Philly or Burst

I am once again fully conscious, and more importantly, alert. Let me tell you about my weekend.

I started off by getting stuck at work way later than I wanted, so by the time I met up with my mom and Nick, it was about 4:30. Getting out of Chicago on Memorial Day of course meant traffic, but it wasn't actually as bad as it could have been. Somewhere in Indiana we stopped at a Culver's for dinner and sat down to plot our night. Originally we were going to try and get to Columbus, but the timing wasn't working. Since we aim for bigger cities and their suburbs for stops rather than stopping at a random town we don't know anything about in the middle of the night, the next big city we'd hit was Cincinnati.

So, in my early 20s, I spent a lot of time hanging out with friends from online by picking essentially picking a city and then all going there for a weekend (or Wednesday to Wednesday, shut up I had no responsibilities then). The best years were the ones we had in Cincy, and those were some of the greatest weeks of my life, so of course we had to head back to the Cincinnati Marriott North. It's definitely changed since I was last there, mostly some of the furniture and the fact that there's a Starbucks counter now. I still remembered the way around, though, and would point out which floor I stayed on what year, and I think I even pointed out the vending area where I guzzled an entire margarita after an argument and then went back to a room party. (I'd say it was a memorable night but I do not remember most of it!) It's also just a great hotel, where the woman at the front desk even stepped out from behind it to point out where things were, and everyone was super friendly. The area's also grown out since I was there. At the time they were just building it up, and aside from a gas station and a couple restaurants, you had to drive elsewhere to get to anything. Now there are plenty of restaurants and coffee shops, a movie theater, and apparently a wine store which would have been a major attraction/problem back in the day (see also the margarita story). I actually really hope to get back here again soon, maybe with a lot of old friends.

We got out later than intended again, partly because there were pictures I needed to get of the hotel lobby, and we had 2:30 tickets in western Pennsylvania, sooooo Nick got pulled over for speeding. He wasn't going that fast, though, and it was the weirdest way I've ever seen someone get pulled over: the cop was sitting in his car on the side of the highway when he got out of his car and STEPPED INTO THE HIGHWAY to flag us down, even though cars all around us were speeding past. It always sucks getting pulled over, especially when you were definitely on par with the rest of traffic, but Nick had a good way of looking at it. After all, if he hadn't been speeding, there was no way we would have made our 2:30, so it was worth it.

After doing no more than three miles over the speed limit at any time and not stopping at all, and also driving through West Virginia for all of twenty minutes, we made it to our destination at 2:15. The confirmation email warned that we might be waiting for up to half an hour until our group actually went on the tour, but they took us right at 2:30 to see Fallingwater. It's a Frank Lloyd Wright house, built in the woods, on top of a waterfall. Wright was very much into bringing the elements of the outdoors inside- it's habit to look for the ways he implements them in each house I go to now- so this is pretty much the ultimate in doing that. It's also the ultimate in being super hot, because it was in the 80s and very humid, and the house is open and doesn't have air conditioning. They did have fans going in the rooms and gave us little handheld fans to take with us, because they were definitely needed by the time we got to the third floor. It's absolutely gorgeous, though. It became my favorite of his houses so far, and I'm sorry that we weren't able to get tickets for the more in-depth tours that would allow us to take pictures inside the house.

Outdoors, though, I definitely got pictures.

I'll put some on the Instagram if you want to see more.

We stopped for snacks and water, because after a lot of stair-climbing and a little hike in hot weather, Nick understandably hit the wall. Which happens. When you're stressed and busy and haven't had enough to eat or drink and it's hot, you can very easily hit a point where if you don't get a carb in you, you're either going to pass out or kill someone. Personally, I do this most years at SDCC and if you're going to be doing a lot when you're traveling, keep in mind that you very well might do this too. After leaving their cafe, we drove back through the terrifying sharp-cornered hills of rural Pennsylvania (that is definitely on the Insta) and then found our way to the highway to try and drive another five hours.

At one point, I caught a sign and said, "Did that just say we're in Maryland?"

"What?" Nick said.

"I could have sworn that sign just welcomed us to Maryland."

Sure enough, we were in Maryland. We had not planned on it. We thought the route would just take us straight through Pennsylvania, but since our hotel was in New Jersey, and we were using Waze, which took us through southern Maryland. I can't even make Google Maps do it, so annoyingly this map is not entirely accurate.

That said, it was a great detour. We found a surprisingly great pizza place just off the highway for dinner, and we looked over our options, realizing that Waze was probably going to take us through Baltimore. Here's the thing. I love Baltimore. I know it gets a really bad rap, but I really enjoyed my time there when I went before, and immediately I asked, "Do we have time to stop at The Waterfront?" Because apparently I travel enough that I have go-to places for certain cities. Unfortunately it was already going to be very late by the time we got in, and even if we just stopped in for a quick drink, it was Saturday night, and that wasn't going to be quick. We had to bypass it this time, but I've got it in my head to get back to DC sometime soon, so I'll get back then.

Our route also took us through Delaware! We'd been through Delaware before, on our way to Philadelphia from Arlington. We even stopped at the same rest stop just to say we were there, and also because we all desperately needed caffeine and to wake up. But this also meant that with Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey in one day, it tied my personal record and straight up blew up Mom's. (Previous record: New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire.)

You could tell when we finally got to Jersey because people immediately began trying to kill us with their cars. Immediately. People assured me that it was only the northern drivers that sucked, and then I was told that the southern drivers were scary, and there is not a lot of state! It's okay, I live in a state full of shitty drivers, too. That said... New Jersey didn't suck this time. We stayed at a Super 8 in Mount Laurel, about half an hour from Philadelphia. It was a smoking room and had some burn marks on the bathroom counter, and the pillow smelled of smoke when I woke up, but it really wasn't bad at all. The people were friendly, the room was clean, and I didn't fear staying there. Good on you, New Jersey! Work on your drivers!

We got to Philadelphia pretty early, and it was already hot. We paid too much for parking, showed Mom the Liberty Bell, and then got water ice from a street vendor. See, last time I was there, there were carts for those and cheesesteaks everywhere. I'm a vegetarian so the latter did nothing for me, but I finally snapped and decided I'd get a water ice at the next one we saw... and we never saw another one. So I made sure to do it this time, and then we walked around. Philadelphia is not a city I'd consider a top five favorite, but I'm more than happy to set out and explore it, and I've never really seen the same stuff. We stopped into the Old Carpenters' House and the Old Bank Building which is now a portrait gallery, and tried to get into a few more things but found that a lot of it was closed because we forgot it was Sunday. Still, it's great to be able to see amazing buildings like the post office and printer's office, and they are amazing. They're old but well-maintained, and they're surrounded by newer buildings, which makes for a really great look.

We made it to Christ Church before it was Mom's turn to hit the wall, and while sadly we couldn't go inside, I think because there were services starting soon, around back they had dispensers for water and lemonade for free, and we stopped to regroup and ultimately decided to reel it in. We walked back through the neighborhoods to find the car, and then headed over to Reading Terminal.

Reading Terminal is not far away, and it's a great big market. It's very crowded and you're probably going to stand in a line, but I like it. There are plenty of local quick service places, and you can find cooking supplies or candy or jewelry in the shops. Last time I bought a pair of earrings from Africa that I still get compliments on. We got coffee and snacks, then took a trip to a bakery because once I knew they had vegan cookies, I needed vegan cookies. And Mom wanted to find some old style candy, so we found that and got a bunch for the car, and then decided that we could start off to our last overnight city: Pittsburgh.

Pittsburgh is about four and a half hours west, and required driving through several mountains. It was our earliest night, where we got to our oddly-placed but very nice hotel around 8 pm, early enough to get dinner and not have to get back on the road. However, the fact that the hotel was in a weird spot seemed to require us to drive around neighborhoods with super scary hills. Around Fallingwater had been a tame roller coaster. This was insane. It was sharp curves around houses and other cars that were going too fast, steep declines that sometimes led into the guardrail disappearing to allow access into even steeper hidden driveways like the worst surprise ever, and bumps because the road was not the best. Thank god the way back took us a more normal route, and we were able to get to bed at a more or less decent time.

Pittsburgh was not done screwing with us, though. After eating breakfast at the hotel and checking out, we tried to find the highway and hopefully a gas station, and instead we seemingly drove around the suburbs for at least half an hour. I have no idea what the GPS was trying to do, but we got gas, and we got on the road. And I wish we'd gone back through Maryland again. Pennsylvania and Ohio are pretty, but there weren't any real places to stop. Where Maryland had cool rest stops and restaurants where you could stop off for a meal, these states had service plazas. They have Sunoco gas stations, maybe a couple fast food places like McDonald's or Roy Rogers, occasionally a Starbucks, and one big place to get snacks or souvenirs. There's not much to them, and everyone is nearly the same, and it makes for very boring driving. Especially when you're on the road for ten hours. It was also hard to find anywhere to stop to eat because the fast food options weren't really appetizing, and that was all there was. The drive was largely quiet, because after four days with the same people you've said just about everything you need to say for now, and you just want to get home. Conversation tends to be like:

"Do you need to stop?"
"Yes/no."

That's it. It felt like an accomplishment to get to Indiana, where after a while at least the service centers ended and you could choose your own adventure. When we got to Michigan City we finally stopped off and made a snap decision to stop at a Steak and Shake, where they were super busy, ignored us when we got there, finally told us that there just weren't seats before she decided to clean off an empty table, and then left us without menus. I think we were there for almost fifteen minutes from start to finish without ever getting menus, and we had a deadline to get Mom back home for work, so we left and went to a Chili's instead. I think I might be done with Steak and Shake.

We finally got Mom home half an hour later than we'd planned, but that still wasn't bad, all things considered. We know how we all work together before we start planning next year's big trip. We got in a good adventure. And most importantly, I learned that maybe New Jersey isn't all bad.

Currently: Cincinnati, OH

In my early 20s, before I moved to LA, I spent a lot of my summers driving a few hours to see a ton of my closest friends from other states at the same time for a week. Every year was like the best family reunion, and two of those reunions took place in Cincinnati, at the same hotel.

When we decided that we couldn't make it to Columbus last night, we decided on Cincy, and booked that hotel.

It's been fourteen years since I've been here, but the nostalgia is strong. I still remember where everything is. The lobby looks different but I can still point on where I walked past and saw Rachel sleeping on the floor covered in newspapers, or where we sat when regaling everyone with the story of why we took six individual drives through the Wendy's drive-thru for six individual people. Thd bar, the most important part, is still there. I also wanted to ask if a certain awesome waitress was still there, but I'm sure she's not. Still, I remember her name. It's different being here with family instead of with four other girls, taking up the entire bathroom counter with product and throwing dirty clothes on the floor under the sink and staying up way too late or waking up too early to my friends already laughing, and that's the stuff that keeps coming to mind.

Also they put a Starbucks in the lobby, and my god do I want a real reunion here. I'll be there instead of the bar now.

Best trip ever, part five: Back to New York

The last day of the trip required getting up in Massachusetts and then driving off to New York. I seem to remember us taking a slightly different route than we'd taken before, where we stopped off at a very green rest area or two. We ended up back in New York a few hours before our flight, so we looked up things we could do and ended up in the Bronx. We went found a place in a much-less touristy area than Times Square for pizza (it's still fine) and then drove up to a place that I came to love. It's called Wave Hill, and it's a public garden in the middle of the city, but not like Central Park is. Central Park is very much a part of the city. You can see taxis in there, and it's surrounded by streets. At certain parts of it you can hear sirens and traffic. With Wave Hill, it's very quiet. At the top of its hills you can see over the water and spot the Brooklyn Bridge, and that's all you see of New York. I'm also a huge fan of flowers and love photographing them, but I am also an enemy of bees. I'm not allergic, I'm just petrified of them. And this was the site of the biggest damn bees I have ever seen in my life. There are trails you can walk and see more of the place, but after one too many bees I stopped just short of running screaming and we ended up sitting out on the lawn for a while instead.

When we left, we still had time, and still had gas in the tank, and Nick was determined to return it to the rental place with all the gas used up. We killed some time by going to Liberty Park in New Jersey. Now, Jersey had done us absolutely zero favors so far. We had not one good experience there. We thought that maybe this might be it. Maybe after all of this, the state would come through.

Nope!

We got super lost getting there because the GPS seemed to say "lol nope," and we ended up cruising around not-great streets and I think a couple of alleys before we found the place more or less by accident. Admittedly, the park itself is kind of neat. There wasn't a ton to it, but there's a 9/11 memorial with what I think is a girder from the Towers, and yes, Nick and I do tend to find a lot of depressing stuff on our trips. There's also an amazing view of the New York skyline, and another part of the park has a ferry over to the Statue of Liberty.

As we were leaving, I checked in on what was Foursquare at the time and noticed that the app listed the park as being in New York.

"After all this," I said, "did our one good experience in New Jersey actually happen in New York?"

That was the last thing we really got to do. We had to get to the Newark airport for our flights back, and we were using up so much of the gas, and then we got stuck in traffic. It was very hot, and we were suddenly worried that we would run out of gas on the highway before we even got to the airport, so we kept turning everything off. Air conditioning, radio, everything must go. We pulled up to the rental place at the airport with three miles to empty. Nick is still very proud, even if he's said we could have cut it even closer.

I could end it there, but then I don't get to tell you how the Newark airport was even against us. I don't think it had air conditioning. At one point I stopped in the bathroom and noticed that my eyebrow makeup had melted off above one eye, so I got my makeup bag out of my carryon and started to fix it... and the lights went out, followed by alarms. I couldn't do anything and wasn't sure what was happening, so I got out of there, only to find that it wasn't happening much further outside. Nick had no idea that had even happened. We stood at the charging table between our gates and talked for a while, and then our separate flights were called, and we got on separate planes home.

I got on a plane with one eyebrow. Suck it, New Jersey.

Flashback post: Best trip ever, part four: New Hampshire to Massachusetts, but also more than that

After leaving Boston, we drove up to our next stop, New Hampshire. We stayed in Concord, in what was our nicest hotel (not my favorite). There wasn't anything to do at that time of night, so we ended up leaving to walk to an Applebee's across the street and order dessert before coming back and calling it a night. And in the morning, we found out that there isn't really that much to do in New Hampshire, period. We just couldn't find anything. We ended up going to Zimmerman House, a Frank Lloyd Wright designed house just in a neighborhood. There are tours, but we couldn't really wait, so we stopped outside and took pictures even though we weren't supposed to. Oops.

For a little state, it takes for-freaking-ever to drive through New Hampshire diagonally. Don't get me wrong, it's really pretty, and full of trees and lakes, and state liquor stores. (Which I thought maybe New Hampshire was small enough or had some kind of weird law that there was just one liquor store for the state, and then I kept seeing them and getting confused.) But it seemed like it took several more hours than it should to get anywhere. We also saw a moose crossing sign. I didn't know there were moose up there. At first it was a novelty, something cool for the area. Then we saw another one, and I decided to get the camera out to take a picture. It took too long and I figured we'd seen the last one, so I put the camera away... and missed it when another sign came up. So I got the camera out again, only when I managed to snap a picture it was too late and I only got the highway in the shot. I'd wait for the next one, and it'd take so long that I'd put the camera down, or check Instagram or whatever, and then I'd miss the sign.

It went on like this for hours.

Our next step was Cape Elizabeth, Maine, which we went to specifically because I wanted to see a lighthouse. In my head I'd never seen one in person before, though people pointed out that I lived near one in Long Beach, CA, and that they had them on Lake Michigan. That was not the point. I wanted to see a real lighthouse, which I guess meant the one in Maine at Portland Head Light. It started raining as we were getting close, and by the time we got out of the car there was a good light rain going. I think because of the weather the lighthouse itself was closed that day, but we could still wander around, and there weren't many other people around. This place was everything I wanted it to be, and the rain made it perfect. It made the waters around us choppy, and there was just enough fog and mist that it looked like the perfect New England day at the perfect place for it. We took pictures of the monuments and cliffs, and I started a little ways down a trail to get different pictures, and it's one of the highlights of the trip. It also stopped raining and cleared up more or less as we got to the car to leave, because the weather was looking out for us that day.

We stopped for lunch at Becky's Diner, which turned out to be a Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives location, and it's located in an area that I looked at and thought "This is so Maine that it hurts," even though I had never been to Maine before. Then we had to turn right around and go back the way we came through the neverending roads of New Hampshire, where I continued to be teased by the existence of moose signs, and finally by the existence of moose themselves. Years later when at a bar with some friends, I would declare them fictional.

We also stopped in Vermont, which was a state that posed some challenges. Mainly, we couldn't find much to do. We'd see things like "stop at this general store," which is great but that doesn't take long, as it's a long way to go to pick up snacks. There's Ben and Jerry's, but that's much farther north than we were and we didn't have the time to make that drive. So we found Molly Stark Trail, which things online told us was a leisurely drive that would take us about an hour to drive through, and we could stop often and take pictures. Well, the address we found took us to Molly Stark State Park, which was a) not the right thing, and b) closed. After searching online we found where the trail was supposed to go, and it was not a leisurely drive. It was pretty much a two-lane highway, and maybe it was because a lot of the road was under construction, but we didn't find any real places to stop. It was gorgeous, and I was snapping pictures like a crazy person, but the most memorable parts of it were spent whizzing downhill through construction while having to keep speeding up because the cars in back of us were tailgating us to make it happen while Nick had a white-knuckle deathgrip on the wheel.

So, 10/10, would recommend, unless you're Nick in which case you probably have a different opinion.

On our way to the next location, we got our moose. Sort of. We had stopped in a town for gas or coffee or something, and as we're driving through the streets, I saw a giant statue, screamed "MOOSE!" and Nick immediately pulled over. We got out of the car, went over to the moose, and took pictures with it. I still claim they're fictional until I see a real one.

Mythological creatures: dragons, griffins, unicorns, moose...

Our last stop for the day was back in Williamsburg, MA. We got a room at the Willows Motel, which was adorable. The room's fine, nothing to write home about, but I liked the feel of it. Our room overlooked a cute patio, and there were seats outside where people would sit outside. We could hear people from the room with the windows open, but it wasn't anything bothersome. The staff was very friendly and gave us all the necessary information right up front, and I think they live in the front house? When we checked out the next day they had a breakfast where you could sit and eat at little tables by the front desk, but when someone called for someone to come to the unattended front desk, someone came out in their pajamas. There was just something really charming about the place and I loved it. It was also in a neat little neighborhood, where we decided rather than getting dinner we'd just get ice cream at a place down the street (I got maple, because that's what happens when you spend time in Vermont). There were mountains pretty close on the right, and I kept marveling at what it must be like to live in one of the houses on that side of the street, with nothing behind you but a view of those mountains. We ate ice cream and looked out at them, and it was a great way to close out our last night of the trip.

One more day to go...

Flashback post: Best trip ever, part three: Boston!

This brings us up to the Boston portion of the trip. Hello, Boston!

We had breakfast at our Cape Cod hotel, which... not a great idea. Nick thinks he got some light food poisoning and I barely touched my food because it was just gross. We also missed pretty much all of Cape Cod except the way we took back to the highway, which sucks, but it got us to Boston faster. We got there around 9 or 10 am after parking somewhere near Boston Common, which is a park full of monuments and statues, with souvenir stalls and people in 1700s period garb happy to talk to you. It's also the start of the Freedom Trail, which takes you along the sites of the American Revolution. You follow a red line in the sidewalk and it leads you through sixteen sites. There are tours available, but we walked it on our own and it was fine. It takes you through the State House and cemeteries and meeting houses, and it was at the site of the Boston Massacre, commemorated with a giant marker in the sidewalk, that I realized how weird it was to be standing at the site of a massacre, no matter how long ago it was. Also, the Old Corner Bookstore is now just a plaque because it is now a Chipotle, and I will never stop being sad about it. You can stop inside places and there are people who will answer questions, and you can stop at Samuel Adams' grave, where every day someone puts a bottle of Sam Adams on it. It's across the street from a pub, which is also fitting.

Sup.

It's a good way to see the city, a mix of the old stuff and the new. I took pictures of tall buildings as seen from outside buildings that were built in the 1700's, and in one area, I think outside the visitor center and City Hall, we watched a guy on a unicycle juggle babies. Just in case you thought street performers were only in New York. We walked across the Charleston Bridge to see Paul Revere Park before deciding to abandon the trail because we were on some time constraints. So Nick somehow got us to cut across the Italian part of town, where the streets weren't as well-paved and it clearly wasn't touristy, and I have no idea how he managed to get us anywhere near our car, but he managed it. And it was a neat detour! Parts of the town are definitely divided up, where you know when you're in the Italian part of town based on the restaurans and you definitely know when you're in the Irish part because there's an impressive amount of Irish pubs, but it was nice to see something off the beaten path.

And before you ask, yes, we went to Cheers. It is a working restaurant/bar, and is a good stop if you like some kitsch. There's a shooting bar, which looks like the bar from the TV show except way better lit, but it was too crowded that day, so we ended up in the restaurant section. I sat under the Sam Malone jersey, and felt really weird about just ordering water there. But at least everybody knew my name. You know, theoretically.

We stopped at Boston Public Garden, which is very pretty. It's a big park filled with flowers and monuments, and there's a lake where you can ride a swan boat around. We went through one section and then out to see Trinity Church, which is gorgeous, and then off to Copley Square.

So, two weeks before we went on this trip, the Boston Marathon bombing happened. Even Copley Square, where it happened, looked okay, and you might not have known it happened except for all the memorials around. You'd see "Boston strong" written in chalk on sidewalks and statues or as graffiti in the bathrooms at Cheers. Outside churches there would be ribbons tied to the fence; you picked up a ribbon, wrote your message of support on it, and tied it on. Copley Square was of course the biggest reminder. It was still very new, so people were there to pay their respects and sometimes leave things at memorials. There were literal signs of support, and the whole area was filled with groups of things people had sent. There was a wall of baseball hats people had sent from around the country (including one from a grudging Cubs fan), and a section for stuffed animals, for signed shirts and American flags. Some people had taken Sharpies to the ground to declare their love for the city.

And there was this feeling there that I'm not sure I can describe. It was something heavy that everyone there seemed to feel. Anywhere else in Boston you could find someone talking and having fun, but here it was somber and almost funereal at times. It made my heart hurt. At one point I felt my cheeks were wet and realized I was crying, and I tried to hide it but the fact was I wasn't the only one doing it. After wandering around by myself for a bit I met up with Nick and we decided to leave, he said, "Just when I thought I couldn't take anymore, I saw this woman walking around pushing two cats in a stroller. And I thought, life goes on."

We went back through the Public Garden to get to the car, and buzzed past Harvard because we had to, and we got out on the road up towards New Hampshire just before the rain started. And after a day of walking around looking at historical sites and getting our hearts ripped out, we turned on the TV and laughed that The Town was the first thing on. Which was followed immediately by a shot of the Charleston Bridge and us going "Weren't we just there?"

That was Boston. Going into the trip, I always thought that it'd be one of my favorite cities ever. I think starting the trip with New York might've wrecked that, because I loved New York so much that everything else paled in comparison. But the timing also means I feel a little connection with this town, and next time I go back, hopefully I won't end up sobbing in public.

Flasback post: Best trip ever, part two: NJ to MA

On day three of the best trip ever, it meant that we had to leave New York. It also meant that we got to check out of the worst hotel ever, so, plus. This was also the day we did five states in one day, driving out of New Jersey and up through New York, which is really pretty when you get further upstate. About an hour north we started passing signs for Westchester and joking that we should find the Xavier School from X-Men because we are huge nerds. The city was gone, leaving us driving through wooded areas and occasionally taking little backroads into areas with roller coaster hills. We'd pass little lakes and farm houses, and then stopped when we got into Connecticut.

After getting breakfast at a little roadside diner, we stopped in Stanford because we'd been attempting to use Nick's iPad to listen to music and podcasts, but there was some issue with the cord/port, so we found a Target where we could get a new cord and stock up on stuff while we were there. The new cord didn't really work. I know we got to listen to some podcasts on the way, but I want to say it was actually on my phone, because we had to keep flipping to the radio when we could get a clear station. And somehow, we only heard about four songs for the entire road trip, because that's all that was playing in every single state in New England. If it wasn't "Clarity," "Blurred Lines," "Mirrors" or that duet with Pink and the lead singer of Fun, we didn't hear it. But I have a special love for all those songs now, because it's impossible for me to hear them and not think of this trip. There are worse things.

We were supposed to visit our cousin and her family while we were in the state, but that fell through not long before the trip and so Nick managed to find a backup plan, which was Essex Steam Train and Riverboat. For $30 it's exactly what it sounds like, and I found it pretty cool. We got there a little before our 2:00 departure time, and that meant we could go around and check out the old train cars they had there. I think the gift shop was in a caboose. When they announced boarding, we got on the train, which seemed to be filled with families, which makes sense since this would be great for kids. The train ride itself wasn't really anything special, though we got to see a lot of greenery, and some of the houses on the way. It stopped at a dock, where we got out and then loaded ourselves onto a steamboat that went around the Connecticut River. It takes you past Gillette Castle and a gorgeous old opera house, towards a bridge, and then brings you back. By now the sunny day we'd left in New York was over, and it was starting to get cold and gray. The waters were a little choppy, so when we went out onto the top deck to take pictures, I couldn't leave my hair down without it constantly ending up in my face, and people were a little surprised when another boat would come by and we'd get the wake on top of already rougher waves. You could stand at the top and watch people hiking or walking their dogs at Gilette Castle State Park, or you could watch speedboats race past you, and there were all these little islands that got me all excited because I read the Babysitters Club books, dammit, and all of a sudden it made sense that there could be an island where Dawn and Claudia would get shipwrecked, and if it happened to us I knew what to do because I had read that super special.

If you were unaware that I'm a giant dork, hi, I'm Natalie. Nice to meet you.

After the boat ride, the train took us back the same way and dropped us off at the station, where we got Diego and started back up to our next state, Rhode Island. It's somewhere I wish I had more time to spend, because from what I understand it's great, but we wanted a full day in Boston and had already decided on the boat that we would end up stopping for the night in Cape Cod, so we didn't have a lot of time and not a lot of ideas on what to do. We stopped for dinner at a pizza place at a mall, which had outdoor seating so you could look up at the capitol building. And that same mall houses a PF Chang's that Nick actually worked on, so we got to go there and take pictures.

State capitol, yo.

Aaaaand that was it for Rhode Island. It was cloudy and going to be rainy, so there were some great clouds but no sunset on the drive to Massachusetts, and by the time we got to Cape Cod it was dark. But five states in one day is an Accomplishment, and part three means getting to one of the many highlights.

Flashback post: The worst hotel in the world

Since we're hitting the anniversary of my absolute favorite trip ever, I'm busy writing some pretty long posts about it. But first, I have to tell you about the worst hotel in the world.

One year Nick and I met in Washington DC for a long weekend, which turned into us going to Philadelphia, which led to us almost taking a side trip to Jersey but we couldn't get to the exit fast enough. So we decided on our next trip we would actually make a road trip out of it, and in May of 2013 we both flew to Newark Airport. I took a red eye from LA, while he took the first flight out from Chicago, and we were both there by about 9 am. We had a hotel in Elizabeth, NJ, and since we were getting in early I called the hotel the day before to check on whether that was okay. They said it was no problem, and to come in when we got there. They told us a lot of things.

One of those things was that they had a shuttle that ran every hour to the hotel from the airport. So Nick and I headed out to the shuttle pickup and waited. And waited. And waited. We figured maybe we'd gotten there just after the shuttle left, but then it was over an hour. While I tried to get the number for the hotel, Nick went inside and happened to find a phone to call the hotel there, and that was how they decided to come get you. There was no hourly shuttle as advertised. We waited some more for the shuttle to finally come get us, and then we were off to the hotel, which luckily wasn't too far. But when we got there, we were told we didn't have a reservation. This was a lie. The guy at the front desk was the same one I'd spoken to on the phone the day before, and he'd found the reservation easily enough then. I showed him the confirmation email with our order, and suddenly he decided that they could get us a room but we'd have to wait because everything was booked, even though there were several buildings to this hotel and maybe three cars in the lot, total. He also refused to talk to me, instead deferring to tell Nick everything even though the reservation was under my name and I'd done literally all of the talking, which is not a good way to endear yourself to me. The guy finally said he'd see what he could do, and so we had to stand in the tiny lobby and wait with our bags. There were several old coffee stains on the linoleum floor, like no one had bothered to clean them. Everything looked tired and old, and we kept watching people head into a small closet off to the side, only to eventually realize that that was their continental breakfast. They'd set it all up on a tiny table in a closet.

Finally the guy told us (sorry, told Nick) that they had a room for us, and while they didn't have the double room we'd actually booked, they had a queen room that he insisted was bigger. While we were tempted to say screw it and get another hotel, there's an issue with booking through Priceline as we had: they already have the money, so we would have lost that and had to book another hotel last minute in an area we didn't know or try to get something in NYC which was not really going to be happening. So whatever, fine. We were planning on being in the city the whole time anyway, and it was just two nights. We'd work with this giant queen room.

If this was bigger, I don't want to know what the double room was like. The front of the room by the door was huge, but it was all wasted space. I don't even think there was a closet there. There was a queen bed, but the room was barely bigger than it, width-wise, and they'd crammed big furniture in there to make it even tighter. In order to get around the bed I had to turn sideways and scoot between it and the giant entertainment center/armoire. They had also put a table next to it, and you could only position the chair on the side of the table because there wasn't enough room between the table and bed for the chair, but if you pulled the chair out then you blocked the bathroom door. The bathroom had broken tiles, the shower wasn't completely filthy but the towels were, and even the hot and cold faucets were mixed up. As in, they were labeled wrong. You had to rent the alarm clock if you wanted to use it, the air conditioner looked dangerously balanced in the wall, there were dubious stains on both the bed and the one armchair...

"Rock, paper, scissors," Nick said. "Loser gets the bed."

It was one of those places that was so bad you could only laugh at it. Besides, we were here for New York. And this place was close to the subway!

In my defense I'd never been to this area before, and I did not realize that "close to the subway" on the hotel page meant that we had to wait for the shuttle again, and then take that back to Newark Airport, catch the train there and then take that to Penn Station. But whatever, we did it, and we had an amazing time in what became my favorite city in the world, and we didn't get back until late. Nick lost RPS that night and I got to sleep in the dodgy chair, though we traded the second night, and my god did I not want to. That thing was gross. We figured maybe housekeeping would clean when we spent a second day in the city, but "cleaning" seemed to mean "putting new stains on the bed I now had to sleep in." There had been menus slipped under the door during our first day and we'd left them because hey, it wasn't like the hotel cared what their room was like, and when we came back the next night there were more menus, but they'd been rearranged on the floor. There were also sounds during the night that we joked were probably raccoons.

After our second day we checked out and would stay in much, muuuuch better hotels along the way, and when we got back home I checked further reviews of the hotel. Everything on Priceline had been pretty positive, so I was confused as to how we ended up staying in a place so terrible. Well, I should have done more research. Yelp reviews and those on Hotels.com were not nearly as positive as Priceline. Apparently the hotel we got was usually rented out by the hour. There were a couple reviews talking about blood on the bathroom walls, spray from junkies shooting up in there and no one bothering to clean. It also looked like we lucked out and got the only room in the hotel without bed bugs. And the noises we heard at night? Totally rats in the walls!

In short: always read all the reviews, kids.

Update: I've been going through the reviews for funsies, and this place apparently closed down, and became a Days Inn. Which also closed down. Gee, I wonder why.

We drove ten hours today. Hi.

On one hand, Nashville was awesome. On the other hand, let me tell you how draining it is to leave the hotel before 9 am and get home at 7. If you've never done a big road trip, you might not think sitting in a car is that tiring.

It is so tiring. Being bored is tiring. If you're in the driver's seat, then you have one thing to focus on pretty much the whole time, and that is boring. If you're the passenger, you don't even have that, and that's boring. So while we'd planned on making a couple stops on the way back, that didn't really pan out because we just wanted to get home. The most we really did for fun was do a driveby of Dinosaur World, which I figured would be like the Cabazon Dinosaurs, and I think I was right? We got up closer and it's weird to say that they didn't look as authentic, though. They were smaller, and it looked more like they'd been colored with spray paint, and I wasn't hugely inclined to spend $19 there.

It was also part of a section of roadside tourist traps in Cave City, KY. There was a large strip mall-looking Olde General Store, something called Guntown Mountain, a haunted hotel, and one of several cave exploring things. You see a ton of billboards for things like cave explorations and zip lining underground, which if we had more time, I probably would have been all for it. My boss' daughter just did it and they seemed to enjoy it. But if there's one thing I'd definitely want to do next time, it's Kentucky Down Under, which is an adventure zoo where you can hang out with several different animals and pet kangaroos and such. I'm iffy one some of these places because I'm all for animal refuges (one will get excessively pimped when I get around to writing it), and I like to be reassured that they're being taken care of well and not being exploited, and I know some of these are not on the level, but this is one I'm hopeful about and want to check out.

Aside from that, our stops were at gas stations and rest stops, which got more frequent the more tired we got. And then when we got to northern Kentucky it started raining and didn't stop until we got all the way back to my place. But I absolutely will not complain, because we also saw a car fire today, and no matter how tiring our drive can get it's good to remember that at least we're not that guy.

Anyway, safely home. Nick's staying the night here rather than driving even more tonight, and there's pizza and Star Wars and that's all that matters. Oh, and pajamas at 7 pm, because we earned it.

Currently: Nashville, TN

Oh my god, I love Nashville.

This is where we decided to go once we had to push South Dakota off for a few months, and it was a great choice. I don't know why I got it in my head to come here recently, but it did, and since it's seven and a half hours away from Chicago, it's really not that tough a drive. Nick came to pick me up after work, and after grabbing dinner to wait out rush hour traffic, we drove down to Indianapolis. As Chicago -> Indy is maybe the most boring drive I've ever done, especially fairly often, it was kind of nice to be able to do most of that in the dark where we weren't sighing as we passed yet another field of absolutely nothing. (I'm sorry, Indiana. Illinois is a boring drive, too.) Nick booked a decent hotel there, and we could sit down and actually plan what we were going to do in Nashville. Also, to book the hotel we're staying in tonight.

So, I have a system for looking at hotels. Rather than trying to get in the city where prices were higher, go about half an hour out. I go on Priceline, sort by price and go past one and two stars, because after a couple horrible experiences in one star hotels it's worth the extra $20 to stay somewhere that I feel I can sleep without contracting something. Usually you can find a good three star hotel for around $80, which split two ways isn't bad. Last night there were issues there, which was weird because I'd looked up prices in Nashville before and didn't have a problem. Then Nick remembered seeing something about the Walking Dead Walker Stalker convention, which was probably driving up prices. So let this be a lesson, kids: watch out for Walking Dead conventions. So I spent more than I wanted to on tonight's hotel but it's a good hotel so I'm not going to complain too much.

We started out around 8 am and got to be all nostalgic because the way we took through Indiana was the way we used to take to get to Cincinnati. Cincinnati was also my previous experience with Kentucky, because a) I had to drive people back and forth to the Cincy airport which is in Kentucky (don't ask me, I just work here), and b) the first time I went to Cincinnati I followed the signs for Cincinnati and accidentally ended up in the wrong state. But driving through Kentucky on purpose is super pretty. And being stuck in Chicago where it keeps casually snowing whenever it feels like it, it was so nice to see actual spring in the form of flowers and blossoms on trees along the highway.

Also, a note: Indianapolis is messed up when it comes to time zones, so we spent the night in Eastern. Which means when you get back through Kentucky and then Tennessee in Central, it kind of screws up your timing on getting to the hotel. But on the way there we saw a sign for the Andrew Jackson Hermitage, and (not for the first time ever) I said, "Wanna go to (this historical site on the way to the hotel)?" and Nick said sure, so we went. It's $20 for the basic tour, which gives you access to the very pretty grounds and the mansion, which is a semi-guided tour. There's no photography in the mansion or there'd be a lot of pictures here, but outside the house was another story. There were a lot of smaller buildings to check out, though at parts it was sort of uncomfortable? At one point inside the mansion someone asked how many servants there were to deal with the twenty guests per day the docents would talk about, and when we got to the slaves' houses it sort of felt like a slap, like, oh right, we're in the South and of course there weren't servants, and we're somewhere were people might casually call slaves that. In the museum at the house there was also a small thing on how the Native Americans sided with the British in the War of 1812 because they thought the British could protect them from land-hungry Americans, which... yeah. There's something about certain areas of the South, where they kind of shock you by acknowledging that this country's based on some pretty truly awful stuff, but I think it's good that they do make you face it.

Still, I definitely recommend it as a place to stop, and one of those things that seems typical of a Nick and Natalie Trip. And by then we hadn't eaten since getting breakfast at the hotel before leaving, and we were getting hungry. We decided to stop at the Steak and Shake nearby just to get something cheap, and we should have known there was a problem when we waited about five minutes before anyone even acknowledged that we were waiting to be seated. It was another five minutes or so before our server came over to get our orders. And then we waited for twenty minutes without drinks, without any acknowledgement that we were waiting. There were people waiting to be seated, several tables that hadn't been cleared, and no one there was in any sort of rush to get anyone through. The guy at the next table must've seen we looked bored because he told us that they'd gotten in nearly an hour before and were just about to leave before they finally brought the food over. I give servers a ton of credit; they work hard even though no one thinks they do, they don't get paid enough because they have to rely on tips but there are a lot of asshole tippers out there who don't think about things like that, you have to deal with the public all day, it's stressful... But this was getting to be above and beyond, and we were considering just leaving, but Nick gave us another five minutes to wait and see if they'd bring anything over. One waitress came over to ask if we'd ordered, we said we'd been waiting twenty minutes, and she walked off looking frazzled. A couple minutes later, we heard a woman holding an apron yelling about someone not getting a break all day and how dare they yell at her. When it didn't seem like we were getting any more drama or food, we left a restaurant for the first time ever. I'd have felt worse about it, but on the way to the car we saw our waitress on her way back from her car, sooooo I have a feeling one way or another someone lost their job today based on the yelling. We found a Shoney's near the hotel, where everytime she came over to take our order we got to be like, "But no seriously she looks just like Daisy Ridley," and where we got to reminisce about our childhoods when Shoney's was Wag's, so I'm not mad at that detour. It's also the only real food I ate the whole day, oops.

I will say, too, that aside from the workers at Steak and Shake, everyone we met down here has been amazingly friendly. People had no problem talking to us in lines or at bars or whatever, but it wasn't really intrusive. It was them trying to be helpful about something. We heard the word "y'all" about four hundred thousand times, and I'm not sure that's an exaggeration, but since I've been y'alling for years it was nice to hear it without people looking at me like I said something weird. The girl who managed the line to get into the Andrew Jackson house was two weeks removed from Texas, and I'm pretty sure she said it in at least half her sentences. If you bump into someone on the street, there's a lot of sincere "Oh, I'm so sorry!"s that happen. I definitely dig Southern charm.

When researching Nashville I decided I wanted to go to the Parthenon, which I hadn't even known existed. It's an art museum that's a copy of the actual Parthenon in Greece, complete with the Athena statue. I was dumb and didn't check the hours of operation, so we got there about half an hour after it closed. But we got to walk around there and Centennial Park, watching people walk their dogs and taking group prom and wedding pictures. Seriously, it is a huge prom location, apparently.

But it was a good stop, and then we drove ten minutes away to downtown Nashville, where we paid way too much for parking. In line at the Hermitage two women from West Virginia had warned us about the convention crowd (we saw no one and had no problems there) and the parking, where they undersold it and we paid $27, but they don't advertise the prices until you've parked and have to pay, which sucks. But it was worth it, because downtown Nashville is pretty great. We got there early enough that we didn't have to worry about crowds yet, so we could wander around some. We stopped in at a coffee and ice cream bar where the line was out the door most of the night, and stopped to look at cowboy boots at one of the many, many, many boot stores around. It's also a small enough area that all the places we'd talked about stopping and finding maybe on the way home tomorrow, we found by accident. We found the pedestrian bridge, which is a great spot to stop and take pictures, even though we only crossed halfway before going back downtown.

We also walked around for a bit trying to find a good bar. I'm sure there are plenty, but it was just late enough now that the crowds were getting bigger, and while we tried to get into Legends, it was already standing room only, and several other places were just loud, and I like being able to have a conversation with someone I'm hanging out with. So we found Rippy's across the street from Legends, and that was a good call. There's live music at pretty much all the bars there, but we found somewhere not too loud where the band played a lot of different music with a country twang, the drinks weren't completely ridiculous, and while I didn't think my whiskey sour had much alcohol in it it kicked in when we were on the way back to the hotel. Now, if I was out with my friends I'd have had more and probably insisted on checking out more places, but it's different when you're with your brother and also we have to get on the road early tomorrow for an eight hour drive home, so we were lame and called it an early night.

In short (after a very long post), Nashville, I love you, and I will be back.

Flashback post: LA to Chicago

Hello! I have not been posting because I moved last weekend! For the last week my life has been trying to get things set up and desperately trying to find vegetarian takeout and making daily trips to Target. Overall though it was the easiest move I've ever made, which is probably because I'd thrown a ton of stuff away and had very little furniture to speak of.

Which means I'm going to tell you about my most complicated move.

Last year I basically blew up my life and moved back home to Chicago from LA. This is the fourth time I've gone up and back like that, and this time I had the most stuff. So Nick, aka the world's best brother no seriously, took some time off work and flew out to help me. Thanks to U-Haul being the god damn worst, we ended up leaving way later than planned and that meant we were going to have to take an extra day on the drive right from the start. But my friend Michelle made part of the drive all the time, and Sarah's family had just done the same drive we were going to do and had been giving warnings about things, so we figured it shouldn't be that big a problem.

I actually said goodbye to this, voluntarily, like a crazy person.

The above was taken at a rest stop somewhere in the middle of California. We'd heard that for long stretches of the drive we'd be going without anywhere to stop, so if we had an opportunity to stretch our legs or stop for gas and snacks, we took it. This rest stop was notable mostly because a) I got to pet a puppy, and b) when we found the vending machines there was a lady taking out the trash who warned us, "You're not getting the coffee from there, are you?" Of course not, for as much as I adore coffee (and this trip kicked my addiction into hardcore overdrive), there's always been something creepy to me about those machines that just spit coffee into your cup. She then proceeded to say, "Because one time I was cleaning that and I saw these little black things crawling all over it. My bosses tried to tell me they were coffee grounds. I've been around a long time, I know what ants look like!"

Vindicated on the coffee machines.

We decided to hit up Vegas, which we've both been to, but we stopped there for one specific reason. Years ago on another cross-country road trip, Sarah introduced me to a restaurant chain called Islands that I love, and the Vegas location is as far east as they go. There wasn't really time to hit up anything else, and considering driving on the Strip is one of the scarier experiences of my life there was no way I was taking a trailer up there. The trailer unfortunately became a very big reason for why not to do certain things.

This sums Vegas up pretty well through.

We weren't able to get through Arizona by nightfall. You're in Arizona for maybe half an hour, but it felt pretty harrowing as the driver, going around mountains in the dark through construction zones with a trailer I was still learning how to drive with, and I'd barely slept the night before so that made it worse. But we got to St. George, UT for the night, and set out the next morning around 6 am, just in time for the sunrise.

We thought Utah would be the hardest state. We were warned about the mountains and the steep grades, and I was still getting the hang of driving with a trailer on my car. I had to learn about shifting gears, and we kept pulling over at the many, many, many rest stops so the car wouldn't overheat, though it was really, really, really gorgeous and worth every stop. Utah was also where we ran into some of the more mundane problems. We stopped at a gas station, which was set a couple miles off the exit, and to get there and back we had to avoid the baby kamikaze bunnies that kept darting out into the road. I'm very proud to say that I didn't hit a single one, but I don't want to ever play Frogger with tiny adorable fuzzy creatures ever again. That may have also been the stop where we tried to find the gas station in the middle of a huge state park and took a wrong turn, ending in me having to do a three point turn on a dirt road while hauling a trailer that wouldn't let me back up without it creating a 45 degree angle with my car. After I managed that, I could do anything on this trip.

Which was good, because then the trailer lost a wheel. See the above linked post! It really could have been a lot worse, and we were only fifteen minutes away from the hotel we'd booked at dinner. Nick and I tend to wait till later in the day when we have an idea of how far we might be able to get/how tired we are/what the timing's like and then find something on Priceline. This trip included calls to every hotel we checked out, asking "Can we park a trailer there?" Some places didn't have the space for it. Some hotels would let you park across two spaces so we could just pull out and drive the next morning. We had the new, empty trailer hooked onto my car already, so this particular hotel in Rifle, CO had us pull around to park on the side of the building, which was new. Still, they were happy to accommodate us and that's the important part.

I proudly proclaimed that California was the prettiest of all the states, and then I drove through the postcard that is Colorado. It's gorgeous. When we left, we had to drive through a mountain or two, and while there was construction going on, that just meant we could go slower to see the gorgeous scenery! Since we had to drive in the right lane the whole trip, we were driving right next to the Colorado River, where you could see fish jumping up out of the water, or see people bringing kayaks in. As for what we did in Colorado, well, there wasn't much we could do. We'd wanted to stop in Denver, but a stop for gas taught us that the city is rife with traffic circles, which suck to do with a trailer, so we had to skip that. We did stop in Eagle, Co for breakfast at the Eagle Diner and it was so good. I like stopping at roadside diners on long trips, and this was by far the best I've been to. Sarah had also told us that there were rest stops where you could stop and dip your toes in the river or stop and watch mountain goats, and we couldn't really do that.

If we thought Utah was the difficult state, Colorado blew it out of the water. We'd been warned about mountains, but not how high they are. Vail is 11,000 feet up. I drive a Nissan Versa. We had a trailer carrying my whole life on the back of us. It was a stressful day, because my car did not want to go up those mountains and it was a challenge to get it up to 25 miles an hour. I had to put my car in a lower gear and put the hazard lights on as a slow moving vehicle while cars whizzed past us doing 80. At one point when I could smell gas we pulled off to the side of the highway because I was worried about the engine, but there's really nowhere to stop. We were on a mountain, with nothing but a guard rail between us and the tops of the trees below, and my extremely light car would shake every time someone passed us. We were only there for a few minutes before I got scared enough to say screw it and keep going. We did that all the way up through Vail, where we finally hit a rest stop.

There was an honest to god babbling brook next to us. There was some kind of biking event going on, too, so there were a ton of people on bicycles stopping for a break, and I'm pretty sure they'd been going faster than us. That's right, if my car was having problems getting up to that elevation, people did that on bicycles. Bicyclists are badass.

I really wanted to stop and see mountain goats. And when Nick and I go back to Denver to do it right (date TBA) we'll absolutely do that. But the car ride was a mostly tense silence, where I think we were both worried that the car might give up. (Though the trip so far had been so stellar and problem-free!) At one point I started telling the highway "Just go down. JUST GO DOWN." And when we did start on the downgrade, it was still steep, so we still had to be careful. It was a huge relief to get to Nebraska.

The warnings about Nebraska had been (I'm paraphrasing) "It's the most boring drive you will ever do," and "don't have a gun in the car because you will want to turn it on yourself." We didn't have a tough time, though, partly because Colorado was so fraught with car terror, and because we hit a storm. There was a lightning storm in the distance where we thought we might be able to pass it up without getting hit with it, but then we started seeing lightning on the other side of us. It was raining pretty good, and at one point we hit construction and went down to one lane. Sorry, everyone driving behind us! I was not gonna speed in a storm with a trailer on my car! Deal with it! Our choices were to sit on the side of the road and wait out the storm that didn't want to seem to end, or keep on going and try to pass it up. So we tried to pass it up.

We did it, and after stopping for dinner at a roadside hotel somewhere in the middle of Nebraska where when I asked if they could make something vegetarian they acted like they'd never been asked that question before, we continued on. When we got back on the road it was dark. So that helped with the whole boring drive thing. We stayed at the Ramada in Kearney, NE and I honestly love this place. The decor is completely 70's, and while the place was a maze (we had to go back at least once to ask the front desk "We're going where?" and we had a map), we also got to pass up a pool and bar in the middle of the place. I'm not sure this is a good thing; it was really humid and smelled of chlorine, and there was carpeting all around, but my god was it wonderful. There was also a tiki bar type thing. Check out the pictures on the website, it's there.

When we left in the morning, it was straight on to Iowa. That was the drive that killed us. We weren't in Nebraska too much longer, but there's really nothing in western Iowa. There's very little to look at except the occasional farm, and we had to wait something like two hours once we said we were hungry to find an actual place to eat. There was a little farm to table place somewhere along the way but they had a very set menu and we didn't need nearly as much food as they would have to give us, so unfortunately we kept on till we found a Perkins'. And then we got to see Sarah! Much like we started my move to LA with an overnight at her house, we ended my move back with the same. Her dad told us that since Sarah and her mom had been telling him about our adventures, he'd tried to keep track of us in case he had to come rescue us. Oops.

This was our shortest day on the road because we actually had a person to hang out with, and we had to leave early the next day for the very last leg of the trip, and the one that bugged me the most. I've driven to Cedar Falls a lot. I can make the trip in four hours. And it was killing me that because of the trailer it was taking six. It made the trip feel even longer than it was, and all I wanted to do was get home. But even when we got to Illinois, we had to move the stuff out of the trailer and into the new U-Haul storage unit, which was differently shaped than I thought. The trailer was 5x8, the unit was 8x5, meaning it went upwards instead of back. This meant that once again I had to decide to ditch things like my desk because they wouldn't fit, which was really annoying when we'd had to move that stuff three times already in a matter of days. But we did it, and that's it.

For as many problems as there were though, it was a good trip. I really love traveling with Nick, and this was the most time we'd gotten to spend together just us in a long time, and we got to see some really great states and come up with at least one place I definitely want to see again. Plus I'm the sort of person who sees a challenge and feels accomplished when she gets through it, and this trip had A LOT OF CHALLENGES. Besides, anything's worth it if you get a good story out of it.

Flashback post: San Francisco, CA

Because Facebook kept trying to remind me of it last week, let's go back a year to February 2015, when I made my visit to San Francisco.

About six years ago my friends got me going to the Thrilling Adventure Hour at the Largo. It's a new style show/podcast in the style of old-time radio, and every month we'd see it live. I knew by now that I was going to be moving, and the live monthly show was ending, so when they went to Sketchfest in SF, it would be the last time I'd have a chance, probably. So a couple of my friends and I decided to head up there after work on a Friday for a Saturday show, and then we'd drive back on Sunday.

LA is about six hours south of San Francisco, so it's not as close as people tend to think it is. It's a long drive. The other thing people don't realize is that San Francisco gets weather. In northern California, it's closer to Portland than sunny LA. So we hit storms. Driving in the dark in torrential downpours isn't fun. And when we rolled up to the Aida Plaza Hotel, we drove around for about half an hour trying to find the parking lot... only to find out that it wasn't in fact free parking, and would cost us thirty dollars a night. But there weren't any other options, so we parked and went up to our room, where we'd also had a scare because we were told that we wouldn't have a private bathroom, and that they were dorm style. And while each floor had a shared bathroom, our room did in fact have our own, so we got lucky there. Aside from not being told some very important things like that, the hotel itself was pretty cute. It was all neon lights and old fixtures, with actual flowered carpeting on the elevator walls. If you're going for character (and aren't bringing a car), it's worth it.

As hotel room views go, this isn't bad.

Also it was down the street from my favorite restaurant in SF, Homeskillet. We ended up eating there for breakfast both days, where I had more than a few vegetarian options and they had some amazing coffees. Plus it's right near Union Square, where we could walk around and go into stores and just check out the downtown area. And it really is kind of great. We checked out as much of the Contemporary Jewish Museum as we could without paying (if we'd had more time I'd have been all over it) and if you're into architecture, this could be a good place for you to check out. Plus their gift shop is pretty fun. And our Saturday was pretty packed; we also met up with a friend who's from outside the city and walked around Chinatown, but it's one of my biggest regrets that we didn't actually stop for Chinese food while we were there. It was also right before Chinese New Year, so it was decorated with lanterns and looked really great.

And there were some landmarks we had to hit, of course. Ghiradelli Square was our final stop, with a quick trip around Fisherman's Wharf, where you can also see Alcatraz. To actually go to Alcatraz, you need to carve out a day, more or less. It's a boat ride out there, and there are tours, and then a boat ride back. Unfortunately we didn't have time for that. But we could stand out by the water and watch a boat head over, and with a good camera you can get some decent pictures.

What up, the Rock? (PS that was a movie before that was a wrestler.)

The show was at the Brava Theater Center, and to be honest I'm not sure what I expected of Sketchfest. I think I'd imagined it as more of a festival of sorts, when in reality it was a series of shows around the city at different times. But there are a lot of shows going on then, so if you're in town for it you should probably try to see a few. Get your Sketchfest on.

And of course on Sunday it rained. Like, super rained. We had a plan to go to Lombard Street, which we still decided to do despite the terrible weather. For some reason, my friends let me be in charge of figuring out how to get where in the city. Rather than dealing with figuring out the parking situation, we took public transportation or walked everywhere. PS if you're walking in this city be advised that the hills are ridiculous. Bring good shoes. San Francisco actually has good public transportation, and it was a goal to take all the different kinds we could (there are trolleys, buses, and adorable cable cars that look straight out of the 50's- at least I think so. We turned out to be confused at what they actually consider a trolley and what's a cable car). It's just that I am awful at it. The information I had told me to go where I had the day before and take the cable car to Lombard, and on the way when I noticed we were going the same way we had before, I looked it up and found out that two different lines go from that starting point, and we'd picked the wrong one. This one meant we got out at the bottom of the crookedest street in the world, in the rain, and so we took pictures at the bottom of it rather than walking down it like I'd wanted. Next time.

Overall, there are parts of San Francisco I really like. There's a ton to do, and I wish I'd spent more time in Chinatown and been able to do Alcatraz and spend more time in all the places we hit, really. Plus there are murals and street art everywhere and I like anything that gives me Instagram material. However, our downtown hotel near Union Square was not in the best area, and that area probably made it the dirtiest city I've ever been in. And unfortunately I'm not really in a rush to go back because frankly I got harassed the whole time. I've got a pretty thick skin about that kind of stuff, but I was getting guys interrupting my conversations with my friends while we were walking down the street to tell me what he wanted to do to me, or homeless guys on the bus trying to put their arms around me, or getting rude comments at the freaking CVS while getting a battery for my Fitbit. After getting that constantly all weekend, it really does mess with your head, and while I'd happily go if someone else wants to, I won't be the one suggesting it. Sorry, San Francisco.

Still. Homeskillet was really good.

Flashback post: LA -> Chicago -> Indianapolis

While driving back from Iowa, I kept wanting to fall asleep. It's been a while since I've done a road trip when it gets dark earlier, so the three hours of not seeing anything but the occasional set of headlights will just make a girl drowsy. Shoutout to the gas station just over the Illinois boarder with with their horchata cappucinos. You are the true heroes.

So let's take a little detour back to 2009, when my friends John and Rachael got married. I had learned a great trick, which was taking redeyes back to Chicago so I wouldn't have to miss any work. The plan was that I'd sleep on the plane, Nick would get me, we'd drive to Indiapolis for the 10 am wedding, so we'd probably leave by 8 pm at the latest.

The reality was sliiiightly different.

After working a full day, I went home, showered, then grabbed my stuff and took a shuttle to LAX, where I took an overnight flight to Chicago. Unfortunately, this was when I apparently stopped being able to sleep on planes, so what I did get was sporadic. I landed around 5:30 am at O'Hare, where Nick picked me up. We had time to get breakfast and to change at his apartment, and then started on the road trip to Indianapolis. It's a three-hour drive, and to be honest one of the most boring drives I've been on. Most of the time in the Midwest, you'll at least get corn and farms and billboards for local stuff. You only get that so far on this drive, and then you get nothing. It's all fireworks billboards and cows, and then nothing. I had a purse full of Five Hour Energy and I was taking full advantage of that. After all, you can take two in a 24 hour period, right? That's plenty of time.

Don't take this as a sponsorship but I did keep saying it unofficially sponsored this trip.

We got in before 10, and the wedding was low-key but awesome, and it was a great chance to hang out with friends I hadn't seen in like six years. We had so much fun, in fact, that we didn't leave until TWO IN THE GOD DAMN MORNING.

The good thing is that parts of Indiana don't care about things like DST, so we got an hour back. But by that time I'd had ten hours' worth of Five Hour Energy, couldn't take anymore especially if I wanted to sleep at all, but I was too wired to sleep in the car. And thank god Nick was driving because I really did start hallucinating from tired. It was pitch black and rained occasionally, and I could swear I'd see things in the road and freak out while Nick was left going "Just go to sleep already." I was probably not helpful.

We got back to Chicago at about 4:30, and I had an 8:00 flight, meaning I was able to get an hour's worth of sleep before I had to get back to the airport, which was the worst thing I could have done. I do it to myself a lot, too. Personally, if I can only get an hour, I might as well just stay up because otherwise I can't shake off the exhaustion. Nick dropped me off at the airport on one hour of sleep in 36 hours... and United screwed up my flight. They overbooked several seats, and refused to leave until they got people to go on standby, which worked for me since I was literally the last person on the plane, freaking out that they'd leave me behind when I was so tired. But I made it, and I got in the seat, put my belt on, and immediately passed out until we landed.

And you know what, I consider it all an accomplishment. An accomplishment that I will never freaking do again.