we're all but done with our trip now. we just finished up with acadia national park. we rolled in late last night at camped at blackwoods campgrounds. it was a huge campground with pines and nice sites. it was unbelievable warm for the midnight hour. as we wound down and got ready to nest, it was still in the mid 70's. that plus the humidity made it a toasty night to sleep. no bag needed.
we headed around the island and headed to the vistor's center. we headed to sand beach and started a hike called the beehive. it was a short but steep hike up to a cool viewpoint overlooking the ocean and beach. we were unaccustomed to the heat mixed with the humidity. but we go there. we planned to do a loop hike across some cliffs, back down the ocean and along the ocean trail. as we started heading down, lane went a different way and we didn't see him until a few hours later. i'm not exactly sure where the mixup was, but he ended up not doing the same loop hike that julia, jordan, and i did. maybe he'll write more about it. the loop hike had some cool views. we got back down to the ocean and finally bumped into lane again. as we were hiking, we were speculating as to what happened to lane. julie thought he went back to take pics, got distracted, and fell off a cliff. i thought he was ahead of us on the trail somewhere. jordan was a bit more creative. his 5 minute speculation included lane meeting and making out with a chick, getting parched (during the make out), breaking into the car to get to his diet dews, and then chilling at the beach. there was more to it and it was pretty funny as he told us his idea of what had happened to lane. we checked out the ocean and beach. saw a little girl trip into the chilly water and start bawling. saw many man boobs (including a silver chested old dude). the water was super cold. for me, it made my calves and legs hurt all the way up into my hamstrings. lane told us he had previously bansaied into the water and got all the way wet. it apparently turned his shorts super stiff. they are now starchy and noisy when he walks. jordan ripped off his shorts, hat, and glasses and elected to submerse himself as well. juila followed right behind him. i think jordan exlaimed something like, 'i didn't come all the way to the atlantic to not swim in it!' they came racing back to dry off.
we then drove up to cadillac mounatain which had cool 360* views. we hoped to kayak or take a boat tour but they were all booked. got some grub, had some chowder, ribs, and fish and chips. (we barely avoided the $5 'sharing' fee that the menu threatened).
we then got some over priced ice cream and headed to one of the few lighthouses in the area. that sums up our acadia visit. good times.
now we're heading to portland to camp at the koa. we'll grab a shower since we didn't get one this morning. we still have boston sweat on us. ugh. then we'll be up dark and early for our 7am flight. it's always a bummer to see a trip come to an end. on a positive note, we'll have 1/2 of sunday to unpack and unwind. then we all memorial day off so we don't have to go back to work until tuesday. yes! then it's back to the grind. i don't think we have an trips planned. maybe we'll head up to jackson next weekend and check out jujo's new place. maybe we'll try for a teton mnt. summit as well. i guess i'm signing off for the trip. hopefully i'll be able to post this tonight.
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Friday, May 25, 2007
recap of last few days
sorry, we've been slacking on our blog. this will probably be too late for anyone who wants updated info (since it's now the weekend). right now we're on our way to acadia national park. i just called darin sleight to ask about some tasty donuts that he and his wife ate up here in maine when they last visisted. i now know what to look for! =)
we just barely stopped at the ll bean store in freeport. huge outdoorsy store. i got a picture of the crew in front of giant hiking boot...oohh...exciting stuff! before that we headed out and took a quick peak at the atlantic. very nice. earlier today we roasted in boston. it was dang hot and dang muggy. probably in the 90's. ugh. jordan and i were a bit unimpressed. lane and julia liked it alright. the muggy weather tainted it a bit. we walked the freedom trail and checked out the uss constitution ("old iron sides"). it was ship built like 208 years ago. it had 52 cannons, huge masts, and 3 levels. i think it was the highlight of boston. on our way back from the uss we grabbed a taxi and eventually got the grumpy taxi driver to open up a bit. we had to talk sports to do it (boston celtics talk).
last night we stayed at an unimpressive koa in middleburough, ma. it was a decent koa but we had a crappy tent spot and there were some annoying gnats and loud neighbors. oh well, we were in and out of there quick enough.
yesterday was our new york city day. we camped abaout 90 minuets north west of the city then got up and took the train in from beacon. it went smoothly. got dropped at grand central station. boom! welcome to nyc! nyc was actually cooler than i expected. yeah, it was busy,crowded, and chaotic, but it had a pretty cool atmosphere. we saw the statue of liberty (via a ferry to staten island). then we saw the empire state bldg and wall street. i had a street hot dog and a slice of pizza. mmm. lane and i took the elevator to the top of rockefeller bldg. then we went on a bit of a goose chase hoping to see the WASP (battleship that was in town for Fleet Week). they had just closed the tour! dang it! but we got to ride in a taxi. then we checked out central park briefly, ate at virgil's...a bbq place. i had a super tasty brisket melt (brisket, cheese, onions on rye). i gotta say it's one of the best sandwiches i've ever had. then were were outta there.
the previous day we toured philly...
breaking news. we just stopped off in augusta in search of seafood,lobster, chowder, and the infamous donuts ( called mrs. dunster's we think now). after a few inquiries of the friendly 'mainers' we found a good place to eat called 'the red barn'. they were actually closed but lane somehow talked 'em into serving us. me, jordan, julia got some seafood soup/chowder and a lobster roll. lane asked for, "anything NOT seafood"! =) it was very tasty. jodan seemed esp. impressed. we found walmart and searched again for the donuts with no success. we had to settle for dunkin donuts. it didn't quite satisfy. oh well...back to philly info.
the first thing we did in philly was look for some philly sandwich shops (gino's and pat's king of steaks...which happened to be directly across the street from each other). j and j went to pat's, lane and i went to ginos then we split 'em up. they were tasty...made with meat, cheez whiz, and onions (with cheez whiz = 'whizzers'). but, they didn't really knock our socks off. we kinda expected green peppers and mushrooms.
we then found the downtown area after a little crazy driving (jordan at the helm in in the big city). we toured all the historical stuff. saw the bell, the independence hall, and a bunch of other historical buildings and galleries. i thought the ben franklin museum was cool. makes we want to read more about him.
we then hit some nasty traffic getting outta town. we stopped by valley forge. the visitor's center was closed, but we just drove around and checked it out (very large area). it was cool. lots of cabins where the soldiers were housed. had a few cannons, etc. tons of joggers and bikers, too. we then drove past new york, found an olive garden for dinner, and then headed out. we had a long to drive to get to the koa and it was late... and we had hoped to stay close to nyc. so, we kinda floundered around lookng for a possilbe hotel/motel. at one point we went down an incorrect road and jordan pulled off the the left into what looked like a driveway (it was very dark). he then wanted to back out and turn around but he couldn't cause there was a cop right behind him! =) pulled us over. then aksed jordan (somewhat angrily) something like, "did you realize you're driving on someone's lawn!" hah...he just warned, checked driver's lic., etc...and let us go! it was pretty funny. we found our koa and crashed for the night.
that about sums up our last few days.
some random thoughts:
we've hit a bunch of toll roads.
put on about 1500 miles.
jordan vamped some ice from a store (they weren't really gonna allow it, but he took that bag that lane just got with his purchase and filled it up at the fountain drink machine).
lane got off the highway at 'brockton' thinking it said boston. hee haw.
we met a sterotypical new york lady that was heading into the big city for a butterfly exhibit.
lane did a 'blind shave' in the shower this morning (no mirror or shaving cream) and came out with a patchy looking face.
ironically enough, i just fumbled about 3 oz. of choc. milk all over the floor and dash.
everytime we return to our car after a stint in the city or a long hike...it smells nasty, funky, musty from our towels and lane's often damp tarp (covering all of our gear).
lane is hard pressed to find diet mt. dew at our gas station/grocery store stops. luckily he loaded up with 2 12 packs early in the trip...and amazingly still has some left!! (probably cause we ran out of ice for a few days).
jordan and julia share meals. they also had leftovers of calzones and philly sands(never ate 'em). and had a chunk of cheese that went bad when our cooler became depleted of ice.
we just barely stopped at the ll bean store in freeport. huge outdoorsy store. i got a picture of the crew in front of giant hiking boot...oohh...exciting stuff! before that we headed out and took a quick peak at the atlantic. very nice. earlier today we roasted in boston. it was dang hot and dang muggy. probably in the 90's. ugh. jordan and i were a bit unimpressed. lane and julia liked it alright. the muggy weather tainted it a bit. we walked the freedom trail and checked out the uss constitution ("old iron sides"). it was ship built like 208 years ago. it had 52 cannons, huge masts, and 3 levels. i think it was the highlight of boston. on our way back from the uss we grabbed a taxi and eventually got the grumpy taxi driver to open up a bit. we had to talk sports to do it (boston celtics talk).
last night we stayed at an unimpressive koa in middleburough, ma. it was a decent koa but we had a crappy tent spot and there were some annoying gnats and loud neighbors. oh well, we were in and out of there quick enough.
yesterday was our new york city day. we camped abaout 90 minuets north west of the city then got up and took the train in from beacon. it went smoothly. got dropped at grand central station. boom! welcome to nyc! nyc was actually cooler than i expected. yeah, it was busy,crowded, and chaotic, but it had a pretty cool atmosphere. we saw the statue of liberty (via a ferry to staten island). then we saw the empire state bldg and wall street. i had a street hot dog and a slice of pizza. mmm. lane and i took the elevator to the top of rockefeller bldg. then we went on a bit of a goose chase hoping to see the WASP (battleship that was in town for Fleet Week). they had just closed the tour! dang it! but we got to ride in a taxi. then we checked out central park briefly, ate at virgil's...a bbq place. i had a super tasty brisket melt (brisket, cheese, onions on rye). i gotta say it's one of the best sandwiches i've ever had. then were were outta there.
the previous day we toured philly...
breaking news. we just stopped off in augusta in search of seafood,lobster, chowder, and the infamous donuts ( called mrs. dunster's we think now). after a few inquiries of the friendly 'mainers' we found a good place to eat called 'the red barn'. they were actually closed but lane somehow talked 'em into serving us. me, jordan, julia got some seafood soup/chowder and a lobster roll. lane asked for, "anything NOT seafood"! =) it was very tasty. jodan seemed esp. impressed. we found walmart and searched again for the donuts with no success. we had to settle for dunkin donuts. it didn't quite satisfy. oh well...back to philly info.
the first thing we did in philly was look for some philly sandwich shops (gino's and pat's king of steaks...which happened to be directly across the street from each other). j and j went to pat's, lane and i went to ginos then we split 'em up. they were tasty...made with meat, cheez whiz, and onions (with cheez whiz = 'whizzers'). but, they didn't really knock our socks off. we kinda expected green peppers and mushrooms.
we then found the downtown area after a little crazy driving (jordan at the helm in in the big city). we toured all the historical stuff. saw the bell, the independence hall, and a bunch of other historical buildings and galleries. i thought the ben franklin museum was cool. makes we want to read more about him.
we then hit some nasty traffic getting outta town. we stopped by valley forge. the visitor's center was closed, but we just drove around and checked it out (very large area). it was cool. lots of cabins where the soldiers were housed. had a few cannons, etc. tons of joggers and bikers, too. we then drove past new york, found an olive garden for dinner, and then headed out. we had a long to drive to get to the koa and it was late... and we had hoped to stay close to nyc. so, we kinda floundered around lookng for a possilbe hotel/motel. at one point we went down an incorrect road and jordan pulled off the the left into what looked like a driveway (it was very dark). he then wanted to back out and turn around but he couldn't cause there was a cop right behind him! =) pulled us over. then aksed jordan (somewhat angrily) something like, "did you realize you're driving on someone's lawn!" hah...he just warned, checked driver's lic., etc...and let us go! it was pretty funny. we found our koa and crashed for the night.
that about sums up our last few days.
some random thoughts:
we've hit a bunch of toll roads.
put on about 1500 miles.
jordan vamped some ice from a store (they weren't really gonna allow it, but he took that bag that lane just got with his purchase and filled it up at the fountain drink machine).
lane got off the highway at 'brockton' thinking it said boston. hee haw.
we met a sterotypical new york lady that was heading into the big city for a butterfly exhibit.
lane did a 'blind shave' in the shower this morning (no mirror or shaving cream) and came out with a patchy looking face.
ironically enough, i just fumbled about 3 oz. of choc. milk all over the floor and dash.
everytime we return to our car after a stint in the city or a long hike...it smells nasty, funky, musty from our towels and lane's often damp tarp (covering all of our gear).
lane is hard pressed to find diet mt. dew at our gas station/grocery store stops. luckily he loaded up with 2 12 packs early in the trip...and amazingly still has some left!! (probably cause we ran out of ice for a few days).
jordan and julia share meals. they also had leftovers of calzones and philly sands(never ate 'em). and had a chunk of cheese that went bad when our cooler became depleted of ice.
Washington DC
Looks like I'm glad I made this trip instead of sticking around to watch the Jazz get spurred repeatedly. :) Oh well maybe they can turn it around in SLC.
Mikey wrote a little about DC but I'll give my perspective of what's happened since. After the Mitchell fiasco we drove up into Virginia and stayed at KOA there (4 KOA nights in a row now, nice to have a hot shower each morning) in a town called Wytheville. Then we headed up towards the bottom of Shenandoah National Park. (henceforth known as "Shen") Shen is this long, stringy, bizarre shaped NP that is essentially the northern 100 miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway, which itself is like almost 500 miles. They do love their windy mountain roads here in the east.
It was Julie's turn to negotiate the Kia through the windy turns. Miles and miles of green tree covered rolling hills. More hills. Some more green. Some more green hills. Etc. At one of the many many turnoffs I made the observation that what this place really needed, behind the green hills, was a big gnarly jaggy rocky glaciated peak sticking up from behind. Yeah, that would be cool. :)
Eventually we got to the heart of the park, about halfway along the road, where the visitor center was located. We did a couple short waterfall dayhikes, Lewis Falls and Dark Hollow Falls. The sign to Lewis said 0.9, but it seemed more like 2.9. Those crazy easterners and their jacked up sense of distance. Must be moving to the metric system. Dark Hollow was a really cool area and hike. Mike and I spent some time experimenting with our cameras on the plethora of waterfall opportunities.
After the dayhikes and a brief visit to the Visitor Center, we were ready to cut the visit to Shen short as the last 50 miles most undoubltedly promised to offer more of the same, so we bailed with about 32 miles to go down a side road that headed east towards Washington D.C.
Washington D.C. (henceforth known as DC) was very cool. Julie had lived there for awhile before so she was our tour guide. That saved us a lot of time. We arrived after it had gotten dark the first night so we decided to park at Crystal City (across the Potomac in Virginia) and take the DC metro (very clean and nice) over and check out some of the monuments at night. This turned out to be a very cool idea. The crowds were minimal, the temperature was nice, and the momuments, in their lit up state, were spectacular, especially since this the was the first time I'd laid eyeballs on any of them. The Washinton monument sticks up 550 feet and can be seen from almost anywhere. We were able to walk right up to it and touch it. We also checked out the WWII memorial and the Korean War memorial, before we had to get back in time to catch the last metro back to our car.
The next morning we again took the metro (stayed at yet another KOA a ways to the north of DC) in and, like Mike said in a previous post, we hit DC pretty hard. We hit the Library of Congress (amazing building, both inside and out, DC reminds me a lot of the architecture in Europe), the Supreme Court BUilding, and the Capitol BUilding. You can't really appreciate the size of the dome on that thing from pictures, you really have to see it in person. Then we hit the Gallery of Art (I think that's what it was called. Honestly, all the places we've been in the last 72 hours my poor brain is struggling to keep it all straight). Although I'm not a big art guy, they had some pretty recognizable names in there, and it was cool to see the actual paintings up close. Monets and Van Goughs and Picassos. Cool stuff. Next we hit some of the Smithsonians. We spent a good 1:15 in the Air and Space museum. Despite it being an absolute zoo in terms of people and little kids running around, it was also pretty amazing. That building must have 50 actual airplanes inside in various exhibits. It also has missles and space capsules and rocket engines, etc. Quite the impressive combination of display and content. Next we went to the Museum of Natural History for a brief time. Of note in that museum were the Hope Diamond, and the Tiffany Diamond. Both famous, apparently. :) I'm pretty sure I've heard of the hope. Just one big mama blue hued gem...with like 40 people crowded around and snapping pictures like mad. Next we went to the National Archives building. I think was probably the coolest thing we did in DC, the others may disagree. It was a relatively long wait in line, but we got to what is called the...I think it was called the Rotunda of Documents. Something like that. Anyway, it is the room that houses the actual Declaration of Independence (could see John Hancock's actual signature), the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. Pretty amazing to see the actual documents, even if they are behind thick, most likely bomb-proof glass. The Declaration of Independence was VERY faded, kind of sad really. You could barely read it.
NEXT (whew, just realizing how much crap we actually did in DC) we took the metro back over the Potomac and went to Arlington National Cemetery. This is the place that has the rows and rows and rows of those white graves all lined up perfectly. This place is massive. We ponied up for the tour they offer on a little shuttle with a guide telling you about everything. All kinds of military personell and statesmen are buried there. I think two presidents. Taft, and JFK. JFK's grave was kind of cool. Buried beside him were his wife and 2 kids, and next to that was the "eternal flame". Oooooh. I guess it never goes out, kinda like the Olympics. Then we attended the "changing of the guard" ceremony at what is known as the tomb of the unknown soldier. Some poor army guy has to dress up all formal and march back and forth in front of this tomb. Only he's not just marching back and forth all simple like and casual. He has to follow this perfect pattern of marching, turning 90 degrees at a time, clicking his heels together, rotating his gun, blah blah. It's quite a production. And he has to do it over and over and over. Then each hour (I think) a new guy comes along and takes his place. But that is also quite the production. There is a third guy that comes in and sort of oversees the change. They stare at each other, and do funky things with their gun, twirl it around, rotate it, hand it back and forth. I mean, it's impressive the discipline and ceremony of it all, but to me it seemed a little bit like overkill. I guess I'm a bad American? And I didnt' believe it at first, but apparently these guys have been doing this non-stop, 24/7, through hurricanes, tornadoes, etc. for years and YEARS. Craziness.
Anyway, then we decided to just make the trek back over the Potomac by foot, towards the Licoln Memorial. It was pretty cool crossing that bridge. It's close to the airport, and there was just one plane after another flying right overhead. Oh, and one thing I noticed about DC in general. There are joggers all OVER the place. And they all have their trademark iPOd headphones in. Jog with iPod. If you can do that, you'll fit right in in DC. Eventually we made it to the Lincoln memorial. It was pretty impressive. The statue of Lincoln sitting down inside is enormous. Larger than I anticipated. On either side of the memorial they have a couple inscriptions. One of them was the Gettysberg address. I forget the other one. Yeah, my US History sucks. :) THEN we hit the Vietnam Memorial. That's the one with the thousands of names engraved on the shiny black wall. THEN (last thing) we headed up to Pennsylvania Ave. and saw (cue presidential music) The White House. You get one little view of it from the front (surrounded by trees and gates), and that's it. There are cops in the front guarding it keeping you from doing unruly things. It was tempting to hop the fence, run past the fountain, hop in one of the black Suburbans in front and take it for a joyride...but I thought better of it at the last second. I think it was the officer's shotgun.
Okay, that's enough for now. I'm gonna just have to post this and catch up later. We've actually done Philidelphia and New York since DC, but I'll put up a post about them later.
Mikey wrote a little about DC but I'll give my perspective of what's happened since. After the Mitchell fiasco we drove up into Virginia and stayed at KOA there (4 KOA nights in a row now, nice to have a hot shower each morning) in a town called Wytheville. Then we headed up towards the bottom of Shenandoah National Park. (henceforth known as "Shen") Shen is this long, stringy, bizarre shaped NP that is essentially the northern 100 miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway, which itself is like almost 500 miles. They do love their windy mountain roads here in the east.
It was Julie's turn to negotiate the Kia through the windy turns. Miles and miles of green tree covered rolling hills. More hills. Some more green. Some more green hills. Etc. At one of the many many turnoffs I made the observation that what this place really needed, behind the green hills, was a big gnarly jaggy rocky glaciated peak sticking up from behind. Yeah, that would be cool. :)
Eventually we got to the heart of the park, about halfway along the road, where the visitor center was located. We did a couple short waterfall dayhikes, Lewis Falls and Dark Hollow Falls. The sign to Lewis said 0.9, but it seemed more like 2.9. Those crazy easterners and their jacked up sense of distance. Must be moving to the metric system. Dark Hollow was a really cool area and hike. Mike and I spent some time experimenting with our cameras on the plethora of waterfall opportunities.
After the dayhikes and a brief visit to the Visitor Center, we were ready to cut the visit to Shen short as the last 50 miles most undoubltedly promised to offer more of the same, so we bailed with about 32 miles to go down a side road that headed east towards Washington D.C.
Washington D.C. (henceforth known as DC) was very cool. Julie had lived there for awhile before so she was our tour guide. That saved us a lot of time. We arrived after it had gotten dark the first night so we decided to park at Crystal City (across the Potomac in Virginia) and take the DC metro (very clean and nice) over and check out some of the monuments at night. This turned out to be a very cool idea. The crowds were minimal, the temperature was nice, and the momuments, in their lit up state, were spectacular, especially since this the was the first time I'd laid eyeballs on any of them. The Washinton monument sticks up 550 feet and can be seen from almost anywhere. We were able to walk right up to it and touch it. We also checked out the WWII memorial and the Korean War memorial, before we had to get back in time to catch the last metro back to our car.
The next morning we again took the metro (stayed at yet another KOA a ways to the north of DC) in and, like Mike said in a previous post, we hit DC pretty hard. We hit the Library of Congress (amazing building, both inside and out, DC reminds me a lot of the architecture in Europe), the Supreme Court BUilding, and the Capitol BUilding. You can't really appreciate the size of the dome on that thing from pictures, you really have to see it in person. Then we hit the Gallery of Art (I think that's what it was called. Honestly, all the places we've been in the last 72 hours my poor brain is struggling to keep it all straight). Although I'm not a big art guy, they had some pretty recognizable names in there, and it was cool to see the actual paintings up close. Monets and Van Goughs and Picassos. Cool stuff. Next we hit some of the Smithsonians. We spent a good 1:15 in the Air and Space museum. Despite it being an absolute zoo in terms of people and little kids running around, it was also pretty amazing. That building must have 50 actual airplanes inside in various exhibits. It also has missles and space capsules and rocket engines, etc. Quite the impressive combination of display and content. Next we went to the Museum of Natural History for a brief time. Of note in that museum were the Hope Diamond, and the Tiffany Diamond. Both famous, apparently. :) I'm pretty sure I've heard of the hope. Just one big mama blue hued gem...with like 40 people crowded around and snapping pictures like mad. Next we went to the National Archives building. I think was probably the coolest thing we did in DC, the others may disagree. It was a relatively long wait in line, but we got to what is called the...I think it was called the Rotunda of Documents. Something like that. Anyway, it is the room that houses the actual Declaration of Independence (could see John Hancock's actual signature), the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. Pretty amazing to see the actual documents, even if they are behind thick, most likely bomb-proof glass. The Declaration of Independence was VERY faded, kind of sad really. You could barely read it.
NEXT (whew, just realizing how much crap we actually did in DC) we took the metro back over the Potomac and went to Arlington National Cemetery. This is the place that has the rows and rows and rows of those white graves all lined up perfectly. This place is massive. We ponied up for the tour they offer on a little shuttle with a guide telling you about everything. All kinds of military personell and statesmen are buried there. I think two presidents. Taft, and JFK. JFK's grave was kind of cool. Buried beside him were his wife and 2 kids, and next to that was the "eternal flame". Oooooh. I guess it never goes out, kinda like the Olympics. Then we attended the "changing of the guard" ceremony at what is known as the tomb of the unknown soldier. Some poor army guy has to dress up all formal and march back and forth in front of this tomb. Only he's not just marching back and forth all simple like and casual. He has to follow this perfect pattern of marching, turning 90 degrees at a time, clicking his heels together, rotating his gun, blah blah. It's quite a production. And he has to do it over and over and over. Then each hour (I think) a new guy comes along and takes his place. But that is also quite the production. There is a third guy that comes in and sort of oversees the change. They stare at each other, and do funky things with their gun, twirl it around, rotate it, hand it back and forth. I mean, it's impressive the discipline and ceremony of it all, but to me it seemed a little bit like overkill. I guess I'm a bad American? And I didnt' believe it at first, but apparently these guys have been doing this non-stop, 24/7, through hurricanes, tornadoes, etc. for years and YEARS. Craziness.
Anyway, then we decided to just make the trek back over the Potomac by foot, towards the Licoln Memorial. It was pretty cool crossing that bridge. It's close to the airport, and there was just one plane after another flying right overhead. Oh, and one thing I noticed about DC in general. There are joggers all OVER the place. And they all have their trademark iPOd headphones in. Jog with iPod. If you can do that, you'll fit right in in DC. Eventually we made it to the Lincoln memorial. It was pretty impressive. The statue of Lincoln sitting down inside is enormous. Larger than I anticipated. On either side of the memorial they have a couple inscriptions. One of them was the Gettysberg address. I forget the other one. Yeah, my US History sucks. :) THEN we hit the Vietnam Memorial. That's the one with the thousands of names engraved on the shiny black wall. THEN (last thing) we headed up to Pennsylvania Ave. and saw (cue presidential music) The White House. You get one little view of it from the front (surrounded by trees and gates), and that's it. There are cops in the front guarding it keeping you from doing unruly things. It was tempting to hop the fence, run past the fountain, hop in one of the black Suburbans in front and take it for a joyride...but I thought better of it at the last second. I think it was the officer's shotgun.
Okay, that's enough for now. I'm gonna just have to post this and catch up later. We've actually done Philidelphia and New York since DC, but I'll put up a post about them later.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Lewis Falls - Shenandoah NP
Videos are a pain to process and get up, but here is one for you. This is a nice waterfall we hiked down to in Shenandoah in Virginia.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
done with dc
we hit dc hard today. we actually walked around for a few hours last night and saw some of the monuments and memorials at night. twas cool. i think we saw just about everything we wanted to see today. capitol, white house, smithsonian, etc. i'm sure lane will write about it in more detail tomorrow. it was good stuff. our legs and feet were pretty tired by the end of the day. we just barely got back.
the highlight of the evening was the sight of the doors closing behind jordan, julia, and lane at the metro (subway) while i was still standing on the platform. i think we all had a look of despair as the metro zoomed away as i was left all alone! =( jordan tried to snap a quick photo of me being left behind. there was a log jam at the top of the escalator and i couldn't get through the slow moving grandpas and cornholes. i caught the next one 20 minutes later.
off to philly and nyc tomorrow. we still need to figure out where we're gonna nest tomorrow night. hopefully there'll be minimal flounderage. we shall see.
the highlight of the evening was the sight of the doors closing behind jordan, julia, and lane at the metro (subway) while i was still standing on the platform. i think we all had a look of despair as the metro zoomed away as i was left all alone! =( jordan tried to snap a quick photo of me being left behind. there was a log jam at the top of the escalator and i couldn't get through the slow moving grandpas and cornholes. i caught the next one 20 minutes later.
off to philly and nyc tomorrow. we still need to figure out where we're gonna nest tomorrow night. hopefully there'll be minimal flounderage. we shall see.
mikey from DC
i didn't proof read this, oh well:
so far, the trip has been go go go. which is just how we like 'em. i don't think we've been to bed before 1am. (last night was 2am and we don't anticipate an early bedtime tonight). currently we are on our way into DC to eat some dinner and check out the monuments and memorials lit up at night. both lane and i are holding are bladders and have to pee.
a quick summary from my point of view:
the first part of the trip we were always waiting on lane. jordan, julia, and i were joking about it and hoping it wouldn't become a trip problem (we didn't want to have to take action! =)). it started at his house. we got there on time and he wasn't quite ready to go. then he made himself look conspicious at airport security. so, naturally, they had to search his check-in bag. immediately thereafter, he realized he had left his boarding pass back down the escalator where they had searched him. so, he had to haul 'a' back down and retrieve it from the security dude (after showing some id). later in knoxville, we had to wait from lane as he had to have his carry-on specially set aside since it didn't fit. seems like there were a few other times but he's since improved his ways and he's been solid!
hmm...it seems like all of my blog had been about teasing lane. it continues...
lane had a few driving mishaps and other spatial awareness problems. he drove off the road a few times, had a curb check, and managed to lay himself out by smacking his head on a low door frame exiting a cabin at cades cove. ouch!
random note for darin. to brag...i've hiked on the appalachian trail!!!
quote of the trip: "jesus just wants you to have a good time in the sticks." - lane
grizzes of the trip so far:
1) flounder finding our koa the first night. first night flounderage seems inevitable on our trips. we drove back and forth looking it. at one point we stopped in front of a store hoping to snag some free wireless internet. we succeeded in that. pulled up the koa website, put the address in our navigation program, flounded some more, finally pulled back into the same spot where we had snagged the wireless internet...and realized it was the very koa we had been looking for.
2)lane almost leave boarding pass at security check point (previously discussed).
3) jordan almost gets his beard caught in some rhodedendron bushes on the hike to laurel falls due to the fact that he's not wedge shaped like unto the black bear - not really.
4) exploding diet coke with lime in the back of the mini van.
5) driving like bats outta hell to get to mount mitchell (NC highpoint), getting there right before dark, and having the trail be closed. (can't count it!!) (the good thing was...we didn't run outta gas on the way outta there...we were a bit concerned for a while).
random stuff we done/seen:
1)hicks on trails (one talked about getting free cable with his tv at the tennessee high point)
2)laurel falls, chimney tops, clingmans dome, mount mitchell, lewis falls, dark hollow falls, blue ridge park way, skyline drive, assless chaps, etc
3)jordan and i heard a crazy cat noise while sleeping the first night. sounded like a bobcat attacking a poodle. we stil don't know what it really was.
4)sundrop soda, cheerwine cherry.
5)a goofy slow talking ranger
good things:
1)drive thru gal hooks lane up with a 2nd (and hot) batch of fries after she declared the first batch "nasty".
2) no tickets/wrecks *knock, knock, knock*
cool wildlife seen: 2 black bears and 2 coyotes.
so far, the trip has been go go go. which is just how we like 'em. i don't think we've been to bed before 1am. (last night was 2am and we don't anticipate an early bedtime tonight). currently we are on our way into DC to eat some dinner and check out the monuments and memorials lit up at night. both lane and i are holding are bladders and have to pee.
a quick summary from my point of view:
the first part of the trip we were always waiting on lane. jordan, julia, and i were joking about it and hoping it wouldn't become a trip problem (we didn't want to have to take action! =)). it started at his house. we got there on time and he wasn't quite ready to go. then he made himself look conspicious at airport security. so, naturally, they had to search his check-in bag. immediately thereafter, he realized he had left his boarding pass back down the escalator where they had searched him. so, he had to haul 'a' back down and retrieve it from the security dude (after showing some id). later in knoxville, we had to wait from lane as he had to have his carry-on specially set aside since it didn't fit. seems like there were a few other times but he's since improved his ways and he's been solid!
hmm...it seems like all of my blog had been about teasing lane. it continues...
lane had a few driving mishaps and other spatial awareness problems. he drove off the road a few times, had a curb check, and managed to lay himself out by smacking his head on a low door frame exiting a cabin at cades cove. ouch!
random note for darin. to brag...i've hiked on the appalachian trail!!!
quote of the trip: "jesus just wants you to have a good time in the sticks." - lane
grizzes of the trip so far:
1) flounder finding our koa the first night. first night flounderage seems inevitable on our trips. we drove back and forth looking it. at one point we stopped in front of a store hoping to snag some free wireless internet. we succeeded in that. pulled up the koa website, put the address in our navigation program, flounded some more, finally pulled back into the same spot where we had snagged the wireless internet...and realized it was the very koa we had been looking for.
2)lane almost leave boarding pass at security check point (previously discussed).
3) jordan almost gets his beard caught in some rhodedendron bushes on the hike to laurel falls due to the fact that he's not wedge shaped like unto the black bear - not really.
4) exploding diet coke with lime in the back of the mini van.
5) driving like bats outta hell to get to mount mitchell (NC highpoint), getting there right before dark, and having the trail be closed. (can't count it!!) (the good thing was...we didn't run outta gas on the way outta there...we were a bit concerned for a while).
random stuff we done/seen:
1)hicks on trails (one talked about getting free cable with his tv at the tennessee high point)
2)laurel falls, chimney tops, clingmans dome, mount mitchell, lewis falls, dark hollow falls, blue ridge park way, skyline drive, assless chaps, etc
3)jordan and i heard a crazy cat noise while sleeping the first night. sounded like a bobcat attacking a poodle. we stil don't know what it really was.
4)sundrop soda, cheerwine cherry.
5)a goofy slow talking ranger
good things:
1)drive thru gal hooks lane up with a 2nd (and hot) batch of fries after she declared the first batch "nasty".
2) no tickets/wrecks *knock, knock, knock*
cool wildlife seen: 2 black bears and 2 coyotes.
Monday, May 21, 2007
Don't worry, we're here...
Sorry it's taken so long for this first entry. We stayed last night at the KOA in Townsend, Tenn., which is just north of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and the KOA has wireless internet, but it was kinda sketchy and we got tired of dinking with it, so this is the first opportunity I've gotten to write anything. It's currently 11:46pm on Sunday and we're on I-40 heading East. Destination: Somewhere across the Virginia border where we'll stay tonight. BUT, I'm getting ahead of myself. I'll do a quick recap of the hightlights from the beginning.
I got hassled (surprise, surprise) at the SL airport security. They had to do a search of my carry-on bag. When I asked the guy why, he said "you had a couple books that confused the machine into thinking you had some kind of liquid". Well of course. Who hasn't confused the latest Grisham Novel with a bottle of hand sanatizer?
The flight to Chicago was more or less w/o incident. Got to see the Chicago skyline from the plane, that was pretty cool. The Sears Tower, which if I'm not mistaken I believe is the tallest building in the US, was an absolute monster of a building. I think if I worked in it I'd be paranoid and constantly looking out the window for a roque commercial jet heading towards me.
The flight to Knoxville was also w/o incident. The plane was tiny, however. Three seats across, two on one row, and then a single seat on the other side, making it both an aisle AND a window seat. Once at the airport I got stuck waiting for my "valet bag", meaning the plane didn't have enough overhead room for my carry-on bag and they had to put it with the check-on luggage. While waiting an extremely friendly Tenn. native lady struck up a conversation with me. People here light up when I tell them we're from Utah. Kind of funny. I guess Utah sounds kind of exotic to people here or something. Everyone here has that crazy Gomer Pyle accent.
Car rental was a breeze. We ended up with a blue Kia Sedona (minivan). At first we weren't really excited at the prospect of calling a Kia home for a week, but thus far it's been a decent car. Lots of room, lots of cup holders...the necessities.
We floundered like a mother trying to find our KOA in Townsend. We have every high-tech navigation device under the sun and maps galore...not to mention some wireless internet we vamped from some random building we drove by, but we couldn't see the sign. We drove up and down the main drag like 5 times. FINALLY we saw the KOA (small) sign on one of the many campgrounds they had in town. And the truly ironic thing was...it was precisely the building we pulled up to to get wireless internet in order to FIND the KOA. HEE HAW. Long story, I think I'd sooner forget...
ANYWAY, this is getting too long, I'll try to be more brief. Next morning we packed up and headed for the the park, Great Smoky Mountains NP. It's apparently the most visited park in the nation. After having experienced it...I can say definitively it's not because it's the most impressive park, by any means. Probably due more to proximity to the 9 billion or however many people live in these parts. The are called "smoky" because of the apparent blue haze that is visible when you view them from various viewpoints around the park.
The first place we went was what a ranger lady described as "the most visited part of the most visited park", a place called Cade's Cove. Some old school settlement with a bunch of old cabins and baptist churches and stuff. The sites were cool, but it was a one way loop and people drove SO FREAKING SLOW!!! Like 10 mph if you were lucky. So even if someone was polite enough to pull off and let you pass, it wasn't 8 seconds before you were behind the next guy. And if they saw something REALLY exciting, like a mangy deer 100 yards away in the field, they would stop in the middle of the road for 10 min. and point...and there wasn't anything you could do. The coolest thing we saw in Cade's Cove though would probably be this authentic water powered mill that was actually grinding corn and creating corn meal. You could see the gears turning and hear the grindage, and see the powder come shooting out. I believe the ranger guy there answering questions told us it could gring 150 lbs. per hour. Pretty cool stuff.
Next we hiked about a 1.3 one-way trail up to a waterfall called Laurel Falls. It was very pretty, but not spectacular. And there were tons of people and warning signs and stuff. Typical easy-to-reach national park attraction. It's really pretty in the Smokies. Very green, almost like a tropical forest. I guess my only complaint with the mountains here are they are almost TOO uniform. Just green trees completely covering them from top to bottom.
We ate lunch at Gatlinburg. Quite the tourist trap of a place. They even had their own smaller scale version of the Space Needle. We didn't spend much time there, needless to say. The next hike we did was much cooler. A 2 mile, one-way hike to a place called Chimney Tops. It was 1,700 feet of elevation gain to a small peak with some rock outcroppings which afforded you a nice view of the surrounding area. The trail had lots of streams and bridges, all very green and pretty, and a bonus scramble up the rocks at the end to get to the top. AND, we even saw a couple black bears on the trail. A mama bear and her cub, we believe. Bear sightings for me have been very rare, so this was especially cool.
Finally we made the drive up to the highest point in the park (which incidentally is also the hightest point in the state of Tennessee), which is called Clingman's Dome. You drive most of the way up, and then hike the last 1/2 mile on a wide, paved trail. Tons of people, very popular. At the top you actually cross the Appalachian Trail which is some crazy 2,100 mile trail that pretty much crosses the entire range. Clingman's Dome is the highest point on that trail as well. At the top they've built this large, cement perch which is suspended probably 50 feet above the trees, undoubtedly so you can actually have a view, which would be otherwise obscured by the trees, and a long, spiral walkway that you use to get to the top. Pretty cool view. BUt again...just green tree-covered hills, for the most part. I guess I'm a mountain snob being from Utah and all.
Lastly, we attempted to drive to North Carolina's state highpoint, Mount Mitchell. The only road to get there is known as the Blue Ridge Parkway. The BRP is a nice road and all, but my GOODNESS it is one slow, windy, monotonously similar around every corner road. As such, it turned out to be a race against daylight to even get to the top. And then once we arrive, the 100 foot trail to the summit was closed for reconstuction. Doh! At least we saw a really cool sunset on the way up.
Whew, that was more than I intended to write. But you know me, I'm incapable of anything less than novel-esque. :) One thing I forgot. This young ranger at the main Smoky Mountains Visitor Center had THE thickest accent you've ever heard in your life. Like Jordan said, these people may be Rhode Scholars for all we know, but anyone that talks like that just comes across as a few cards short of a full deck. Like it was borderline not even being able to understand what he was saying. Very slow and deliberate like. Funny. Okay I'm done, I need to give up the computer and let someone else write something. Until next entry...
I got hassled (surprise, surprise) at the SL airport security. They had to do a search of my carry-on bag. When I asked the guy why, he said "you had a couple books that confused the machine into thinking you had some kind of liquid". Well of course. Who hasn't confused the latest Grisham Novel with a bottle of hand sanatizer?
The flight to Chicago was more or less w/o incident. Got to see the Chicago skyline from the plane, that was pretty cool. The Sears Tower, which if I'm not mistaken I believe is the tallest building in the US, was an absolute monster of a building. I think if I worked in it I'd be paranoid and constantly looking out the window for a roque commercial jet heading towards me.
The flight to Knoxville was also w/o incident. The plane was tiny, however. Three seats across, two on one row, and then a single seat on the other side, making it both an aisle AND a window seat. Once at the airport I got stuck waiting for my "valet bag", meaning the plane didn't have enough overhead room for my carry-on bag and they had to put it with the check-on luggage. While waiting an extremely friendly Tenn. native lady struck up a conversation with me. People here light up when I tell them we're from Utah. Kind of funny. I guess Utah sounds kind of exotic to people here or something. Everyone here has that crazy Gomer Pyle accent.
Car rental was a breeze. We ended up with a blue Kia Sedona (minivan). At first we weren't really excited at the prospect of calling a Kia home for a week, but thus far it's been a decent car. Lots of room, lots of cup holders...the necessities.
We floundered like a mother trying to find our KOA in Townsend. We have every high-tech navigation device under the sun and maps galore...not to mention some wireless internet we vamped from some random building we drove by, but we couldn't see the sign. We drove up and down the main drag like 5 times. FINALLY we saw the KOA (small) sign on one of the many campgrounds they had in town. And the truly ironic thing was...it was precisely the building we pulled up to to get wireless internet in order to FIND the KOA. HEE HAW. Long story, I think I'd sooner forget...
ANYWAY, this is getting too long, I'll try to be more brief. Next morning we packed up and headed for the the park, Great Smoky Mountains NP. It's apparently the most visited park in the nation. After having experienced it...I can say definitively it's not because it's the most impressive park, by any means. Probably due more to proximity to the 9 billion or however many people live in these parts. The are called "smoky" because of the apparent blue haze that is visible when you view them from various viewpoints around the park.
The first place we went was what a ranger lady described as "the most visited part of the most visited park", a place called Cade's Cove. Some old school settlement with a bunch of old cabins and baptist churches and stuff. The sites were cool, but it was a one way loop and people drove SO FREAKING SLOW!!! Like 10 mph if you were lucky. So even if someone was polite enough to pull off and let you pass, it wasn't 8 seconds before you were behind the next guy. And if they saw something REALLY exciting, like a mangy deer 100 yards away in the field, they would stop in the middle of the road for 10 min. and point...and there wasn't anything you could do. The coolest thing we saw in Cade's Cove though would probably be this authentic water powered mill that was actually grinding corn and creating corn meal. You could see the gears turning and hear the grindage, and see the powder come shooting out. I believe the ranger guy there answering questions told us it could gring 150 lbs. per hour. Pretty cool stuff.
Next we hiked about a 1.3 one-way trail up to a waterfall called Laurel Falls. It was very pretty, but not spectacular. And there were tons of people and warning signs and stuff. Typical easy-to-reach national park attraction. It's really pretty in the Smokies. Very green, almost like a tropical forest. I guess my only complaint with the mountains here are they are almost TOO uniform. Just green trees completely covering them from top to bottom.
We ate lunch at Gatlinburg. Quite the tourist trap of a place. They even had their own smaller scale version of the Space Needle. We didn't spend much time there, needless to say. The next hike we did was much cooler. A 2 mile, one-way hike to a place called Chimney Tops. It was 1,700 feet of elevation gain to a small peak with some rock outcroppings which afforded you a nice view of the surrounding area. The trail had lots of streams and bridges, all very green and pretty, and a bonus scramble up the rocks at the end to get to the top. AND, we even saw a couple black bears on the trail. A mama bear and her cub, we believe. Bear sightings for me have been very rare, so this was especially cool.
Finally we made the drive up to the highest point in the park (which incidentally is also the hightest point in the state of Tennessee), which is called Clingman's Dome. You drive most of the way up, and then hike the last 1/2 mile on a wide, paved trail. Tons of people, very popular. At the top you actually cross the Appalachian Trail which is some crazy 2,100 mile trail that pretty much crosses the entire range. Clingman's Dome is the highest point on that trail as well. At the top they've built this large, cement perch which is suspended probably 50 feet above the trees, undoubtedly so you can actually have a view, which would be otherwise obscured by the trees, and a long, spiral walkway that you use to get to the top. Pretty cool view. BUt again...just green tree-covered hills, for the most part. I guess I'm a mountain snob being from Utah and all.
Lastly, we attempted to drive to North Carolina's state highpoint, Mount Mitchell. The only road to get there is known as the Blue Ridge Parkway. The BRP is a nice road and all, but my GOODNESS it is one slow, windy, monotonously similar around every corner road. As such, it turned out to be a race against daylight to even get to the top. And then once we arrive, the 100 foot trail to the summit was closed for reconstuction. Doh! At least we saw a really cool sunset on the way up.
Whew, that was more than I intended to write. But you know me, I'm incapable of anything less than novel-esque. :) One thing I forgot. This young ranger at the main Smoky Mountains Visitor Center had THE thickest accent you've ever heard in your life. Like Jordan said, these people may be Rhode Scholars for all we know, but anyone that talks like that just comes across as a few cards short of a full deck. Like it was borderline not even being able to understand what he was saying. Very slow and deliberate like. Funny. Okay I'm done, I need to give up the computer and let someone else write something. Until next entry...
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