Queen of New York City

Location: New York, New York, USA

I. Am. Exhausted.

Today began SUPER early as we had to pick up our new traveling companion, Mr. Brian Lee at JFK airport. After taking as many pictures as possible of Van Wyck and Queens Boulevard, we snatched up Brian with an authentic cardboard sign with his name on it and headed back to Brooklyn to get ready for the day.

We decided to start by taking the free Staten Island Ferry across the water so we could get some good panorama views of the Statue of Liberty and downtown Manhattan. I remembered from the last time I did liberty, that the best views in the city were from the boat that drove us to the island. Unfortunately, we had neither the time, nor money to go visit the statue, so Dan had the genius idea of taking the free ferry across and back (about an hour round trip and completely FREE! Obviously). Today, we’ve seen the first cloudy day the whole trip, but it’s somewhat fitting for the city. The views of the statue were great and the views of Manhattan were wonderful as well, although I will admit, it still never settles right to see the skyline without those two important towers.

After the ferry, we headed up to the old trade center site to see the construction of the WTC Memorial which was relatively uneventful. There were some great pictures of what it is going to look like and some good views of the construction site, but other than that, not too exciting. We did stop in this great deli though which was hit hard by the fall of the towers and had some amazing pictures of firefighters taking refuge when the air outside was too thick. Not to mention, the food was amazing and very quick.

From there we headed to Wall Street and the financial district, uptown to the Empire State Building (which for some reason I keep calling the Eiffel Tower, even just now when I typed it the first time) and ended in Rockefeller Center to watch some ice skaters and sip on some much needed caramel apple cider. About this time, it was ready to go back to JFK to pick up Dan’s parents who were flying in from Sydney for the holidays. Brian and I waited at the station in Queens while Dan took the shuttle to the airport and then we all rode the train back to the Upper West Side where the family was staying. They were such a hoot and we had such a great chat on the way. I wish we had more time to hang out, but we had promised to meet up with Miss Emma for drinks down in Gramercy so we had to depart (don’t worry, Dan will see them soon as they’re coming up to Canada for X-mas).

We stopped at Time Square on the way to Gramercy so that Brian and Dan could see the area at night (really the only time to see it) and then we met Em at a German restaurant called Rolf’s. It was so great to catch up and she joined us for dinner at a nearby pub called Barfly before we had to head back to Brooklyn for karaoke. Only… we didn’t really make it. On the way to the train station after hanging out with Emma, I got a phone call from Mary who lived in between where we were and where we were going, so we decided to meet up for just one more drink. As it usually goes with Mary, we had so much to talk about that our one drink lasted about an hour, so we just got back to Brooklyn. We’re going to go downstairs and grab some drinks here, and I’m keeping the boys waiting, so this is me stopping typing!

XOXO

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I want to be a part of it, New York, New York

Location: New York, New York, USA

Ahh… what a GREAT day! I did a couple more hours of work after our bonfire (which was so perfect) and then crashed hard in the princess bed (Amelia’s bed when she comes to stay with Auntie Jennifer). We woke up at 6:30 to get on the road by 7, but unfortunately, Dan couldn’t find the keys (oh ya and I wasn’t ready) so we didn’t leave until 7:30. Fortunately, we were lucky and there wasn’t any traffic anyway, so we headed north to New York. Jennifer packed us a to-go bag with all of the roadtrip necessities (candy from all of the candy food groups, Chex mix, vitamin water, and an assortment of other nifty snacks and goodies).

The drive to New York City was pretty uneventful. We were both too excited to get there and I was not feeling well, so other than sick stops in Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, we really didn’t pay much attention to the in between states (oh, except to yell profanities at the Philly Flyer’s rink).

We crossed into NY from Staten Island and found our way to Lauren’s place in Brooklyn quite easily. We parked the car nearby (for FREE, I might add!) and hopped on the train to Central Park to meet up with some of Dan’s friends. After meeting up with Natalia and Jamie at the Plaza Hotel, we began our super exciting Seinfeld tour! As Dan and I are both huge Seinfeld fans, I felt it appropriate to put a little list of famous spots from the show and check them out since we didn’t have much daylight left. We walked to the Soup Nazi Soup Kitchen, to Monk’s (which is actually called “Tom’s Restaurant”), down in the neighborhood where Jerry is said to have lived on the show, and finally to Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. We got to the Bronx late (and had an interesting walk through a seedy area of the borough just after dark) so we decided to head back to Manhattan quickly and grab some food and Lauren’s house keys so we could go back to the apartment and chill.

We stopped for dinner in Little Italy at the first place which seemed reasonably priced and where the staff spoke as little English as possible. I had the Gorgonzola Gnocchi (go figure) and a Peroni and we had a quick dinner before heading back to the flat.

Lauren’s place is… it’s just… I can’t do it justice. The place is huge. It’s exactly what you would expect from Brooklyn; a large exposed brick, high ceiling and open floor plan kind of place that even housed its own freight elevator (which opened into one of the rommie’s bedrooms!). One of the bedrooms was larger than my entire apartment in Los Angeles! Lauren got home shortly after us and we all headed down to the bar underneath her apartment (yes… directly underneath) for a beer (that naturally turned into three). I love this neighborhood. It’s such a great place to live and having spent a night here, I really feel like I could live here. I’ll make another judgment before I leave, but for now, I can’t imagine liking another neighborhood in the city better.

Tomorrow is filled with a lot of sightseeing so retirement is necessary at this point. Should have LOTS of good photos and stories to share tomorrow!

XOXO

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Roasting Marshmallows is Therapeutic

Location: Washington, D.C., USA

Well… here’s to another late night of work. This one was sort of my fault though. I felt so crappy last night that I really couldn’t sleep, so I figured I’d just get some work done so that hopefully I could rest some today (that didn’t happen, though, explanation later).

We were going to get up early to start sightseeing, but for some reason, we just took way too long to get up and around. We waited until Jennifer had to go in for a lunch meeting and she dropped us off at Arlington National Cemetery on her way in to town.

Now, the last time I was in DC was in 1996 when we took a field trip with my 5th grade class. I remember most of the trip, and I remember appreciating all of the sights, but I’m really glad that I have a chance to see everything again after taking all of my high school and college US history classes. As soon as we got out of the car, I knew my sweater was going to be too much clothing, and I couldn’t have been happier. We were blessed with a beautiful 70 degree day and we took advantage and spend the entire morning and early afternoon walking around the cemetery, across the bridge to the Lincoln Memorial and up the lawn to the Washington Monument. The trees that line the pond on either side of the Reflecting Pool were the most beautiful shade of yellow and their leaves were conveniently dropping and littering the sidewalks on either side. All of the sights were pretty much exactly as I left them 13 years ago, which is comforting. Even the snipers sitting on the top of the White House seemed oddly familiar.

Just after passing the White House I got an e-mail that changed the rest of my day. Unfortunately, there were a string of events that led to a serious amount of work to be taken care of. So I found some free wifi in the food court of the Federal Building and sent Dan with a map drawn on a napkin to visit the Museum of Natural History and the Capitol Building. After he got done touring around, we grabbed a quick train home and I resumed work while Dan and Tommy prepped a bonfire and ordered some pizza.

I just finished up so I’m going to stop blabbing and run out to join them outside. I can see the fire from here and it looks so toasty! Oh and Dan's never had a s'more before... that has to change.

XOXO

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Detour = Success... Cruising the Skyline Drive

Location: Washington, D.C., USA

I stayed up way too late working on the reports we are putting out for the Port of Long Beach and I’m quite exhausted, to say the least. Today was jam packed pull of fun and it all started at 6 AM. I practically crawled to the car after an hour of sleep and prayed Dan wouldn’t ask me to drive. After a quick drive by the UVA campus in daylight (to see the Lawn and the Rotunda at Ed’s recommendation – a great one by the way, we headed West towards the Blue Ridge Mountains.

We initially missed the turn onto Skyline Drive, but after stopping to chat with a chatty old Vietnam vet, we got on the right track and began the 105 miles along the ridge of the mountains. The skyline drive is basically a road that winds along the ridge of the Blue Ridge Mountains from south western Virginia through north western Virginia. We got the recommendation from Hazel (the lady at the Virginia, NC border) yesterday and realized we HAD to take the detour. There were deer littering the sides of the road the entire drive, which I’m sure made Dan a little nervous, but other than that, it was a great drive. It was a beautiful day, with decent visibility and although we didn’t time it perfectly to see the fall colors, we still got quite a few great landscape panoramas.

About two thirds of the way through the drive we stopped to take a short 2 mile hike up to the top of the Little Stony Man Cliffs. The large boulders jutted out over the valley of trees below and we vegged out on the rocks for about 30 minutes just taking in the solitude and the early morning breeze. The weather was still on our side today, as it has been for the entire trip thus far. It was sunny and 65 the whole drive; perfect windows down sweatshirt weather. After doing our fair share of screaming random phrases out to the echoing cliffs in the distance and me scaring Dan by standing too close to the edge (I was going to test out the phrase “I lean against the wind, pretend that I am weightless”, but I decided against it as the odds of me falling over a 100 ft. cliff seemed too high).

From here we drove to West Virginia to stop at Charlestown and the Dairy Queen hosted there. After scarfing a dip cone, we turned back east and started the quick drive to Washington D.C. Once we arrived, we were greeted by a very enthusiastic cousin (Miss Jennifer) and her amazingly adorable colonial cottage in Fairfax. Her husband Tommy cooked us up an AMAZING meal complete with steaks on the grill, sweet potatoes and grilled mushrooms & onions. I ate for about an hour straight (I was not about to leave food on that plate) and we washed everything down with some brew before settling in front of the fire in the living room. I’ve got a decent amount of work to do tonight, but I have a killer headache, so I may have to just surrender to my sickness and go to bed. Work is giving me a stress cold right now, so hopefully, a little break this week will be just the medicine I need!

XOXO

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Everything I learned in HS US History is right in front of me...

Location: Charlottesville, Virginia, USA

Last night was a great fun. After a quick cat nap, some surprisingly tasty Papa John’s pizza and a little football, Chris, Dan, Cassie and I geared up for a great evening of fun. Chris and Cassie had a formal to go to so after dropping them off, Dan and I walked through the NC State campus to grab a drink and wait for them. The campus was beautiful, as most college campuses are, but there were a few very unique things about this campus. The most notable was the Free Expression Tunnel (read my Sosauce.com review here). This tunnel is a pedestrian tunnel where university students are encouraged to express themselves. It mostly looks like a wall of junk, but the fact that a university has embraced an idea like this is really quite remarkable. Apparently also during rivalry week when NC State plays UNC, Tar Heel fans often come and express themselves all over the walls of the tunnel.

After wandering around campus for a bit, we found ourselves at a small bar where we had a quick drink and waited for Chris and Cassie to arrive. They came and picked us up and we all headed to downtown Raleigh to check out a great little piano bar called Rum Runners (read my Sosauce.com review here). The place was relatively small, but had a great vibe. Honestly, I’m not sure you can screw up a piano bar, but needless to say, they did not screw anything up. We spent some time singing and swaying and headed home to catch some good Z’s before a long day’s drive to Washington, D.C.

Only we didn’t exactly make it to D.C.

But I’ll back up. So we began our drive a little later than we had wanted to. But we definitely needed the sleep. We headed out of Raleigh just before noon with a quick stop to grab some gas and grub. North Carolina is beautiful, but we didn’t really stop to look around. Once we hit the state line in Richmond, we naturally had to stop and take our picture at the sign which happened to be on the property of the Welcome center. We decided to go in and grab some free propaganda (something I am now a BIG fan of!) and started talking to Hazel, the nice woman working the info desk. Within minutes she had convinced us to reroute our journey completely, taking a westbound highway after Richmond and driving across the top of the Blue Ridge Mountains along a path called the Skyline Drive. We weren’t a hard sell, and after calling my cousin Jennifer (who we are staying with in D.C.) we picked up and headed in our new direction.

Richmond was beautiful. I don’t remember it being this gorgeous. Once we crossed the James River, we got out of the car and took a quick hike to the Boulevard Bridge to see the river and the changing leaves a little more up close. After this we headed North through some really great old colonial neighborhoods, an area called the Fan which, aside from the iPod toting joggers, could fit right inside a period piece. We also stopped at a little lake called Boat Lake which has the most perfect still water reflections of the trees on the horizon. From here we headed northwest towards Charlottesville.

We arrived in Charlottesville just after dark and made a quick stop at Barnes and Noble to pick up a little book called “The Game” (if you haven’t heard of it, look it up – it’s by a guy called Neil Strauss and it’s pretty genius – I’ll let you know how it goes as we read through it) and checked into the Super 8 motel. Tonight we are relaxing. We grabbed some Panera and are watching Monday Night Football. Hopefully I can get some work done tonight and get enough sleep so that we can be nice and fresh for our long drive across the ridge tomorrow!

XOXO

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Nothing like sunset at Oasis

Location: Austin, TX

I guess I really needed the sleep... Passed out hard at John's last night after Little Woodrow's. Didn't have much time to sleep in today, had to get up bright and early to get Jeff to the office for some meetings and whatnot.

Work has been slow and choppy today. I'm all over the place, which I hate and would much rather just be working on one or two things, but alas, this is how it usually goes. We did get to go to Madam Ma'ams for lunch today which was GLORIOUS!! Mike wanted Thai, so I suggested we make the extra half mile or so trek down to the main drag rather than go to the Thai place up on like 35th and Guad (yuck!).

After work, Jeff and I headed out to Mark's to go pick up David who was just sitting around watching ESPN as it turned out. Shortly after, Mark got home and we all piled in the truck and decided to take a little scenic drive. Mark lives down near 2222 and 360 and so we drove out down 2222 then up 620 pointing out great landmarks like Steiner Ranch, the Lake Travis Dam, some Dungeons and Dragon house and then this sweet little gated community Mark somehow knew the code to (I don't ask questions). We ended our city tour at the Oasis for a little sunset dinner... or sunset appetizers and drinks, I should say. We spent a good amount of time reminiscing and sipping on brew while discussing the big plans we had for the weekend. Of which we had a lot :)

After Oasis, we dropped Mark and Dave back at Mark's house, since Mark had to be up early in the morning they weren't up for a big night out. Jeff and I headed for Cain & Abels to grab another beer and plot our sleeping arrangements (which had yet to be determined). With the courage of a couple of beers, I texted pretty much everyone I knew in Austin to hit them up for a couch to crash on, and after admitting defeat finally, we went back to John's. I didn't want to overcrowd because the whole famdam was supposed to get in town the next day, but we had no other options unfortunately.

XOXO

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Hit the border by the morning, let Texas fill my soul...

Location: Austin, Texas, USA

Last night was a VERY long night of nothingness.   We drove all the way across California, Arizona and New Mexico before the sun came up and there was NOT a lot going on.  However, as I am speeding along at approximately 95 mph on the beautiful Interstate 10 and blissfully singing along to a mellow tune on my Sirius, I am suddenly BLASTED by a series of blinding flashing of light.  Speed cameras.

I'm telling you, those things are NOT safe.  I screamed... Jeff thought we were being abducted by alients (thought crossed my mind as well) and John was convinced we were being shot or missiled.  No matter what was actually going on, the three of us sprial into a panic of death and it takes about 5 minutes before my heart stopped pounding.  I literally almost ran us off the road.  Disaster.

After the near death experience, we basically lull back into our daze until the sun started to come up just outside of Las Cruces, New Mexico.  It was a beautiful sunrise, and we pulled over in a small town just in time to watch it come over the Organ Mountains.  And in true mobile worker fashion, as soon as the sun came up, Jeff and my radar went off.  Realizing my e-mail hadn't sent to Greg the night before, I scrambled to find wifi in Messina (which is an adorable little historic adobe town just outside of Las Cruces).  We ended up bootlegging from some guys house while sitting in our car in the driveway.  Not creepy at all. But we got the job done and it was off to Texas.

El Paso/Juarez was beautiful in a sort of urban destruction, political invasion kind of way.  I was so amazed to see that while driving down I-10 for a stretch, we were literally the closest thing to Mexico besides a fence and a river.  And even more astonishing than that was the incredible contrast between the US and Mexico that was just as clear as a line in the sand.  Even the air was being discriminated against.  You could see a physical cloud of nasty hovering over Juarez while El Paso looked relatively fresh.  We didn't spend much time, just a quick drive-through and continued on for the long haul through West Texas.  About 30 minutes outside El Paso, I get pulled over.  The cop (who was very cute, btw) asks me for my information, tells me I was going over the speed limit and when I ask how much faster, he just winks and says "faster."  That's never a good sign!! But I escape with a warning encouraged with a little flirting and we continue on our trek. 

West Texas was... West Texas.  The same thing for about 10 hours.  It really wasn't too bad.  There was a lot to look at.  Lots of fields, oil rigs, strange rocks, small towns and strange people on the road.  It was actually quite entertaining.  The only thing i was disappointed about was that I spent a good 20 minutes looking for the darn football stadium when we were in Odessa and nothing.  Couldn't find it.  After passing about a million more oil rigs and a million more wind turbines, we arrive at DFW airport to drop John off. 

After parting ways and wishing him luck on his attempt to get to Chicago, we turn southbound 35 and head on down the road (sorry, I couldn't help it). It was amazing how quickly this drive went by.  Pulling up and seeing the Austin City Lights was just like I remembered it and I am so excited to be here.  As soon as we got into town, we headed straight to John's to pick him up and grab a bite a Kerby Lane (queso, pancakes and beer - gotta love this place) before making another pit stop at Little Woodrow's (just ONE more beer) and heading back over to John's to pass out.

I'm actually not that tired, although I'm sure as soon as my head hits the pillow, i will be out.  Tomorrow will be fun, I'm excited to see the new digs at the Austin office and to get some actual solid work time in before things REALLY get crazy!

XOXO

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I try to try, and I live to live

Location: Hollywood, California, USA

I woke up yesterday somewhere in Oregon, which was another beautiful gem to add to my list of unknown states. It had rained some more but now was relatively patchy. Everything was incredibly green because of the fresh moisture and as we wound through the mountains, the light mist turned to light snow. There wasn’t much of it, but it was just enough to flock the trees and dust the roads. It was extremely picturesque coming down into the valley. Then right as we came out of our Christmas tree farm, right in front of us is Mt. Shasta. Now, I had heard of this little bump in the ground before, but NEVER did I expect this. It’s is this GIANT volcano that juts out of the middle of nowhere. There are no other mountains touching it and it is just surrounded by grassland and pine trees. Completely snow peaked and surrounded by some clouds, it looked like a painting. Unfortunately, Herr Brian (aka nazi) wouldn’t pull over to let me take a picture because he said we were running too far behind, so I snapped what I could from inside the car and onward we continued.

It was probably about this point that we ran out of music on my iPod as well. I have about 2000 songs on there, which I guess lasts about 80 hours, because that’s where we were. Not good. So we decide to do a little Chris Cornell marathon and play everything I have before the show.

We continue down central California through the central valley, Sacramento and the San Joaquin Valley. We pass hundreds of acres of cherry trees, avocado trees, orange trees, grapes, lettuce, almonds… pretty much everything. But that’s really all there was. It was relatively boring and redundant. Traffic started to pick up as we passed San Francisco and so did the winds which made it hard to drive a consistent speed. As we got close to LA, I took over driving again and led us into the city. We drove straight to the Wiltern in Hollywood, grabbed some PBR and a bag of chips and parked in the covered garage to change clothes and have a snack.

We walked into the Wiltern about 3 minutes before Chris went on stage. We grabbed a quick beer and ran in just in time to hear the beginning. It was one of the greatest shows I’ve seen, such an honor to watch such an amazing rock legend do his thing. And absolutely the perfect ending to the best and longest road trip any human has ever attempted in one weekend. Brian and I swung by the SM Apartment to pick up my mattress and Tinsley and then I dropped him off in Belmont Shore and headed to my own little pad for a much needed nap. And that’s that… the end of an incredible trip… And definitely one I’ll never forget.

Vancouver, BC, Canada --> Long Beach, CA
Miles travelled: 1319
Time travelled: 24 hours

XOXO

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