Amber's last days...

Overall this entire trip has been an accidental Ivy League tour, from picking up Amber near Harvard , to a couple days spent around Princeton, NJ and on toward Yale in Connecticut. Look for the flashback post about the Yale Museum of Art in days come. We have come full circle with Amber and are back in Boston.

Our couch surf hosts have been gracious enough to let us stay four nights so that we could see everything that Boston has to offer. Unfortunately we've been sick and lazy. The three of us managed to get out of the house just a couple times but we saw what we felt we needed to and we relaxed and had a great time at the house.

For our first outing we went to Salem, MA. one of the worst historical tourist traps around. Cheap occult souvenirs and store front "museums" were everywhere and we just walked around feeling cold and complaining about how Salem has no reverence for their past (fake witch killin'). When we got "home" Alberto made some paella (chicken and rice is what mom called it...) and Ethan, one of our hosts, attempted to teach us the card game Pitch over drinks.

Day three started unusually early for us. We were out the door by 10am and followed Ethan to the Docks to watch sailboat racing and motor around Boston Harbor. After we had enough time on the water we headed over to the USS Constitution for a tour of the oldest winningest original ship in the US Navy. Some of us were a little under the weather but we rallied to do a part of the Freedom Trail that we missed last time we were in Boston. There is a lot of old stuff in Boston and we saw about as much as we could manage to in two half ass attempts, this leaves something to look forward to next time we pass through.

Upon returning to the host house we settled in for a quiet night of movies and hot tea but then people started showing up and all of a sudden we were playing drinking games.

Today's obvious highlight was pumpkin carving. The reason that it is obvious is that we did little to nothing else. The day was spent with our butts on the couch eyes staring blankly at a TV screen. Amber's flight leaves at 8am tomorrow and that means we must wake up earlier than we have grown accustomed to. We intended to go to bed early tonight, unfortunately we have not done that yet and it's getting late now. Good night.

Philly

We left New York and paid $11 in tolls to drive two hours to Philadelphia. On our arrival the host house, a three story, six bedroom, nine roommate community in West Philly provided us with a fantastic dinner, drinking, and games!

On our first day in Philly we attended Bloktoberfest, a music and beer block party south of South Street. While drinking, we discovered that the best cheesesteak is a huge point of debate for locals and everyone is friendly, we even made friends with people that lived in a place over looking the fest and went up and had a drink and hung out while Blocktoberfest ran out of beer.

Once the festival ran out of beer and the strangers let us leave, we went on the search for food, a sports bar, and a Giants game. We were warned not to wear Giants gear, as Philly fans have a reputation for being insane. After three hours sitting in a sports bar, quietly cheering, purchasing one too many half priced hot wings, we learned that violent homophobic epithets are the venting method of choice when the Phillys get defeated.

On our second day, we decided to explore the traditional tourist routes. We drove over to the historical part of town, toured Independence Hall, gazed at the liberty bell, and wandered the streets searching for cheap food.

As we were returning home, Amber announced that she saw something fantastic down the street. Turning around, we discovered the magical unicorn castle which may also be known as city hall. We circled city hall and learned that Philadelphia has a grand downtown center consisting of magnificent buildings and beautiful sculptures. This side track also led us to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, better known as the place with the Rocky steps, and the Magical Garden, better known as mosaic art madness/the place where we were too cheap to tour and too lazy to find parking so we just took photos as we drove by.

Our evening ended with an awesome beer bar, watching the Giants lose, and Amber wishing she could make out with our host Jeremy. Nobody made out and we left before the end of the game to watch the extremely graphic cartoon Afro Samurai.

On our last day in Philly, we drove out to the suburbs for the best yelp reviewed Cheese Steak. Our review: Amber-it was bland and boring, canned mushrooms are disgusting. Marisa- It was good it just needs more cheese and peppers. Albert- I don't know what the big deal is about these things. After the cheese steak, we got lost in the ghetto searching for the "great monument"(ghetto sculpture garden). We found the sculpture garden and learned that Philly is a juxtaposition of grandeur and destitution.

A&M&A 2010 Adventures in Brooklyn

After one too many dog farts in Boston, we drove 5 hours to visit the city that never sleeps. After 8 requests, we found Francis a marathon running, french speaking, at one point homeless in San Francisco, just finished writing his memoir, super cool host in Brooklyn.

On our first day, we decided to take a 7.8 mile "hike" through Manhattan as directed by our backpacker magazine. This hike included a walk along the Tribeca boardwalk, a frantic search for coffee and a bathroom, central park and a stroll along Highline Park--a former elevated train track repurposed into an elevated park. At some point between boardwalk and parks we made a stop at Gray's Papaya for some awesome papaya juice and two dogs also known as the "recession special."

After Highline Park we got lazy and stopped for a beer at the nearest bar. We were stoked to discover they offered free food during their 4 PM happy hour. Tipsy, stuffed and happy, we then took the subway to Central Park where we got lost, posed for photos, and found a new method to make money: giant bubbles!

While leaving the park, we found an art auction preview. Despite Amber's fearful attempt to run out the door at the site of such extravagance, Marisa blocked the door and Albert distracted an Auction Dealer with his bright red t-shirt and interest in non auction items.
Marisa enjoyed the free wine, Albert and Amber the fancy cheese plates and we all enjoyed looking at the $30,000 pieces of art for sale--silently wondering when we would be kicked out. Our original intention was just to use the toilet, but the perks kept us there for at least half an hour.

Our day ended with a visit to Amber's friend Chris and Caitlin's place in Brooklyn for dinner, delicious homemade pizza, local beers, and exhaustion.

On our second day, our host gave us a tour of Harlem, Spanish Harlem, the upper east side, and central park. He left us to meet with his editor and we decided to visit the tourists destination. Time Square and Rockefeller Center were lame. Crowded, with neon signs, they felt more like a giant mall than a place to visit. We then wandered through the rain to FAO Swartz where Marisa lusted over Muppets and Amber cringed at the bad music on the giant piano.

As the day turned into the evening we headed to Greenwich Village to see Francis' friend perform. We sat comfortably in a small cafe, drank wine, and watched the performer play a grand piano and belt out songs of broken hearts and men who use women. After the show, we joined Francis and his date at the nearby Thai restaurant for more alcohol and conversation. As Francis and his date decided to head home (those people with jobs go to bed early), we decided to walk the Brooklyn bridge at midnight.

Prior to our arrival there was a"Light the Night, Luekemia Walk" over the bridge and the party favors were balloons with lights in them. Albert noticed that they had all been thrown away and decided that digging in every garbage can on the Brooklyn Bridge is a perfectly good way to come up with 3 dozen slightly used AA batteries. The next day Amber got a message from her friend Chris asking if we left any suspicious packages on the bridge--apparently someone found a box with wires poking out of it and the bridge was shut down due to a bomb scare.

NYC wrapped up with free ferry ride to Staten Island and back, famous Nathan's hotdogs, and a walk along the desolated off-season Coney Island.

Amber, Boston and Honk last week

We cruised on into Boston and found Amber walking the streets talking about Honk. Turns out she is not crazy, there was a Honk Festival going on that weekend. Honk Bands are "activist street bands" that play loud fun music and dress silly. The three of us walked on over to the festival and listened to the music and ate the food. After the festival, walking through a park, we happened upon renegade hoola hoopers! And we hooped until we could hoop no more.

When we arrived in Boston we did not have a place to stay, so we put an emergency Couch surf request and John came through for us at the last minute. He let three stranger stay in his house with 5 hours notice. We did walk his dog, clean his kitchen and do his laundry, but otherwise we had a last minute free place to stay in Boston for two nights.

The Fine Art Museum had a free day on our second day in Boston so we went to check it out because we love free stuff. The museum is huge and full of old old stuff. None of that "modern art," where you can't even tell what it is, this was all the good stuff and some of it was thousands of years old. By the end we did experience museum fatigue and skipped a little of Egypt.

Boston Has a red brick "Freedom Trail" that we started and made it only to stop number 3... There is a lot more to see but after full day at the museum it was dark by the time we got to the cemetery where all the famous old patriots are buried. So we called it a day and headed for beers. We will do the Trail when we go back to Boston, before we send Amber on her way home. She's adapted well to our crazy ways and will miss us dearly.

Before we left Boston, we stopped by Samuel Adams and had some beer. mmm beer. Theirs was the best tour that we have done so far, there has been better beers but the the tour takes the cake.

Tune in soon for the next installment of old news...Brooklyn.

Postdated material...

We covered a lot of ground in the past week and a half and we didn't say much about any of it. The following selection is historical fiction based on our own accounts of what may have happened in early October 2010.

We had to stay just one more day in Vermont to see the Cabot Cheese factory and since we were still in Vermont we had to see a Maple syrup farm and we heard about this Granite quarry too so we had to see that. We didn't eat any real food until around 4pm, we just lived on popcorn, cheese samples and maple syrup product samples. If you ever happen upon any maple syrup candy, get it and put it in your coffee, delicious.

Once we were satisfied that there was nothing else in Vermont that we could sample we got the show on the road and wouldn't you know it, it started raining again. Driving in the rain for hours can really take a toll on morale but we were uplifted when we saw Sunday River Brewing Co. and we got $1.50 pints and a huge basket of sweet potato fries to keep us going. There is a Walmart not too far from Acadia N.P. and that is were we bedded down for the night.

At Acadia National Park we were pleasantly surprised to run into our Walmart friends from Vermont at the visitors center. We drove the Loop Road that goes around the largest part of the park and we did our typical thing and stopped at almost every single turn out or area with a sign describing something next to it. There is a place there called Cadillac Mountain which is the tallest thing on the US east coast and a great place to catch sunrise. On our second day at Acadia we got up early and raced the sun to the top of the mountain and saw our first east coast sunrise there.


We had just a few short days left before meeting up with Amber, so we pressed on to meet up with A's former hotshot buddy Joe and then to Falmouth, ME where our friends parents put us up for the weekend.

It was so nice to stay with Robin and Gordy, such neat people. Robin called it our "feast time" and that it was, lobster dinner feast, lobster omelet breakfast, relaxing on the enclosed porch, going to bed with a view of the stars and waking up to a view of the ocean. Completely relaxing.

Of course we wished we could stay longer but there is just too much to see. We had to keep a moving.


Next installment coming soon: Amber, Boston, Honk, Brooklyn...

It's been a while... again

The US side of Niagra Falls is totally better than the Canadian side because you can get closer and walk up to the edge of them, but from the Canadian side all three falls can be seen in one glimpse, we did both. Since it was raining a little it was like being on the Maid of the Mist boat tour all day, so we didn't feel the need to do the boat tour.

We may have been a little tired, or hungry, or agitated... or all of the above, but either way, due to miscommunication we made the trek across the bridge one too many times because we missed a left turn! The second border agent took a lot longer and and asked a lot more questions before letting back into the US, suspicious characters we are.

We made our way through Buffalo (no, we didn't get buffalo wings). Buffalo had an amazing art deco city hall with an observation deck on the 28th floor. The interior was so beautiful, lots of gold, carvings and murals.

The rain didn't seem to stop for more than 24 hours from the time we left Michigan until October 2. When we were in Albany, the NY Capitol region had flood warnings! Crazy torrential downpours, the likes of which we had never witnessed! We almost gave in and got a motel (we found one for $40), but by the time we made our way there it was midnight and their gas line had just been knocked down. There was emergency vehicles on scene and we got the brushoff from a firefighter. There's no way we were going to pay to stay in a place with no hot water because of a broken gas pipe--defeats the purpose of staying in a hotel. So we sucked it up, drove back to wal-mart and didn't bother with the bikes and the bed, just slept in the front seat of the truck. It got a little cold, but hey, we stayed dry.

We spent two and a half rainy days at the New York State Museum. It was huge! And free! It has an incredible 9/11 section, beautiful birds of NY water paintings, natural history and a whole lot of other stuff.

The rain stopped on the evening of the 1st, our last night in Albany. Where we spent yet another night at Wal-Mart and hung our wet bedding and other stuff in tree and on poles to dry. If only we had remembered to take a picture.

Saratoga Springs, was another picturesque beautiful place with a great farmer's market (nabbed some fresh hamburger & a loaf of bread) and is also the home of Olde Saratoga Brewery, sister brewery to Mendocino Brewing Co--Red Tail Ales. That night A made a delicious dinner at a park on the banks of Lake George.

The next day we pushed on to Ticonderoga, where we checked out the outside of the fort (it was $15 a pop to go inside!) and the old Pell Hotel and gardens. Afterward we caught the ferry across the Connecticut River to Vermont. Fifteen minutes into Vermont we stopped at a farm and picked up a half peck of delicious honey crisp apples--it really is unfortunate that they don't sell them on the west coast. They are by far the best apples we have ever had.

Vermont is beautiful. Everything you hear about the fall foliage is more than true. The houses, for the most part, are all large farm house style and have porches with rocking chairs, adirondack chairs, or hammocks.

We finally made it back to the National forests, after many nights in Wal-Mart parking lots. The Green Mountain National Forest is beautiful but most of the campgrounds were closed, it turns out in Vermont before mud season is construction season. Most of the roads in the national forest have houses on them, it took us at least 45 minutes to find a camp spot.

On the 4th we went to the Vermont Sun health club, to get a work out and a much needed shower, after the gym time we crossed the street to Otter Creek Brewing Company (brewers of Wolaver's beer)--awesome oatmeal stout and pumpkin beer! What better post workout drink than free beers?

This morning, back in the Wal-Mart parking lot, we met a super nice traveling family of 3+2 yorkies. They just started their trip and invited us to their trailer where we shared travel tips and stories over delicious coffee and zucchini bread.

Today, coffee, Ben & Jerry's and possibly Cabot Creamery (Cheese!) if we have time after this post.


Update: we didn't make it to Cabot. Time to search for New England and Philly couches to surf for when we meet up with Amber.