Summer Road Trip 2005!

Hi Everyone!

Chris and I have finished our second week of work at Google, and our epic, 5,000-mile, 19-state, 6-week road trip adventure is already beginning to seem like a distant memory, but I promised that I would post some pictures and share all our fun stories, so that's why I'm starting this blog! To summarize, we had an AWESOME time, did some crazy things, and of course, had some crazy things happen to us!

P.S. A close runner-up for the title of this blog was "Thinking with Scissors -- How I Poked Out My Mind's Eye."

P.P.S. Apologies in advance for the grainy quality of these pictures. It's partially the fault of our old crappy camera, and partially the fault of Blogger JPEG compression. If you'd like, I can send you the original copies from my computer, which are significantly better.

P.P.P.S. Click on the "Satellite Image" link after each post. They're pretty cool.

Cambridge, MA - The Journey Begins!

You might expect that we would be bubbling with energy and excitement on the first day, but in actuality, we were still reeling from moving everything out of the apartment.

Before:
After:

I don't think we would have made it at all if Andrew and Tony hadn't pitched in. (Thanks again guys!)

The night before we left, we were busy packing until 4 in the morning, at which point we realized that we had no beds to sleep on. On the other hand, we did learn two priceless Gems of Wisdom (+3) for the long journey ahead:

1. Hotel reservations are for sissies.
2. Hotels give you great discounts if you check in at 4 a.m.

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Philadelphia, PA (Part I) - Our First Ever Parking Ticket

In 7 years of driving, I have never gotten a parking ticket, but what can I say -- our stinginess with quarters got us burned in Philadelphia. The parking meter ran out by about 20 minutes while Chris and I were getting coffee with Colette. It figures that we would get caught. Unfortunately, we didn't get any pictures in Philly, but we are still curious what this shiny prism-shaped building is for:

It's brand new, and it allegedly belongs to Amtrak, but isn't Amtrak bankrupt? What could they possibly fill it with? Broken Acela trains?

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North Potomac, MD (Part I) - Baseball, Birds, & XBoxes

We had a lot of fun visiting Chris's family in Maryland. We caught up on sleep, pigged out on good food, and generally relaxed.

• We played some 4-player baseball, where I tried my best Jason Varitek imitation at the plate (you know how he taps the instep of each foot before each pitch?), but when it came time to hit, let's just say that I made Mark Bellhorn look real, real good.

• There's a lot of neat wildlife in the backyard, including deer and a pretty pair of cardinals. I'd never seen a real cardinal before, and up close, they're fascinatingly red. (Yeah, duh, right?) Anyways, I learned that almost all birds love black-oiled sunflower seeds, and reports indicate that they are currently getting quite fat from the feeder I set up.

• Lastly, we spent a good deal of time playing an XBox game called Jade Empire. It's an RPG where our character, a "spirit monk," fights a lot of ghosts, deposes a couple of corrupt emperors, and rescues the Water Dragon, a goddess. It made me feel much closer to Rebecca and her research. No really, we had a great discussion about the similarities between this game and the political undercurrents in 7th- and 8th-century Chinese poetry.

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Philadelphia, PA (Part II) - Let's Go Red Sox!

After several days in Maryland, we trekked back to Philadelphia to watch a couple of Red Sox games. Two resounding, glorious victories against the Phillies.

Most excitingly of all, I got Kevin Millar's autograph! What's most sad about this is that I could have gotten Bronson Arroyo's autograph the day before, because he was signing for a really long time. I think this was my only regret of the entire road trip -- not running down there and shoving my way into the crowd that day. No offense to Kevin Millar, but Bronson Arroyo is my most favoritest player in the world -- you should check out his CD (Covering the Bases)!

We also tried our first authentic Philly cheesesteak sandwiches at Jim's, and walked around the historic parts of the city. Unfortunately, we couldn't see the Liberty Bell due to the excessive security around the place, but we settled for some pictures by Independence Hall:

And a brief visit to the Mint:

Part II is not without its own catastrophes, however:

• We forgot Chris's wallet.
• We accidentally reserved our hotel room for the wrong month and had to drive all the way to Delaware to find a place to stay.
• We broke the car.

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North Potomac, MD (Part II) - We Fix the Car

By the time we made it back to Maryland, everyone on the road would look at us when we braked. That's how loudly the brake calipers were grinding on our rotors. So, we spent $1700 fixing the car, partially subsidized by Chris's parents.

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Chincoteague & Assateague, VA - Attacked by Seagulls

As a little girl, I had an unholy fascination with horses. So naturally, Misty of Chincoteague (by Marguerite Henry) was one of my favorite books. Unfortunately, as I found out on this road trip, nobody else has even heard of this book. And truth be told, I don’t remember the plot either, but I was still excited about seeing these legendary ponies in real life.

We adventurously chose to stay at a non-chain hotel – the Island Motor Inn, which turned out to be a great choice. The beaches were beautifully pristine, since Assateague is a National Wildlife Refuge. Our encounters with the wildlife, however, were not entirely positive. The endangered Delmarva Fox Squirrel was cute enough, but as we were biting into our picnic sandwiches on the beach, we were ambushed by a vicious flock of birds that looked like this:

We don’t know what they are actually called, but Chris has dubbed them the “Black-Headed Fuckers.” These things were devilishly calculating and coordinated in their attack. The entire flock attacked from behind, landing on my head to peck at my sandwich, and completely yanking Chris’s foot-long sub out of his hands and down the beach.

Apparently, according to National Geographic, these things have pecked small dogs to death in England.

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Williamsburg, VA – Good…Sandwiches?

This stop was surprisingly boring. We thought we would be interested in seeing all the historical stuff here, but we never got into a very academic mood. We did, however, go to Colonial Williamsburg repeatedly to get sandwiches at a place called the Cheese Shop.

There were also two interesting things I noted:

• Colonial Williamsburg is a town similar to Old Sturbridge Village, MA, where costumed actors roam the town and answer any questions you might have about the town and its history. Throughout the entire day, I did not see one female ask the actors any questions. The dozens and dozens of questions I heard were ALL asked by men. WHY IS THIS?!
• Colonial Williamsburg does not have a schoolhouse! It was cool to confirm what I learned in my History of Women’s Education class at HGSE – that the Puritans in New England were advocates of public schooling, but southerners mostly relied on private tutoring for the wealthy.

Okay, okay, so we did end up being a little academic.

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Outer Banks, NC – Paradise and an Apartment

Yay for more pretty beaches! (We were too busy having fun and swimming to take good pictures.)

At Kitty Hawk, we visited the memorial to the Wright Brothers. However, we will also remember it as the "Memorial to Jenn and Chris Finally Finding an Apartment. " (We were sitting by the memorial when we got the call from Avalon Parkside, chose a unit, and gave them our credit card number.)

Other highlights include:

• Kayaking into a lightning storm to see some dolphins.
• Flying a fighter kite and almost crash-diving it into a throng of people due to our ineptitude.
• Eating seafood at a restaurant called Dirty Dick’s.
• Camping for the first time (on this road trip).
• Seeing the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.

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Greenville, SC – Stands for SO CHEAP!

In addition to our previous Hotel Gems of Wisdom, we learned this in South Carolina:

• State visitor centers (usually right after you cross the border into the state) will give you sweet sweet coupons for hotels.

Thanks to these coupons, we stayed at a nice hotel in Greenville that cost $40. Literally, we would have paid $120 for this kind of place in any other ([cough] popular) urban area. The last time we paid $40 for a room was the SeaTac Inn (in Seattle), where I refused to take off my shoes before climbing into bed. If you clicked on the link, note the number of star(s).

Cost for a gallon of gas: $1.89

Oh, and not to dwell on the SeaTac Inn since it technically isn't part of this road trip, but reviews on Expedia include the following hilarious posts:

• “Shabby, poor-quality dump!”
• “Like a chipped, stale ash-tray”
• “Probably the worst place we stayed”
• “Very bad, bad-not again!!!!!!!!”
• “Car was stolen”

See for yourself, we kid you not.

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Duluth, GA – Old Fun, New Twists

Visiting my aunt, uncle, and cousins in Atlanta is always fun. We did the same things we always do, and as always, we had a good time. It seems to never get old, although Chris never got used to all the health food. (We had carrots, celery, and steamed sweet potatoes for breakfast every morning.) Unfortunately, however, we forgot to take pictures. But here's one with Katherine at graduation in Harvard Yard! (Hey, it's something.)

The old activities with some new twists:

• Stone Mountain
• The Old: The laser show is still great, and “I’m Proud to Be An American” still makes us feel proud to be American.
• The New: Jenn is too out of shape to climb up the mountain without resting at every shady spot on the way. (Even ones that were out of the way.) Plus, it rained so hard that we saw waterfalls streaming down the face of the mountain. (Yes, we got quite soggy too.)
• Helen City
• The Old: Tubing down the alpine river is still good for laughs, and taunting other people who get stuck on rocks never gets old.
• The New: The two-hour wait at the end of the ride, and the shameless yet devastatingly effective way in which my cousins leveraged it for ice cream and funnel cake.
• Playing Tennis
• The Old: Jenn still isn’t very good.
• The New: Chris got the chance to prove his manliness to my relatives and their friends in a doubles death match. It ended with…a thunderstorm.

Chris and I also made coconut curried prawns for everyone, and I think we accidentally spiced everyone out of their minds. But thanks for trying!

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Shreveport, LA – No Crawfish for Us

We only stayed one night here on our way to Texas, but it’s worth mentioning that we did try to have local food for dinner. In the end, the authentic Cajun restaurants looked far too sketchy, and we ended up wimping out and eating at Chili’s. (Wimps, I know.)

The next day, we crossed the Mississippi River.

We also saw this in Louisiana, which we thought was really cute:

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Dallas, TX – Mmmmm…Tex-Mex!

Anna’s and Felipe’s had good burritos in Cambridge, but we learned early in our freshman year that other “Mexican” food in New England is not to be touched with a ten-foot pole. So by the time we got to Texas, we happily devoured all the yummy enchiladas, tamales, quesadillas, and salsa we could eat without exploding. Of course, Aunt Kim’s cooking (featuring some tasty pulled-pork sandwiches) was hard to pass up too!

Jenn finally met the Stacey family in big get-together at Uncle Dick’s and Aunt Kim’s house.

It was an action-packed week overall:

• We toured Dealey Plaza (the place where JFK was shot).
• We went to “A Taste of Dallas” with Aunt Lynn, Joe, and Chase (where we obviously jumped at the chance for more Tex-Mex).
• We introduced Uncle Jim, Aunt Monte, and Matt to “Settlers of Catan.”
• We explored the Fort Worth Stockyards (dang those longhorns are *huge*).
• We took the Dart to see a concert with Tim and Brian. (Remember the guy with the weed-eater?)
• We salivated over all the cool toys at Fry’s and the Bose store.
• We got a trio of cute little owl figurines and fluffy U.T. Longhorn slippers from Chris’s grandmother.

The two most interesting pieces of trivia we learned:

• Armadillos are real animals! Chris already knew this, of course, having grown up in Texas, but I thought armadillos were like jackalopes.
• Inbredness is not really something you can joke about in Arkansas.

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Amarillo, TX – Two Words: Big Steak

You know that episode of the Simpsons where Homer challenges some trucker to a steak eat-off? Chris and I thought it might be fun to go to the Big Texan, where if you eat an entire 72 oz. steak, you get it for free.

Jenn also insisted on visiting the American Quarter Horse Museum.

Our drive-by WiFi theft skills also turned up the following network name in Amarillo: TruckSTOP.NeT. Apparently, truckers use WiFi too!

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Colorado Springs, CO – Guns and Fancy Cars

We still can’t believe how much cool stuff Chris’s Uncle Ray and Aunt Julie let us try when we went up to Colorado Springs. First off, I never imagined that I would shoot a real gun in my lifetime:

We went off-roading in a Suburban to find this secluded place in the woods. Our targets were a gallon of water, shook-up soda cans, and shook-up whipped cream. Here's Us with our kills:

The water made a huge splash, but the whipped cream was probably the most awesome, since I hit it at the bottom of the can, and the escaping whipped cream propelled the bottle spinning into the air. (So awesome.)

Secondly, the coolest car I could imagine driving was an automatic Toyota Prius, but then Uncle Ray taught us how to drive stick in this:

We also did the following super cool things:

• Visited the Garden of the Gods (a bunch of neat stone formations).
• Went shopping in Old Colorado Springs (very surprisingly similar to Helen, GA).
• Walked through the Cave of the Winds (full of stalactites and stalagmites).
• Toured the Air Force Academy.
• Practiced golf swings at a driving range.
• Drove to the top of Pike’s Peak (white-knuckles all the way...no really, it's the altitude's sickness's fault)!!
  

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Continental Divide, CO – A Puddle

I tried to pour some water out of the bottle to see which way it would flow, but unfortunately, it just made a puddle. I assume the effect is more exciting with large volumes of water.

Here’s the scenery:

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Aspen, CO – What Does it Cost in the Winter?!

Aspen is supposed to be one of the elite ski resorts in the country, and you can tell because even in July (read, no snow), the hotel rates were outrageous. It was, however, really beautiful, and we’d like to come back during the winter when we’re rich.

That said, Jenn was not at her pinnacle of brilliance during a scenic trail ride.

Famous last words: “Hey Chris! Try kicking your feet out your stirrups – it feels really good.” 30 seconds later, Jenn’s horse tries to leap over a small creek, unceremoniously dumping Jenn onto the ground because the lazy bum didn’t want to get his hooves muddy. (Our guide helpfully explained this horse’s obnoxious distaste for mud *after* the mishap.)

Afterwards, we soaked out the aches and pains and injured pride in the natural hot springs nearby. Ahhhhhh…

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Colorado National Monument, CO – Great Campsite

We actually arrived at this campground late at night, so we could only imagine that the view was cool after having driven up some steep roads. Besides, every campground in Colorado that could be reserved WAS reserved, so we were happy just to get an assurance from the park ranger that this campground rarely filled up, and that it only cost $10.

Lo and behold, we got our choice of campsites, and the view was great – we had been sleeping on the edge of a cliff!


Note that Jenn has been wearing the same shirt for about three days because she's been too lazy to change. (Eeeew.)

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Arches National Park, UT – Need…More…Water…

The temperature hit 110 while we were hiking around Arches, and we definitely didn’t bring enough water. The park recommended a gallon per person, but we only had a half-gallon bottle between the two of us. We tried to make it last, but note how all of our pictures feature us being very possessive of the water.

Except this picture:

We’ll refrain from commenting further on that one.

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Zion National Park, UT – Great Hiking

This was a gorgeous place to hike, and it was *wonderfully* cool and overcast, compared to our blistering experience at Arches.

We only stuck to the easy hikes, which were pretty nice, but as expected, there were a lot of loud obnoxious people – smokers, people who threw their trash all over the place, kids who were stomping all over the plants… Honestly, who *does* this stuff at a national park?

We wanted to do the “Narrows” hike because it’s one of the trademarks of Zion, but the flash flood warnings (and the wreckage caused by previous floods) kept us out. Here’s Jenn at the entrance to the Narrows.

And Jenn making like an elk.

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Las Vegas, NV - A Sweet Suite

We stayed at Caesar’s Palace, which was much nicer than I remembered. (Then again, the last time I was here, I was twelve.) Even better was our upgrade to this *huge* suite. This is the view from our room -- it certainly beat sleeping on rocks!

Our favorite restaurant was Margaritaville. We eventually walked around all the major casinos on the Strip, and at one point, Jenn won $3 at a nickel machine! Overall, however, we’re too dorky for Las Vegas. We probably get more thrills when all the dollar coins fall out of the stamp machine (if you pay with a $20 bill).

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Santa Clarita, CA – Hollywood Sign and the Angels

It’s always weird to come back to SCV, because memories of high school keep rushing back. So, Southern California feels too much like home still to take pictures, but we did a lot of cool stuff that we probably should have taken pictures of, like:

• Horseback riding under the Hollywood sign (with a brief stop for Mexican food and margaritas in the middle of the ride)!
• Seeing Vlad Guerrero beat the stuffing out of the Orioles at Angel Stadium.
• Spending a day at the Knott’s Berry Farm water park. (Andrew still maintains that he won the Banzai Falls speed slide race against Chris.)
• Watching Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory on IMAX at the Edwards Theater.

Andrew flew in to Burbank halfway through our visit, and seeing the Angels game was our pre-paid “thank you” for all the free manual labor (see next entry)!

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Sunnyvale, CA – We Made it Alive!!!

Our apartment is totally sweet – 1100 square feet, with vaulted ceilings and a sunroom, and we don’t know what to do with all this space! City-to-City delivered our crates on time, and without breaking a single thing. We *love* northern California so far, since the weather has been 70 degrees and sunny with a slight breeze, every single day, and there’s a super-nifty mini-golf course down the street.

Working at Google is really very similar to what it might be like to work at Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory, except for big, slightly dorky kids. (Hopefully we don't get outsourced to Oompa-Loompas for leaking trade secrets, haha.) We've got all sorts of neat candy and snacks and smoothies and meals, plus endless free tech toys. For example, they give every new hire two 24" Dell flatscreen monitors and we're allowed to request just about anything we want (Blackberry, laptops, PDAs, etc.).

So in conclusion, the two of us are really happy here, and we’re playing a lot of tennis. The one thing we really miss about Boston is that there are no Red Sox fans here…but we hope y’all can visit us sometime! We’re actively working on our wedding plans, and will post more info about that soon too!

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