Monday, June 14, 2010

Haven't had sufficient Internet in a while.

Its been a little while... we haven't been able to find good Internet.

Today is our last official day in Boston, however we are going to sleep here tonight. We are headed to Exeter library in New Hampshire and possible Portland, Maine tomorrow. Boston was a fun city, with.. WEATHER. We got to visit Southie and visit local Irish owned pubs, Downton Boston where we went to the oldest bar in America and the Green Dragon where the Boston Tea Party was planned; Harvard, MIT, and other parts of Boston. We enjoyed a huge chocolate dipped, ricotta cannoli from Mike's Pastry in North End, Taylor sketched some of his favorite architect's work (Steven Holl, Simmon's Halls MIT) and we had fun wandering around the T Subway, which is the oldest subway system in America.

I haven't had a chance to talk about Greensboro, NC, D.C., or Connecticut. All were amazing of course. We had amazing hospitality in Greensboro from Sheila and Grandma Blair. We got a chance to see a little of Greensboro where my dad grew up. Washington D.C. was a whirl-wind. We went out with a local and got to see parts of D.C. we probably would have never seen. We enjoyed our bike ride from Georgetown along the canal, eating amazing D.C food and visiting the different monuments and memorials. Old Greenwich, CT was absolutely beautiful. All the Cape Cod looking houses with all the green foliage made me feel home away from home. We stayed with Taylor's uncle and plan to return after tomorrow for our stay in New York (Old Greenwich is a 40 min train ride outside of Manhattan).

I could write pages and pages on our different experiences in Greensboro, D.C., Connecticut and Boston, but there is so little time and we are on our way out for the day.

Pictures, etc will be coming soon.

Until next time!!

Monday, June 7, 2010

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Dancing in the Streets of New Orleans

A huge crowd forms in the streets on Frenchmen St., New Orleans while these kids play their instruments on the corner.






made it to the east!

We are officially on the east coast!! Hitting Georgia and adding an hour to our clocks made it official.

We have seen many things so far, I can't believe it has only been a week and a half with about 5 weeks to go. Southern Louisiana was incredible with the old plantation houses, the lush greenery, the lakes and rivers, and NEW ORLEANS! We enjoyed Bourbon street, but didn't loove it (pretty touristy). I personally hate loud crowds of drunk people and loud music, but we loved our dinner at Cooper Place where we had real southern cooking: Jambalaya Supreme and Chicken Tchoupitoulas. We also enjoyed a Cafe au Lait and beignets at Cafe Du Monde during the day. We loved Frenchmen St. where we listened to live jazz music at different bars culminating in a big street production of 3 guys playing big band jazz music. There were at least 100 people surrounding them dancing in the street, including us.

We walked around the Lower 9th Ward in the rain and took pictures of the neighborhoods. Katrina hit five years ago and it still leaves its mark. Abandoned, boarded up houses with no roofs adorn the streets with "x" marks on the front doors marking how many people were evacuated. Silly of us to believe a gas station with a bathroom would be near by. We both had to pee badly and after driving from gas station to gas station we asked two guys where we could go and they said, "Yeah we have that same problem e'ryday. There's sumthin' gone wrong with plumbing on dis' street." ... So we went behind an abandoned house in the bushes...
The Lower 9th Ward was mind blowing, and probably the most important thing we've seen so far (socially). We got to walk around the new homes being built by "Make it Right Foundation."

We also went to Atlanta, GA which reminded us a lot of Los Angeles, but with some country. It was a fun city where we played pool at a live blues bar. We enjoyed our stay in ATL with my brother, Malik and his fiance Haru, in their quaint neighborhood surrounded by forest and the Chattahoochie river.

We are now in Savannah, GA and loving it. We camped out in at Skidaway Island State Park underneath live oaks with Spanish moss. It was 'the real deal campin'. Today we rented bikes and rode around the town all day. Savannah is an old town with old architecture. We took a lot of pictures and sat at the town squares that occupy every block. We look forward to finishing our stay in Savannah tonight by going to underground bars (like old speak easy's!) and visiting Tybee Beach and the Tybee Lighthouse tomorrow before we head out to the Carolinas!

Saturday, May 29, 2010

eating like kings in Austin


Austin Buffalo Burger: Bison meat, toasted white bun, buffalo sauce, smothered in blue cheese


Chili Cheese fries... best EVER!




Casino El Camino, 6th Street Downtown Austin.
Dive bar with INCREDIBLE food

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Untitled

Many roads we traveled

Though the pigments have changed

From sparkling black to hues of red and grey

The path remains the same

Taylor's Two Cents on New Mexico

White Sands, New Mexico. Miles of white sand. Tip: Bring sunglasses.

Sledding on White Sand Dunes: Chelsea



Taylor's Two Cents on Texas

Welcome to Texas. Drive careful or git' shot!

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Taylor's Two Cents on Phoenix

"Phoenix, Arizona, the land of rocks, wind, and sand... and somehow they've managed to keep the streets clean."

Lesson #1 campsites are not located major cities!

We have safely arrived at our first stop - Phoenix, AZ.

Along the way we named our GPS Kelly, listened to music, took pictures out of the sunroof, and practiced southern accents for when we arrive in Texas.

It took us about 5 and a half hours to get here. The weather and the desert is beautiful, but windy! We relied Kelly (our not sooo trusty GPS) to find us a campground. Long story short, there aren't any campgrounds in this major city. As we were driving downtown amongst skyscrapers, we were a little skeptical as to where this campground would be. It led us to some random facility center across the street from a Hospital. Can't pitch a tent there!

We decided to stay at a hotel for the night...and guess what is so awesome about Phoenix? 2.0% sales tax. Cheap hotel = cheap hotel + cheap tax!

So lesson for the day, if there is a campsite located in the middle of a major city, its PROBABLY NOT a campsite!

Until next time...
Au Voir!

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Best advice so far

This is the best advice given so far:

"Have fun, don't drink and drive, try to meet as many people as possible, don't get into silly arguments with your traveling companion"

- Casey Locurto

Thanks Casey!

Almost there

"Make voyages, Attempt them... there's nothing else"

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

T-minus 5 days and counting...

Follow Taylor and me as we embark on this long journey across the U.S.!

The tentative itinerary is almost complete. AAA.com has proved itself to be quite resourceful. Who knew that planning a road-trip can be so tedious! It seems our list of supplies and places to visit is never ending (we're a little too ambitious). Perhaps we're never fully prepared...but having things all figured out is a little overrated right? Life's a little more interesting when we have no idea where we're going. We figure our plans will change as we find riveting destinations along the way: "Its not the destination, but the journey that counts."

We look forward to set about this incredible journey. Wish us luck as we begin "exploring the infinite abyss."