I’m still here!!!

I apologize for the silence! When I started this trip and this blog, I made a promise to myself that I wouldn’t fall behind on the writing and I almost succeeded. But the last leg of the trip was pretty hectic and for the past few weeks I’ve been held hostage by FUN up in Seattle. And I’ve been having some computer difficulties. But enough excuses.

After Arizona, I scooted up to Las Vegas for a weekend with Davis and then headed to California for a week bopping between Monterey and San Francisco seeing Lee and Sadie and Carrie and Thad and Eliza! The final stretch of the trip ended with the longest drive yet. I made a straight shot from Monterey to Bainbridge Island: jumped in the car at 1am, took a 30 minute nap in a parking lot, was forced to buy snow chains to be allowed through Grants pass in northern California , and finally rolled into Bainbridge at about 7pm for a raucous party celebrating Han and Ellen’s 24th birthdays. I’ve been here ever since, having so much fun with all the lovely people out in these parts and have picked up some part time work at Han’s dad’s shellfish farm!

Don’t you worry. This is not to serve as a blog post for these last few stops–there are many pictures to show lots of stories to tell. I’m just trying to end the silence for the time being.

STAY TUNED.

Arizona and the detour!

I left New Mexico for a jaunt next door: Arizona. Based on a recommendation from a Southwesternly-knowledgeable lady (Kate!) I took a drive a bit further north, off the interstate and through the Navajo Nation. I hadn’t wanted to dash from point A to point B, but instead I wanted to take an extended driving tour to see more of both New Mexico’s and Arizona’s awesome landscape. It was perfect. It was a quiet, two-lane drive with few cars and even fewer clouds. More time to think and more time to listen to THE BEST mixed CDs made by Liz, Rusty, Ben, Anna and Pete.

I rolled into Scottsdale, AZ later that night where Sue so graciously welcomed me into her home and adopted me to join in the girls’ retreat weekend. (SUE! YOU ARE THE BEST! THANK YOU SO MUCH I LOVE YOU MAMA G!!) It was only a matter of moments before I was settled in front of the fire with wine and some absolutely lovely ladies to end the night. Sue, Paula, Trish, Betty and Martha were an amazing group of women to spend the weekend with and I feel utterly revived for the last leg of the trip. Some sun, some wine, some laundry, some sleep, some delicious food and some wonderful women truly rejuvenated this road wanderer.

Thank you ladies for allowing me to join in on the fun!

I filled the weekend with a good hike and a small spy mission to Grandma and Boppa’s old house–complete with a super sneaky peek over the back fence (the place really does exist! its not just a figment of my childhood memory or the background from a handful of early family photos). Additionally, I made my way to 25-house-garage-sale-date with Mr. James! Though James and I didn’t find any superb treasures (I did get another pair of earrings…oops), we had a wonderful encounter with the owner of Goldwater salsa, a chat about the hilarious painting she was selling of her father, former senator Barry Goldwater, plus, she sent us off with a taste test of her awesome salsa. We finished the jar with two spoons before we’d even made it out of her driveway. YUM. James and I spent the rest of the afternoon catching up, ALMOST buying an almost-meant-to-be Burberry coat at the sale, and downing several cokes on a nearby sunny patio restaurant.

Before the weekend was over, we celebrated Paula’s birthday and Sue’s birthday, had a few amazing dinners and lots of tasty wine. And then, just when we thought I was ready to go on my way…..Sue and I schemed up a little detour so that Kate and I could cross paths sooner than we anticipated….

I flew to Portland, Oregon on Sunday for a quick night with Betsy (THANK YOU BETSY CAN’T WAIT TO SEE YOU SOON! Say hi to Sidney!) and then met up with Kate Monday morning! We swiftly made our way down the west coast and back to Phoenix with a lovely stop in Napa Valley for a good dinner and a good sleep, well rested for a tour of Frog’s Leap Winery the next morning followed by a day-long trip down route 1 and an all night driving-fest for an early A.M. arrival back in Scottsdale!

To rewind back to the Frog’s Leap visit–this was my first ever visit to Napa Valley, not to mention my first ever visit to a winery, and my oh my, Frog’s Leap is amazing. They are doing everything right, from completely organic grapes with no imposed irrigation system, to growing fruits and veggies, raising bees and chickens, solar power, all processing/bottling happening right there, winery dog Abby to follow you around and winery cat Tara to sleep in front of the fireplace, an amazing tour from an amazing host (BOB, THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING!!), plus a wonderful story of how the whole company got started–I want to see the ins and outs of every winery I drink from to know that they are up to par with Frog’s Leap!

So after a morning of wine-tasting, Kate and I were off down the coast for what we didn’t realize at the time would be a marathon 19-hour meander to our Arizona destination. We stopped for lots of good views along the way, headstands at sunset, snoring/grumbling/yelling elephant seals, pizza and coffee, and then powered through the night fueled by podcasts and techno and intermittent naps.

Our triumphant return to Scottsdale started with a nap in the sun. MORE TO COME…

New Mexican Adventures

Like I said, the drive out of Marfa was spectacular, but it was not without a fight. The drive was beautiful, but very windy, with armies of tumbleweeds racing  across the road in front of my car, exploding into thin air upon impact. After about 45 windy, dusty and sandy minutes, I saw a state trooper in the distance blocking off the road. As it turns out, there was about a 20 car pile-up further along the road, due to the high winds kicking up so much dust and causing zero visibility! I had to wait about 45 minutes for another state trooper to come along and drive a whole group of us to safety. I eventually make it back on route, with about three hours taken away in the Texan desert. It was a beautiful detour though.

I watched Mexico outside my driver’s side window all afternoon. Sometimes the drive felt just like the Wild West, sometimes it looked like the Moon, sometimes it looked like what I imagine the Middle East to look like, and other times it looked like a few distinct levels from Mario Kart.

I loved New Mexico the second I seemed to cross the border, and it only got better from there. New Mexico is a wonderful place. I made my way to Albuquerque where Kyra, Seth, Abby, Luna, Jude, Maple and Squeaky welcomed me into their home (THANK YOU SO MUCH YOU GUYS!! And make sure to give Maple a pat for me…I never said goodbye!)

The next day Kyra and I took a day trip up to explore Santa Fe. It was so cute and quaint with lots of cute shops and little streets. We wandered around for a few hours, checking out the cathedral, the tempting jewelry vendors laid out on the plaza, the Georgia O’Keefe museum, the beautiful Nedra Matteucci Galleries (Thanks for the chat and the tour Ann!!) and just taking in the beautiful southwest sun! Luckily I found TWO pairs of earrings that I fell in love with and are now safely in the always-growing collection. We headed back to Albuquerque to make it home in time for dinner.

A day of exploring different neighborhoods of Albuquerque followed, including a yummy southwestern breakfast (who am I kidding, a yummy southwestern breakfast EVERY morning!), a great second-hand store (with many, many ALMOST finds…), lots of great shops and funky motels around the historic route 66 area. Albuquerque is super cool and I am so glad to have it on my radar!! That afternoon we made the trek up to Chaco Culture National Historic Park

CHACO. WAS. AMAZING. If EVER you have the chance to go through northern New Mexico, make a stop here–if not for camping, at least for a day of hiking! Being so early in the season, we practically had the place to ourselves. We got in that night just before sunset and had a chance to take a little bike ride to the petroglyphs and enjoy the site before darkness was upon us.

After the night of camping, a few sierra nevadas, attempted grilled cheese sandwiches over the campfire  and my multiple attempts to find the constellations I’d just learned in Fort Davis, Texas–Kyra and I embarked on a 9 mile bike ride plus 5 mile hike. We stumbled upon all the incredible 1000 year structures still standing from when the Chaco culture inhabited the lands and discovered (what we later found out were) fossilized shrimp burrows from when the canyons used to be under water 80 MILLION YEARS AGO (minds=blown).

Again, we made our way back home in time for dinner and a good night’s rest before we both headed on our separate journeys–me to Arizona and Kyra having a few more days in NM with her fam before making her way up the coast to Washington where she just landed an incredible farming job. WOOHOO! New Mexico was awesome and set a great tone for more southwestern adventures…

west texas

So much for that car wash….west texas was WINDY and SANDY

After a quick stop in Austin to say hello to Rachel and Daniel, take an evening bike tour of the UT campus, grab some Texas BBQ and get a good night’s sleep in their bright turquoise apartment (THANK YOU I LOVE YOU GUYS!)…Rachel and I teamed up with Rose for an early morning trek to Marfa!

The drive to Marfa definitely won for the best drive of the trip so far (but would be beat out only a few days later by the drive through the rest of Texas and into New Mexico…). Driving in very western Texas is really awesome. Roads stretch further than the horizon and the sky canopies wider than the world is round. The perfect accompaniment to the drive was a bluegrass and podcast serenade, windows down and sun, sun, sun.

Rachel and Rose and I rolled into El Cosmico, our home for the weekend, and got immediately settled into our yurt for a good sleep before our morning tour at Chinati.

The stars in Marfa will knock your socks clean off your feet, and so will the temperature fluctuation–sunburn and 80s to freezing and 20s once that sun disappears. Our little yurt did its best to keep us warm but the layers of sleeping bags and wool blankets really did the legwork.

The Chinati Foundation was really spectacular. Echoes of Dia Beacon and The Menil collection followed me at each building, but there was something so drastically unique about the isolation of Marfa, the history of Judd’s pilgrammage and habitation, the repurposing of army barracks (major echoes here of mass moca–especially with a kabakov installation bringing back building 17 memories…).

The afternoon tour at the Chinati brought sunburn, an overwhelming amount of Flavin, surprises behind each door, and lots of great insight and details into the foundation, donald judd, and the artworks on display. Plus, the reiteration of how many wonderfully creative things are happening in so many corners of the world.

Saturday night we ventured to the Mcdonald observatory in Ft. Worth where we got to look through lots of telescopes at Jupiter (its moons and cloud belts!), star clusters (specifically M79 which is 41,000 light years away), and the middle star of orion’s sword–which is no star at all, but a huge cluster of stars! We also got a constellation tour, where our guide used the craziest green laserpointer I’ve ever seen, and pointed out all the constellations across the sky. Cross my fingers I’ll retain the knowledge to be able to impress you all in the future…but, there is a good chance that I’ll still only be able to find the big dipper (maybe the little dipper) and Orion’s belt. Though I do feel pretty confident about Taurus now.

Marfa is wonderful. Really truly wonderful. If my words haven’t convinced you, hopefully more of these photographs will.

WELCOME TO TEXAS!

The foggy, early morning drive out of new orleans brought me across western louisiana and into our second biggest state (right?) THERE WAS SO MUCH ROADKILL. I mean, an unbelievable amount and a lot of variety too–turtles and armadillos plus all the usual stuff.

I arrived in Houston that afternoon. I didn’t realize Texas was so muggy, it was only in the 70s when I got out of the car but it hit me like a wood-stoked sauna. I found my way to Katia’s lovely apartment in the museum district and had the pleasure of welcoming her home after a day of class. SO ADORABLE and so perfectly situated within walking distance of every single thing on my checklist of Houston to-dos: MFA, CAM, de Menil Collection. DONE. KATIA I LOVE YOU THANK YOU FOR THE WONDERFUL TIME!

The art in Houston has been a total knock-out. SO impressed with the MFA–it was really refreshing as a typical survey museum with little surprises here and there: a gun powder painting of Cai Guo Qiang’s, a medical cabinet of Damien Hirst’s, and a light tunnel of James Turrell’s. The Menil Collection is absolutely wonderful with little sequestered homes for a Flavin installation, a Twombly gallery, the Rothko chapel plus a recreated byzantine chapel (not to mention their lovely collection!). The CAM had on an awesome exhibition: Answers to Questions, a survey of Wood and Harrison, a duo from the UK. They have a hilarious body of video works.

After getting some steel wool for little-bike’s rust, a check-up for Wilson plus a good car wash for all the northern salt/sand residue, we were off and away for Austin for a quick pit stop before the trek to Marfa…

new orleans!

dang. every stop just keeps getting better and I wonder how anything will top new orleans.

Wilson and I kidnapped Alli and Alicia after our play time was up in Atlanta and we were off to New Orleans to visit Mark and Michelle. And my oh my, it is because of these two that I now understand the phrase ‘southern hospitality.’ Mark and Michelle were unbelievably welcoming and SO MUCH FUN. From cooking us breakfast every morning to taking us out and introducing us to a true new orleans night on the town, it was clear that the two of them love sharing their city and their lives within it. THANK YOU I LOVE YOU GUYS–and thank you for introducing me to my newest crush, I just hope New Orleans has a crush on me too.

New Orleans is more magical than I even dreamt about. Before heading here, someone told me that they had felt cheated because no one had ever bothered to mention how historically important New Orleans is to US history–and I couldn’t agree more! The buildings are phenomenal and everywhere you turn there are placards proving dates that I never thought I’d see away from New England. For example, New Orleans is home to the oldest, continually operating bar in the US: Lafitte’s–open since 1722 (unfortunately I didn’t get a great photo of it and I’m having a hard time finding a good one online but this is kind of the best I can do). It was the only bar that stayed in operation through prohibition!

So after Alli, Alicia and I arrived for our weekend in New Orleans, we promptly made our very first stop at a drive through Daiquiri stand. Crazy. A strong Daiquiri at 3 in the afternoon sort of sets the tone for the evening. After a frenzied few hours helping Alli finish an application before setting out for the night, we all headed over to Alli’s relative’s house for the most incredible feast. A fisherman in the family had caught a 205lb tuna in the gulf earlier that day so we had piles of tartare, ceviche and seared tuna steaks–AMAZING! After we’d eaten ourselves silly, it was into the city…

At Blue Nile we heard an amazing Jazz group (Kermit Ruffins and the BBQ Swingers), at another spot we stepped into a latin dance party upstairs with another jazz-y-ish band downstairs, and at Lafitte’s I got the ultimate piano bar experience–drinkers on stools, bellied up to the lid of the piano making song requests that never went unanswered. Awesome.

Saturday, Mark cooked us a totally bangin breakfast and then took us to the ferry that we’d ride across the Mississippi to get into town. We wandered the french quarter and made some very necessary stops: Cafe du Monde for Beignets (French donuts), Napoleon House for a Muffaleta and Pim’s cup, Molly’s(thanks for catching that michelle!!) for SUPER spicy bloody mary’s, and then we staked out some good spots on Royal St. for the parade! Though Mardi Gras doesn’t start until March this year, a few early parades are already starting up. The parade we saw was Krewe de Vieux–and it was awesome to get at least a small taste of what the atmosphere is like during Mardi Gras.

Sunday we had another great breakfast (THANKS MARK!) and lazy morning, then headed into to town one last time. We went to Tipitina’s in uptown for a Cajun Fais Do Do–partner dancing to Cajun and Zydeco music. Its an old dance hall with a great bar and a big balcony all around the upper floor–and a whole slew of elderly southern gentlemen excited to twirl to the three of us around the dance floor. Amazing! Afterward we all met up for some great Mexican food and a few yummy Purple Haze beers to end the trip.

Can’t wait for the day that I can go back to New Orleans! A staggering amount of history around every corner, to-go cups at every drinking establishment, gorgeous buildings and balconies, perfect shutters, of every color, on every door and window, everything quaintly puzzle-pieced together, AMAZING HOSTS—New Orleans is totally seductive, end of story.

Shorty trip to Savannah

A shorty post for a shorty trip.

While in Atlanta, I took a day to drive over and explore Savannah. What an amazing little place–like every perfect little neighborhood of every city you’ve visited, all put together in a perfectly planned arrangement, with so many trees and green squares dispersed throughout.

It felt like Old town Prague, North End Boston, Old Port Portland (maine), what I imagined the French Quarter of New Orleans to be–every historic district of the great cities–all combined, with a good southern Florida/Georgia climate. FAIRYTALE!

HOT(ish)lanta

a full day driving swept me off my feet and down the road, leaving DC, crossing again through maryland, then virginia and the carolinas. Two tanks of gas, two birthdays and two free chik-fil-a sandwiches later, I waltzed into Georgia and into the arms of two lovely ladies: Alli and Alicia.

We’ve eaten at some tasty brunch spots (Sun in my belly! The flying biscuit!), and every meal I’m convinced that its the best breakfast/brunch I’ve had. Black bean cakes, feta, tomatillo sauce, eggs of perfection, biscuits, creamy grits, yumtown spiced bacon. We wandered the aquarium and alli showed me her new life and her new school (rollins school of public health at emory). We had a little belated bday celebration with tasty appetizers and birthday cake shots with banana bread pudding (on the hooouse). Following that tasty meal was a late, late night of lots of bars and dancing!

To end the weekend, Alli and I went to market and picked up some yummy fruits and snacks for a sunny afternoon picnic in Piedmont park. I can’t believe its February and I’m spending time in  sunny, dry weather and laying in the park! Atlanta has been a good rest-stop–catching up with long lost friends and getting to have a sneak peek into their Atlanta lives (and their CUTE little tuxworth apartment: THANK YOU I LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!), but also a chance to do laundry, clean-up and reorganize the car and get geared up for the southern stretch ahead of me!

The visit to Atlanta ended strong: poking around the galleries at the High Museum of Art, a visit to Martin Luther King Jr’s burial and memorial site, an evening at Sweetwater brewery and tasty, tasty burgers at Flipburger (a restaurant owned by one of the Top Chef contestants) and a day trip to Savannah.

Sorry for the poor elaboration on my visit to atlanta. My time is short–I’m already in New Orleans and about to take off for Houston so I want to be sure to keep up with the posts! Bottom line: Atlanta was totally bangin. And just LOOK at all the photos of all the great things we did!!

some scans to tide you over…

I’m waiting on some photos to upload and taking my time editing the next post. To tide you over, here are some pocket scans from Boston, New York and DC and a few postcards that are about to hit the mailbox.

 

okay time, time to slow down.

I woke up on Tuesday in NYC, woke up on Wednesday in D.C., on Thursday I turned 4 and 20 years, while Wilson celebrated his 10th year and 106,000miles. We are getting up there, old boy! Yesterday morning, I woke up in Atlanta. The weather has followed no pattern, anywhere, and I’m forgetting where I am and what time of year it is–it could easily be October and I could be in Minnesota. A refreshing disorientation.

Leaving NYC on Tuesday I said hello and goodbye to New Jersey and Delaware–for the first time. As I popped up on the other side of the Holland Tunnel in NJ, with the Hudson River and the Statue of Liberty sneaking away behind me it dawned on me that from here on out its all NEW. I’m not going to be anywhere that I’ve ever been before. Except maybe Phoenix….although I don’t really remember it, so I guess that doesn’t count.

The drive was pretty smooth though the wind was INSANE. My bike on the back felt like a giant metal sail that was ready to just take off at any moment. But luckily, no flying for us, at least not yet. It’s safely secured, I’m just always worried that it could change its mind at any minute and decide to just snap off and be free. The bike needs a name too. I got him this fall at a tag sale on the way up to visit friends in Burlington and now he’s seeing more of the world than he ever imagined. And so many miles left to go…

So I entered the doughnut of Maryland, and entered our capital, the doughnut hole, DC. As Joe repeatedly brought to my attention, I’m a bad American because this was my first time to our nation’s capital. I stayed with Joe and Carly above Dupont Circle (THANK YOU I LOVE YOU GUYS!), and they were WONDERFUL little hosts who immediately pulled out maps and tourbooks to make sure I was going to be able to find my way around the city and see everything on my ambitious list of things to take on during my daylong whirlwind tour of the city.

And ambitious it was. I made it to 6 museums plus a sculpture garden and saw all the big boy monuments. Hirshhorn, Air and Space, Native American (okay, I ate in the food court but the food was totally bangin–traditional Native American dishes–and the building is gorgeous), Library of Congress, National Gallery (east and west building), National Portrait Gallery/American Museum. National Monument, Korean War Memorial, Vietnam War memorial, Reflecting Pool, Lincoln Memorial and the Capitol building. Whew. My legs are still sore.

FAVS: Abe Lincoln’s lifemask, Chuck Close’s Bill Clinton, James Turrell’s Milk Run, Nam June Paik’s electronic superhighway, Olafur Eliasson’s round rainbow, everything about the Library of Congress (collections, collections, collections….).

EVERYTHING was working in favor of my being tricked into thinking I’d stepped into an undiscovered European capital. Mostly because our forefathers did a knock-out job pruning this city to a T so that it could compete with the heavy hitting capitals of Europe back in the day.

The reflecting pool leading up to the Lincoln memorial was completely under construction and drained, with jackhammers firing away on it and neon-clad workers climbing all over it–which was awesome. It is a pretty neat thing to be able to see such an important place/structure/symbol so exposed! I think if it had looked exactly as it was supposed to, as I remember it from Forrest Gump and footage of MLK’s speech from 1963, it would remain as this idyllic place that doesn’t seem to really exist in the real world, but instead I got to have a sneak peek behind the scenes while the pool was getting a facelift.

Walking up to the Hirshhorn felt like I’d fallen into an alternate Minneapolis universe–immediately seeing the same artists from the Walker sculpture garden with similar sculptures: a red steel piece by Mark di Suvero and a Lichtenstein paintbrush stroke..then later, even spotting a similar Sol LeWitt, Barry Flanagan and Claes Oldenburg.

The night ended with a Wizards basketball game–Wizards versus Bucks. HIGHLIGHT: because one of the Bucks players missed two free-throws in a row, everyone at the game won a free Chik-fil-a sandwich when they presented their ticket stub at any Chik-fil-a restaurant (I don’t understand it either, but I’ll gladly take free food). This came in handy when I took to the road the next day to head to Atlanta…MORE SOON!

DC INSPIRED: I’m taking on the project of memorizing all of our presidents and their years of presidency. And perhaps a few fun facts. Did you know that William Henry Harrison, our 9th president, only served as president for one month? He gave the longest inaugural speech (105 minutes) and did not wear a hat, even though it was a chilly day. He came down with pneumonia and died exactly one month later.