A Place To Call Home
It’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for (all three of you, that is)... our big decision on where we are moving.
Drum roll please.
Emily and Nick will soon be residents of sunny Oakland, CA. “Oakland?” you ask. Yes, Oakland. But don’t worry, we aren’t planning to get shot. Despite it’s bad reputation, Oakland has lots to offer.
We knew we liked the Bay Area, and even bought diamonds there to prove it. And just about when we had almost decided that the East Bay would be our new home, Nick’s old company offered him a new position in Berkeley — and that was the golden ticket to the Wonka land.
We are excited to live in a place with better weather, some of our city necessities (like vegetarian restaurants and art), and a “green” culture that is second to none. Our first (temporary) apartment is 2 blocks from a Trader Joe’s, 3 blocks from a farmer’s market, and 4 blocks from a Whole Foods (not to mention lots of other non-food things to do).
So, come early January, we pack up all our boxes (again), and drive another 3,000 miles across the country. And when we get there, we hope that every single one of you that hosted or befriended us, or just followed along with our blog, comes out to visit us and stays on our couch.
See you in Oakland.
Tour de USA
We saw so many beautiful things, met so many incredible people, reconnected with distant friends and family, and kind of fell in love with the diverse regions, people, food, and natural wonders of this country. We really want to thank everyone who let us stay on their couch, floor, bed, etc. We couldn’t have done this trip without our new Couchsurfing.com friends and family members who let us stay with them and munch on their food.
Here are some highlights from our trip.
By The Numbers
- Days Traveling: 98
- Miles Driven: around 15,000 miles (the oil change shop reset our odometer!)
- Hubcaps Lost: 1
- Hot Tubs Dipped In: 5
- States Passed Through: 35
- Provinces Passed Through: 4
- Couchsurfs: 9
- National Parks: 9
- BK Veggies: 4
- Breweries Visited: 5
- Food Co-ops Visited: 14 (and one that had closed down)
- Diamonds Purchased: 1 big one, 6 little ones, and a giant fake one
- Times We Forgot We Were Changing Time Zones: 6 (Did you know there is an Atlantic Time Zone in Canada, and that Arizona doesn’t follow day light savings?)
- Deers Hit: none (but one hit us)
- Days Spent Farming: 6
- Vegetarian Reubens Eaten: 5
- Pizzas Tasted: 18
Our Favs
- Pizza: Wells Brothers in Racine, WI — yum!
- Beer: New Belgium Brewery, we tried them all (even secret ones)
- National Park: It’s a tie! Both Yellowstone and Carlsbad Caverns were amazing.
- Small City: Portland, OR
- Large City/Metro Area: The Bay Area is for lovers
- State To Visit: New Mexico
- Favorite Host: You were all amazing
Back to Reality, Whoop, There Goes Gravity
As soon as the tires of our 2004 Toyota Corolla skidded onto the New Jersey Turnpike, a strange sinking feeling fell upon us. Suddenly, images of strip malls, Bon Jovi, power plants, Tony Soprano and jug handles flashed before our eyes. We were back in the United Suburbs of New Jersey and it was, well, depressing and amazing at the same time.
We were excited to hit up our favorite restaurants, see Nick’s parents, our cat, and our friends and be in one place longer than 3 days. But at the same time, our 3 month long journey into the wild was over. Null and void. Dunzo. Kaputz. And that was very sad. It was time to start thinking about jobs, money, holiday gifts, etc. instead of just where we were going to sleep the next night.
Our first stop back in the NJ was our friend, Jeff’s, new town home in Bordentown, NJ. Since Jeff can’t drive further North than exit 9 on the Turnpike, we knew this would be the only time we would be able to see him until we are all old and wrinkly. It was great to see Jeff and Liz and their animals, including the turkey they had cooked for our arrival. Actually, to be fair, we sprung our visit on them and they had already made the turkey for themselves, so we ate their cat instead. Jeff and Liz, thanks for the Reese’s!!
Next and last stop on this odyssey was at Nick’s parent’s house in Cranford, NJ, where we would be staying for the next month before we move to….. stay tuned for the answer! Back in Jersey, we unpacked the car, ate some of Nick’s mom’s famous rubber cake (it sounds bad, but tastes really good), picked up our feline friend Computer (thanks again Pulia! We still owe you big time), drove to Delaware to get Nick’s brother Andy from college twice (along with veggie turkey subs from Capriotti’s each time), celebrated with some friends, and for the first time in 3 months, fell asleep worrying.
Happy Tofurky Day!
Ok, so we admit it. We are not really in Austin. In fact, we just got back to Nick’s parents house in Cranford, NJ. Yeah, we are two weeks behind or so posting (all this writing and posting pictures is taking way longer than we thought), but we hope you still keep reading even though you know our dirty little secret. We still all of the south and our way up the east coast to tell you about though. Plus, you’ll have to keep on reading for our grand finale, to find out where we decide to move.
Happy thanksgiving y’all (pretend we’re in Texas). And for all those folks back in the NY/NJ area: let’s hang out.
Bling. Bling.
Well, we hate to post things out of order… but, we have a big fat announcement to make: We won the California State Lottery for $287.5 million!
Just kidding. But just a couple of days ago in a little town called San Francisco, we got engaged. Nick popped the question with a gi-normous diamond ring (okay, maybe it was plastic) over an even huger-er brownie sundae from the bay area’s finest ice cream shop, Bi-Rite Creamery. Emily could barely find the right words to accept, since her mouth was full of ice cream and dripping with caramel sauce.
The next day, we set out on the town to find a real ring to replace the spoof (Nick thought he had Emily fooled). Nick did a bit of math to figure out what he should spend (two months of salary at $0/month equals…), but we ended up finding a beautiful antique ring from the 1920’s which Emily fell in love with, and then proceeded to accidentally flush down the toilet.
Again, kidding. We lived happily ever after.
The Big Bad WWOOF
First, we apologize for being so tardy on our posts. Please don’t stop reading; we have so much to tell you and it’s really good stuff. Think of our time off as May Sweeps during your favorite season of Heroes.
Let’s start with summa dat farm fun we ben havin tween shuckin da corn (we found ourselves randomly speaking this way quite often). Through an awesome nonprofit called WWOOF (pronounced “woof” like a dog says, standing for either World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms or Willing Workers On Organic Farms), we signed up to work for a week on a small organic farm, Kings Valley Gardens, located in central Oregon.
We arrived in the early evening, and were greeted by our first of many bountiful farm fresh feasts of home-fermented tempeh, borscht, sungold tomatoes, homemade walnut and sunflower pesto, and a bunch of other great stuff. We chatted at the table and met everyone: our new hosts, Andrea and John; John’s parents who came by to share a meal; Lori and Justin from Virginia, who are doing a longer, more farm-focused version of our trip; Jess, the resident long-term wwoof-er from Chicago; and fellow east coast-er, Marisa from Boston. We were excited to get to know everyone and find out more about the farm, but it was time for bed. For us, bed was in the barn, a large drafty structure with freshly harvested garlic hanging from the rafters. You can imagine how cold Emily was that night. Good thing there was some hackey sack playing before bed.
Before we get into the knitty gritty details, let’s talk about the farm. Kings Valley Gardens is a small ecological (they are too small to pay for organic certification) farm a little ways outside of the western Oregon city of Corvallis. Andrea runs the farm, tending to the blueberries and other things that grow, as well as making jams to sell at the farmers market and canning everything else to have food through winter. John is the handyman, setting up the solar hot water heater, solar-powered irrigation system, chain-sawing and gathering firewood, and still finding time to run a computer repair company on the side. Both are amazing people who seem to really love what they do and teaching others how to do those things, too. Andrea and John live a super low impact lifestyle, growing all their own food for meals through every season, powering their hot water using solar energy and re-using and recycling everything they can.
We were on the farm for 6 days with various tasks and activities going on. Check out the fun, day-by-day synopsis below to see what we were up to on da fizzle farm.
Day One: Wake up at 9 (the harsh farm life), eat some oatmeal with coconut, brown sugar and, of course, blueberries. Yum. Nick and Emily go through coffee withdrawal today since we’ve been gulping it down a lot on the road. First task is weeding the kale patch and another area of grassy crop cover nearby. Tools we use are gloves, shovels and spades…we learn to abhor a hardy weed called Thistle. Little do we know, we’ll be meeting this beast again very soon. Lunch is delicious, with a homemade jam and peanut butter bread for dessert. Today we learn to take our time, go slow, grab the weeds at their roots, and let insects land on us.
Day Two: Wake up at 7:30, eat more oatmeal, and proceed to get the best upper body workouts we’ve ever had. But not before Emily takes a lukewarm shower before knowing that the sun or a fire needs to heat the water first. duh. Today is spent hauling wood from a local clearcut so the farm has heat during the winter. John gets us going early and we all work really hard…Emily and Nick even learn how to use a chainsaw. So seriously, you better not front. After three loads of wood are hauled and unloaded, we eat a delicious meal and try to stay awake. Today we learned that logs are ALWAYS heavier than they look and should be lifted with your legs, not your back or wrists.
Day Three: Wake up at 8:30, eat oatmeal, head out to the blueberry patch to pick berries…and yes, you MUST taste the clusters before picking to make sure the berries are ripe. This was absolute bliss. But didn’t take that long with 6 people working and it being the end of the blueberry season and all. Next, onto sorting berries…pretty ones go to the market on Saturday, ugly and pruney ones go in a bucket for us to eat. and eat. and eat. We totaled about 40 lbs of berries, which we heard was nothing compared to the mid-summer berry picking extravaganzas. Today we learned a lot about all the other wwoof-ers on the farm, our exact berry flavor/texture/rotundness preferences, and where the nearby swimming hole is (though it was too cool to swim).
Day Four: Wake up at 6:30 to go to the Corvallis farmers market with Andrea. Enjoy great music, meeting new people, organic produce stands and tasting a few of Andrea’s amazing jam samples. We like Raspberry the best. After packing up around mid afternoon, we find the local co-op, buy a great book we saw on the farm (wild fermentation) so we can make our own beer/pickles/tempeh, and walk around downtown Corvallis. We check out the Fall Festival with local artists, music and food and then head over to the local indie theater to soak in a screening of the new global warming documentary, The 11th Hour. Leo lacks his usual luster (it ain’t no Titanic), but the interviews are dynamic and interesting. Go see it. Today we learned that yellow jackets will not leave you alone and WILL call all their friends over if you have samples of jam lying around.
Day Five: Wake up at 10:30 (it’s a Sunday), eat some oatmeal and use Justin and Lori’s percolator to brew up some brew. Then we head over to the Oregon coast (about an hour drive) to a little beach town called Newport. Once there, we check out the local marine science center complete with a touch tank filled with star fish and anemones and a large non-touch tank with an octopus inside. The center is super fun and the staff are marvelous and informative. It was now mid-day on a Sunday and definitely time for a beer…or two. We hopped on a 3 pm tour of the Rogue Brewery, won a free beer for having traveled the furthest to get there, and then sat in the bar for a taste test and some cheesy beer bread. Yum. Our favorite was the Hazelnut Brown Ale; so smooth it tasted like root beer. Next plan was to hunt down some sea lions to see what they are all about. Indeed, it wasn’t hard to find them barking at each other and being utterly lazy on the docks. Last stop was a great seafood place on the water with fresh food and a terribly decadent berry dessert. Then, back on the farm, it was a great game of Canasta before bed. Today we learned a lot about beer…and how it tastes (good).
Day Six: Wake up at 9, eat some oatmeal, drink some coffee and get going. Today we did a bunch of different things. We harvested peppers, tomatoes, tomatillos, rhubarb and basil, picked the basil apart, cut up plums to dry them, weeded the asparagus patch, sorted rotten apples, and Nick and I made some dinner. We made breakfast for dinner: tofu scramble, garlic rosemary fries and blue corn (from a holy ancient corn breed) bread. Tonight was a great night and our last night on the farm. We ended our stay with a jam session where our new farm friends played guitar, sang and recited poetry. And we lucked out…the next day, the crew was headed out to haul more wood.
Other stuff: We ended up moving into the main house after that first cold night because our air mattress sprung a leak and Jess was kind enough to move into the barn and take our spot there. What an amazing girl. We also had sooo many amazing meals on the farm, including falafel and homemade pitas c/o Lori and Justin, egg and zucchini pizza c/o Andrea and curry corn quinoa c/o John.
Conclusion: Farming is damn hard, but damn rewarding work. We think we’ll stick with an organic garden.
Seattle vs. Portland: Part Due
Now, for part two of our Seattle vs. Portland showdown!
Urban vs. Open Space
Seattle, again, is a larger city and has more urban space, but it also has many parks (even if some are small). Also, the parks in Seattle seem to be pretty spread out and evenly distributed. It even boasts one of the country’s only indoor National Parks. This one is dedicated to the Goldrush in the West. Weird, huh?
Portland has an amazing amount of open space, but most of it is found outside the downtown perimeter. That isn’t bad though because it doesn’t take long to bike on over to some open space. Portland is also known as the rose city and has a bunch of outdoor rose test gardens. Nick and Emily don’t love roses too much though. Then again, they are pretty. There are also a ton of nearby hikes to explore gorges and mossy trees.
WINNER: Hikes, bikes and flying kites in Portland
Voodoo Doughnut vs. Mighty-O Donuts
Okay, so this is really difficult. For some reason, both Portland and Seattle have incredible and infamous donut (aka doughnut) destinations. These ain’t no Dunkin’ Donuts donuts, either. First stop in Seattle was actually at a small donut vendor at the Pike Place Market…and mmmmmm….these were delicious mini donuts fried to perfection. We sampled all the varieties: Powdered Sugar, Cinnamon Sugar, Frosting with Sprinkles and Plain. Yum, Yum, Yum and Yum. Next we were off to Mighty-O Donuts, an oasis of vegan, organic donuts that taste just like the real thing. We tasted Pumpkin, Lemon Poppy, Strawberry Shortcake, Nutty Frenchtoast and Grasshopper. All were delicious and nutritious and you can watch the donut machine do it’s thing through a glass window.
In Portland we were pumped to try Voodoo Doughnuts. The menu included strange concoctions like grape pixie stix covered donuts, blood filled donuts, Butterfinger crumble topped donuts, and even bacon maple donuts. We opted for an Oreo topped vanilla donut and a ‘No Name’ (peanut butter rice krispie) donut. Both were so scrumptious and sweet. But we didn’t feel as good after we ate them.
WINNER: Organic, vegan goodness at Mighty-O’s in Seattle
Green Factor
Okay, Seattle rocks as far as “green” living is concerned. Not only do they have curbside recycling and electric buses, they also have curbside composting. And then you can buy that compost back from the city if you want it. Seattle also has a bunch of food co-ops with lots of great bulk items and such.
Portland is incredibly bike friendly, making it desirable to bike around whenever possible and thus, cut down on fossil fuel consumption. But, you just can’t beat curbside composting.
WINNER: Waste not, want not in Seattle
Surrounding Water
Seattle is surrounded by water; lots and lots of water. And just in case the Puget Sound isn’t good enough, there are a bunch of lakes to choose from. While in Seattle, we took the ferry over to Bainbridge Island. It was a great escape from the hustle bustle of the city and the salty air was perfect for Nick’s hairdo. Portland is actually split in half by a river, but unfortunately, it’s pretty industrial looking and not as pretty as we had hoped. However, the Oregon coast is a small trek away and provides endless beauty and Pacific blue water.
WINNER: Ridin’ the ferry in Seattle
Keith & Laura vs. Lisa, Jared & Owen
Sorry, Keith, you’re just not as cute as Owen is when you sing your ABC’s. But you do cook a mean tofu quiche. Seriously, though. Both Keith & Laura and Jarrod & Lisa were amazing hosts. We had tons of fun hanging, eating, laughing and chatting with everyone. We could not have imagined experiencing either city without these incredible people.
Thanks, Keith and Laura!
Thanks, Jarrod, Lisa and Owen!
WINNER: Keith, Laura, Jarrod, Lisa and Owen… you’re all winners to us!
Other Cool Stuff
Portland is home to a pretty gnarly skate park made by a bunch of hoodlum skateboard rats who somehow poured enough concrete to make a now world renowned skate destination under the Burnside Bridge. Too bad Nick didn’t bring his board.
Seattle has these weird pod type public restrooms that are self cleaning. We’re still not sure how they work, but Emily’s mom would probably love them.
WINNER: Skateparks are cooler than toilets (most of the time). Portland wins.
And the Winner Is…
Portland… after NYC, we’re looking for a more low key, nature filled place to call home. Seattle has some cool stuff, but we just want to chill out West Coast style.
We still have the Republic of California and the whole Southwest to explore… so who knows where we’ll end up.
Seattle vs. Portland: Part One
After the rain, comes the sun…right? Well, maybe not always. Viva la Northwest, USA. Here we are in Portland (our last stop was Seattle) and we’re finally contemplating some cities we could call home. In Seattle, we stayed with our soon-to-be-married friends, Keith and Laura, who planned on joining Nirvana and having lots of kids. We had to let them know that the band broke up after Kurt died (RIP). Sorry, guys. In Portland, we stayed with Em’s family, Lisa, Jarrod and little Owen…also two kitties and a Rummy (the dog). Both tried to convince us to relocate to their cities, so we thought it appropriate to dedicate this blog post to comparing the two best rainy cities in the US. Here goes Part One of the battle:
The Weather
We spent a lot of time walking around in both cities, but this happens to be the nicest time to be out and about in the Northwest, so we’ll have to consult Weather.com and local opinions for this one. Our days in Seattle were pretty sunny, but cool. Portland was cloudy and cool. Weather.com says that Portland is, on average, only a few degrees warmer than Seattle, but does get more rain. Emily thinks both cities might get too cold for her. Nick thinks she’s a wimp and likes the cool air. Both think there might be too much gray sky.
WINNER: Both are losers.
Pike Place Market vs. Saturday (and Sunday!) Market
We took a lovely stroll around the famous Pike Place Market with Keith and Laura. We saw flying fish, tasted many samples, bought delicious greasy donuts and ate at Piroshky, Piroshky (famous for their doughy filled savory pastries). Also, flowers here are soooo cheap and looked really fresh. We also saw the original Starbucks (with the topless Mermaid) but that wasn’t that cool.
The Saturday Market is held under the Burnside Bridge in Portland, and it’s also on Sundays (someone should talk to them about marketing). According to Wikipedia, it is the largest continuous outdoor arts & crafts market. Under the bridge means it has a cool atmosphere, but also smells like urine and other “under the bridge” substances. The crafts are pretty cool (we saw some great woodblock skeleton prints), but the food was pretty lacking…and there weren’t any samples. But they did sell Rogue Ale.
WINNER: Seattle’s Pike Place Market
Beer vs. More Beer
Wow! Both cities are great for variety and microbrews, though Portland is known as the microbrew capital of the country. In Seattle, we went bar hopping with Keith and Laura and their friend, Tom. First stop was the #3 beer bar in the world: Uber Tavern. It was basically a sports bar with a wide selection of mostly Belgian-style beers. We were a little disappointed with the atmosphere, but the beers were great (Em had Young’s Double Chocolate Stout that tasted like chocolate milk, and Nick had a De Dolle Brouwers Special Extra Export Stout that had a bow tie). Then onto Elysian Brewing Company for some Pumpkin Ale that tasted like biting into a pumpkin.
Last stop in Seattle was The Stumbling Monk, #24 on the list of beer bars, which only served Belgian beers (in the right glasses) and offered many board games to play while we drank. It was pretty smelly, but the best atmosphere out of the night. Unfortunately, we didn’t make it to the #5 beer bar, Brouwer’s Cafe (that’s three out of the top 25 beer bars in Seattle, hard to compete with).
In Oregon, we (unfortunately) drank a bit less than Seattle, so we weren’t able to fully appreciate the microbrew capital. We started our first night off right at Lisa and Jarrod’s with some samples of local microbrews from their fridge (we forget their names). Besides that, the only drinking we did was at the Laurelwood Public House & Brewery, an organic brew pub and (kid-friendly, thankfully) restaurant. We got the darkest beers there, an organic porter and the Space Stout (get it?). Tasty. And organic. Wish we could have sampled some more beers in Portland, bummer.
WINNER: We drank deep in Seattle
Transportation
Both cities seem to be pretty good with public transportation. In Seattle, we took the buses around with Keith and Laura and only got lost once. They are all hybrid electric or just electric and fairly easy to navigate. There is a ride-free zone downtown, too. Seattle was pretty hilly and there was a lot of traffic so even though they have bike lanes, it would be tough to bike the city. Also, parking in Seattle is a bit tougher than in Portland.
We didn’t take the public transportation in Portland, but we here it’s great and there is also a ride free zone downtown. They have some buses as well as a lightrail system. But the great thing about Portland is that it’s very bike friendly; with many bike lanes, lots of bike trails, and a pretty flat (at least on the east side) terrain, pedaling around seems pretty easy. Plus, almost all the bridges from West Portland to East Portland are walk/bike-able. Parking was also pretty relaxed and easy. Rush hour is not too intense in Portland, but get on the highway and you’ll hit a wee bit of congestion. Better than Seattle where you’re almost at a standstill.
WINNER: We’d rather bike in Portland
Cost of Living
When it comes to cost of living, everything is cheaper than New York (except maybe LA, but we don’t want to live there). That being said, Seattle is definitely more expensive than Portland. But not by a ton. We hear that Oregon makes up for it’s low cost of living by taxing its residents up the wazoo (but there isn’t any sales tax…hmmmm). Also, Oregon boasts many incredibly cheap movie theaters (we saw a flick for $3 each) and you can drink beer during the show. Food and other extraneous expenses seem to be equal in both places. BUT, Seattle has more job opportunities and without jobs, we wouldn’t be able to afford either city. Then again, Emily is a sucker for cheap movies.
WINNER: Cheap dates in Portland
Who will win overall? TO BE CONTINUED...
