I've Got Two Tickets to Paradise...But It's Cold and Cloudy There
Our last overnight stop of our 3 month long journey was in Virginia Beach, VA, at a nice Bed & Breakfast called Barclay Cottage. We were greeted by the smell of the salty Atlantic and a tour of the inn from our gracious innkeepers. We stayed in the Lighthouse Room…a room that was filled with even more lighthouse paraphernalia than my mom has. Pretty amazing.
After we settled in, we headed out to seafood restaurant, Taotog’s, for some dinner. We had a mediocre crabcake and tuna melt and some pretty good wine. Then, we walked it off on our way back to the inn (stopping only for trashy gossip magazines to get us back “in the loop”). Then, it was off to bed.
The next morning, we were drawn out of the bedroom by the wonderful aroma of breakfast cooking. We sat down to coffee, sugared apples, muffins, eggs, veggie sausage and potatoes. Way more than I could eat that early, but still very delicious. We also met a nice older couple who eloped in Jamaica and urged us to do the same.
After our gluttonous meal, we drove north over the amazing Chesapeake Bay Bridge and then into Delaware for a delicious veggie turkey sub at Capriotti’s. Next on our agenda was a stop at Dogfish Head Brewery. We arrived about a half hour before the tour and walked into a huge warehouse with no signs of life…until a guy walked in and we asked if they were doing a tour. “Yeah,” was the reply and that was it.
We waited around and finally, the tour started. The tour itself was probably 8 minutes long with some beer samples at the end. The samples were, of course, the best part. Though buying the beer at the brewery was way more expensive than buying it at a beer store…weird. I was the designated driver so I only tried a couple of the tame beers while Nick got loaded. Haha.
Mostly, we spent this last day thinking about the fact that our trip was basically over. We seriously could not believe it. Before we left, three months seemed like it was going to be a really long time. But we were realizing that, although it was an amazing trip, three months is really not a long time to see an entire country. And with a strange mixture of homesickness and the sadness that snapping back into reality creates, we headed into New Jersey.
Asheville, Not Nashville
The furthest west we decided to stray on our way back up the East Coast was to a cute little Appalachian mountain town…Asheville, North Carolina. We had read about Asheville a bunch before heading there. One article voted Asheville the most veg friendly small city in the US. We were pumped.
As we drove North from Charleston, we noticed the fall colors and the changing landscape. It was pretty pretty…up until we actually got to Asheville where it was frigid and snowing and we remembered that winter was upon us. After sitting in the car for a few minutes, we mustered up the courage to brave the cold and ran to the first veggie restaurant on our Asheville list, The Laughing Seed.
I ordered some Yerba Mate to warm me up and Nick ordered some coffee. Then, I opted for a fake sloppy Joe and Nick got a tropical seitan creation. Both were delicious but a little spicy. So it goes. The last course was a yummy vegan mint chocolate cake that defied both of our expectations.
After dinner, we headed to our Couchsurfing host’s lovely log home. Unfortunately, our host, Chall, was sick that evening and his girlfriend, Lucia, was working late so we chatted for a bit and then all headed to bed. The next morning, we bundled up for the freezing temperatures and headed out for a cup of coffee and sweet potato scone. Then, warm and satiated, we stopped at the local food co-op to look around.
Next it was time for us to check out what the downtown was all about. We popped in and out of stores, warming up just a little in each one. Then, it was time for lunch. We ate at another veggie place called Rosetta’s Kitchen. We split a veggie Reuben and sweet potato fries. I guess sweet potatoes were the theme that day.
In the evening, we met Chall at the movie theater to see Lars and the Real Girl, a movie that didn’t look too promising, but ended being really good. Then it was off to a local bar for some beer, billiards and darts. Nick and I shared a delicious Gingerbread beer and tried not to hit anyone with our darts. (Actually, Nick is pretty good at both darts and pool…I knew I picked a winner.) When everyone got tired of watching me scratch, we headed back to the house for our respective beauty rests.
The next morning, we bid farewell to Lucia and Papa (their super cute doggy). We had already said goodbye to Chall who had to work early that morning. It was so much fun staying with them in their cozy library of books…I was even able to bring one home with me. Thanks for everything, Lucia and Chall!
From there, we headed to Sunny Point Cafe for a gigantic and very delicious brunch. Nick had huevos rancheros with veggie chorizo and I had an egg and tofu bacon croissant. And we both indulged in the endless supply of coffee. After our hearty breakfast, we took a ride on the Blue Ridge Parkway, stopping at a great Folk Art Center on the way. The Parkway was beautiful though we couldn’t go very far because they had closed part of it for construction that day. We were there after peak leave color season, but it was still very vibrant.
Then, we stopped at a cafe for some, you guessed it, coffee…and WIFI, of course. Finally, it was over to Keith and Laura’s place. They were our second couchsurfing hosts in Asheville since Chall and Lucia could originally only host us for two nights and we wanted to see more of the city.
We were warmly greeted by Keith and Laura and clicked with them right away. We all pitched in to help with dinner (mini eggplant pizzas and risotto). YUM! Then, we headed out to see Keith play some tunes at the Root Bar, a bar with a fantastic beer selection. Nick, of course, loved it. The bar is famous for Root Ball, a game that was created there and then patented. Sadly, it was too cold to play. We played some games of pool, one we actually won, and then headed back to Keith and Laura’s cute apartment.
We found ourselves up late chatting with our hosts (who are soon setting out on their own longer version of our trip). We made sure to give them pointers on how to avoid hitting deer, national parks to see and other road trip ideas. We hope they have an amazing time on their journey…and we hope they will visit along the way.
The next morning, we were off early, headed towards Virginia Beach for a night before our trek back to the NJ. We were so fortunate to have met such amazing people in Asheville. We hope Keith, Laura, Chall and Lucia will visit us wherever we end up!
Sun of the Beach
We made it to Mom and Tim’s place in sunny Pensacola Beach in the early evening and celebrated with some Domino’s Brooklyn style pizza and a few Tivo’d shows that I am totally out of the loop with. It was great to relax and hang with the fam.
The next day we took our R & R to the next level with a walk on the beach, a dip in the pool and all the magazine reading we could handle. In the evening, we had a great dinner at Cabo Grill, a cute Mexican/Seafood place on the boardwalk. But, best of all, we hopped over to Flounder’s for a to-go order of their Key Lime Pie. Okay, this is no ordinary slice of pie…it’s actually three slices stacked on top of each other. When you get it to-go, it’s basically half of a Key Lime Pie for about $6. Delicious.
We were originally going to stay for a few nights, but, due to a few circumstances (the sun, sand, warmth, bed to sleep in, TiVo, and cuteness of my mom), we decided to stay for a whole week instead. I guess we were really feeling the need to plant some roots somewhere (even if the roots only had a week to grow). A lot of that week was spent lounging around, relaxing, and picking out stucco colors for the beach house, but there were some great highlights.
Highlight 1: We had a great dinner get together with some beach neighbors, Beverly and Gregor. Over some veggie lasagna and salad, we chatted about sailing, carbon credits, building houses and hip replacements (you know, the normal dinner topics).
Highlight 2: Again, revolving around food, we had another yummy meal with family friends, Dave and Mary, to celebrate our engagement and catch up on some details of our trip. It’s always good to see them…however short and sweet.
Highlight 3: We also got to relive some of my childhood memories by going to see the Blue Angels fly across the sky and do crazy tricks. And I guess that I’m still an 8 year old at heart because I was pretty impressed. Apparently they fly with their wings less than a foot away from the next plane. Scary. Check out the videos.
Highlight 4: A nice lunch (with a view!) on the boardwalk followed by a tasty ice cream cone in the sun.
Even without all these Florida highlights, it was just really nice to get to spend some time with my fam. We can’t thank my mom and Tim enough for helping us get enough rest and recuperation to conquer the rest of the stops on our list. Next stop, St. Augustine, FL…back to the eastern seaboard.
Alligator Soup
We yodeled back at our cowboy homies in Texas and cast our lassos towards Louisiana…New Orleans, to be specific. But before we made it to the big bayou land, we stopped at a Cracker Barrel for a cheap dinner. Mmmm, biscuits.
We arrived at our hotel (booked through Bookit.com) to find out that although the online special reflected free parking, they were out of spots in their garage and we were out of luck. Bummer. Then, for some reason, we were charged twice (by the website and then by the hotel) which meant our first night in the Big Easy was spent on the phone trying to get a refund for our cute but moldy and damp hotel room. And, the streetcar wasn’t yet functional near our hotel (though it said it was on the website). We decided to shorten our stay from two nights to one.
We checked out of the hotel the next morning and headed over to the French Quarter for a free morning tour led by a National Parks Service docent. The tour was fantastic and taught us a lot about the early New Orleans settlers and the beautiful historic buildings that line the streets. We also stumbled upon a house (an old Spanish style cottage) that was for sale for a measly 2 million dollars.
Next it was over to the famous Cafe du Monde for beignets (french donuts with tons of powdered sugar on them) and a chicory cafe au lait. We also bought a batch of beignets to bring to my mom, but they get stale pretty fast and then just taste like sweet rubber. As we chowed down, Nick ran down the street to catch up with a parade of Ferrari’s driving around (yes, he’s a dork). After our coffee and sugar kick, it was time to walk around and check out some neat stores (the Nawlins Cookery School, a voodoo store, and a few Bourbon Street souvenir shops).
All that shopping worked up an appetite, so we headed to The Gumbo Shop, a NOLA eatery popular with tourists, for lunch. We ordered a shrimp po boy and a bowl of seafood gumbo…both were pretty bad. We probably just didn’t spend enough time looking for a place to eat. Lesson learned.
Our last stops in Nawlins consisted of a cemetery visit (but, alas, it was a Sunday and the place was closed) and a candy shop visit where we bought some pralines and one of the best caramel apples I’ve ever had.
Altogether, despite our bad experience with accommodations, New Orleans was a vibrant city with a ton of history and culture to offer. We didn’t see much damage left from Katrina since we didn’t really visit the areas that were most affected by the storm (the poorer, non-tourist areas were hardest hit). We originally planed to try to help with some rebuilding efforts while we were there, but didn’t end up with enough time or planning far enough ahead. Despite that, it was amazing to hear how much our tour guide loved the area and we know people like her will help Nawlins continue to be such an amazing place.
Oh, Deer. Another Desolate Highway.
We left Albuquerque for a long drive down to Carlsbad (our hub for a couple nights while exploring Southern NM). Since we left a bit late, it was mostly night driving for us…something we’ve learned to try to avoid. This stretch of highway across flat dry empty land was particularly bad. If there weren’t deer standing near the road ready to jump at your car, there were remains and blood splattered across the road or foxes eating half dead deer on the shoulder. We crawled down this highway gripping the wheel and hoping for the best.
Our arrival in Carlsbad was uneventful; a bit of TV to take our minds off the highway carnage and then to sleep in our cozy Motel 6 bed.
The next morning we hung in bed for a bit and then headed back to Roswell for a day trip. We didn’t want to pay for the Roswell UFO Museum (which looked like a grade school science fair), so we just walked around and took some photos of the alien themed street lamps, stores, and McDonalds. Next it was off to Emily’s hot spot, Target, for some Halloween costume accessories. And finally, to Red Lobster for some fishy goodness. By the way, Red Lobster blew us away with how classy (and expensive) it was for a fast food joint…and the coconut shrimp was amazing. But it’s definitely not good for you.
The next morning, we were up early for our 9 am lantern led tour of Left Tunnel in Carlsbad Caverns. This was one of our favorite things we’ve seen/done so far on this trip. We learned a lot about the caverns and had a really incredible tour guide. Carlsbad Caverns is a dry cave, meaning it wasn’t formed by flowing water which makes for interesting formations and layouts.
Our tour led us through a tunnel that was formerly used to store rations during the Cold War…the caverns themselves were set up as a fallout shelter in case of an emergency. We saw a few bat mummies (which are preserved perfectly in the cave environment), lots of bat guano, neat rock formations, and a couple natural pools of water (each one with its own ecosystem because there are no animals/environmental changes to mix the bodies of water). But the best part was when we all blew out our candles and sat in complete darkness for a few minutes. This was darkness like we’ve never experienced. And then Nick farted (just kidding).
After our tour we walked around the largest room in the cave and then hopped on the elevator to go back up 700 feet to the parking lot. Then it was into the car for our long ride to Austin, TX.
Boulder, Bikes & Beer
After our death defying stunt over the Vail Pass, we landed safely (but quite late) in Boulder, CO at our host’s apartment. And although we woke her up, Rachel made us feel at home and even gave up her bedroom for us. It felt great to fall asleep in a warm bed after our perilous drive across the Rockies.
The next morning we headed over to Pearl Street (a pedestrian mall with cute shops and restaurants) in downtown Boulder. One of our main goals was to check out the local food co-op (of course), but when we arrived, we found out that it had been forced to close for tax evasion. Yikes. What a great community owned business. Instead, we just walked around and popped in and out of the local shops.
Our next adventure was a tour of the Celestial Seasonings (read the most popular Giant Tea Company in the US). This was pretty fun. We got to see and smell all the different herbs used in the teas, explore the packaging and labeling rooms and enter the Peppermint Room…which can clear your sinuses in about 3 seconds. The tour began with some samples and ended with more samples and Nick had the opportunity to wear a hair AND a beard net. And, just like JT, he definitely brought sexy back.
Boulder, being a college town, has amazing Happy Hour food specials so we headed to a great Mediterranean restaurant called The Med (recommended by our host, Rachel). Tapas were all half off before 6 pm and we had a full meal for about $12. Yum. Our night ended with a relaxing dip in the hot tub back at Rachel’s place and then it was off to sleep (Nick snuggled with Rachel’s incredibly cute cat named Kitty and Emily cuddled with herself). So it goes.
We spent the next day in Fort Collins, a very cute little college town (a little less wealthy than Boulder) and home of the coolest brewery ever, New Belgium. Our first stop was for some coffee and WIFI at a neat cafe, The Bean Cycle, with an old tandem hanging on the wall – and the coffee wasn’t bad either. For lunch, we headed to Avogadro’s Number for Tempeh Tuesday (2-for-1 tempeh sandwiches). Yum.
Finally, it was off to New Belgium for our tour and samples. This was, by far, the best brewery tour we’ve taken yet. First, the brewery is almost completely wind-powered and all employees get a nice cruiser bike after working there for a year. If that wasn’t cool enough, they have a slide, which we were able to test out, and every employee can take home a case of beer every week. Luckily, we made friends with our tour guide and had the chance to try some extra special samples (17 between the two of us). We left the brewery pretty tipsy (see the evidence) and decided to walk it off around town (ie, we went to the co-op) and then we headed out.
The last stop of the evening was one that Nick was really looking forward to. We were off to Denver to check out The Softlights (formerly The Incredible Moses Leroy) at a bar/music venue, Hi-Dive. After a quick stop at the mega Goodwill, we popped over to Sputnik (Hi-Dive’s edible counterpart) and sat down for some bar food dinner. As we ate, we pestered the waitress about the bands and when they would go on…only to finally find out that The Softlights could not make it due to an unexpected emergency. Since they are pretty small band and rarely tour, Nick cursed the heavens. Until we realized that the reason they couldn’t make it was because their hometown was burning down. (We’d like to take this time to send our condolences to those who lost their homes in California during the recent fires — luckily, Cousin Johnny who we stayed with had no damage to his house.)
Driving across the entire country has opened our eyes to the beauty and fragility of nature…and how easily things (and people, for that matter) can change. We hope everyone reading this (all 4 of you) will take some time from your busy lives to really look at and appreciate the things that might not always be there.
We left Boulder pretty early for our drive to Albuquerque, New Mexico, on a beautiful day. We can’t thank Rachel enough for letting us stay with her for a few nights…Thanks, Rachel. Say Hi to Spain for us!
UTAHkin to me?
The most interesting thing about the drive from sunny Las Vegas to Park City, Utah, was watching the landscape and weather change dramatically. We went from hot, dry, sunny desert area to mountainous snowy pine forest…which included a temperature shift from 80 degrees to 25 degrees in about 9 hours. It was a long, but beautiful drive.
We arrived in Park City, UT, a bit later than expected, but were warmly welcomed by my mom’s friends, Jim and Barb, in their gorgeous new house in the mountains. They fed us some scrumptious left overs and we hit the sack dreaming of snowy slopes and wild Yeti.
It was difficult to wake up with so many blankets and down comforters, but we finally managed to get out of bed and went on a really nice hike with Jim and Gabe (the most incredible dog ever). We got a little muddy, saw some neat views of nearby towns and tried our best to keep up with Jim. Next was a yummy meal with Barb and Jim and their friends, Jeri and Rob. Luckily, our post lunch sweet teeth were pleased with the proximity of the local bakery and we picked up some treats. Then we were off on a tour of Park City and the surrounding areas…complete with views of gigantic multi million dollar homes and a dozen nearby ski areas. We wrapped up our first day by helping Barb and Jim unpack, organize and get their computer going. We had to pay for our room and board somehow!
The next day it was off to Salt Lake City to explore the wide-enough-to-turn-an-ox-cart-around streets and see some giant Mormon temples. We were even able to have our photo taken with Jesus (he was there on a lay-over from Jerusalem to Hawaii). For lunch, we checked out Sage Cafe, a veggie restaurant with some yummy wheat gluten sandwiches and a dark Czech beer that Nick loved. Then it was off to The Tabernacle and surrounding area for a tour through Mormonism. The highlight was the massive 10,000 pipe organ…a pipe for each of Brigham Young’s wives.
We actually really liked SLC...especially after we went on a fun gallery walk in a hip area of town. It was here where we met the owner of a really cool screen printing t-shirt shop…turns out he might need some help with the business and Nick was pretty interested. We’ll see! Dinner was at a great place called One World Cafe. At this cafe, you pay what you can for your meal and everything is organic. There is of course a suggested donation price or you can work one hour for a free meal, but there are also free pots of beans and grains if you just don’t have any money at all. The concept is really cool and the food was pretty great, too. SLC is amazingly easy to navigate as everything is numbered/named for its distance from the temple at the center of the city, but it’s a pretty cold place to be in the winter and everyone know that I am allergic to temperatures below 45 degrees.
Our last day in Park City was a great one…we went on a pretty long hike in the morning on a snowy mountain trail. It was beautiful, but a little too cold/wet for Emily to enjoy without a little complaining. Even Gabe dog loved it (except when he had to jump over water). Next was a late breakfast stop and then back for warm showers. The evening brought us a snow storm and a great meal with Barb, Jim, Geri and Rob with everyone contributing a bit to the meal (that’s the best kind!). Our last luxury was a dip in the hot tub while the snow fell on us…surprisingly it’s pretty hot in there even with the snow and cold around you. It was pretty cool.
We had an amazing, relaxing, and altogether incredible time with Barb and Jim in their new mountain paradise. We only hope we will “grow up” to be such enthusiastic and adventurous people. Thanks, Barb and Jim!! And, check out the photos.
Where Hippies Go To Die
We headed to Tucson ready for a change of state…since we had been in the sunny Republic of California for about two weeks. A few things to note about our change of course: trekking to Arizona signified our first move back eastward toward the promise land (NJ, duh!), we hit 10,000 miles on our little blue wagon, Arizona does not observe daylight savings time and therefore we didn’t end up being late, and we reached the 2/3 point of this trip. Holy Moly. It has flown right by.
We’d like to take this time to admit that we do kind of feel homesick, miss everyone a whole lot and kind of feel like we need to get settled somewhere already. But, we have much more open road to conquer (and savages to tame) so I guess these wheels will keep spinning. In all seriousness, though we miss loved/liked ones, we are still super pumped to be on this magnificent trip.
We stayed with a wonderful couple, Francesco and Sylvia, in Tucson for a night and we feel very lucky to have met them. They are two amazingly warm and bright people and we loved spending time with them—too bad it was such a short time! After cooking up a delicious dinner (grilled cheese and tomato soup, anyone?) and chatting a bit, we headed to bed ready for a snooze.
The next day, we made our way through the Sonoran Desert to the Desert Museum where we spent most of our day. The Sonoran Desert spans much of Southern Arizona and a bit of Southern California and is home to many different animals as well as the famous Saguaro Cacti. Saguaro are the cacti that you most often see in Western films (you know, the long skinny ones with prongs) and they are only found in the Sonoran Desert.
We went on a fantastic docent lead tour of the museum/botanical garden/zoo (yep, it’s all of those things) and learned a ton about agave plants, mountain lions and mammoth fossils. About 25 years ago, they uncovered mammoth fossils and spear heads near the museum. This was significant because until this discovery, they didn’t know that humans existed at the same time mammoths were wandering in this area. Pretty cool. After the tour, we got some ice cream and called it a day.
For dinner, we ventured out to Guadalajara Restaurant with Francesco and Sylvia. This place had delicious authentic Mexican food and they even blended the salsas to your liking at your table. And they also had gigantic and tasty margaritas…slurp! Our next stop was at a KOA campground between Phoenix (which we sadly missed) and Sedona, our Grand Canyon resting place.
The next afternoon, we drove into beautiful Sedona and headed straight for the visitor’s center for some ideas on what to do while there. We met an amazing man who kept pulling out topographical maps and pointing and drawing red arrows on our paper map. We left, checked into our hotel, and drove over to the Airport Road lookout (a beautiful view) and then we took a short hike out to another picturesque red rock area near a pretty stream. Then it was back to the jacuzzi and then to bed.
We spent the whole next day at the Grand Canyon which is way more amazing then we could have imagined. So amazing in fact, that we’ll let the photos speak for themselves. Highlights of the day were exploring some of the South Rim Grand Canyon buildings built by one of the first female architects and finally spotting a moose chomping near the side of the road in the dark (good thing I had my high beams on).
The next morning we checked out of the motel and grabbed some greasy goodness at The Coffee Cup, land of 101 kinds of omelettes. I stuffed my face with an avocado, zucchini, tomato, and asparagus omelette and Nick ordered a guacamole and cheese one. Both were fantastic.
Before we hit the road for Las Vegas to gamble all our money away, we soaked in the beauty of Red Rock Country, and decided it wasn’t for us. Though it was a gorgeous location, the area was predominantly overrun by tourists and retired hippies with a lot of money. We really love old hippies, but don’t really want to live in such a touristy area…though we were very tempted to to get our auras photographed at a local vortex.
