23 posts tagged “road trip”

Although it's our last free weekend until mid-August, I'm going to try to convince John-Patrick to agree to an impromptu road trip this weekend.

I want to go to St. Ignace / Mackinac Island area.

• We can get a car for $16/day
• We can stay for free at my family's cabin (which my dad already booked for us in hopes John-Patrick will say yes) in Wellston, MI. 
  
• Castle Rock, a formative part of my childhood (we camped there every summer for years)
• A kitchy Indian Villiage, for research of course, so I can refresh my How We Cartoonify and Then Exploit American Indians presentation in my Race & Ethnicity class.  Plus, again, rubber tomahawks were another formative part of my childhood.
• I think we would also have to do the Mystery Spot...
• ...and the Weird Michigan Wax Museum....
• ...and the Man Killer Clam.
• Plus, we always do Friday night pizza.  Why not do it tomorrow at The Deerhorn?  (They have some of the best pizza on the PLANET.)
  
• And on our way up tomorrow, we could stop and have lunch in Grand Rapids, and pick out his tux, whereas we weren't sure when we'd be able to get there otherwise.

Seriously, how could he say no?????

We noticed this on our road trip last summer big time, but this weekend's shorter road trip has us wondering this again.

How much do expectations matter for visiting a new city?

Milwaukee: Kind of rocked our socks off.  Pleasantly surprising in so many ways.  Had a ton of fun, and think we could live here if we ever had to. 

Madison: Supposed to be badass, but we found it to be REALLY boring, dry, lifeless, corporate, suburban, homogenous, etc.  So much so that it's before 8pm and we're already in the hotel for the night, having some wine out of a plastic cup and planning to finally watch The Office season finale online and go to bed early.  John-Patrick is on the phone with his mom, and I'm obviously blogging.  We're having fun together, but the fun is despite the location, not because of it.

Huh.  We could NOT live in Madison.  (Good thing, being home to the top ranked sociology department in the country, we don't even have a shot!  haha)  Milwaukee, total opposite.  Just like our expectations.

So: Is it a matter of expectations?  Or are we just fine-tuning what we like and don't about cities??  What do you think?

Yet another reason to love the Bay Area --we saw this on the sidewalk in Lower Haight:

Well, it's suddenly Wednesday, and we are slowly coming back to life.  Our 15-hour day on Sunday went fine, but we felt like total space cadets by the end of it.  Not the Can't Safely Drive A Car kind of space cadets.  But space cadets just the same.  It was downright surreal getting back into Chicagoland, and then into Chicago, and then into our neighborhood, and then into our home.  Everything looked and felt great.  Our guests took such good care of our cats and our place, and by extension us, while we were gone.  So a big thank you to them again and again!

We got home just after midnight Sunday, and although we were pooped and glad to have finally made it, neither of us could sleep.  Partly it was the heat --it took a little while to get the bedroom cool enough with the AC.  Once we did and once our brains finally unhinged from the day's 1000+ mile drive, we slept better than we had in months.

A note on the weather: Seriously, we traveled through Southern California, down to Tijuana, through Death Valley, through Vegas... nothing is as bad as the heat and humidity combo we have here in Chicago.  And nothing was as nice as the weather in the Bay Area.  God, what I would give to put on a pair of jeans, a light jacket, and a scarf right now!  Two days ago I was wearing shorts and a tank top, standing and sorting mail, and sweat was dripping off my nose.  My whole back was soaked.  I had to go into the bedroom to take a break.  Is it fall yet?

Of course it's great that it's not fall yet.  John-Patrick isn't even back at work yet, which he is loving.  He goes back tomorrow, quite grudgingly.  So it's been nice to get home late Sunday and have three days together still, to sort of home in.

And homing in has been a process!  I didn't expect to feel so bizarre coming home.  I think that just today I no longer feel like I'm being staged.  Along the way we had several points where we'd stay with friends for 3-4 nights, and I kept finding that this is how I was feeling HERE, back home.  It was comfortable (other than the heat), it was someone's home (ours) rather than a hotel room.  But it felt like a leg of the journey rather then HOME.  Part of the weirdness, too, I think is that there were SO many legs to our journey --it felt like 4 or 5 vacations rather than one.  That made it great --we saw so much of the country, saw lots of friends, saw amazing sights, all in all it was a perfect trip.  And it was a huge trip.  So it's little wonder it's taken a few days to mentally come home. 

One thing that's funny: I can't believe that my wardrobe just quadrupled!  I had grown so accustomed to my little laundry  basket of clothing.  Look at all this stuff I could wear now!  Same thing with my engagement ring.  I'm sort of stunned that I get to keep it!  haha  It's not just some prop I was given to play the role of The Girl Who Got Engaged On The Road Trip!  This thing gets to come with me everywhere!  Sure I knew that, but for some reason that was a new thing for me.  We're home and this engagement wasn't just an event on the trip!  We're actually getting married!  AWESOME!!

So all in all, the trip was great.  A few people have pointed out that we seemed less and less impressed with our later stops along the way.  The question emerges --is this because we were ready to be home, or were they truly worse places?  I think that the time line thing makes sense, and expectations are certainly a large part of how this works (I still want to stick up for Nebraska and Iowa --just as pretty and pleasantly surprising on the way home).  But here's why I think that it's not just a matter of timing:

• The driving was still great.  One would think that as the miles added up, we'd get sick of the views out the window.  That never became true, even when we repeated that leg of I-80 on the way home, through what most deem Boringville.  John-Patrick tried blaming Iowa for our long day, but I could still get him to admit that it was pretty, and even in the southwest where we weren't impressed with the cities, the drives were soundly excellent.
• Tijuana just isn't for us.  We're not the Go Get Drunk And Act Like An Ass kinds of tourists.  If you're in any way political thinkers, it's sort of hard to have fun there.  We'd both still love to see other parts of Mexico, and we're both still glad we saw Tijuana, but will we go back?  Nah.  What would be the point.  (By the way, for a great political view of this specific type of tourism, read A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid.) 
  
• Vegas?  Sure, my expectations were high, and that matters.  But I really can't believe I'd see the place differently were it at the beginning of the trip.  John-Patrick, too, says it has changed since he was last there in 1999. 
  
• Same with Boulder.  The area west of Boulder is beautiful.  But the place itself was a combo of aloof white liberals, too-expensive food and clothing, and a sort of Disney-fied themed environment.  Everyone seemed to be playing Crunchier-Than-Thou, but there wasn't even a political scene for all its self-righteousness.  It was all butterflies and breweries.  I could never live there.  

I really do think it was just the places themselves at the end which left us nonplussed.  We still loved being on the trip and the drives into and out of all of these places. We just think Northern California, the views on all of the drives, and the CA coast were the best portions of this trip.

So one thing we did for a little while on the drive home was play a sort of game of superlatives, and originally I had thought it might be a nice way to bring the road trip posts on this blog to an end.  We didn't end up doing as many as we had planned, but here are the ones we did decide on in the car on our last drive home:

1. Best meal:  We actually immediately broke this down into not only specific meals but also categories.  For example, the best breakfast, we both agreed, was the place Nori took us to in Santa Monica.  And not just because we ate a few tables over from Don Cheadle.  The best lunch, for me, was the picnic we did with Jill in Napa at V. Sattui.  The combo of the beautiful grounds on which we picnicked, and the gourmet deli from which we bought food, may even make this one of the best little meals of my life.  John-Patrick originally was going to say the Mexican place in San Diego where Denise took us, because the food was both excellent and cheap, and as he put it, "had a ton of slurry", but in the end he chose our panini lunch outside on the sidewalk in San Francisco's Little Italy, for both food and atmosphere.  (I think the fact that he could scope out bikes was a big factor for him there.)  Dinner?  I chose the second Thai place we tried with Jill, which is in Oakland, and within walking distance of a Tiki Bar we visited afterward.  I had the most amazing tofu dish there --nothing remarkable in terms of ingredients: tofu and cabbage.  But it had the most amazing peanut sauce ever --spicy and chunky; I'm kind of still dreaming about it.  John-Patrick couldn't decide while we were in the car that day.  Today he still can't decide.  We both felt that the wine bar and small plates place that Denise and Bob took us to in San Marcos was a strong contender.  Also, as a category I have to put California Mexican food in first place.  My hunch was right about a friend of ours who insisted it was the best --for those of you who know El Arriero in Grand Rapids, picture the ability to have Mexican food like that EVERYWHERE out West (except for the places we tried in LA and Tijuana).  Truly couldn't get enough.
2. We also talked about the things we were looking forward to most about getting home:  John-Patrick said it was still having a half week off from work, what he considered to be the last leg of our vacation.  (Maybe that's why we still feel like we're not really home yet!)  I said it was going to be nice to have all of our space and all of our things in that space, just to putz around and settle back in.  John-Patrick said that was a big part of the "continued vacation" idea for him.
3. Favorite drive:  For John-Patrick, it was a toss-up between the Pacific Coast Highway and the area between Vegas and Eagle.  For him, the PCH was more beautiful but also more stressful driving (given the whole Don't Drive Off The Cliff thing as well as the hairpin turns).  For me, the PCH was an obvious winner, but I really loved all of Nevada, as well as that spooky road just after leaving Salt Lake City.
   
4. Worst drive:  We both agreed that it was ALL so much better than we thought it would be.  The last day was hard, which was J-P's pick, but every single day was ten times more beautiful than we'd expected.  And we had a lot of fun together.  Neither of us really got into our books or magazines or, ahem, LSAT study books, or ahem, syllabus worksheet that we had brought along.  We listened to a ton of This American Life, which made the hours pass quickly, had amazing views, listened to fun albums, and really loved this time together.  But yeah, the last day was easily John-Patrick's worst.  For me, despite the views, it was the drive between Vegas and Eagle --for some reason on that day in the mountains, among all others, I was too tense to drive.  And honestly, too tense to passenger.  So I felt like crap that day, despite the amazing views.

We had other things on our list to rank, but it began to feel like work to figure them out, so we put it away.  After all, it was vacation.

So I think that's it!  We still have some photo sets we might post at some point.  I'm sure musings will continue.  But this is the last overt road trip post.  We're both so glad to have done this trip, so grateful for the ways our family helped us out with a car to borrow, food to eat, and cat-sitting. We're grateful for the friends who let us stay with them and the ones we got to see even if just for a bit.  We're grateful for our friend who came and truly hung out with our cats every other day so that we all, them and us, felt better about us being gone.  We're grateful that we both got the time away from work to do this together, and we're so grateful that we had this experience together.  Getting engaged along the way was perfect, making a wonderful trip all the more special.  And once we actually feel like we're home rather than squatting, I'm sure we'll feel even better. 

Just a quick note for friends and family checking in for road trip stuff, that I've updated my Project 365 page for the last week of the road trip.  This is actually something I regularly update almost daily, so keep checking there if it's interesting to you!  It's a photo per day project, which I began on July 1, 2007.

We started here, in Colorado:

And then we went here, here, and here:

In case you missed it, we posted earlier this morning about our reactions to the things we've been doing during the last 5 days or so, but we left out the photos from our drive.  It was a gorgeous drive, so we're taking the chance now, in our hotel in Boulder, CO, to post some pictures along the road from Vegas to Boulder during the last 2 days.  I'm going to upload the ones we've chosen in batches of 5.  As always, you can click any individual photo to see it larger!

Here is our update for the last few days:

We spent 3 nights and two days in Oceanside, CA, with our friends Denise and Bob.  Oceanside is in the very northern part of San Diego county, and they have a great condo just blocks from the Pacific ocean.  John-Patrick went into the ocean twice while we were there, and had a great time playing in the waves.  During the first day we were there, Denise took us to a great Mexican place in San Diego, and then to the San Diego zoo.  It was a great zoo --well worth the hype.  We saw koalas, pandas, elephants, and... a rhino.

It was really fun to hang out near the rhino and listen to the passers-by remark about The Penis.  Most were taking pictures like we did.  (Note that John-Patrick wouldn't take the photo without me in it.)  Some were making remarks about the sex of the animal.  "There would be no way of knowing."  Parents were trying to both evade the elephant (well, let's say rhino dick) in the room and be "educational" about it.  And one set of parents in particular were scolding a young boy, even swacking him on the head a few times, because he wouldn't stop talking about "the wiener".  It was fun. 

That night Bob made us a great meal of stuffed bell peppers and we had some nice wine. 

The next day John-Patrick and I went to Tijuana.  We had been really looking forward to doing this.   Neither  of us had ever been to Mexico, and the idea that we could do this in a day was really appealing.  It was really easy and affordable to do from Denise's and Bob's.  They live right near a commuter train which took us into San Diego.  From there we took a trolley to the border.  It was a block of two of walking, and then we passed into a gate into Mexico. 

The area near the border was really interesting.  A huge Mexican flag, in the center of Tijuana, is visible even from the trolley approaching the stop.  As we said, going into Mexico couldn't have been easier --no showing of ID, no one even watching really, just passing through a gate that lets one person through at a time and locks behind you.  As soon as you're on the Mexico side, there are lots of vendors set up to sell things to tourists like us, and lots and lots of alcohol being sold --2 for 1 margaritas, cheap beers, bottles of Kahlua, etc.  The layout of the streets spill in and out of plazas, and there are lots of white folks like us walking around trying to make sense of it all.  Here are some photos of the area right near the border.

We made our way to Ave Revolucion, the main street for tourists, which parallels Ave Constitution, the main street for non-tourists, which we walked later.  Ave Revolucion was overwhelming.  People stand outside each store or restaurant, working to get tourists to come inside.  We went in a few stores soon after getting there, but soon realized what we actually already knew --that we weren't shopping for anything.  There were touristy Mexican goods like sombreros for sale, lots of dolls and clothing, small pieces of mass-produced art, and lots of beer or marijuana-themed shirts and other assorted goods.  So really we just walked down the street, refusing all the people asking us to come inside their stores or bars.  We did try a margarita at one point, but it was awful.  It was a really weird green color, and tasted like a mix of, well, mix and water.  Horrible.  And while we were having the margarita, a guy kept coming up blowing a whistle and trying to tilt our heads back to pour tequila down our throats.  We refused each time, but it was annoying.  Even more annoying was watching the other tourists who complied.  Some men in particular near us felt they were being pretty macho.  It was ugly.  We left soon after.  Here are a couple pictures along Ave Revolucion:

We knew we wanted to get away from Ave Revolucion, so we walked over to Mercado Hidalgo, where locals come to buy produce and spices.  As soon as we were a half block from Ave Revolucion, we were the only white folks around.  We breathed a sigh of relief being away from the hawking, and walked the mile or so to the market.  We saw a lot of restaurants along the way, alongside a bike store, car repair stores, etc.  The market was great --were we cooking in Tijuana we would have spent a lot of time there.  Really fresh produce and great choices in terms of seasonings, etc.  No one was hawking to us, which was nice.  Here are some pictures on the walk there and back, and of the market:

We actually went back to Ave Revolucion to eat lunch, deciding that with out limited Spanish abilities and desire to not eat meat, we'd have better luck making choices for lunch there.  We went to a place recommended by out Lonely Planet guide.  It was OK --looked and felt exactly like a US Mexican restaurant inside.  The food?  Terrible.  We ordered chile rellenos, which are usually a good bet, but they were like corn dogs, only with cheese inside instead of a hot dog.  Really gross.  But the chips and salsa were good. 

After that, we knew we were about done with Tijuana, but decided to try one more thing before leaving.  A winery had been recommended in our guide book, and perhaps days fresh from Napa, we figured it was at least worth a shot.  We found the winery without too much trouble.  The area around it was very economically depressed, and it was awkward suddenly stepping into the gates and stone wall of a winery, where there were lots of really nice cars.  We already weren't feeling it, but since we had gone there, we went in.  There were no tastings, which was fine by us, and while it looked nice inside it was really chaotic --we browsed a moment, used the bathroom, and left.  We walked up Ave Constitution rather than Ave Revolucion, which was totally non-populated by white folks like us, but also didn't really have anything to see or shop for.  There were music stores, clothing shops, a few restaurants, which all sound like good things but which we knew had nothing we'd want to see.  It was all very economically depressed, and we were more than ready to leave.  Here is Ave Constitution and the area surrounding the winery:

We found our way back to the border, following all the signs which read "USA", and got in line to get back into the states. 

The border crossing was easy enough, although we did see a long line of people holding their hands behind them as if in handcuffs --apparently they didn't make it into the US.  We found our way back to the trolley and got back to Denise's and Bob's much sooner than we had planned.  Here are a few more pictures of the border area that we took on our way out:

We cleaned up and rested a little, and then Denise and Bob took us out to a great place in San Marcos --it was a wine bar with great food.  We had some wine and great cheeses, salads, dips, etc.  It was a really special meal and a nice way to end our visit with Denise and Bob.  It certainly felt a world away from Tijuana.  Looking back, it doesn't even feel like that was the same day.

We left Denise's and Bob's on Thursday morning, and made it to Las Vegas in a little less than 5 hours.   We were able to check right in to our hotel, the Sahara.  We went out to explore.  Really we spent the whole rest of the day walking up and down the strip, taking in the sights, doing some gambling here and there, and eating.  Vegas, to me, was a little bit like Tijuana.  I think my expectations were too high, but I wasn't crazy about Vegas.  The hawking of sex was draining --it was mostly Latinos handing out thousands and thousands of cards with nearly-naked or all-naked women on there, trying to lure people to strip clubs or prostitution places.  It got old fast.  Seeing the strip was interesting enough, but it is so themed that it failed, for me, to be really impressive.  There is a LOT of waste going on everywhere --I guess that's what it's all supposed to be about.  But it turned me off.  And EVERYTHING was SO expensive.  It was really frustrating.  John-Patrick and I had a good time together, as always, and he likes Vegas more than I do.  Maybe if we didn't have just 12 hours to "do Vegas" it wouldn't be so overwhelming.  I also know that my expectations were very high.  It just may not be my thing.  I'm sure I'll be back, possibly soon as John-Patrick's family has been thinking about a trip there this winter.  We'll have fun; we always do.  But yesterday morning, I wasn't sorry to leave.  Here are some photos from our day and night in Vegas:

So yesterday was one of our longest driving days, about 9 hours from Vegas to Eagle, CO.  I don't know why it keeps surprising me, but yet again we had a beautiful drive.  We were, yet again, in the mountains most of the day.  And in this particular area there were canyons, beautiful red rocks, and landscapes like nothing we had ever seen before.  All to end up here in the Rockies.  Amazing.    We'll post some of those pictures soon.

So it's Saturday morning.  We have been gone from home for two weeks now!  Today we drive just about two hours into Boulder, where we'll spend the day and the night.  Our plan had been to then take two 8-hour days to drive back home, but we now think we'll try to just press and get home tomorrow night instead.  We'll see.  Vacation is nearly over.  It's been an amazing trip in lots and lots of ways.  We have seen so much of the country, seen so many people, and done so many things.  It's hard to sum up, so I won't try --especially because we still have a day here in the Rockies ahead of us!  So off we go.

Hello all who are reading:

Just a quick note to say we are here in Eagle, CO for the night.  We left Las Vegas this morning, and had a long but beautiful day on the road.  Poor John-Patrick drove almost all day, as I am inexplicably terrified of mountain driving.  He didn't mind, but we are pretty pooped. Tomorrow we only travel from here to Boulder, so either in the morning or tomorrow evening we plan to post some more pictures from our stay in and around Oceanside (including Tijuana) and Vegas.  For now, we are eating great pizza and enjoying watching Anthony Bourdain in China on the Travel Channel!

More soon,
Meg and JP

It's hard to believe that we have been away from home for 11 days now.  Our current mileage from our front door is somewhere around 2700 miles, and I am writing this from Oceanside, CA.  We spent Sunday and Monday in LA with our friend Nori.  And now we're here staying with our friends Denise and Bob until Thursday morning. 

We left Morro Bay on Sunday, and took our time going down the rest of the PCH into LA.  We spent a few hours in Santa Barbara, which was really nice, before pressing on into LA.  Our Los Angles visit was perfect --Nori was the perfect host.  We told her that we were interested in seeing quintessential LA, which is what we saw on Sunday after we got in.  She took us to the Hollywood area, where we did the Avenue of the Stars, saw the Hollywood Hills, ate dinner at a Mexican place along the way there (oddly enough the only Chicago-ish Mexican place we encountered here in the West), and then had a drink at a very strange bar --it was like meta-Hollywood in there, but a fun place to see.  Here are a few photos from that night:

So then yesterday morning we got up and Nori took us to a breakfast place she likes in Santa Monica, which had excellent food.  And... we saw Don Cheadle and his family dining a few tables over!  I still probably gawked a little heavily, but personally I'm impressed with myself that I didn't make a scene or go over to him or anything.  In my book that was playing it pretty cool.  But I was definitely excited.  He's easily one of my favorite actors, so to see not only a celebrity but to see HIM was great.  Yay!

After that we went and hung out at Venice Beach for a few hours.  We played in the ocean, and we also did the boardwalk.  Here are a few photos:

Among the highlights there, or lowlights (depending on who you ask --ahem) is that John-Patrick bought some, well, art.  From a guy (allegedly) named Art.  Here is a photo of John-Patrick with his "investment", and a photo of him schlepping it down the boardwalk post-purchase, and finally a photo of the artist with another painting in what must be called his Funky Diety series:

Don't even ask me where we are going to put them.  I tried to "forget" them in Nori's car.  I'm going to try to "forget" them in each city we pass until we make it home.  haha  I actually kind of like the Buddha one.  JP loves that the Satan one says "no contracts".  Art the Artist explained that they each have meaning, something along the lines of living in the now.  Wow.  Did I mention we paid for these?  Look at JP's face.  He was so happy.

So we went back to Nori's after that and parted ways with her.  She had to go teach and we showered up and left her place.  We went to Beverly Hills to do a pass-through.  It was about what you'd expect, but we did find a Whole Foods and stocked up on some more of our favorite Kashi bars for the trip home.  Here are some visuals:

From there we pressed on down to Oceanside.  We passed through the beach towns along the way, had dinner in Laguna Beach, and made it to Denise's and Bob's at about 9pm.  We only sat in LA traffic for about an hour (in which we traveled 30 miles --not too bad actually).  And the beach towns were much closer to one another than we had expected.  The beach areas were gorgeous, and so were the homes along the way.  A few pictures:
So here we are.  Denise and Bob have a beautiful condo, just 2 blocks from the ocean.  I can see it out the window right now!  This morning we went to the ocean.  I was too intimidated by the tall waves but John-Patrick had a great time swimming, as did Bob.  This afternoon we went into San Diego to eat at a great Mexican place, and then did the San Diego Zoo, which came highly recommended.  It was a good zoo --definitely worth the trip.  Now we're doing a little down time before dinner.  It's so relaxing here! 

Tomorrow is Tijuana, and then we're back on the road Thursday morning, driving through Death Valley to get to Vegas.  (And no, we will not be getting married in Vegas!)  We'll post some more in a day or two!  We are at our furthest point from home at this point, and we really do feel a world away from Chicago.  But we'll already be home in less than a week!  Lots still to see, and we're still enjoying every minute.