mango Habanero, which were freakin delicious. After another exciting soccer game between France and the US we hung out a little longer, then headed back so Josiah could get ready for his swim meet. As we chilled on the couch it looked like it was going to be another relaxing day, which was exactly what I needed after the constant rush of the day before around most of the eastern seaboard.

For dinner we headed over to my cousin Chris’ house for some burgers and pasta. I hadn’t seen their new house or Chris’ store that he is managing out in Virginia so it was really cool to see those things for the first time. Both Molly and Chris had worked earlier in the day so we just relaxed and chatted while the burgers were on the grill and talked about their wedding (which was in Phoenix 2 weeks prior), my trip, jobs, the new house and pretty much whatever came up. They had just gotten a small puppy as well, Murphey, and while we were hanging out he was gnawing of everything from the wooden porch to my jeans, so that was entertaining. Chris grilled up these awesome jalapeno burgers and with a little pepper jack cheese on them they really hit the spot.

After dinner Chris asked if I wanted to check out the 3D TV he had bought and put down in the man cave of a basement that he had set up. The TV was massive and as soon as I put on the Sony glasses I could see why people were attracted to it. We watched about a half hour of Despicable Me and it looked phenomenal with all the animation. He also showed us some of the 3D channels that they got with Direct TV which added a whole new dimension (literally) to watching regular programming. The coolest thing we saw though was the homerun derby in 3D. It wasn’t like the ball was flying by your head or anything, but you could distinctly see the different planes that the batter, pitcher, camera men, and audience members were all on. It was a little taxing to watch TV with the glasses for an extended period of time, but it was a really cool overall experience. Feeling our time constraints Josh and I said our goodbyes and headed out to catch a little of Josiah’s swim meet.

We saw Josiah swim the 50 yard freestyle and he said he shaved off a second of him time, so he did really well. Then Josh wanted to head downtown and show off some of the bars that he had discovered downtown. Once we got downtown we headed to a place called Capital Brewhouse, and I instantly saw why we did. Along the end of the bar there were more than 50 different kinds of beer on draft, and about 8 refrigerators side by side packed to the brim with even more bottles of beer. I had to stop myself from fainting and we grabbed a seat at the bar as soon as possible.

One of the cool things about the bar was that it had a strip of ice running the entire length for the glasses. They would pour you your beer and set it on the strip of ice, I assume to keep the glass fairly chilled. I’m not convinved it worked the whole time (especially with the half pints of IPAs) but it was different and gave me something to play with as we hung out. Due to the massive selection of beer they had a small packet listing each beer and a short description of them, so thumbing through the pages I started to make my list. The first beer I had from Blue and Gray Bewery (Fredricksburg) and it was their Fred Red. It was excellent red ale and was the perfect beer to start off our night of beer exploration. The next beer I had was from Legend Brewery and it was their Brown Ale. Again it was pretty good, nothing too exciting about it, but it was a solid beer that was very drinkable. The next one that I tried was from Flying Dog Brewery and it was their Raging ***** IPA. It was served in a half pint because it was about 12% and it was a little too bitter for my taste. Even for an IPA it was a little strong, but nothing I wouldn’t order again. The next one I had was from Legend Brewery again because they were out of the Golden Monkey, and it was their 15 Year Anniversary Belgian. It was extremely good and had a really full flavor for a Belgian beer. The next one, which was very close to my heart, was from the Duck Rabbit Brewery and it was their Milk Stout. I don’t think it was as good as the Left Hand Milk Stout back home, but it was another solid choice and I would definitely order it again. The last beer of the night was from the Founders Brewery and it was called the Dirty *******. This was probably my least favorite beer of the entire night, but it was very different from the other beers we had tried so I’m glad we got it.

A night like this was exactly what I wanted to do on this trip and I tried a bunch of east coast beers that I would not be able to get back home, even at the Mecca of liquor stores, Total Wine.

*July 14th: Washington DC to Philadelphia, Pa*

After the epic spree of beer tasting last night, it was not so easy to wake up for my early train out of Fredericksburg and back to DC. Josh gave me a ride to the train station, and in my semi haze was when the confusion began on my way to Union Station.

Aunt Donna had gotten a free train pass for me to use from Fredericksburg to DC, which was awesome because it saved me a chunk of money, so I thought all I had to do was validate it at the station and I was good. First off, the train I got on was an Amtrak train, not a VRE train (which is what the pass was for), so that was my first mistake. Secondly, when they started to come around on the train the conductor told me that I needed to get an actual ticket at the next stop. While I was on the train I chatted with a retired Army officer who was going into DC for work and he asked about my trip, and we also talked about Germany and the UK because he asked if I was planning on going to Europe. He was really nice, but because of my ticket situation I had to hop off the train so I shook his hand and took my leave. I ran to one of the kiosks while people were getting on and off to try and get my ticket. Of course the first kiosk I went to was malfunctioning and wouldn’t take my debit card, and by the time I ran to the other working one, the train was leaving the station. So I waited at the station for the next train to come by, and about 15 minutes later a VRE train showed up. I got on the train and hoped that I had all the documentation that I needed. Thankfully I did have everything together, but that was not the end of the debacle.

When we were about 10 miles outside DC my phone starting to ring and when I pulled it out of my pocket it was notifying me about my train, but instead of it saying 9:40 am like I was planning, it said 8:40 am (about 5 minutes in the future) for my departure time. I shrugged it off and thought I had just put it in my phone wrong, but when it went off again I decided to check the actual ticket. Low and behold the train left at 8:40 am instead of 9:40 am and I was like “…crap”. So when I showed up at Union Station I ran to the counter and asked if there was any room on the next train headed to Philly. Luckily the next train wasn’t full and it left at 9:20 am, about 25 minutes away. The lady did the little shuffle on my USA rail pass and then sent me to the gate to board the train.

One of the things I had been really surprised about was the fact that there were no inspections of your bags when you were boarding the train, so you can imagine my surprise when I was pulled out of line for a random search. I’m pretty sure my Kool Aid Man shirt was the culprit and I was forced to get swabbed down for “explosive residue”. This was the icing on the cake for a morning where not a whole lot worked out as planned, but in the end I was able to get on the train with little to no hassle and I am successfully on my way to Philadelphia.

The train ride was extremely short compared to my previous trips, and the cars that Amtrak used were different as well. Instead of being the “superliner” model of cars, they were the older models that were only one level and were all coach class. It did have a snack car and I pretty much hung out in there the entire time. I talked to a gentleman riding the train for business to Philly, and he was really surprised at my trip, and that I was doing it all by myself. We talked until the train arrived in Philly then got off and went our separate ways. The ride lasted about an hour and a half and when we pulled into 30th Street Station in Philly, I was again surprised at just how nice it was. I wouldn’t say it was as big as Union Station in DC, but it was just as nice with stores and restaurants in the lobby and statues all over the place. I walked outside and hailed a taxi to take me directly to my hostel that I had booked for the next couple nights.

The taxi driver was extremely nice, and after GPSing my hostel because he was not familiar with it, I got to chatting with him. He was from Nigeria and was very impressed when I described the trip that I was doing. He mentioned that he had always wanted to see the rest of the United States and we discussed the pros and cons of driving or taking the train as we headed toward the hostel. Once he found Bank St., where the hostel was located, he had to squeeze the taxi past a couple vans on the road that was obviously created before cars were even an idea. I thanked him for the ride and was on my way into the hostel.

As soon as I saw the lobby to this hostel I knew it wasn’t going to be anything like the one in New Orleans. This one had a very American feel to it, a more modern design on the inside, and really bright colors painted on the walls. There was also rap music playing from a TV in the common area, much different from the existential music that was at the one in New Orleans. There wasn’t the same hippie esque feel that the hostel in New Orleans had, despite it also being in an older building. After I checked in he told me that the rooms wouldn’t be ready until later that afternoon, and I had some errands to run as well before my sightseeing adventure around Philly.

Again, contributing to the day where not a whole hell of a lot worked out right, I realized that I had left my camera in Virginia. The only upside to the whole situation was that I was planning on getting a new one anyhow, but it was not an expense I was planning on for this trip, so that made it a little uncomfortable. Luckily the guy behind the counter told me about a RadioShack that was nearby and I walked over there as soon as I put my luggage in the store room for later.

I was able to find a fairly cheap camera, about $100, and it had some decent specs. So after talking to the guy about the different cameras and paying for the one that I finally picked, it was time to walk over to Walgreens in search of a towel that I had forgotten in Chicago. I walked into the Walgreens and realized that it wasn’t a full store, but more of a trimmed up store that only carried what people would need if they were staying in a hotel on vacation. Unfortunately I was in a hostel and not a hotel so this did not help me out very much and I had to move on. I looked in the Kmart that was nearby (after nearly choking on my soda realizing that Kmart was still around) and was unsuccessful yet again. The last place that I thought to look was Ross, but low and behold they had a whole end stand dedicated to my deficiency. I quickly grabbed a tan one, paid for it and walked out of the store. Once I had dropped all this stuff off at the hostel and was able to open up the camera, it was time for a whirlwind of tourism.

I didn’t want to do a lot of the time consuming stuff the first day because I wasn’t able to start until about 3 pm, so I wandered around downtown Philly and took a bagillion pictures. One thing I have really enjoyed so far about Philadelphia is the fact that it is an extremely easy city to walk around in. There isn’t anything that is too far away from where you’re at, and there is a historical sight/monument every 20 feet it seems like. I hit places like Independence Hall, Christ’s Church, Benjamin Franklin’s grave (from the street), the first US Bank, and other historical sites. So once I was able to make the loop around a majority of the things I wanted to see, I looped back to try and jump in a couple tours around the monuments themselves.

The first thing I got in line for was the Liberty Bell Museum. It was really interesting because it wasn’t just the Liberty Bell, but the history behind it and also how it has affected the country and the world since its claim to fame. The line was extremely long, but the rangers did an excellent job of moving people through the exhibits and moving the line forward, so I only had to wait about 30 minutes to get inside. As soon as I was done at the bell I walked over to Independence Hall and jumped in line for one of their guided tours. I was under the impression that they were a little longer, but the tour only lasted about 25 minutes, and consisted of going into just the two main chambers within the hall. I was glad to hear the tour guide talk about what actually happened and not the myth that has been perpetuated about every having a jolly good time signing the Declaration, but for the most part there wasn’t any ground breaking information given in the tour. We were one of the final tours to go through Independence Hall so it was an expedited tour, and they shuffled us out fairly quickly.

As I walked out of Independence Hall I decided to head toward an Irish Pub that I had passed on my wanderings downtown so I started to walk back towards the hostel. Once I got inside I knew I had hit the jackpot because the entire wall behind the bar was covered in taps, a majority of them being local beers. The two beers that I tried were from the Yards Bewery in Philly and the first was their pale ale. I’m not a huge fan of pale ale, but this one was not bad. It was a lot better than any of the nationalized beers but still was not my favorite. The second beer I had was called Brotherly Suds and was a joint effort between three or four of the local breweries. It was really tasty and had a hoppy kick as soon as I took a sip, with a pale ale aftertaste. The environment was really cool and had a neighborhood pub feel to it as I chatted with the bartender and a girl at the bar. They both asked about my trip and I talked to the girl about her job as a caterer, how much she hates history, and why I need to go to London because she had lived there for a year.

The hostel had a pub crawl scheduled for 8:30 pm, and it was starting to get fairly late so I asked for food suggestions around the area, and said farewell to the Irish pub. The bartender suggested that I go to a place called Campo’s just up the street from the pub, so that was where I headed straight from the bar. They are known for their Philly cheese steaks, so that was naturally what I ordered. Grilled Onions and American cheese were my toppings, and let me just say that was the best choice ever. The onions were chopped nice and large and were extremely sweet with the steak cooked perfectly. Anything that had as much melted cheese as that cheese steak is going to taste amazing, so I won’t even talk about that one, and the meal was excellent. I polished off the pasta salad that I had ordered as well and then made my way back to the hostel.

Because of my rush earlier in the afternoon getting my camera and towel, my bunk was fairly a mess, so I spent a little time cleaning it up before I headed down to the lobby to meet for the pub crawl. The hostel provided free drinks and everyone was mingling downstairs before everything started up. It was nothing but the best and after I poured myself a whiskey 7 from the plastic jug I began chatting with a couple people that showed up around the same time as I did. The guy was from Eastern Europe, but his English was not the best so he had a hard time understanding us. The young woman that I talked too, Isabella, was from Germany and was traveling around the country after working here as a nanny for a year. Her English was excellent and we had absolutely no problem talking. Another guy walked up as we were talking, and he was from France working over here for a couple weeks. We all chatted until the pub crawl began, and when it started the guy from Eastern Europe decided to watch the King’s Speech instead of the pub crawl, so we said adios and he was on his way. For all the foreigners they needed to have their passports to get into the bars, so there was a scramble and the French guy was in that crowd.

As we waited outside for the French guy to change his clothes and grab his passport I started talking to a guy from New Zealand. He is studying to be a biochemist and was in Wisconsin for a meeting the week before. Ever since then he had been wandering the country, trying to see as much as he could on the company’s dime. Finally the French guy showed up and we headed out to the first bar.

I didn’t follow the drink specials at the first bar, and decided to do what was the norm for me, and spring for the local beers. The first one I tried was from the Victory Brewery and was called Summer Love. It was a decent summer seasonal, nothing too crazy but not bad. After I polished that off I switched to a beer from the Magic Hat Brewery called their 9 beer. It was kind of strange, and even had a hint of fruit loops in it. As we enjoyed our beverages we tried to talk to one another, but the bar was blasting hip hop and such, which made it extremely difficult to hear each other. By the time I killed the second one we had all had enough of the bar and the group wandered to the next stop.

The next bar was a little better than the first one because music was not rattling my brain the entire time, so we were able to have a conversation much easier. As soon as we showed up the guy from New Zealand and I starting chatting with two girls from Philly, and it was hilarious seeing them try and guess his accent. The only different thing I drank at this bar was a 7 oz. Rolling Rock that the guy from New Zealand had procured somehow. We also met up at this bar with another girl from Germany, who gave us a thorough history on it and where she was from specifically. I also chatted with a kid from LA who was showing the girl and her boyfriend around the eastern seaboard on their vacation. Again, last call came fairly quickly at this bar and we moved on to the last stop on our pub crawl.

The last bar we went to was more of a club than a bar, but had .75 cent bottles, which was the main reason we showed up. It was pretty much wall to wall people, and because of our two previous stops, everyone started to really loosen up. I still hung with the small group that I had met from the hostel and we had a good time laughing at one another and taking pictures. At this bar I also had a Yuen Ling, but due to the $10 minimum for cards, I just grabbed a bunch of beers for everyone and started passing them out. We stayed at the bar for a long time, and as the night kind of wound down we started to file outside. It was about 1:30 am, so the guy from New Zealand, Isabella, and I decided to head back toward the hostel.

Isabella had her own map, and she seemed fairly confident so we followed her for about 5 minutes before we realized she had no idea where we were. After a short discussion on what road we were actually on and what road we should be on, the guy from New Zealand took off in a different direction. Isabella and I then used my GPS on my phone, and realized that we were less than half a block from where we needed to be, laughed at ourselves, and headed there. We got back to the hostel Isabella innocently asked me if I wanted to play some foosball because we were both still pumped from the bars. Little did I know she was borderline professional and she “stopped counting her goals” about 3 minutes into the game.

After my humiliation on the field she offered some muffins (we weren’t driving Josiah) as a consolation prize for her kicking my butt. I hadn’t been down to the kitchen before (in the basement) and it was really big with a couple other people down there cooking various dishes for fourth meal. We snacked on the muffins and chatted some more, then headed up to throw a movie in the living room. We met up with the French guy upstairs again, and after a long and involved process, decided on the Hangover because Isabella had not seen it.

Long story short we were all falling asleep by the Tyson scene, so I called it a night around 4 am, and headed up to the dorm I was staying in. Between the travel and all my running around that I had done, I slept like a freakin log and did not wake up until 11 am the following morning.

*July 15th: Philadelphia, Pa*

Because I wasn’t able to crash the night before until about 4 am, I took full advantage of my lax schedule in Philadelphia and slept in until about 11 am. Again, realizing that I had left a vital part of my luggage in a previous city, I needed to make a Walgreens run before I could shower in the morning. I threw on some clothes and walked down to the hostel lobby to head out to the store. In the lobby I saw a couple of my companions from the night before so I stopped and chatted with them. Isabella was leaving at 2 pm for Denver, so I told her to enjoy her trip as we said goodbye.

I walked down the street to the closest Walgreens I could find, about 5 blocks west of the hostel. One thing I have realized about Philadelphia is there are a million people selling or trying you to join their bleeding heart cause. This meant bobbing and weaving through the crowds and avoiding eye contact, otherwise my 5 minute walk would turn into a 30 minute trek. I successfully forded the onslaught on my way back and was able to run upstairs for a quick shower.

Once I got out of the shower it was about lunch time, so I headed down to the lobby to head out for some food. Again, when I walked downstairs, I met up with another one of the German girls and the French guy from the night before. We discussed possible options for lunch and the French guy and I decided on a cheese steak place just south of the hostel. It was called Jim’s Cheese Steaks, and it was freaking amazing. The bread, the steak, cheese, attitude was excellent in the place, and the line reflected just how well it was liked. Me and the French guy grabbed our sandwiches and took them to a small park across the street to enjoy them.

After lunch I decided that I wanted to hit some of the further out attractions of Philadelphia, so I talked to the guy at the hostel about the best places to see, and the most efficient way to do so. He mentioned there was a small trolley/bus thing that would take us all the way to the furthest attraction, and we could just work our way back. So we armed ourselves with a map and a couple bucks, and left the hostel yet again. The trolley picked us up right on time, but took much longer to get to the Art Museum than I would have expected. We both started joking that we would make it back before the trolley was going to.

The first place that we checked out was the Art Museum/Rocky Steps. We did not go into the actual museum, but we did walk around and check out the steps, statues, and other monuments that were located around the square. We then headed east toward the prison, to check out what an 18th century high tech prison looks like. On the way I got distracted by a large cathedral looking building and snapped a couple pictures before we continued on. We got a little turned around in the neighborhood that was between us and the prison, but a gentleman from France pointed us in the right direction and showed us the front gate. Unfortunately we realized that it cost $8 to get in, and decided that was worth more than our curiosity. So we stole a couple pictures through the gate and headed south.

To the south there was a square called Logan Square, and had a very large fountain where kids were cooling themselves off on this hot day. We continued walking down the street toward City Hall, which was located right in the middle of downtown. The building was huge and had a plethora of sculptures and inscriptions all over it. I took a lot of pictures from far away and close up to capture the image of the building, but I’m afraid that is an impossible task. There was even a passageway that allowed you to go into the center of the building in the courtyard, and it was really cool seeing the building 360. Considering we had walked a long way we decided to head back to the hostel, but on the way I tried to hit up the Constitution Center that the girl from the bar the day before had mentioned. Again it cost some dinero to go in, and we turned around the head back home.

We passed by Betsy Ross’ house on the way back, the cemetery where Benjamin Franklin and his wife are buried, as well as the first bank of the US, and eventually made it home. I spent the next couple hours hanging out in the living room of the hostel, watching FUSE and relaxing before the festivities of the night. I decided to take a quick nap before I wandered out on the street for some food, so I went upstairs and crashed hard for about an hour.

When I woke up around 7:15 pm I cleaned myself up and walked down to the lobby area to find a good restaurant close by. I exercised the same strategy that has worked in the past for me, and asked the girl working the front desk if she knew of a decent place close by. I gave her absolutely no parameters and this threw her for a total loop, and she basically just rattled off a bunch of places close by. I heard her mention a Cuban place close by, and I asked her how to get there quickly, so she told me to run. Then she told me to walk one street over and a block south, which put me right at the front door. However, I was distracted by an attractive looking Irish pub down the street and wandered that direction. When I got inside I ordered a PPA (Pennsylvania Pale Ale) and watched the world pass me by in the front window.

After polishing off the beer I stepped back on the curb and headed south in search of another restaurant. I saw a fairly dead place on the corner almost directly south of the hostel, and I walked inside. As soon as I sat down I saw that they had Abita Turbodog on draft (one of my favorites from New Orleans) and I ordered one without a second thought. I also ordered a “gourmet” burger and enjoyed my beer. The burger was excellent, homemade bun, perfectly cooked, grilled onions, pepper jack cheese, and a little smidgen of awesome. The French fries were also fried perfectly, so I sat and chatted with the bartender about my trip and where I was headed in my post dinner stupor. I then headed out from the bar and walked back to the hostel. As I walked in the front door the girl at the front desk asked how I liked the Cuban place, so I explained my adventure to her, and we chatted for a bit before I headed toward the couches.

When I walked into the living room I saw the French guy I had been hanging out with, along with the guy from LA and the couple from Germany that were part of the posse the night before. The small group had a couple bottles of wine and they offered me a glass of the red before I could sit down. It was pretty good which is surprising considering I almost never drink wine. The movie Se7en was playing on the TV, so we all sat and watched it in its entirety. The guy from the hostel who organized the pub crawl the night before also dropped off some free beer for us to have while we hung out, and headed downstairs to start a game of Apples to Apples. I then started talking with the guy from LA about New York and what I needed to hit and what I should avoid with my 3 days there. He gave me some excellent advice as the German couple chose another movie for us to watch.

Staying with the extremely uplifting theme of the night, they chose “Philadelphia”, and as the movie started I knew everyone wasn’t going to be able to make it through the movie. It was obvious that we all had a really good time the night before, and the exhaustion was evident on everyone’s face. About halfway through the movie I decided to grab a drink from downstairs and hang out on the curb in front of the hostel before turning in for the night. The club across the alley from the hostel was bumping and there were people stumbling up and down the street on all sides. Before I fell asleep on the curb I wandered back inside and upstairs to my bunk, in an attempt to get some of the sleep I missed the night before.

*July 16th: Philadelphia, Pa to New York, Ny*

My train for New York left at 10:20 am, so I set my alarm to wake me up around 8:30 am so I had plenty of time to clean up and grab a cab. Fortunately a lot of other guys from the dorm were also heading out that morning, and the shuffling woke me up just in time. Just like the last hostel I had to strip the bed and take the sheets down with me to check out. With the extra time that I acquired from waking up early, I sat down in the living room and checked my tickets and everything to avoid another mishap like that last one. Once I knew I had everything, I walked out to Market Street with my bags to hail a cab.

The cab driver that picked up me was very friendly once I started to chat with him he told me he actually lived in New York. He had done a fair amount of traveling, so when I explained the trip that I was doing, and the Europe trip I was planning on, he gave me a bunch of advice. He had been to Europe, and also planned on hitting the Middle East for the second time! We chatted all the way to the station where I got off, and walked inside to check in.

The train to New York was a little late coming from DC, so there was a little bit of a wait outside the staircase until we were checked in. As I was waiting to head to the platform a group of young women were talking and one of them spilled their coffee all over the floor. She kept apologizing to me and I just laughed and told her my $20 Target shoes would be fine. As they were all cleaning up they called our train, so everyone began to file into line.

When the train pulled into Penn Station in New York, I actually got off the train very quickly to try and make up for some of the lost time. In my haste I forgot my red bag that I had left toward the back of the car, and before everyone exited, ran back to retrieve it. One I had all my stuff I walked up the escalator into the world of New York City. The first thing that struck me was, unlike all the other train stations that I had been in, this one did not exit directly to the street. There were about 14 sets of escalators I had to take before I got to street level, and the reason for all this is that Penn Station is located directly below Madison Square Garden. When I was able to get to the street I observed how to properly hail a cab, and when I tried out the new method a cab quickly materialized in front of me.

Because I only knew an address for Tony’s place, I had absolutely no idea if the cab was going the right way or not. However, the neighborhood started to turn extremely nice and eventually we were at their place. I buzzed the front door and Tony let me in, and then there was another set of doors. I thought that I was supposed to go quickly and grab the second set before the buzzer was done, so I felt really embarrassed to have to buzz them again. Once I got to their floor and in their apartment Tony told me that you had to buzz it twice no matter what, so I wasn’t a complete tard.

As we waited for Christyn to get ready we talked about where we were going to eat. They had planned on going to a local burger place, and as is my custom in never denying the local’s expertise, I agreed. We walked down to this small burger joint with nothing more than a small wooden bar and an even smaller back room, and were seated in a cramped corner that was filled with other people. The menu had a little more than just burgers and I spent some time looking it over. Decided that I would stick with the obvious choice I got the bacon cheese burger, as did Tony. Christyn also got an order of their fries as a side, and we talked about my trip and how things were going. Once the burgers came out they did not look like anything too special, melted cheese, bacon, burger, and a bun; but once I had a bite of my burger everything started to come together. The meat was obviously not frozen, the cheese was excellent, and the bacon was…. well bacon. The entire burger was extremely delicious and I inhaled mine in about 30 seconds. The fries were also very tasty as I stole a couple from Christyn, they were not normally cut French fries (cut halfways instead of longways), and were deep fried to perfection. The entire meal was extremely good and I would for sure go back there again.

After the extremely good lunch that we enjoyed, we attempted to burn some of those calories walking around Manhattan to see what it had to offer. They took me west through Central Park, pointing out the major monuments as we passed (Bathesda Fountain, the softball fields, the tunnel where everyone sings, the Boathouse, ect) and giving me good facts about the schist and the buildings that were visible within the park. There was a portion of the park that was a large open field and people were playing football, kicking the soccer ball, throwing thefrisbee, or just relaxing in the sun. There was a massive amount of people (as I would learn in New York, everything has a massive amount of people) and was a beautiful view with the giant oak trees and skyscrapers poking out behind them. We then exited out of the park through the southwest corner, and Tony decided that we would walk through Times Square.

The closer and closer we got to Times Square it seemed that the amount of people began to increase exponentially. There was a street market down Broadway leading to Times Square and more and more people began to fill the streets. As we forded the human river the billboards and lights that Times Square is known for began to materialize. It had a very Vegas like feel to it, with all of my senses being assaulted by the advertisements, street vendors, ticket salesman, crying babies, and food. I also felt extremely small and insignificant because of the enormous crowd that was moving on all sides, every person on their own adventure to see New York. The ball that was dropped on New Years was also visible above a Walgreens (represent), and ended up being a lot smaller than I expected. It was a very unique experience and I can’t imagine another place that could replicate that feeling. Times Square was massive and it was brimming with just enough people to make it look like a holiday or special event.

As we continued south from Times Square we started to walk toward our original destination, the Highline Garden. The garden was located on old freight tracks above the street. Someone had the genius idea to take these old, abandoned tracks and plant flowers and other vegetation on them. The coolest part of the whole thing was that they left the tracks there, to show just where it had come from, and what it has become. They had recently extended the garden somewhere close to 20 blocks, so we started near the northern portion, and started to walk south. It was a very cool experience walking above street level in New York, with flowers surrounding you and massive buildings providing the backdrop. It was in a way a miniature Central Park for the tenets of the west side. It provided a nature retreat from the onslaught of urbanization that was a constant around you. I thought to contrast of nature and manmade structures was incredible, and I took a lot of pictures to try and capture that. It began to get fairly toasty, and we decided that we would get back down to street level and find a place to grab a cold beer.

We ended up walking through the Village and it was everything that I expected it to be. It was extremely nice with a good homely type feel, and the edginess of New York and its hip neighborhoods. One thing that needs to be noted is that, despite the fact that the different neighborhoods in New York are self imposed and not regulated by anyone other than the tenets, it is extremely obvious (even to a complete newbie like myself) the differences in neighborhoods. Once we exited the West Village and crossed into SoHo, it was a whole different feel and different vibe, reflected in the people’s attitude, the buildings, and everything. We stepped into a place called the Slaughtered Sheep because Tony thought it looked interesting, and grabbed a table. It had a horror/werewolf theme to it, and just down from our table there was a rotation life size statue of a woman being bitten by a werewolf. It was kind of weird, but they got an A for effort, so I ordered a Brooklyn Amber. It was one of the better beers that I had ordered on this trip, and ranked up there with the Abita. I liked it so much that I ordered a second one, because they were out of the only other beer I hadn’t had on their draft list. Because of mediocre at best service and lukewarm beer we quickly paid the tab and were on our way.

As we continued to work our way east we decided to head some place for dinner. Christyn suggested that we go to a Cuban place that was located down in this neighborhood, and I quickly agreed. The wait was around 45 minutes so after a little shopping we headed back to the restaurant to see if our table was ready. We walked in a couple minutes later and took the booth toward the back of the restaurant. For my drink I ordered a Paloma (grapefruit juice and tequila) and some enchiladas for dinner. By far, the highlight of the dinner was the corn on the cob that Tony ordered. The corn was cooked perfectly, then grilled and covered in cheese and chili powder. It looked a little strange when they brought it out on the plate, but it was by far one of the best things that I have eaten on this trip. It was spicy, sweet, delectable, all of the above. It was so good; I considered changing my meal from the enchiladas to the corn to satisfy my craving. It was extremely tasty. In the end I stuck with my enchiladas and I was glad I did because they were excellent. Overall the restaurant was very very good and I could eat that corn every day for the rest of my life, no joke.

Once we finished with dinner, we debated on what to do for the rest of the night, and we decided to go play shuffleboard at one of the old bars that they used to hang out at. Instead of walking (we had covered about 80ish blocks by that time) because we had covered so much ground, we took the subway a couple stops until we got to the correct street. As we walked into the bar I could see why they came to this bar back in the day. It had a very homely feel to it, and had al all wooden bar with a large amount of taps exposed above the bar. I went over and paid for my first drink and watched them practice their strategies.

Because of home field advantage, Tony went first and totally annihilated me in the first game. I think I got 4 points total in the couple games I played against him. Then, a couple other guys showed up and wanted to play us. As we began our game, it was obvious that they had not played before, and we wiped the floor with them. We tried switching up the partner and just about everything else, but they could not win. Finally we split ourselves up, and the games became a little more level.

We also played against some girls who were there to just hang out with their friends, and after some serious coaxing, I was able to get the girl on my side of the court to open up. She was a journalist for a website and told me all about Brooklyn, where she was from in Philly, her job, and how she wanted to be a part of the Rent is Too Damn High Party. We chatted while the game was going on, and once we destroyed them, she told me good luck on my trip and sat with her friends. By this time I was getting into a rhythm and it was obvious that I was finally getting the hang of it. After the game was done, while there was a short lull, I also talked to another kid who was from upstate and we talked about my trip and New York in general. We all had a good conversation on the pros and cons of having a vehicle, and it made me really think about wanting to live in a large city with just public transportation.

The last set of guys that we played Tony knew them from some previous games, and said they were fairly good. As we started they were annihilating us, they had more than twice our points with well places shots. However, through some stroke of luck and skill, Tony and I were able to run the table until it was 12 to 12. On the last round it was my turn, against the better of the two players, and whoever got 3 points won the game. He nailed two excellent shots behind my early short shots to try and seal the win. Fortunately I was able to pull off a couple good defensive shots and knocked his pucks out of contention. On the last one I was able to knock his puck off, while saving myself the three points, and giving Tony and I the win. Wanting to leave on a high note, we finished our beers and headed to the subway station.

As I was about to sit down on the subway there was a questionable piece of plastic on the seat, so I decided to stand up for our ride from 30th st. to 77th st. Once we got back to the apartment I started to feel the exhaustion come over me so I quickly got the bed made up after Christyn laid it out for me. It didn’t take long for me to crash and there wasn’t an ambulance or screaming person that was going to wake me up.

*July 17th: New York, Ny*

Due to the semi late night that we had the night before, I slept in as much as possible, and did not wake up until around 10:30 am. Tony and Christyn had a brunch planned with some friends, and I was going to tag along to see just how the New Yorkers did it. I put on my USA soccer jersey in anticipation for the women’s World Cup game later that afternoon, but I seemed to be a little under dressed compared to everyone else. A couple of their friends met us at their apartment and once Christyn was done getting ready we all headed out to the bus stop. It was an express stop, so it did not make as many stops as a normal bus would, but it still took awhile for us to get to our destination because it was pretty far south.

We got off the bus and had to walk about 6 or 7 blocks east and a couple south to get here, through a dog park and past some pretty interesting neighborhoods. It was around 12:30 am when we got to the brunch place that we were going to eat at which was in the East Village. The restaurant looked fairly busy when we walked up, but one of their friends who got their fairly early had put in our name, and we got a table almost instantly. We all introduced ourselves to one another and then sat down at the table. The deal that this place had was all you can drink drinks and a list of one of their breakfasts for $18. I ordered a screwdriver and began to peruse the list of plates for breakfast. Throughout the meal I tried most of their drinks, a mimosa, greyhound, and screwdriver, the only one I didn’t get was the bloody mary. I ordered the omelet and continued to enjoy the conversation and drinks that were being thrown around like no other. I talked to a couple of their friends, and found out that one of them was from Georgia, and the other was actually from Mesa. He went to Mountain View so we discussed the school system out there and explained it to Tony and his buddy. The food that was served was excellent, my omelet was great even though it did not have any meat in it, and that was not just the drinks talking. Everyone else’s’ meals, pancakes, eggs benedict, steak sandwiches, ect looked excellent as well and we continued to enjoy ourselves at the restaurant. Eventually we had all finished our meals except for one of the ladies at the end of the table, and the waitress began to hint that we should leave. First she brought out the check for us to take care of, which took awhile for us to sort out, and then she mentioned that we could continue to get our drinks at the bar if we’d like. That was enough of a hint for us and we decided to head in search of a place to catch the soccer game.

We wandered around the East Village for awhile and decided to duck into a bar that looked fairly quiet for the game. We grabbed a table and a couple seats at the bar because of the size of our group and settled in for the game. I decided to lay off the beer for awhile, especially because I drink like a fiend when I’m watching a game that I care about. Some of the guys played some pool and the bar was yelling and screaming at all the missed chances the USA had in the first half. Once halftime came around, anyone who watched the game knew it was time to have a couple drinks, so I ordered a beer from the Brooklyn brewery that I had enjoyed the day before. This time I got the weisse, and it was alright, just a little too citrus-y for my taste. Halfway through the second half I got another beer, this time I went with the Goosehead Summertime Kolsch, which I enjoyed a little bit more than the first one. We all know how the soccer game went so I won’t get into it, although I will say that the bar we watched the game in was very animated throughout the game. The reactions to the goals were palpable and made the whole experience very enjoyable, especially with some good drinks.

In an attempt to quell the depression from the World Cup game, we walked back to the bar that we had been at the night before to play some shuffle board. Tony was talking about the games that we played the night before and wanted to get back into it tonight. When we showed up there were some people on the table already so we all ordered another round and hung out until the game was over. One team got annihilated, so it was obvious that the other team was very comfortable in their spots as top dogs on the table. Before we jumped on the table I ordered a Blue Point Toasted Lager which was really really good. It was another New York beer, and had an extremely unique taste to it. The first game that Tony and I played was not pretty, and we got beat by about 4 or 5 points. The other set of guys that had come with us decided to play the other team, and did not do so hot because one of them had not played before. So at this point it had become a point of contention with this team to kick them off so we could just chill and have a good time. It also didn’t help that one of the guys was pretty drunk and was being obnoxious to us as well as everyone around him.

Christyn and Stephanie had signed up to play after us, but decided to forfeit their spot to Tony and I so we could “beat these guys and get them off the table”. Again, before the game started I grabbed a Dogfigh 90 Minute IPA, which was good and I think it was the key to the next game. With that motivation we both played a very good game and dominated the other team by about 13 points. Christyn and her friend Stephanie stepped up to play us but, Stephanie hadn’t played before so it wasn’t too easy for her. We all had a good time and surprisingly she hit a couple very good shots for her first time, forcing me to be a jerk and knock her off in the end. Tony and I ended up winning, and his buddies stepped up to play us.

Now, before the game had started and when I was munching on some pizza that someone had bought, there was a wager made that they would pay us 10 to 1 odds if we could shut them out. I threw down 2 dollars and we started the game. The first couple rounds went really well, but unfortunately we did not shut down the upstarts. We did beat them pretty handily so the end result was the same and it kept us on the table. I did lose a couple bucks, but what are a couple bucks when the beers are six a piece?

The last game that we played was against Christyn and Stephanie again, and it was not pretty what so ever. We started off fairly well, but then broke down when Christyn was able to score 8 points in one round. After that shocker we couldn’t recover and they went on to beat us by 3 or 4 points. Tony said losing to them was unbearable and I had to agree, so we went over to the table and proceeded with another round and some pizza. In our defeat I ordered a Coney Island Lager (obviously from New York) and it was pretty tasty, nothing too notable but not too shabby. After the shuffle board game we all sat down and chatted with one another, talking about whatever came to mind seeing as how we had been drinking since 12:30 am. I talked to Chrystal about her massive family, and we compared just whose was bigger, Tony and I’s family winning out of course. We all just sat around after that and talked to one another, the conversation not really following a specific route, although it did cover some interesting topics.

Eventually Tony and Christyn decided to take off, and they gave me keys to get into the apartment for when I wandered back. I got my last beer of the night which was a Sunshine Pilsner from the East Coast somewhere, and it was pretty decent but nothing too crazy. I stayed with everyone at the bar and after another hour or so we decided it was time to take off. Three of us grabbed a cab together and Amy offered to show me where Tony and Christyn’s apartment was. However, due to the alcohol or maybe some disorientation from the cab, once I got out she pointed me in the wrong direction. So when I was walking down the sidewalk in the direction she specified, about 4 minutes later Amy came running up apologizing and telling me it was the other direction. I joked about her trying to get me lost on purpose and we walked in the correct direction. This time I got to their front door and thanked her for the directions and grabbed out the key ring.

I had some trouble with the 14 keys that Tony and Christyn gave me, but due to my college education and some ingenuity I was able to figure it out and got into the building. Planning on a fairly busy day while Christyn and Tony were at work the following day, I wanted to get to bed as quickly as possible and crashed almost instantly.

*July 18th: New York, Ny*

Tony and Christyn had turned on the A/C unit the night before, so I slept like a baby in their guest room/den. I woke up around 9:00 am and took my time getting ready for my super trek through Manhattan. Before I left I made sure I had my map, camera, and my phone just in case I got uber lost, and I set out through the front door.

The first place I was going to head was through Central Park, a little further north than we had gone on Saturday. On the map that I had printed out, and the one Christyn left me the night before, it showed a fairly large lake, so I wanted to go check it out. As I walked up to about 90th St. and then headed into Central Park, there was a museum facing away from the park that I did not have identified on my map. I believe it was an art museum of 18th century European Art (look who can read signs!), but I’m not positive, but I snapped some pictures anyhow and cut into Central Park. The lake almost looked bigger in person than it did on the map, and it was a beautiful sight with the tops of the skyscrapers sticking out about the trees. You were also able to get a great view of the skyline from the northern portion of the lake, so I snapped a bunch of pictures on my way around, and then headed for the west side of the park.

As I exited Central Park on the west side I started to go south toward the Museum of Natural History and on my way there were a lot of large churches facing central park. I grabbed some pictures of these churches, but these would be nothing compared to one of the cathedrals I would see further south. When I got to the Museum of Natural History I was a little disappointed because the whole front side was under construction, but still took some pictures of the entrance and got as much of the architecture as possible. I then continued south along the west side of Central Park and ran into Columbus Circle. Again, we had seen this on Saturday, but I got a little closer and got some good pictures with the park creating a nice backdrop for Columbus. I then grabbed myself a Coke from the street vendor and started toward Carnegie Hall.

Carnegie Hall was not too far away from Columbus Circle and I got there fairly quickly, but was again semi disappointed by the fact that it was also under construction. The construction was not nearly as obstructive as it was at the Museum of Natural History, although it did give it an unnatural tinge, but none the less I still grabbed some pictures of it. I then continued on to Radio City Music Hall just outside Rockefeller Plaza, and snapped a couple pictures of the outside of that as well. I then cut a little further east and walked into Rockefeller Plaza, with all the flags and plants adorning the concrete and skyscrapers. I saw where the Today Show was filmed, where the Christmas tree was always put, and snapped a bunch of pictures around the plaza. Continuing on my trek I moved on to St. Patrick’s Cathedral, which was beginning to become visible through the large buildings.

As I got closer to the cathedral I realized that this one was going to be much larger than the others I had seen around New York earlier. It was decorated extremely ornately, with a massive amount of detail in the stonework going up both the spires that defined the entire structure. I was struck by the beauty of the cathedral, and tried to get as many pictures as I could while fighting the businessman and other tourists on the street corners. I was yearning to go inside and as I skirted around the side of the cathedral to get another picture, I realized there was an entrance for gawking tourists like myself. So I walked in and again was amazed at what the structure had to offer. The ceiling seemed to reach for miles into the air, and the pillars that supported it were tall and slender, with ribs running around them. Along the walls there were extremely large stained glass portraits adorning the walls, with different religious scenes created on them. Some people were sitting in the pews praying in their own language quietly to themselves, while others quietly recorded the beauty of the cathedral around them. The enormous organ in the back of the cathedral was also playing one of the songs from the songbook and it gave the whole experience a whole new dynamic while I was wandering around the aisles unblinking. The entire cathedral was extremely impressive and to this point in my adventure I have to say it was the most impressive and awe inspiring structure I had seen. I loved looking at the different statues, designs, symbolism, and everything about the cathedral, and I enjoyed every minute I was in there. Unfortunately I was on a tight schedule so I did have to leave and see the other sights New York had to offer.

As I walked out of St. Patrick’s Cathedral I noticed that my camera battery was showing red, and silently cursed myself for not charging it the night before. I then quickly made a plan to hit the UN Building and the Empire State building if I could, then grab the subway from Grand Central Station back to the apartment to charge the camera for an hour. As I got closer to the UN Building I realized the camera was not going to make it that far so I started taking pictures as quickly as possible, hoping that the battery would at least last as long as I was in the building. It didn’t last that long and conked out about 2/3rds of the way through some of the displays they had. Frustrated because I had gone through security and all that to get inside, I exited the building and made my way to the street and looked at my map. Instead of taking the subway I decided to walk back to the apartment, and then I would just take the subway back south. So I set off north to go charge my camera.

After about an hour of charging my camera I checked it and it said 100%, so I unplugged it and went back on the street. I caught the subway at 77th St. and took it all the way down to the Empire State Building, so that I could hit Grand Central Station on my way back. One I saw the Empire State Building I thought about going up to the top, but realized the line and my tight schedule would not work out so well, so I grabbed some pictures as I walked north toward GCS.

The outside of GCS was extremely impressive and I took a lot of pictures of the entrance. I also was very impressed with the interior of the building and it really had an old school train station look to it. In the center of the enormous room there was a four sided analog clock, and the boards showing what time each train was coming in and if it was on time was toward one of the walls. It was a very cool view and definitely fit with the ever increasing quality of train stations on my trip. The one thing I was not impressed with was just how confusing it was to get around. It took me about 15 minutes (and I like to think I’m fairly experienced with train stations by now) to figure out where I needed to go for the correct subway platforms. There were more tunnels and turns in GCS than I could’ve imagined, and I’m sure I didn’t see them all. In the end though I was able to find the right subway line, and I jumped on the one heading south.

I got off at the Brooklyn Bridge stop, which just so happened to be in front of City Hall and the Attorney General’s office. Christyn correctly identified these as “the buildings you see on Law & Order”. So I grabbed some pictures of these buildings as best I could, and then did my best to wander south west toward the 9/11 Memorial. The one thing I have to say about downtown Manhattan is that it is much harder to navigate than uptown. In uptown the streets are all numbered nice and neatly, with the avenues going east west, and the streets going north south. Downtown Manhattan looks like a 4 year old laid the streets out in his sleep, and they are all named (some of them changing in the course of a less than a mile) which makes it just that much tougher. So in the end I went to Wall Street first and grabbed a bunch of pictures of the Stock Exchange and the Federal Building with George Washington standing guard out front. Now, I understand Wall Street was named way before the skyscrapers were built, but the entire street is named very aptly because all the buildings on the sides of the road create a wall that reaches extremely high into the sky. That was one revelation I had while snapping my photos downtown.

My next stop was the 9/11 Memorial that I had missed in my complete confusion downtown. On my way there I saw the Trinity Church, one of the places that people used as a refuge during the attacks, and it was also a very beautiful cathedral. I did not go inside because I wanted to meet Christyn and Stephanie for happy hour around 4 ish so I made a quick jaunt through the graveyard and snapped some pictures before I was on my way. The graveyard was very interesting because not only was it old, but it had some very interesting headstones, as well as some very plain ones. I then saw the construction for the 9/11 Memorial and started to head in its general direction. Around this time Christyn called me and said they were going to drop off headphones for Tony before happy hour, so I could meet them in front of his building, which is by the 9/11 Memorial.

One of the towers that they are building for the memorial, the tower that I believe will be used as the actual World Trade Tower, is a little over half done. It will be about 104 floors tall, and by the look of it, it was going to define the skyline. It is a massive glass structure that is a simple design, although it is elegant in its simplicity. Not too much over the top, but enough to make it stand out from the rest. I wandered around the construction site, looked at the plans that they had posted in one of the tunnels, and then wandered back toward my cousin’s building. After a small search for Stephanie and Christyn we met up and we started toward our happy hour destination.

They told me that the place we were going to was further downtown, and was actually fairly unknown to a lot of people surprisingly. The restaurant was called Stone Street Tavern, and it was on the first paved road in New York. Obviously it was cobblestone and was no longer open to traffic, so a lot of the restaurants along this road put tables out in the street. So we sat outside under an awning because there was a chance of rain, and starting to look at the menu. They had “flights of beer” which were basically small glasses of 4 kinds of beer that you could sample. This was pretty much straight up my alley so I looked at the 3 different combinations they offered. One was an East Coast, one was USA, and one was Import; so I obviously went with the East Coast selection. In this one it had a Brooklyn Summer (my favorite of the 4), Captain Lawrence Pale Ale (a fairly dark pale ale, but I was not a huge fan), Peak Organic Amber Ale (good but not as good as the Summer time), and a Stone Street IPA (decent but nothing over the top). I was extremely satisfied with my selection, and Stephanie and Christyn both enjoyed their USA choices. They both shared a couple appetizers as their meal, and I ordered a plate of mini burgers with fries. The food was really good and was paired well with my extensive selection of beers. The ladies enjoyed theirs as well, although we all agreed that spinach dip on a day as hot it was was probably not the best choice. We sat after dinner and chatted for a bit about traveling, cruises, work, and just how sweet New York is. Then after dinner they offered to show me their school as well as the Brooklyn Bridge stop before they got on the subway.

The school that they worked at reminded me a lot of the schools I worked at while I was in Taiwan. The building looked nothing like a school, but was set up pretty cool. They showed me the ballroom and while they were running around I checked out an interesting computer screen by the elevator. On this screen it showed the three elevators, where they were, their “status”, and if the doors were open or not. It was insane and as soon as Christyn came back I asked her about it. She told me all those things by looking at the screen and I was amazed, I guess us rednecks out west don’t get cool stuff like this right away. We said goodnight to the night watchman and then headed toward the Brooklyn Bridge.

The ladies declined on going across the bridge because of the wrong footwear, so I said goodbye to Stephanie and Christyn and they went down into the station. From start to finish the bridge is about 1.3 miles long, so I knew I had a bit of a walk ahead of me. Luckily it was late enough in the day that I was able to walk all the way across the bridge while it was light, and then wait a bit for the sun to go down and see all the lights. The skyline was beautiful during the daytime, and you could see all the skyscrapers in uptown as well as downtown. After walking the entire bridge and touching Brooklyn a little, I walked back toward the middle of the bridge and waited for the sun to go down. It was extremely cool watching the city light up slowly over time and was another one of those moments where I realized just how lucky I was to be able to do something like this. As I waited people continually asked me to take their pictures so I joked with them and got really good at getting just the right scenery in the background. I then asked this group of a couple women from India to take my picture, but I warned them it would be strange.

So I first showed her how to use the camera on my phone and then told her that I was going to climb up on the steel beam and lay face down on it. I also specified that I wanted a lot of the skyline in the background if she could manage and she agreed once I promised her I wouldn’t fall. I climbed up on the steel beam with the people zooming by on their evening commute below me, and laid face down. I could hear her taking a couple pictures so I lay very still, and then I noticed a couple other people taking pictures, and started chuckling to myself. Once I got down and dodged the bikers across the bike lane, they asked me to explain why I did that. So I told them about planking and what it was, and also told them that I did the same thing on the edge of the Grand Canyon, they both laughed and called me crazy, and then we headed off in opposite directions.

As I continued to take pictures on my way off the bridge my camera lost its juice again, and I took that as a hint that I needed to head home for the night. So I grabbed a can of coke and made my way toward the subway. When I was nearing the end of the bridge it began to drizzle a little bit, but lightning also started to strike. I decided that a bridge over a river wasn’t the greatest place in the world to stand during a lightning storm and walked a little bit quicker. One thing I will say is the lightning landing behind the skyscrapers made for a very cool scene and I kind of with I was a decent photographer who could have captured that.

The subway ride home was fairly cramped because of the rain, and the fact that I had to take it close to 100 blocks back to the apartment. So when I finally got back the first thing I needed to do was take a quick shower. Once I felt a tad more human again, I kind of reviewed how long I had walked and realized it was probably the same if not longer than the trek on Saturday. Around 10 pm Christyn and I headed off to the dialysis unit to pick up Tony after his appointment. It was really cool watching the whole process and I was extremely impressed by how quickly and efficiently the nurse worked. After talking with my roommates about dialysis nursing it was sweet to see it all in action and see how the blood and all of that was handled.

The walk home revealed that the rain had quit and we talked about what we had done that day with Tony and kind of recounted what I had accomplished while I was here. One thing that did come up was the fact that I missed the Statue of Liberty (although I did get a super small picture from the Brooklyn Bridge), and that was basically due to time and me really wanting to hit happy hour. However, with all the different sights that I hit in a single day, and having a mishap with my camera, I think it was fairly successful and was extremely satisfied with what I accomplished. Overall New York was exactly what I thought it would be and more. I really felt like I got to see a lot of the city and it was fun going out and hanging with Tony and Christyn’s friends for brunch, the soccer game, and the post depression bar games afterward. I would definitely rank it up there with Austin and Chicago on my favorites from this trip.

Because of the early train in the morning (who decided 8:30 am was a good idea?) I went home and started to pack up all my stuff in anticipation for the morning. I knew that 7 am was going to come quick and wanted to be prepared to make my way to Penn Station in the morning.

*July 19th: New York, Ny to Boston, Ma*

I’m not sure whose idea it was to book at train at 8:30 am in the morning on a Tuesday in Manhattan, but I woke up around 7 am to get started. Unfortunately Tony and Christyn both had to go to work as well, so we all had to rotate through the bathroom to get ready, but by about 7:35 am we were all good to go. As we walked down the sidewalk to Lexington Ave. to grab me a taxi, I was probably the only person not dressed up for work and walking at that time.

Once we got to Lexington Ave. I said goodbye and thanks to both of them and Tony hailed me a cab. Once I jumped in I told the taxi driver to get to Penn Station and he took off like a bat out of hell. We were ducking and weaving through traffic like we were in the A Team and I thought for sure we would die at least once or twice before my stop. Fortunately we got to Penn Station in one piece, although the traffic made it a little more expensive than I expected, but I shrugged it off and walked inside.

It was around 8:10 am and I was nervously looking at the scheduled departures desperately trying to figure out which of the 40 tracks I needed to get to. I kept following the Amtrak signs which took me about 2 or 3 levels below ground level, then luckily one of the TVs showed that my train was on track 7. The problem was that I was on course to get to tracks 1 – 6, close but no cigar. So I asked one of the attendants coming out of a janitorial closet and he looked at me a little confused. He then pointed about 8 feet down the hall as said “uh, it’s right there”. I whipped around and realized there was a portal with the sign “Tracks 7 &8” written above it, thanked him, and quickly made my way down the stairs.

Once I was on the train I realized it was much emptier than the last couple had been, so I grabbed my usual spot in the dining car and began to relax. The train ride to Boston was going to take about 3 hours, and I decided to get a couple things done before we arrived. First I wrote a “short” list of things to do in Vegas for Miranda and her friends because of my extensive experience in Vegas (ha). Then I checked all my flight information to make sure I knew exactly when I was leaving and when I needed to get to the airport come Friday. Then I leisurely began to look at the map of Boston and the list of things I needed to check out before I departed.

When I arrived in South Station in Boston, I quickly walked outside to meet Jeanne on the street. She had park semi legally (she wasn’t sure) in front of the train station, so I grabbed a couple pictures real quick and jumped in the car. Solan (their newborn) was in the backseat so I got to ride with him as Jeanne took off from the train station. At the first red light of my Boston Experience I was introduced to Bostonian driving techniques as Jeanne had to quickly squeeze in front of a van next to us because we got pinched in the wrong lane(although she asked first so it wasn’t a race). However, after my insane ride in New York that morning this was by far more subdued and reasonable.

Because Solan was sleeping she decided to take the more scenic route through the North End of Boston and we started to get to the cramped streets. Jeanne also suggested that we stop off at a famous pizza place for lunch before we head out to their place. The place was tucked into the cramped streets of the North End and it took a little time for us to get to Regina’s Pizza, but we were able to squeeze into a spot. We grabbed Solan out of the back seat and into his stroller, only to realize the stroller was going to be tough to maneuver through the small quarters of the pizza place. In the end we decided to grab slices from there and eat them on a park bench out in front of the pizza place. Putting to work the strategy I had learned from New York, I folded the pizza down the middle and began to chow down. The pizza was definitely on par with New York pizza, and had a New York feel to it with the thin crust, massive size, and grease dripping off with each bite. I killed two slices alone, and Jeanne decided to stow one away for Craig when he got home from work.

Solan was still unconscious when we got back in the car so Jeanne took the scenic route over the river and started to point out some of the places I might want to check out on my wanderings the next couple days. She also pointed out where they had lived in the North Side and I was really impressed because their old place was pretty much right on the water. We then crossed over into Charlestown and Solan started to wake up and fuss a little bit, so we quickened our pace toward the house. The house is actually in Somerville and is really close to the subway, making it extremely easy to commute and for me to exploit the subway system of Boston. It turned out the house was actually a duplex in a sense that they owned it with another family, and split it in half. They had the bottom floor and half the second floor, while the other family had the entire third floor and the other half of the second. This all came out when I was confused as to why I heard footsteps and a dog running across the floor above me when we were sitting and chatting in the living room.

Because of my massive walk around New York the day before, and traveling between the two cities I decided to take it easy and map out what I wanted to do the following day. As I began to map out the major historical monuments and cemeteries I wanted to hit in downtown Boston, I realized they had a “Freedom Trail” that was an established route to take. When I found a map online of where this trail went it happened to hit most of the places that I was planning on hitting anyhow, so I printed out that map and used that one as my master. I also decided how that I was going to hit Fenway and the public library on Thursday, as well as a street that is known to have good restaurants/bars along with excellent people watching. As I mapped out my route Jeanne also made some great suggestions of places I should hit, and I began to get really excited for what Boston had to offer and what I was going to see in the next couple days.

I then napped for a little bit while the baby was doing the same, and just relaxed on the bottom floor of the house. It was really nice to have a semi slow day where I could just sit around and not have to run the entire day, especially after the crazy amount of walking that I did in New York. Craig was supposed to work fairly late due to having a couple trials to work on, so Jeanne and I chatted at the house and had some snacks while we watched the baby.

Craig came home from work around 7:30 pm and we had decided that we were going to hit up a barbecue place for dinner because it was supposed to be excellent barbecue and their beer list was extensive. Excited to try some more local beer I was anxious to get there and imbibe in some adult beverages. Once we showed up it was obvious that this place was a legitimate barbecue place with pigs adorning every wall and the smell of slow cooked ribs filled my nostrils. As we sat down I saw the book of beers that they had on draft and took my time perusing it for my selection. Toward the bottom of the list I saw an English double chocolate milk stout that I had to try out. I know it wasn’t a local beer but ever since Left Hand Brewery entered my life, I have had a soft spot for milk stouts. The beer was really good and definitely had more than just a hint of chocolate in it (which is why they called it double I’m sure). For some appetizers Jeanne and Craig ordered corn fritters and hushpuppies, both of which I enjoyed thoroughly. The hushpuppies reminded me of the ones my grandmother used to make back in the day, and were a great wholesome taste. The corn fritters were a great contrast to the hushpuppies and were extremely sweet. I had at least one of each, but wanted to save enough room for my dinner that I knew was coming.

For my meal I ordered the Memphis style ribs, a small rack because I wasn’t all that hungry. Despite being called a “small” rack, the portion was still massive and was a fight for me to finish. The ribs were barbecued perfectly and the sauce was very very good (even though I only ordered the mild sauce). They also gave you an extra tub of sauce on the side which is right down my alley, allowing me to lather my ribs up in more than enough sauce for myself to even handle. Now, as they stack up during my trip, I would say they are just below the ribs in Chicago, but still a close second in the overall scheme of things. They were extremely good and if I find myself in Boston in the future they will be on my mind without a doubt.

It was getting fairly late, we were all stuffed, and Solan was a little fussy so we packed up the remainder of the food that we had and decided to head home. One thing on the drive home that surprised me was to go the right direction through Davis Square, we had to go the opposite direction, turn 180 degrees, and then go through in the right direction. I just added it to the strange street combinations that I had already seen in Boston as we drove on to the house. All of us were in a semi food coma and were ready to crash as soon as we got home. I went downstairs to grab my laundry before heading to bed and decided to try and wake up early the next day to get a head start on the Freedom Trail.

*July 20th: Boston, Ma*

Jeanne warned me the day before that they were having a couple guys come over to work on the bathroom because of a leak they had recently. So when I woke up to the sounds of drills and men talking I was not too surprised. They also ended up installing a new, more powerful fan in their bathroom so there were no surprises there. Working with the same attitude from the day before I relaxed in the morning, watching some shows on my computer and chilled in my room for a couple hours while the guys worked on the bathroom. Jeanne also made a fruit salad that I grabbed for breakfast and I was perfectly content vegging out some more.

Around 12:30 pm, and after Jeanne had made some eggs and sausage for us both, the guy finished working on the bathroom. We helped him clean up a little bit and while he was finishing his coffee in the bathroom we chatted. It turned out that he was a retired “handyman” (basically knew everything about construction there is to know) and still helped out family friends and such with repairs around the house. Jeanne knew him because one of their good friends from college was his son so they trusted him to work on their house and stuff. It was really cool talking to him because it was obvious that he was from a different era and had a whole different attitude about things and life in general. His whole demeanor almost demanded respect and I intently listened to everything he said. It was also obvious that he was from Ireland because of his accent, and I had a strange feeling that he would have some great stories to tell if he had the time to sit down and chat some more. It also made me feel that I was really in Boston because here I was talking to an Irish immigrant after he had just finished work on an older style house in Boston. So once he finished his coffee he said goodbye and I started to get ready for my Freedom Trail trek.

As I went on my way I wandered into the subway station and attempted to figure out the map. Because the red line (the line that ran through that station) split in the end, there were two different kinds of trains that would come through the station. I was trying to figure out which one I should take when I realized the stop I needed was before the split and after feeling like an idiot I sat down and waited for the train. As the train quickly moved toward downtown Boston, there was a portion that was out of ground when it was crossing the Charles River. While we were crossing the river it was an extremely good view of the Boston skyline and I watched it slide by before we sunk back into the darkness of the tunnel on the other end. Once I got to Park St. I jumped off the subway and into the light of the Boston Commons to start my walk.

The Boston Commons was originally where all the people of Boston brought their cattle to graze during the day (in the 18th and 19th centuries), and is basically a small park in the heart of Boston. I took a little time at the start of my journey to walk around the commons and saw a small pool with kids and a fountain frolicking in the water. It was a cool view with the grass, trees, water, and buildings of the financial district all protruding from the vegetation, so naturally I snapped a couple pictures. Just outside the commons was the Boston City Hall, which I wandered into after a couple pictures. I wasn’t with one of the designated tour groups so I just made it seem like I was supposed to be there and wandered around on the 3 or 4 floors. There wasn’t too much to see inside, so I wrapped it up and got to some of the other sights that I wanted to hit before nightfall. One thing that surprised me about the Freedom Trail was how it was physically laid out on the sidewalk. There was either a painted red line, or bricks laid in a line, leading you through the winding streets to each individual place. It was extremely handy to have, allowing me to put the map away most of the time and enjoy the buildings and people around me.

I then wandered down to the Park St. Church and Granary Burial ground just south of the city hall. I did not spend too much time inside the church because it was a fairly basic puritan style church, but the graveyard had some interesting names buried there. Among the people that were in that particular graveyard were John Hancock, Samuel Adams, and Paul Revere. All of these guys were marked on a map toward the front of the graveyard so it was easy to identify their headstones and I made sure to stop by. It was also interesting to see the dates that were covered in the graveyard, some of the graves dated back to the 17th century! I continued to move on and walked to the English Protestant Church down the way, which was obviously run and supported by Tories (supporters on England during the revolution). Inside was again nothing too crazy special, but it did have some plaques and statues for prominent supporters of the crown during the revolution. Another interesting thing I noticed was, for all the trouble they went through to make the churches fairly flat and bland, the governor and other “VIPs” got fairly extravagant designated pews to sit in during the services. Being another church there was another burial ground to check out, however there wasn’t anyone as notable in this graveyard obviously populated mostly by supporters of England during the late 18th century.

As I continued to follow the path laid out on the Freedom Trail I came to the first public school in the country. Some of the important attendees of this school included Benjamin Franklin, who is also the most notable high school dropout of his time. Right next to it was the Old City Hall, which had a statue of Franklin out in front as well as the first Bostonian governor who really helped cement Boston as an important leader in the union. Interestingly enough there was a Ruth’s Criss inside the Old City Hall, and I had to mentally tell myself to not stop in for a steak because there was no time. I then worked my way further into Boston and found the south meeting house. This was the puritanical church that the plotters of the revolution as well as subsequent groups met to discuss pressing injustices and things of the like. This was also the only place on the entire trail that I had to pay to get in ($6), which made it not so bad to part with the money. They had some great displays about the people that met there, and the young man working the front desk was fairly knowledgeable about the place.

As I exited through the gift shop (which would become a regular practice toward the end of the Freedom Trail) I moved on to the next historical monument on the path. The Old State House (which I got confused with the Old City Hall about 14 times) is one of the oldest buildings in all of Boston, and was actually where the Boston Massacre also took place. Today it’s surrounded by office buildings and financial centers, but still has its 18th century look to it. As I dodged cars crossing the street, the following place was Faneuil Hall. This place was originally a market house for higher end merchants of the era, and it was used as a market to this day. Right behind the building was Quincy market which had food stands, restaurants, stores, and even street performers on the steps on the market building. The whole experience was really cool because there was a lot of sensual stimulation, as a market should have, with sights, smells, and sounds all hitting you in sync. After I had watched the street performers for a short amount of time I realized the sun was dipping low in the sky so I quickly moved on.

The next stop was fairly far away, which translates to about a 5 minute walk instead of 2, and was Paul Revere’s House. There wasn’t a whole lot to see at his house, it was a fairly normal looking place, so I decided to snap a couple pictures of it and the square it was adjacent to before moving on. As I was on the path I saw a large Catholic Church coming up on the right hand side. Because I was in the North End of Boston, and large building stuck out against the apartments and older buildings. It was St. Stephen’s Church, so I walked inside and noticed why people were walking in and out like it was one of the monuments. Inside it was beautiful, with statues adorning the walls behind the pews, murals on the ceiling depicting religious events, and decorations adding a while new layer to the church space. Seeing this kind of religious place after hitting so many puritanical buildings really accentuated differences between the two belief systems, the most obvious being the borderline gaudy decorations, which was completely opposite of the Anglican and Purtain’s plain worship houses that I had been walking in and out of all day. I grabbed some pictures and got back on track moving toward Paul Revere’s Mall.

The mall was a nice bricked in area dedicated to one of the most important figures prior to the war itself. There was a large statue as well as plaques that listed important people and figured that contributed during our nation’s greatest time of need. There was also a fountain on the opposite end of the mall which made for a nice photo op with the next place on the list. The Old North Church began to rise above all the buildings of the North End and the steeple rose right behind the fountain perfectly. As I walked toward the church there was a sobering display for the men and women of Massachusetts who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. It consisted of strings where each person’s dog tag was swaying in breeze, quietly knocking into the ones on either end of it and making a soft almost wind-chime like sound. Due to the amount of tags on the line it made an impression of just how many people our country, and specifically this state, has lost in these wars on foreign soil. I then walked around to the front of the North Church and craned my neck upward to see the top. The importance of this place was it was where the lantern was lit to show that the English were attacking by sea. I could see why they chose this steeple because it was massive.

The next place on my trek was another graveyard, and it ended up being at the top of a hill. There wasn’t any one too crazy famous in this one, but it did have some prominent activists for the 18th century, as well as a whole family of African Americans during the same time period. The graveyard was surrounded by large oak trees, but through the branches it had a beautiful view of the bay just north of the cemetery. This was the last cemetery on the stop so I took a little extra time looking at the headstones and gauging just how far back this one reached. The next stop on the Freedom Train was across the river in Charlestown, so it was by far the longest walk, and seeing as how it was about 5 pm, I wanted to hurry before everything closed. I started toward the bridge and began power walking as fast as I could.

On the Charlestown side of the bridge there was a small plaza (as a separate town), with a small memorial for the soldiers of WWII. It was a nice little park area and there were a lot of locals hanging out, reading books, and even some doing a little bit of yoga on the grass. Bunker Hill was the next major place to hit, and obviously it was up a fairly good incline, so I got my workout for the day. On the way up I stumbled across the “Training Ground” where the farmers who would become the Continental Army trained before the English arrived, and there was a large memorial statue in the center for them as well. In addition there were plaques on the back end of the park that listed each unit and who was killed from each of them. It was a really cool place and I was surprised it was not better marked on the map that I had been using to follow the trail. Once I got to the top of Bunker Hill it opened up and provided an excellent view of the harbor and everything around us. I snapped a bunch of pictures of the very Washington Monument looking Bunker Hill Monument, and wandered into the information center. As I wandered around the small building I noticed a small door at the base of the monument. I walked into it and realized there were steps that would take you to the top. There were warning signs saying that it was 294 steps and to be careful if you have health issues, so I began my ascent.

Around step 150 I began to sweat like a beast and had to start taking breaks about every 50 steps. It was very disorienting because there weren’t any windows, and you were basically in a concrete box, which made the heat more intense. Luckily I had a couple in front of me and used them as a sort of pace car up to the top as we joked about elevators being invented and just how many steps there seemed to be. Once we got to the top I knew all those steps had been worth it, the view from the top was almost 360 degrees and you could see for miles around. I really enjoyed looking toward the Boston Financial District and seeing the skyline as the backdrop for the North End that I had just come from. To enjoy the sights (and catch my breath admittedly) I stayed in the top for about 20 minutes before starting on my way down.

As I got to the bottom it was about 5:35 pm, so I hurried down to the water to get to the last stop on the Freedom Trail. The last thing I hit was the USS Constitution, or more popularly known as “Old Ironsides”. This was a ship that basically beasted through a couple battles with the British, the most powerful Navy in the world at the time. I got there with about 5 minutes before they closed, so I went through security like a pro and ran up the gangplank onto the ship. There was a talk going on toward the bow, but I ducked down a couple sets of stairs and checked out everything below deck. I snapped a couple pictures, read some plaques, and then the CO of the ship called out and said the ship was closed and asked us to exit the ship. So I went back up the stairs, got yelled at for touching some brass that had just been polished, and exited the ship. One the way back to shore I also saw an amphibious landing vehicle bobbing in the tide, so I took a picture before I left.

Satisfied that I had hit everything before the day was out I noticed that a large group of people were heading east toward a large set of buildings. Naturally I followed them and realized there was a really cool Korean War Memorial tucked back in a park just off the water. Again, it listed the battalions and units involved and had memorial bricks, benches, and plaques all over the place. I then moved further down the pier and realized there was a ferry I could take back to the North End. It had just left, but I went and bought a one way ticket for a couple bucks and waited. As the sun was dipping lower in the sky the skyline became readily visible and it made for a great view over the bay/Charles River.

Once I got on the ship a group of French tourists asked me to take a picture for them, and I have to say it almost looked like I knew what I was doing. I got all of them with the skyline in the background almost perfectly, so I felt pretty awesome. I then sat back on one of the benches on top of the ferry and enjoyed watching the skyline slowly move by in front of my eyes. As we pulled into the North End it sounded like there was a party going on, and at one of the outdoor restaurants there was someone covering a Sublime song, which made me smile.

Remembering back to earlier in the day I had heard about a place where Hanover St. and Hanover Ave. meet, and I wanted to get a picture. On my way there I walked through Christopher Columbus Park, which was overlooking the water and was extremely nice. I was sure this intersection had been the source of confusion for at least a couple hundred years of giving directions, and even with my GPS and map I had a hard time tracking it down. Eventually I walked down on Hanover Ave. (nothing more than an alleyway) and ran into Hanover St. which is also the oldest street in the North End. After accomplishing my goal I decided to take Hanover St. south ish and find a small Irish pub to grab a cold beer before I headed back to the house.

As I waited to cross highway 93 I saw a place called Dirty Nelly’s across the way, and decided that would be my destination. The guy outside the door asked for my ID in an Irish accent, and I knew I had come to the right place. Once I saw down I ordered a Guinness and a shot of Jameson, figuring it was only appropriate for my surroundings. The Guinness was exactly what I needed and I just relaxed and let the conversations swirl around me. I also grabbed a Dirty Nelly’s Summer Ale, which was a very light beer and was not really my thing, but I drank it anyhow. After my beer I thanked the bartnedress and walked toward the nearest T stop (subway).

The subway was fairly empty and I was able to navigate it with absolutely no problems. All of us arrived at home around the same time, with Jeanne pulling up right as I was unlocking the front door to the house, then Craig showed up about 5 minutes later. After some discussion we decided to go to a place called Boston Beer Works down by the Garden (where the Bruins and Celtics play) and grab some of their locally brewed beers. Unfortunately Solan was not hip with the idea, so Jeanne stayed home to take care of him and it was obvious she was bummed because she would have really liked to have come. So it was just Craig and I going to Boston Beer Works, and once we found our primo parking we walked inside.

I was surprised how large the place was, especially being practically in the heart of Boston. We got a seat almost instantly and I grabbed the beer list to figure out my choice. When the waiter came over he said you could get a sampler which had any of their four beers on it, so I obviously went with the choice. The four that I chose were Beantown Nut Brown, Belgian (aged 6 months in barrels from other brews), Victory amber, and the Bucket Oatmeal Stout. All of the beers were really good, although the Belgian beer that was left in the barely of other brews for 6 months was really freaking good. It had a ton of flavor and every single one that he mentioned I could taste as a tidal wave of awesome every time I drank it. I was extremely impressed with it. I also ordered the fish and chips which were really good, one thing that I am totally going to miss is getting good sea food because we all know Arizona drops the ball on that one. Craig and I hung out at the brewery for awhile and talked about Taiwan, football, beer, and a lot of things, and ended up leaving around 10:45 pm. He took me on the longer route home, past MIT and close to Harvard pointing out all the squares that we passed through on our way back to Somerville. I was really tired once I got home and pretty much passed out as soon as I hit the pillow. Overall dinner was really good, and I knew that they had a couple other places lined up so I was excited to see what was on the list for the next day.

*July 21st: Boston, Ma*

After waking up a little later than I expected I quickly jumped in the shower and got ready to do a little more running around today. Jeanne and I had planned to go to the Museum of Fine Arts after lunch sometime, and seeing how it was already past 11 am I had a lot to accomplish in a couple hours. I walked out of the house and down to the subway station so I could start off in downtown Boston again.

I got off at Park St. again near the Boston Commons, but instead of heading off in the northeast direction, I walked southwest. Originally my goal was to hit the public gardens which were west of the commons, but that plan was quickly foiled when I got turned around a little bit. I then reevaluated my plan and decided to go to the furthest point east on my trek today, the Boston Tea Party Ship Museum.

I walked through the heart of the financial district of downtown Boston on my way to the museum, and my path also took me directly through Chinatown. Because I hadn’t hit Chinatown in New York it was cool to see the Chinese shops and to hear a vast amount of Mandarin on the streets of the northeast city. Continuing to move through the skyscrapers and federal buildings downtown I had to constantly refer back to my map and GPS on my phone to figure out where I was headed. Just like the North End of Boston the financial district was also a maze of winding roads that obviously predated the era of grids and cars.

Suddenly I came to another river and the bridge that should have taken me directly across and to the Boston Tea Party Museum. As I scanned the water and the shore for a museum of any kind I was extremely confused as to where this place could be. I saw the Children’s Museum that was on the opposite bank, and some construction going on in the middle of the river, but I did not see anything that resembled an 18th century ship or American Revolution Museum anywhere. I decided to walk across the bridge anyhow to see if there was something on the other side I was missing.

Once I got to the other shore I still was clueless on where this place was, so I used the internetz to google the museum to see if the map I had was wrong or outdated. As I pulled up the website it had a countdown meter on top and I instantly recognized what had happened. They have been restoring two of the ships for use by the museum and the museum was not set to open for another 300 days, obviously well past the time I was going to be in Boston. Happy that I had figured out the dilemma, and a little bummed that the museum was not open quite yet, I started back toward the main downtown area of Boston.

Deciding that I had done enough walking on a particularly hot and humid day I decided to head for South Station, one of the main train stations in Boston, to take the subway to Fenway Park. Fenway is pretty far southwest of where I was at, and it was a great choice to forgo that walk. Once I got into the station I saw a pretzel stand and bought a pretzel and frozen lemonade to cool off a bit. I inhaled the pretzel and sucked down the lemonade like it was my last meal and headed toward the green line downstairs.

Because the green line had four different branches it was not as quick to jump on as the red line had been earlier, so I waited about 20 minutes before my train showed up. I got off at the Fenway stop along with about 20 other people, and basically moved with the crowd. As I started back in the direction of downtown Boston (because the stop put me past the park) the infamous Cisco sign rose in the distance and I could see the stadium lights right behind it. Unfortunately the Red Sox were not in town during my stay, but it was still really cool to see the stadium that has been there for over 100 years.

All around the stadium there were banners and signs commemorating their championships and retired numbers, the earliest one dating back to 1903. As I wandered around the park one thing that surprised me was a majority of the bars and restaurants around the stadium were open despite the Sox not being in town. My goal was to find the Green Monster even if it was only from the outside, and it turns out I started in the exact opposite direction. So in the long run I made an entire circuit of the stadium, but it give me time to really appreciate the old place and just how much history had been seen there. I also really liked the old brick external structure, with the painted green steel superstructure underneath it. I also enjoyed how “real” the place felt, unlike the newer stadiums being built it was not named after a corporation or built out in the boonies, but it was near the heart of the city and almost integrated with it. That was noticeable even without the frenzy of the game day crowd around me, so I can only imagine what it is like when there is a game.

Once my self guided tour of Fenway was completed I looked at my map and started to walk down toward Newbury St., one of the places that had been suggested by Craig and Jeanne as a good place to people watch and observe. As I made my way toward the street, or at least what I thought was the street, I saw on one of the brick walls some Obey graffiti. I was pleasantly surprised and snapped a picture real quick, before continuing on my way. It was still fairly toasty, being about 1:00 pm, and I was looking for a place to grab a drink. So you can understand my confusion when the next street that I hit was not Newbury, like it was supposed to be, so I looked back at the GPS and realized I was going in the wrong direction. The Boston streets had fooled me again and I turned around in the correct direction.

As I was walking in that direction there was a small park that the split the road into the two sides by direction. I dodged traffic to go check it out and realized that it was a small statue in honor of Leif Erikson. On the front side of the statue it had old Norse runes which was my first clue, and then there was an English translation on the backside as well. I thought it was really cool that there was a small park commemorating the Viking expedition that discovered America, despite the contrary nature toward our accepted perception of history. Once again dodging traffic to cross the street I walked down a small side street and was finally on the correct road, Newbury.

All along Newbury St. there were high end shops and restaurants toting highfalutin foods and products, way above my income level. The first strand of shops and housing that I went through was very hipster and new age, with one building in particular catching my attention. It was an older style building, but it was covered from head to toe in graffiti of all kinds. It was almost a giant collage of different styles and it seemed there was no real rhyme or reason to the graffiti. Slowly the hipster zone gave way to the more high fashion and snooty area of Newbury St. Even with the extreme heat that Boston was experiencing there was a small contingent of people milling around on the streets and going in and out of the shops. I slowed my gait and started to watch everyone around me and did notice a sharp increase in “Scottsdale esque people”. It was interesting watching their interactions as I slowly walked past and I even saw one restaurant toting sake margaritas, I’m still not quite sure how I feel about that. On Newbury St. there was Conley Square and that was the next stop on my wanderings for the day.

Immediately when I got to Conley Square I saw that it was surrounded by churches. The first one I walked up to was a church off of Newbury St. about 100 yards past the square. It was a large church and was made with very dark bricks of varying shades. It was not open to the public but the architecture on it was beautiful so I snapped a couple pictures and headed toward the square. The other two churches that were on the square were both under construction so they were shrouded by scaffolding, but their steeples and domes still dominated the view. The first church was also closed to the public so I walked around it and tried to get the best sense of the church as I could. Directly across the street from this church was the Boston Public Library which, contrary to what Jeanne and Craig had mentioned, I think it was just as big if not bigger than the one in New York. It was enormous and was a place that I could see as an excellent area to do research in, especially historical. It also had two interesting statues out in front of the steps leading to the doors, both very contemplative and Greek-style statues.

Across a small grass area there was the third church that was larger and obviously a little older than the previous two. It had a large dome in the center of the structure and you could see the clergy’s quarters attached on one side. As I walked into the front door I was told by the young man working there that it would be only the second place I would have to pay to get in, and it was only about $5. So I paid the fee and walked into the chamber to see what it had to offer. The church itself was very cool however the pictures did not come out so hot because it was fairly dark inside. There was also a young man practicing the organ while a couple tourists like myself, wandered around the church checking out the stained glass and artwork that adorned the walls.

My phone rang when I was about done walking around the church, so I hurried outside to take the call. Jeanne called to say that Solan was being extremely fussy during the afternoon and she did not think they would be able to meet up with me to go to the museum. She kept apologizing and I told her not to worry about it, I had a bunch of other things I could wander around and if she needed to stay home and take care of Solan it was no biggie. So I decided to relax a little bit after walking for awhile, and went over to a fountain that had some kids playing in it. Because of the hot day there were a lot of people enjoying the water and I decided to roll up my pants and stick my feet in. As I sat in Copley Sq. people were on lunch and joined me in putting their feet in the water and just enjoyed the sunshine that the New England afternoon had to offer. I spent about 30 minutes cooling down my feet and planning my next move, and decided to walk back toward the North End of Boston. It was quite a trek and I was glad I had a little time to relax in Copley Sq.

As I headed toward the North End I found the public gardens opposite the Boston Commons that I had missed earlier in the day, and took a nice walk through the grounds. There was a prominent statue of Washington in the middle of the gardens surrounded by blooming flowers, so I took some pictures and continued on. There was also a lagoon in the center of the gardens which made for some good pictures. There was also a large amount of people relaxing in the garden along with the tourists, and it really had a Central Park feel to it. I also saw a wedding party walking toward the lagoon to take their pictures, again reminding me of New York. Once I reached the opposite end of the gardens I readjusted my route to hit the Quincy Market in the North End.

When I got to the market there was a street performer showing off his craft to a sizeable crowd. I joined the throng to watch for a little bit and he started juggling cones and plungers, while keeping the mood light with comedy. The other cool aspect of the show was he got a young kid involved. He gave him small tasks to do throughout the show, all of them keeping the kid involved in whatever he was doing. It was really cool to see because you could tell the kid enjoyed the attention, and it probably helped that he was pretty cute. At the end of the show the street performer did a balancing act with some juggling which was pretty impressive. As the show came to an end I started to feel the effects of being in the sun all day and started to search for a good place to find a cold beer. As I walked through Quincy Market I saw a sign advertising over 100 craft beers in a small basement bar. Despite the shady nature of the entrance, I decided to go in.

It was only around 5 pm so the only company in the bar were a couple older couples and the bartender, so I sat down and started to sort through the massive beer list. Once the bartender walked over he mentioned that there were some beer s they wanted to clean out of their stock, and they were selling them at $4 a bottle. Being a teacher, I scoured the list and found a couple beers that sparked my interest. The first beer on their relegation list that I selected was the Hooker Red. The brewery is a local one from Massachusetts and it was pretty good. I am a little partial to reds so I took my time to really enjoy the beer. The second beer I wanted to try was a beer straight from Munich and was a Hefewizen Dunkel, but they had actually sold out of it earlier in the day. A little disappointed I ordered another Harpoon, this time the UFO White beer. It was an unfiltered wheat beer and had a really good flavor, almost sweet. The atmosphere in the bar was nothing special, not very social and the bartender was a man of small words so I finished my beers and decided to head back to the house.

When I arrived at the house Jeanne had Solan in the front room and it seemed he was content for the time being. Craig was going to try and get home a little earlier that night so we started to think about places that we could hit for dinner. I was fairly hungry after not having much of a lunch because of the heat. I hadn’t really been to a seafood place since coming to Massachusetts so we made the decision to try a couple places right on the water. Before we left I jumped into the shower again because I had sweat like crazy that day and wanted to feel a little more human for dinner. The first place that we tried to go to was actually across the bridge from downtown Boston, in what is called East Boston. It was a little less developed and according to Jeanne and Craig they were trying really hard to develop that side, especially with restaurants and night life. The first place we went to was a newer restaurant that had opened fairly recently, and they had heard was good food and great beer. Unfortunately there was a line of about 20 people out front, and they were at capacity, so we went with option B.

Option B was a place called the Barking Crab and was an indoor/outdoor combination seafood place. The ambiance was distorted a bit because of a large karaoke party going on across the street, so as we waited for the table we were serenaded with slightly inebriated amateurs. The entire time we were at the restaurant it needs to be noted that Solan was completely asleep. It brought back memories of my little brother sleeping on the benches at ASU football games with thousands of fans yelling and cheering around him. At the Barking Crab we were seated on the edge of the outdoor portion with a beautiful view of the Boston skyline. Now I will have to say that Boston’s skyline is not nearly as large as New York’s, but I think it is just as beautiful, especially from the view that we had at our table. There was nothing between us and the buildings beside the river, and the Boston Harbor wrapping around the side of the skyscrapers, making for an excellent backdrop to our meal. The food at the Barking Crab was also excellent, and after getting addicted to Po Boys in New Orleans, I had to order a lobster Po Boy here. The lobster was lightly breaded (which was key) and the sauce that came with it was ridiculously good. The entire atmosphere was really cool and made me really wish I could bring back a good sea food restaurant like this back to Phoenix with me.

Once we finished our meal, with Solan still sound asleep, we headed back home to get some shut eye. While Craig and Solan snoozed in the back seat Jeanne decided to take me across the bridge and down one of the streets that followed the Charles River. It was a really nice drive and actually reminded me of Lakeshore Drive along Lake Michigan in Chicago because there was nothing but a small strip of park between the road and the water. We then went right by the MIT campus and through Harvard Square to see the Harvard campus from the car. There were a lot of older buildings and was a beautiful campus as far as I could tell. I was actually surprised at how many people were milling about the campus considering it was close to 11 pm on a Thursday, and then reminded myself that the weekend does indeed start on Thursdays.

Once we got back to the house the exhaustion of the day of walking around in the heat as well as a little from the entire trip hit me and I was out like a light.

*July 22nd: Boston, Ma to Phoenix, Az*

As was the norm in Boston I slept in fairly late, and made a decision that instead of trying to rush and hit the museum before I left, I was just going to relax around the house. I slowly got my suitcase all packed up and ready to leave later that afternoon, and pretty much vegged the rest of the day. Jeanne and I hung out in the kitchen and chatted a little while Solan was napping and trying extremely hard to suck on his thumb/fist. We discussed a lot like what I was planning on for work and just how sad I was to be heading home already.

We decided to head to the airport around 3:00 pm for my 4:45 pm flight, which was definitely different than the 30 min time buffer I gave myself for the train. As we started out from the house and jumped on the highway through downtown, there was a massive amount of traffic. Considering it was way early for rush hour, not to mention we were heading the opposite direction that rush hour would be heading, it was strange. Luckily Jeanne has lived in Boston pretty much her whole life and knew a couple different routes and how to work the traffic to her advantage. After making our way through the traffic downtown we took the tunnel under the river and emerged at the airport on the other side.

The view from the airport was really cool because it was situated right by the intersection between the river and the bay, with the airplanes taking off over the water. We said our goodbyes as I jumped out at the gate, with Solan still unconscious in the back seat, and I quickly walked inside because I was about 45 minutes away from take off. Luckily the day before Continental Airlines called me and checked me in over the phone, so all I had to do was pick up my tickets and check my bag at the front desk. After taking some of my time getting the boarding pass I power walked to security where a massive line was waiting. Looking at my boarding pass the plane was scheduled to start boarding in about 20 minutes, and the line I was in was going to take majority of that time. Now I understand why we have security at the airport, and it has been getting more and more thorough as time goes on, but people should be prepared for it. It’s not a surprise that you will be told to take off your shoes, remove any liquids over x amount of ounces, belts, change from your pocket, ect. Not to mention it is posted about 30 times before you get to the security checkpoint. You have 20 freaking minutes to prepare yourself in line, and if you are still confused there are people doing the whole process in front of you the entire time, so watch them and follow suit. But people still screwed up and forced the line to take much longer than it needed to, starting the frustration that will only mount throughout the day.

Once I made it through security I was about 3 minutes past boarding time so I ran down the concourse to find my gate. As I arrived at the gate it was posted that the plane was on time and everyone was lounging around in the gate. I was a little confused because the plane was outside the window, workers were setting things up on the computer, but no one was boarding the plane or moving for the most part. So I sat down and began organizing my stuff for when we would board the plane. Around 4:45 pm, when the plane was supposed to be taking off, an announcement came over the PA informing us that we the plane was being held by the airport, and we wouldn’t be able to board for another 20 minutes.

I grabbed out my book to pass the time and when the 20 minutes passed we began to board. Now, I have been on trains this entire trip so I have been “pampered” apparently, but the airplane seats seemed to get smaller. It was not a full flight, being an hour flight to New Jersey, but when I sat in my seat my knees were touching the seat in front of me and when the person reclined back in front of me, the seat back was about 4 inches from my face and I am not extremely tall in any sense. I will say there were TVs in the headrest of each seat, but it’s hard to watch when its 4 inches from your face. I took complete advantage of the empty seat between me and the young woman on the aisle and continued to read my book. Because of our delayed departure we had to wait in line on the runway and when everything was said and done we were about an hour late getting into Newark.

When we got off the plane in Newark I looked at my second boarding pass and realized a couple important facts about my next flight. The first one was it took off in less than an hour, providing me absolutely no time to grab dinner before I boarded the plane, and then I looked at the gate. The gate that my flight took off from was in the same terminal, but it might as well have been across the airport cutting into my already diminished time allotment. We got into gate C25 on the first plane, and my second flight took off from C137. This basically translated into a mile long power walk to try and get there before the plane took off. As I walked quickly I grabbed some food to quell my growling stomach and started to inhale the exquisite cuisine that is airport food on my way to C137.

In what can only be categorized as a minor miracle I got to the gate with about 10 minutes to spare, but the board was blank. So I shrugged it off and finished off my sad excuse for Chinese food. Once it got closer to the departure time I decided to ask the lady working the front desk. Once I asked the woman working at the desk she looked at me and pointed to a gate about 200 yards down the concourse and informed me that the gate had been changed over an hour ago. When I looked toward the gate I saw about 4 people in line and empty seats all over the place. So I smiled and thanked the worked before running down to the gate so I wasn’t left behind.

I thought I was the last person to board the plane, and was a tad embarrassed about it, but it turned out about 4 other people joined me about 5 minutes later. Once I got to my seat, a full plane except for about 6 or 7 seats on the whole plane and settled in for the 5 hour flight. The departure time came and went and then we saw a family board the plane about 20 minutes after the original departure time. It was bad enough that they were late and had literally held up an entire plane, they then proceeded to argue with one woman had moved to allow another family to sit together, because she was in one of their seats. This argument went on for about 10 minutes before the stewardess’ broke it up and organized everyone in their seats. We then waited about 15 more minutes before taxiing out to the runway where we were informed we were about 25th in line to take off because of the delay. This warranted a subtle groan from the passengers, and I turned back to my book.

Despite all this complaining there were a couple things that I really enjoyed on this flight. I was able to crank out the rest of my book, The Shia Revival, which was an extremely enlightening and interesting book about Islam, and there were some beautiful views from above the country that I had just traversed over the last three weeks. One thing that I think would have made it better was someone pointing out to the passengers the places that we were passing. Obviously it was later at night, but we flew over Detroit, Chicago, and St. Louis on our way to Arizona and it was beautiful to see the city lights from 36,000 feet. I don’t think anyone else realized it and I was only able to identify the cities by looking at the geographical layout and some educated guesses. There was also an enormous electrical storm brewing in the distance as we screamed over Chicago and for anyone who was watching out the window there was a natural light show that was breathtaking.

To make a long story short the plane ended up being about an hour and a half late when we landed in Phoenix, putting us there at about 11:45 pm local time, and about 2:45 am on my biological clock time. I was pretty perturbed and tired and just wanted to crash by the time Reilly picked me up from the airport and we headed back to my parent’s house to exchange cars. After thinking about why I was so upset about the whole flight home I came to the conclusion that it was a shift in my thought about long distance travel. In the airport I showed up about an hour early to get on the plane, and still barely made it before the required time to board (despite the actually boarding and take off time) because of various hoops I had to pass through. On the airplane I felt like they tried to cram as many people as possible in the cabin despite the comfort level or consideration for the passenger as an individual. The seats were not designed for comfort despite the possible amount of time the trip may be, it was designed to accomplish the job of a chair and not a whole lot else. I also had to pay an extra $25 just to check a single bag on the plane, which has been a point of contention before this trip as well. This also lead to wasted time boarding the train because people are trying to stuff duffle bags and full size suitcases into the overhead racks that were never designed to house such things. It also lead to packed overhead bins and forcing people to take up more time wandering around the plane for some room or taking up the limited amount of free space around or under their seats throughout the flight. The “complementary” drink that was given to everyone on the plane was all of 6 oz. of water or juice, which translates to a little more than a shot of moisture in an environment that has less moisture in the cabin than a desert. Not to mention that on the entire 5 hour flight from Newark to Phoenix I remember the seat belt sign being turned off for about 30 total minutes (with little to no turbulence), forcing you to stay strapped in to your seat for the extent of the plane ride. All of these things contribute to stress being a major issue between the passengers, crew, and pretty much everyone involved in the process. This was evidenced by the argument between the passengers about seats and even in my attitude after getting off the plane.

I am not saying that train travel was perfect in any way and it is obviously not a good option in every situation that someone may need to travel an extended distance or period of time. However, a majority of the things that the plane companies have imposed upon us and customers and passengers on their planes is not even an issue on the train. For the train I showed up at the max about 30 minutes before the train boarded, no massive lines for security, you already have your tickets to board, and that was only because I was checking my larger suitcase so I didn’t have to take up space on in the overhead bins. A majority of people showed up 15 or 20 minutes early and just hopped on the train. On Amtrak you are able to check upwards of 5 or 6 bags FREE OF CHARGE, not one or two, but 5 or 6. This lead to a lot more space freed up in the overhead bins as well as the seats around you, giving you plenty of space to stretch out and get comfortable. The seats were also about the size of first class plane seats, not leather or anything, but that extra three or four inches on either side of the seat, as well as leg rests and more than centimeters worth of leg room lead me to appreciate the seat design. I am a fairly average size person, and I was able to utilize the leg rest and tilt my seat back without impeding on anyone else’s personal space in front or behind me. The beverages that were available on the train were not free, but you could get a full size soda, water, beer, or food without too many issues, including a small lounge area above or directly across from the café car. In addition to the drinks that you could pay for, there was also a water spout and small paper cups in every single car for free, so if you are poor there is a way to hydrate yourself independently. All of these things added up to a much better and a lot less stressful trip, and I believe translated directly into a better attitude for the passengers and crews alike. Every transportation company, especially a government subsidized one, has a couple bad eggs, but I would be willing to bet 98% of the people on the train enjoyed themselves. People were friendlier around the train, I mean I sat literally inches away from a young woman and an older man on both flights, and there was no more conversation than was necessary on the flight. On the train everyone was more than willing to have a conversation with you, and before you knew it they would give you their entire life story for better or worse. Despite all of these things that I have listed, I think the number one reason why my view of long distance travel has changed over the past 3 weeks has been something a little simpler than that. The basic fact that you could get up out of your seat, walk to the café car and buy some refreshments, walk to the lounge car and watch the US countryside slide past you, or just stretch your legs with impunity all while being involved in interesting conversations with even more interesting people has made train travel more than attractive to me. I love airplanes as much as the next person and could ride in one or even watch them take off all day long, but if it is at all possible I encourage anyone who hasn’t to try train travel for yourself and experience something different than the airport constraint and stress that we have been subjected to.

*End massive rant about long distance travel

To top off the entire trip once I got home I dropped my stuff in my bedroom and threw my suitcase on my bed to empty it out before hitting the sack. When I dropped the suitcase on my bed I heard a crack and the back side of my mattress sunk toward the floor. When I investigated the problem the small portion where the slats sit under the box spring had snapped from the extra weight of my suitcase, like 30 lbs maybe, and was unfixable at the time being. At this point I couldn’t help but laugh and grabbed my pillows and went downstairs to crash on the couch. Pickles was excited to have the company so after a little early morning TV I fell asleep and officially ended my trip cross country.

Future Plans:

Because of the massive success that this trip ended up being, I have already started outlining and looking at possibilities for the next summer. AS was mentioned in the first post, we are planning on a Europe trip in the next year or so, but if that falls through I have been looking into a possible Northwest US/Canada tour. This would open up some great chances to hit Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, and other west coast cities that I haven't had the fortune of visiting yet. Not to mention a Sounders game could be just the ticket!

IF you were determined enough to read this entire post let me know what you think! Also if you have any suggestions on future stops or destinations for my next trip, any and all ideas are welcome!


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## Eric308 (Aug 20, 2011)

I just finished your book and enjoyed it very much. So happy to hear you liked Acme in NOLA. My favorite city and favorite restaurant. Next time, don't be a light weight and pound a few dozen oysters! Again, great read. It would be a pleasure to meet you and discuss our travels.


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## jb64 (Aug 20, 2011)

Thanks for sharing your trip with us. Glad you enjoyed your time on the train. As you said, it's not perfect, but I really do prefer it to air travel


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## henryj (Aug 20, 2011)

Really great trip. Thanks for sharing it with us. I think I gained about 10lbs just reading this. lol.


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## Bob Dylan (Aug 21, 2011)

:hi: Nice Trip, thanks for sharing! And it sounds like you caught the AU disease, only Train Trips can temporarial satisfy your wanderlust! :lol:


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## Train-o-Phile (Aug 26, 2011)

Add my thanks to your friends and relatives for making this trip possible for you, so that we could enjoy it vicariously through you! Seriously, the part about Boston makes me want to hop on the LSL right now and go do it all myself!


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## GG-1 (Aug 26, 2011)

Train-o-Phile said:


> the part about Boston makes me want to hop on the LSL right now and go do it all myself!


But maybe not this weekend! 

Aloha


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## Everydaymatters (Aug 27, 2011)

Thanks for the trip report. I didn't intend to read the whole thing, but got trapped in it and couldn't stop reading.


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## Rob Sehl (Aug 28, 2011)

I appreciate all the feedback on my travelogue! It was an amazing trip and I was extremely satisfied with my Amtrak experience, especially riding coach for extended periods of time. I'm impressed as many people got through it as have posted, and I kind of wish I could throw in some pictures to make it a little more entertaining for everyone!


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## jb64 (Aug 28, 2011)

if your pictures are posted somewhere like flikr, photobucket, or facebook, just post a link and then you could share.


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## Rob Sehl (Aug 28, 2011)

So I decided to upload my pictures to flickr so if you're a visual person (much like myself) you can check them out right here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/robsehl325/sets/

However, due to their upload limit for free users I have about 1/3rd of my pictures uploaded, so it may take a couple more days to get them all up there, so check back. Again, I appreciate the feedback from everyone and am glad you have enjoyed my write up!


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## Rob Sehl (Oct 4, 2011)

Update: More pictures from the trip have been uploaded, however the monthly limit of flickr has allowed me only to get through my first day in New York. So one more month and they should all be uploaded!


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## Rob Sehl (Jul 17, 2013)

Two years late but I finally figured out how I can upload all these pictures!

*San Antonio*: https://plus.google.com/photos/102678044766161750054/albums/5901602360657760961?authkey=CIy1jNnW-NbGowE

*Austin*: https://plus.google.com/photos/102678044766161750054/albums/5901586995346964833?authkey=CMPM8K2-idm1NA

*New Orleans*: https://plus.google.com/photos/102678044766161750054/albums/5901600844427218801?authkey=CPj6wd6OgMWuNA

*Chicago*: https://plus.google.com/photos/102678044766161750054/albums/5901592571945685057?authkey=CIjOpN-EtYH9NQ

*Washington D.C*.: https://plus.google.com/photos/102678044766161750054/albums/5901593785067158657?authkey=CKL18IOSk5nOrgE

*Philadelphia*: https://plus.google.com/photos/102678044766161750054/albums/5901594613803012305?authkey=CO6P7KHZuJzrPA

*New York*: https://plus.google.com/photos/102678044766161750054/albums/5901596797962622385?authkey=CM3N26rlyq33ogE

*Boston*: https://plus.google.com/photos/102678044766161750054/albums/5901589460996685409?authkey=CJWv2L-PguribQ

Enjoy and thanks for reading!


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## Bob Dylan (Jul 17, 2013)

Nice pics, thanks for Posting! :hi:


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## bobnjulie (Jul 17, 2013)

Another 3 hour epic! What an excellent adventure you had. You actually beat me to the punch since I was wondering about the first trip. It looks like it's not to dissimilar to what we are planning in a few weeks (WHEEE!) so I was completely stoked to see NO and Philly and Boston in pictures beforehand! I have done a lot of traveling on my own and now with my husband and I enjoy both but traveling alone is easier, I think since there's no compromising and since I had done so much of it... just wandering and getting or keeping out of trouble! It was interesting to see the different energy. Thanks again for sharing your world view and trip and pictures!


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