travel for travel's sake

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

Camping USA

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!