After leaving the Indianapolis area at about 10am, I took a leisurely pace to get to Chicago. I had called ahead and let Reba Place Fellowship, the people I’m staying with, that I was coming. I got there a little later then I had expected because there was some confusion about whether to go left or right off the entrance ramp and I hadn’t written down any directions, who needs to do that really? ;) I went the wrong so far the wrong direction I ended up in a town by the name of Park Ridge, that is just west of Skokie, for anyone reading this who knows Chicagoland. Getting situated in the right direction I then headed to Evanston, where I was a little later then I had said but it didn’t matter. The house I’m staying at takes a siesta at about the time I arrived so there was no one about. I had called and talked to them and they had assured me that I should just come right in and make myself at home. I did just that, and situated myself in one of the two guest rooms in the basement, where I have been sleeping for the duration of my stay.
The first afternoon here, I spent it just walking around and running into people I had not seen for at least three years. Apparently I was the only summer intern from 2005, that had not maintained some contact with people. It was cool bumping into folks and seeing how they had changed and what was up with them. For example two of the people I had spent that summer with had gotten married to one another. I’ve seen them and they look good together, but that totally took me by surprise as that all developed well after I had left. Lives have a way progressing as time goes on I suppose. It was good to catch up with people, though it surprised me how much at the Clearing, the house that I stayed and are staying, has remained the same. What I mean is the rhythm of life is the same, early morning breakfast 7am, and dinner always at the same time.
That same afternoon of my arrival, after playing catch up, I headed out for a bike ride just around the neighborhood and beyond. The thing that sucked was I had tried to go down to Rogers Park, to see the other Church, Living Water, the Reba community has down there, but I started the wrong way and headed farther into Evanston instead. It was a good time and I really enjoyed the excursion that I had, even if wasn’t the way I had intended to go. Evanston, appears to have gotten a little more affluent looking then it was before, more condos going in where rentals had been before, that kind of thing. I then headed back and managed to bump into Roselyn Wilson out riding her bike as well. She is the woman I had contacted about staying at Reba again and she had set it up with the Clearing for me to stay there.
She was headed to her garden plot, so I invited myself along and followed along, to do some weeding and watering. It was cool just to commiserate about things and where we were at with things in our lives. I can’t say I have any plans, past what I think I might want to do in September, but I still like hearing from someone who had stuck around Reba, like I could have after graduation.
I then grabbed dinner at the Patch, which is the community house of which Roselyn, Jesse and Annie are apart, all of whom I know from my summer here. I bumped into both new and familiar faces and all seem to be doing well. Reba has gotten a lot younger since the summer I spent here. Apparently, the internship has gotten so popular that they have started turning people away and suggesting they apply for other communities. It has been cool to see people my own age around here, and if I ever came back here to live it would feel more like a group of my peers rather then me showing up as the sole junior statesman, which I got some feeling of when I was here during my summer. I spent my evening playing a funky board game with the aforementioned 3 people and it was a good time; I really do enjoy just chilling with people.
I headed down to Chicago the next morning to go see The Art Institute of Chicago. It was a really cool museum and I didn’t know how many really great paintings they had. The one that came as the most surprising to me was American Gothic, it’s so cool. It like Hopper’s Nighthawks, which was also there and it too has been so often parodied it really is part of the American lexicon and pop culture. The really lame thing about that museum was it is mostly under constructions until half way though July, so there was a good portion of the general collection I didn’t get to see, guess I’ll have to come back. ;) I did get to go to a hotdog stand which gave me a stereotypical Chicago hotdog. I have to say the pickles, the onions, and the peppers really do add something; I really like Chicago style.
The next day after that worked out where I didn’t really do anything other then jump on my bike and go north for lunch and play my guitar. I did help a couple I knew from my summer here move their stuff out of their apartment, that morning, but otherwise I just lounged around and it was a good time. The next day being Sunday, I went to church in the morning. I always forget how original a lot of the songs are. Back in the 70s there was a group of musicians here that did a great job writing some great songs. Granted they do the classic evangelical fare here as well, but it is interspersed with some songs that are unique to Reba as far as I’m aware. I then spent the afternoon playing Frisbee in the rain for about 2 hours. It was a great deal of fun I just needed clean dry everything by the time we were done.
That brings me to today, I got up in time for breakfast and managed to get out the house at a decent hour so I got the express “L” train to the loop. I checked out both the Sears tower and the Field Museum in the same day as well as just wondered around the city generally eating too much. The view from the Sears tower was amazing, I swear I thought I could see to the other side of Lake Michigan, since it was such a clear day. I also go to see how completely massive Chicago is by comparison with Boston. It illustrated to me how well planned out Chicago is then Boston, which has been making it really easy to navigate the last few days.
Following some lunch I then headed to the Field Museum, that has a really interesting collection of stuffed stuff. Their collection consists of a lot of taxidermal animals and things that were collected around the turn of the century. For example they have an amazing collection American Indian garb and utensils. The Field has way more then the supposed museum of the American Indian, on the Mall in DC. They have loads of amazing West Coast Indian art works like totem polls and handmade blankets. There is also a reconstructed lodge that illustrates Maori carving, though I know that is not American Indian. My only complaint with the museum is it really does cater more to kids then adults which made me feel kind of out of place. It was a good day though I hope I didn’t get a sunburn from walking around too much.
Chicago is a pretty big place and I have enjoyed my time here. I’m probably going to be here another day before I head out to Minnesota, but I don’t plan to see much more then I have already. I do want to make a note that I think if I do follow my current plan of going to Spain in the fall, I would like to move to Chicago when I head back to the States. It’s just somewhere I’ve always wanted to live, having grown up on parental nostalgia, and it feels way more free then Boston does for some reason. I could see myself spending a few years here, riding the “L” it just feels familiar, but still unknown at the same time.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Hashing around Nashville
It’s been a few days since my last entry and I’m not entirely sure why that is. I had access to the Internet in Nashville, though I suppose I was distracted with fellow foreign travelers and all the nightlife. Time flies when you’re having fun. So I guess that means I have something to relate.
I got into Nashville about 4:30 Sunday night and I had figured out that there was a pretty cool hostel in the city, so I wanted to stay there. The problem was that, Google Maps gave me the worst directions to find the place. I also was not overly intelligent and didn’t write down the address. Since I was unsure of the name and didn’t have the address I had to book it to the library to get on Internet before the library closed. I got in with about 10 minutes to spare and got on through WIFI. With address of both the place I was looking for and another hostel outside the city, just in case the first one was full, I got ushered out the door of the pretty marble structure by some librarians.
Sweaty and slightly stress out that I would have crash on my car again, I headed over near the neighborhood I had been in previously and looked for the hostel. I found it in no time with the correct address, that’s a real shocker, eh? It’s called the Music City Hostel, on Patterson St in Nashville and I would recommend it to anyone. It was a really good time and if anyone is stopping though Nashville soon, it’s a great cheap place to crash for the night and Ron the owner is a pretty cool guy.
Though one of my complaints was that when I headed over to place called Swett’s I had heard about in one of my guidebooks, he made me overly nervous of heading to that part of town. I had to cross Charlotte St in Midtown Nashville, which I didn’t know before then is a dividing line “or other side of the tracks.” Swett’s is a soul food place and as a result in the Black section of town. Granted I had not known any of this when I selected the restaurant and had I been aware of it, I think I still would have done it. I headed over there on foot, because I’d spent the rest of the day in the car and needed to stretch my legs. It was good walk, I definitely went by some streets that looked a little weathered, but no one gave me any problems on the way over. I grabbed some dinner at the cafeteria, which had some pretty decent fried chicken and completely awesome sweet-potato pie. After I had plowed through my meal, I was far from short of hunger and thus headed back across town, as the hostel was less then a mile away. Like the trip there it was completely uneventful, with little to report about it. It was a good trip and even though it was more expensive then buying dinner, it was worth it for the whole experience and the sweet potato pie, hmmm.
The rest of the evening was spent hanging about with my hostel mates only one of whom was from the US and she didn’t want to talk to me. We started the night with a long walk to a bluegrass jam session that was only ok. It was a place called the Station Inn and is apparently where I lot of old acts originally played back in the day. We had a few beers and learned about people where doing and where they were traveling. A surprising number were taking Greyhound, which sounded so awful to me. It was a good time and then we headed to “the District,” on Broadway to check out a few other bars. We had a few brews there and listened to this cover band that fronted by a guy who thought he was Elvis, minus the wig.
I spent the rest of the next day sleeping in and going to a rather disappointing museum called the Country Music Hall of Fame. I was glad to learn about the trials and tribulations of the founding people of country, but it wasn’t really that thrilling to see some tacky Cadillac that was once owned by “the King”? I suppose I’m doubting the American brand, but the museum was only interesting in the respect I learned a lot about the history of how country got to be what it is today. Though as much as the memorabilia was not that exciting, the old time country sure was and I did enjoy the history, if not the mementos.
That evening we headed out again, but this time we headed to a club off the beaten strip. A place one of the ladies at the hostel had a friend playing at. We listened to about 8 bands play in about 3 hrs. It was a real good time hanging and listening to music that was only sometimes good. After that we hiked over to the Printer’s Alley, a local hot spot where we pretty ruled the place we ended up. There was literally no one in there when we showed up and we chilled listening to this guy play blue and funk covers. I liked it and if I was in Nashville again, I’d go to both those venues again.
The next morning I lounged about not wanting to hit the road, but eventually got my butt out the door. I didn’t really drive far, reflecting that reluctance to leave, and ended up at Mammoth Caves National Park. I spent last night there and took the “Grand Tour” of the place this morning, which is 4 miles underground and kind of 4hr ordeal. We went pretty slow and made a lot of frequent stops that I didn’t really need, but with 80 people things usually go slowly. Despite my complaints I really liked the place, it has the largest cave system in the world with sections of the caves only being recently discovered. It was a really neat place carved out of the limestone rock by the Echo river. It was a great trip and even though it was pretty pricey I really did enjoy it.
From there I hit the road and made some progress toward Chicago finally stopping for the night at a little hamlet outside Indianapolis called Lebanon at a cheap hotel. I have mixed feelings about getting hotel, it seems to break the whole spirit of the trip which is to experience some of the tourist sights, but also to meet people along the way. I suppose I could have looked up another couch surf for this area or looked up some people. I just spaced prior to leaving Nashville. I need to plan more ahead; I hope I can keep at that. I’m going to have time to some scheduling with all the time I have scheduled for Chicago and Minneapolis provided I’m not too much of a burden of as a houseguest.
I got into Nashville about 4:30 Sunday night and I had figured out that there was a pretty cool hostel in the city, so I wanted to stay there. The problem was that, Google Maps gave me the worst directions to find the place. I also was not overly intelligent and didn’t write down the address. Since I was unsure of the name and didn’t have the address I had to book it to the library to get on Internet before the library closed. I got in with about 10 minutes to spare and got on through WIFI. With address of both the place I was looking for and another hostel outside the city, just in case the first one was full, I got ushered out the door of the pretty marble structure by some librarians.
Sweaty and slightly stress out that I would have crash on my car again, I headed over near the neighborhood I had been in previously and looked for the hostel. I found it in no time with the correct address, that’s a real shocker, eh? It’s called the Music City Hostel, on Patterson St in Nashville and I would recommend it to anyone. It was a really good time and if anyone is stopping though Nashville soon, it’s a great cheap place to crash for the night and Ron the owner is a pretty cool guy.
Though one of my complaints was that when I headed over to place called Swett’s I had heard about in one of my guidebooks, he made me overly nervous of heading to that part of town. I had to cross Charlotte St in Midtown Nashville, which I didn’t know before then is a dividing line “or other side of the tracks.” Swett’s is a soul food place and as a result in the Black section of town. Granted I had not known any of this when I selected the restaurant and had I been aware of it, I think I still would have done it. I headed over there on foot, because I’d spent the rest of the day in the car and needed to stretch my legs. It was good walk, I definitely went by some streets that looked a little weathered, but no one gave me any problems on the way over. I grabbed some dinner at the cafeteria, which had some pretty decent fried chicken and completely awesome sweet-potato pie. After I had plowed through my meal, I was far from short of hunger and thus headed back across town, as the hostel was less then a mile away. Like the trip there it was completely uneventful, with little to report about it. It was a good trip and even though it was more expensive then buying dinner, it was worth it for the whole experience and the sweet potato pie, hmmm.
The rest of the evening was spent hanging about with my hostel mates only one of whom was from the US and she didn’t want to talk to me. We started the night with a long walk to a bluegrass jam session that was only ok. It was a place called the Station Inn and is apparently where I lot of old acts originally played back in the day. We had a few beers and learned about people where doing and where they were traveling. A surprising number were taking Greyhound, which sounded so awful to me. It was a good time and then we headed to “the District,” on Broadway to check out a few other bars. We had a few brews there and listened to this cover band that fronted by a guy who thought he was Elvis, minus the wig.
I spent the rest of the next day sleeping in and going to a rather disappointing museum called the Country Music Hall of Fame. I was glad to learn about the trials and tribulations of the founding people of country, but it wasn’t really that thrilling to see some tacky Cadillac that was once owned by “the King”? I suppose I’m doubting the American brand, but the museum was only interesting in the respect I learned a lot about the history of how country got to be what it is today. Though as much as the memorabilia was not that exciting, the old time country sure was and I did enjoy the history, if not the mementos.
That evening we headed out again, but this time we headed to a club off the beaten strip. A place one of the ladies at the hostel had a friend playing at. We listened to about 8 bands play in about 3 hrs. It was a real good time hanging and listening to music that was only sometimes good. After that we hiked over to the Printer’s Alley, a local hot spot where we pretty ruled the place we ended up. There was literally no one in there when we showed up and we chilled listening to this guy play blue and funk covers. I liked it and if I was in Nashville again, I’d go to both those venues again.
The next morning I lounged about not wanting to hit the road, but eventually got my butt out the door. I didn’t really drive far, reflecting that reluctance to leave, and ended up at Mammoth Caves National Park. I spent last night there and took the “Grand Tour” of the place this morning, which is 4 miles underground and kind of 4hr ordeal. We went pretty slow and made a lot of frequent stops that I didn’t really need, but with 80 people things usually go slowly. Despite my complaints I really liked the place, it has the largest cave system in the world with sections of the caves only being recently discovered. It was a really neat place carved out of the limestone rock by the Echo river. It was a great trip and even though it was pretty pricey I really did enjoy it.
From there I hit the road and made some progress toward Chicago finally stopping for the night at a little hamlet outside Indianapolis called Lebanon at a cheap hotel. I have mixed feelings about getting hotel, it seems to break the whole spirit of the trip which is to experience some of the tourist sights, but also to meet people along the way. I suppose I could have looked up another couch surf for this area or looked up some people. I just spaced prior to leaving Nashville. I need to plan more ahead; I hope I can keep at that. I’m going to have time to some scheduling with all the time I have scheduled for Chicago and Minneapolis provided I’m not too much of a burden of as a houseguest.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
From a Tent in GA
Written on the night of 6.21.2008 to be posted, whenever I get an Internet connection.
I’m sitting in a tent with electricity at the moment typing this entry that is probably well overdue to assuage fears of my passing.
I finished up in Charleston with Kate the nice lady I met though couchsurfering.com. She was real cool and I enjoyed talking with her about all the things she was up to. Despite being allergic to her very nice dogs, I had a good visit. She lives on James Island along the beach just outside Charleston center, and it took all of 2 minutes to walk to the seashore. It was beautiful weather, though a tad hot during the day. On the last night I was there, we headed down to the beach to see if we could see the full moon rise over the water, which unfortunately was obscured by clouds.
I headed down to Savannah mid-morning by way of an old plantation tour because it was only about a three-hour drive down the coast to Savannah from Charleston, so I figured it’d be easy to get to. The plantation called Drayton was lackluster since they had been keeping it in the same maintenance level they’d received it from the family in back in the 1970s.
After leaving the disappointment plantation and finding my way to Savannah it was a trick to find the Georgia state park called Skidaway I was staying at. At $25 a night it was a little pricey for one person, but would have been cheaper per person, had I been a group. It was very small state park, mostly consisting of a campground predominately for RVs. After finding out they had both a power hook and a hook up for cable, I really wish I had a caravan trailer.
Though I wasn’t given much time to think about the lack of my motorized monstrosity because as soon as I pitched my tent, then it started to downpour and I mean monsoon style. Wind was blowing like crazy this rather large branch fell and hit my, bummer, as I was sitting in my car marveling at all the “big fat rain,” as Forrest Gump might have put it. It finally stopped, after about and hour, and I got out to see how wet my tent was, it was pretty soaked, mostly due to my poor staking job and I had to spend some time drying it out. I also took the time to move my campsite to another one as the one I was at had turned into a gutter for all the rainwater. I learned later that the storm had been pretty bad knocking out power all around Savannah and pulling whole trees down.
Unfortunately this was not where my evening ended, I was just beginning to bed down and had gone to do the necessities when I noticed a tick had latched onto me. I HATE PARASITES. I don’t really mind most things and understand that the heavenly father has place for them in his creation, but he could have skipped those in my opinion. To get rid of the tick I ended up using the old fashion method, which is striking a match blowing it out and holding it to the critter. It hurt, but I killed it and got it off me. I only learned the following day that it probably wasn’t the best way to go about it covering it in Vaseline to suffocate it works better. This would have also lowered my chances of catching anything from this nasty bloodsucker, oh well I know now!! I was also thankful to learn later that Lime disease, is not as prevalent in the South as it is in the East and the type of tick that bit me usually doesn’t carry it, which was somewhat of a relief, though I’m watching my bit spot carefully. As much as that day was from hell, the next day went a lot smother.
I got to go around historic Savannah, both by foot and by tour bus. I see why people make such a big deal of the place, the historic district is amazing with the really old trees and houses. There is a street called Jones, which is according to Southern living magazine the most beautiful street in America. I wouldn’t give it my total endorsement, but it was one of the most amazingly stereotypically pretty southern place I’ve ever seen. I would also say that the buildings are amazingly restored and the 21 squares they have are well maintained, but what really makes the whole place is the trees. They have what they call oaks, that just sprawl above the streets and parks that give the whole place this really organic feel. It would be really cool to visit again, though I could not see myself living there. The thing I found most surprising is the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) is all throughout the city and done a lot of restoration work in the historic district. I couldn’t really get a sense of their campus as the buildings seemed to be so spread out. I can see why the tour guide was saying that they are very much the life blood of the city.
Today has been spent breaking camp and heading to Atlanta, which truthfully was not that hard but both activities took far longer then I thought they would have. I was intending to leave by 8am by the latest and didn’t really head out until 9:15 as I spent a lot of time organizing my car and finding a specific place for everything. After living in it for the last week and a half it had gotten kind of messy and in need of a thorough once over organization. Getting to Atlanta also took longer then I thought and I stayed for a while to grab lunch with Olivia McGuire, an old college chum and fellow Cornerstone, who was from and living in the area. We didn’t really spend any time catching the sites or anything, just catching up which I was really glad we took the time to do. She just graduated from college and did have a job lined up but it fell through, so is busy trying to find something to do with herself. I can relate, I’ve been out two years and I still don’t have a definite plan.
I left Atlanta about 5:15 in the afternoon and headed north toward Tennessee. I was hoping to stay in a hostel in Nashville, but it being Saturday it was all booked up so there was no reason to go that far tonight, plus I wanted to see if there was much Chattanooga along the way. So as result I decided to stay in Georgia a little longer at an other state park, that once again caters mostly to RVs. There is no cable hook ups, but other then that the set up is very similar to the place I stayed in near Savannah, except I’m sleeping on gravel and I bought a power.… so we’ll see how that goes.
Good night y’all.
I’m sitting in a tent with electricity at the moment typing this entry that is probably well overdue to assuage fears of my passing.
I finished up in Charleston with Kate the nice lady I met though couchsurfering.com. She was real cool and I enjoyed talking with her about all the things she was up to. Despite being allergic to her very nice dogs, I had a good visit. She lives on James Island along the beach just outside Charleston center, and it took all of 2 minutes to walk to the seashore. It was beautiful weather, though a tad hot during the day. On the last night I was there, we headed down to the beach to see if we could see the full moon rise over the water, which unfortunately was obscured by clouds.
I headed down to Savannah mid-morning by way of an old plantation tour because it was only about a three-hour drive down the coast to Savannah from Charleston, so I figured it’d be easy to get to. The plantation called Drayton was lackluster since they had been keeping it in the same maintenance level they’d received it from the family in back in the 1970s.
After leaving the disappointment plantation and finding my way to Savannah it was a trick to find the Georgia state park called Skidaway I was staying at. At $25 a night it was a little pricey for one person, but would have been cheaper per person, had I been a group. It was very small state park, mostly consisting of a campground predominately for RVs. After finding out they had both a power hook and a hook up for cable, I really wish I had a caravan trailer.
Though I wasn’t given much time to think about the lack of my motorized monstrosity because as soon as I pitched my tent, then it started to downpour and I mean monsoon style. Wind was blowing like crazy this rather large branch fell and hit my, bummer, as I was sitting in my car marveling at all the “big fat rain,” as Forrest Gump might have put it. It finally stopped, after about and hour, and I got out to see how wet my tent was, it was pretty soaked, mostly due to my poor staking job and I had to spend some time drying it out. I also took the time to move my campsite to another one as the one I was at had turned into a gutter for all the rainwater. I learned later that the storm had been pretty bad knocking out power all around Savannah and pulling whole trees down.
Unfortunately this was not where my evening ended, I was just beginning to bed down and had gone to do the necessities when I noticed a tick had latched onto me. I HATE PARASITES. I don’t really mind most things and understand that the heavenly father has place for them in his creation, but he could have skipped those in my opinion. To get rid of the tick I ended up using the old fashion method, which is striking a match blowing it out and holding it to the critter. It hurt, but I killed it and got it off me. I only learned the following day that it probably wasn’t the best way to go about it covering it in Vaseline to suffocate it works better. This would have also lowered my chances of catching anything from this nasty bloodsucker, oh well I know now!! I was also thankful to learn later that Lime disease, is not as prevalent in the South as it is in the East and the type of tick that bit me usually doesn’t carry it, which was somewhat of a relief, though I’m watching my bit spot carefully. As much as that day was from hell, the next day went a lot smother.
I got to go around historic Savannah, both by foot and by tour bus. I see why people make such a big deal of the place, the historic district is amazing with the really old trees and houses. There is a street called Jones, which is according to Southern living magazine the most beautiful street in America. I wouldn’t give it my total endorsement, but it was one of the most amazingly stereotypically pretty southern place I’ve ever seen. I would also say that the buildings are amazingly restored and the 21 squares they have are well maintained, but what really makes the whole place is the trees. They have what they call oaks, that just sprawl above the streets and parks that give the whole place this really organic feel. It would be really cool to visit again, though I could not see myself living there. The thing I found most surprising is the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) is all throughout the city and done a lot of restoration work in the historic district. I couldn’t really get a sense of their campus as the buildings seemed to be so spread out. I can see why the tour guide was saying that they are very much the life blood of the city.
Today has been spent breaking camp and heading to Atlanta, which truthfully was not that hard but both activities took far longer then I thought they would have. I was intending to leave by 8am by the latest and didn’t really head out until 9:15 as I spent a lot of time organizing my car and finding a specific place for everything. After living in it for the last week and a half it had gotten kind of messy and in need of a thorough once over organization. Getting to Atlanta also took longer then I thought and I stayed for a while to grab lunch with Olivia McGuire, an old college chum and fellow Cornerstone, who was from and living in the area. We didn’t really spend any time catching the sites or anything, just catching up which I was really glad we took the time to do. She just graduated from college and did have a job lined up but it fell through, so is busy trying to find something to do with herself. I can relate, I’ve been out two years and I still don’t have a definite plan.
I left Atlanta about 5:15 in the afternoon and headed north toward Tennessee. I was hoping to stay in a hostel in Nashville, but it being Saturday it was all booked up so there was no reason to go that far tonight, plus I wanted to see if there was much Chattanooga along the way. So as result I decided to stay in Georgia a little longer at an other state park, that once again caters mostly to RVs. There is no cable hook ups, but other then that the set up is very similar to the place I stayed in near Savannah, except I’m sleeping on gravel and I bought a power.… so we’ll see how that goes.
Good night y’all.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Washed up DC and Now headed to Charleston.
After having written up that last entry I headed out the door and hit just a few other places before I headed out of Washington DC. I went to the Library of Congress, Supreme Court, and the WWII memorial that opened fairly recently.
I have to say that the most visibly spectacular was the Library of Congress that has within the last few years been refurbished and cleaned. It was really amazing since it definitely looked like the renaissance style they were trying to replicate; just with 20th century overtones. Minerva, or Athena to those who might not know her other name, was all over the building, but there was one painting of her leading up to a balcony to the main reading room that looked like an early Art Deco piece, it was done too early for Art Deco around 1905, possibly a precursor? We didn’t get to go in the main reading room that is so iconic, since that would be disrupting the researchers who were reading at the tables. Apparently you have to be doing some project to get into that room and even then you can’t take pictures. This explanation made me want to lie so I could get into the reading room and just look up at the really awesome dome. I guess that some of the scenes that looked like the Library of Congress that were in National Treasure: Book of Secrets actually was the Library, so it was cool to have seen parts of it before. I really enjoyed looking at the whole structure and it was by far the most colorful and most ornate building in the Mall that I saw on this trip.
I then headed over to the Supreme Court, which is right next door and both directly behind the capital building. It wasn’t that remarkable of a building really by comparison with the Library. There is a lot of marble everywhere with busts of past chief justices all along the hall leading to the courtroom where the nine justices preside. They didn’t let people into the chamber except to listen to a lecture about the court, so I went downstairs to the Supreme Court Café to wait for the next lecture to start. The service was slow and food about as good, so it took a while to get my BLT. As a result I had to inhale to get back in time to hear the lecture. The older guy who gave the lecture had given it a few times, so he knew where to put the jokes thus making it a really good talk. There wasn’t any pictures allowed in the actual chamber itself, which was really lame and didn’t seem at all warranted as there was nothing that would fade or get hurt by flashbulbs. It was a beautiful room, but far more austere then the Library. There was a pantheon of lawgivers, high above our heads on the wall. They included the likes of Moses, Hammurabi, and King John who signed the Magna Carta and many others I can’t name. There was also a lot of curtains everywhere broken up by these Egyptian screens; pomp and circumstance seemed to rule there even as it is a place of change. The lecturer did go over the fact the chief justices are responsible for looking at over the 10,000 petitions the court gets every year. They only take about 100 of those to trial every year and a lot to winnow down so despite only being in session 3 days a week, they’re prepping the rest of the time.
I then biked down to the WWII memorial by way of the Washington monument and checked out the capital’s most recent addition to its line up. The whole thing is fairly large with a large fountain in the middle and there are columns marking all the states and territories that participated. I made sure to take pictures of the rectangular obelisks of the states my family is both from and currently residing. It’s really hard to me to fathom, that at my age, my Grandfathers where out fighting a war against an enemy they weren’t sure they could defeat. Now with 20/20 hindsight, it seem like Hitler and the Japanese were destined to fall but I doubt it felt like that in November of 1941. War is a huge price to pay for any generation, I’m glad my grandparents did what was necessary when they were called. I hope that my generation could do the same, though since times are so different it’s hard to say.
I then headed out of DC to Arlington and though Virginia. Everything was going well until I crossed the North Carolina border. From there I got caught in a traffic jam that lasted for about an hour, where the traffic literally did not move. Apparently two women were killed after they were thrown from the vehicle http://www.wral.com/news/news_briefs/story/3057454/ though I saw little evidence of that by the time I got to the site, other than two ambulances racing to the scene. It was actually a cool time and I got to talk to some friends on the phone and commiserate, most I hadn’t talked to in a while as I waited for traffic to clear.
From there I drove a little longer and stopped at the basic side of the road place (hotels and the usual bad restaurants) where I stopped at a Subway for some dinner. I had heard from a guy at the house I stayed at in Philly that you are allowed to stay in parking lots of most Wal-Mart’s for free. So since this particular stop on the highway had one, I headed over to eat my dinner. Well there minding my own business eating my dinner with the windows down, because was the weather was nice for once, but who should come up immediately but the security guard, who patrols the parking lot. I had some misgivings about staying in the parking lot, but this guy brushed them aside by spontaneously saying:
“You can stop here for a few hours tonight if you’d like, though I’d suggest you head over along that median toward the back of the lot where it’s quieter. I just saw you’re license plate was out of state so I figured you might be here for that. It’s real safe around here, no gangs, still a real small town.”
I didn’t really say anything throughout this whole interchange and let him head right back to cruising the lot. I ended up spending as comfortable a night in my car as can be expected. The weather agreed with me and rained, thus cooling things down. I shopped at the Wal-Mart to get a portable fan, which made things vastly better (this only confirms why Wal-Mart has this policy of letting people stay in their lots people buy stuff). If I sleep in my car again I think I’ll try another arrangement, as my legs were really cramped by early the next morning.
I grabbed a quick breakfast and then headed out decently early, before 8am. It took me a lot longer to get to Charleston then I had thought, but finding my hostess Kate was easier then anticipated as she gave very good directions. I have gotten to know Kate this evening and afternoon. I’ve learned a good deal about her and she’s a really quiet interesting and an especially good at being hostess, she served me a dinner and given me clean sheets, two things I had not expected her to provide.
I have to say that the most visibly spectacular was the Library of Congress that has within the last few years been refurbished and cleaned. It was really amazing since it definitely looked like the renaissance style they were trying to replicate; just with 20th century overtones. Minerva, or Athena to those who might not know her other name, was all over the building, but there was one painting of her leading up to a balcony to the main reading room that looked like an early Art Deco piece, it was done too early for Art Deco around 1905, possibly a precursor? We didn’t get to go in the main reading room that is so iconic, since that would be disrupting the researchers who were reading at the tables. Apparently you have to be doing some project to get into that room and even then you can’t take pictures. This explanation made me want to lie so I could get into the reading room and just look up at the really awesome dome. I guess that some of the scenes that looked like the Library of Congress that were in National Treasure: Book of Secrets actually was the Library, so it was cool to have seen parts of it before. I really enjoyed looking at the whole structure and it was by far the most colorful and most ornate building in the Mall that I saw on this trip.
I then headed over to the Supreme Court, which is right next door and both directly behind the capital building. It wasn’t that remarkable of a building really by comparison with the Library. There is a lot of marble everywhere with busts of past chief justices all along the hall leading to the courtroom where the nine justices preside. They didn’t let people into the chamber except to listen to a lecture about the court, so I went downstairs to the Supreme Court Café to wait for the next lecture to start. The service was slow and food about as good, so it took a while to get my BLT. As a result I had to inhale to get back in time to hear the lecture. The older guy who gave the lecture had given it a few times, so he knew where to put the jokes thus making it a really good talk. There wasn’t any pictures allowed in the actual chamber itself, which was really lame and didn’t seem at all warranted as there was nothing that would fade or get hurt by flashbulbs. It was a beautiful room, but far more austere then the Library. There was a pantheon of lawgivers, high above our heads on the wall. They included the likes of Moses, Hammurabi, and King John who signed the Magna Carta and many others I can’t name. There was also a lot of curtains everywhere broken up by these Egyptian screens; pomp and circumstance seemed to rule there even as it is a place of change. The lecturer did go over the fact the chief justices are responsible for looking at over the 10,000 petitions the court gets every year. They only take about 100 of those to trial every year and a lot to winnow down so despite only being in session 3 days a week, they’re prepping the rest of the time.
I then biked down to the WWII memorial by way of the Washington monument and checked out the capital’s most recent addition to its line up. The whole thing is fairly large with a large fountain in the middle and there are columns marking all the states and territories that participated. I made sure to take pictures of the rectangular obelisks of the states my family is both from and currently residing. It’s really hard to me to fathom, that at my age, my Grandfathers where out fighting a war against an enemy they weren’t sure they could defeat. Now with 20/20 hindsight, it seem like Hitler and the Japanese were destined to fall but I doubt it felt like that in November of 1941. War is a huge price to pay for any generation, I’m glad my grandparents did what was necessary when they were called. I hope that my generation could do the same, though since times are so different it’s hard to say.
I then headed out of DC to Arlington and though Virginia. Everything was going well until I crossed the North Carolina border. From there I got caught in a traffic jam that lasted for about an hour, where the traffic literally did not move. Apparently two women were killed after they were thrown from the vehicle http://www.wral.com/news/news_briefs/story/3057454/ though I saw little evidence of that by the time I got to the site, other than two ambulances racing to the scene. It was actually a cool time and I got to talk to some friends on the phone and commiserate, most I hadn’t talked to in a while as I waited for traffic to clear.
From there I drove a little longer and stopped at the basic side of the road place (hotels and the usual bad restaurants) where I stopped at a Subway for some dinner. I had heard from a guy at the house I stayed at in Philly that you are allowed to stay in parking lots of most Wal-Mart’s for free. So since this particular stop on the highway had one, I headed over to eat my dinner. Well there minding my own business eating my dinner with the windows down, because was the weather was nice for once, but who should come up immediately but the security guard, who patrols the parking lot. I had some misgivings about staying in the parking lot, but this guy brushed them aside by spontaneously saying:
“You can stop here for a few hours tonight if you’d like, though I’d suggest you head over along that median toward the back of the lot where it’s quieter. I just saw you’re license plate was out of state so I figured you might be here for that. It’s real safe around here, no gangs, still a real small town.”
I didn’t really say anything throughout this whole interchange and let him head right back to cruising the lot. I ended up spending as comfortable a night in my car as can be expected. The weather agreed with me and rained, thus cooling things down. I shopped at the Wal-Mart to get a portable fan, which made things vastly better (this only confirms why Wal-Mart has this policy of letting people stay in their lots people buy stuff). If I sleep in my car again I think I’ll try another arrangement, as my legs were really cramped by early the next morning.
I grabbed a quick breakfast and then headed out decently early, before 8am. It took me a lot longer to get to Charleston then I had thought, but finding my hostess Kate was easier then anticipated as she gave very good directions. I have gotten to know Kate this evening and afternoon. I’ve learned a good deal about her and she’s a really quiet interesting and an especially good at being hostess, she served me a dinner and given me clean sheets, two things I had not expected her to provide.
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Wrapping up Washington DC
I arrived in Washington DC yesterday, by way of a lunch stop in suburbia Baltimore. It made for a fairly leisurely day in terms of driving, so I took my time both leaving Philly and getting to my destination, thus the long lunch stop.
I had stopped in that particular spot to have some crabmeat, since I guess the Chesapeake Bay is quite well known for that kind of thing. I have made a resolution to try to stop in local places all over the country to try to sample some of the local cuisine of the area. To be honest, it’s just an excuse to eat some really awesome barbeque in totally random places and eat as little McD’s as possible. As a way to illustrate how serious I am about it, I bought two guides for the trip and one of them was about food.
I didn’t see much of DC, yesterday as I got in about 5pm and most attractions were closed by that time. I spent most of the day trying to connect with my two cousins who live in the city. I have one from either side of my family, Tia from my mom’s and Peter from my dad’s.
I have actually ended up crashing at Tia’s place since she has multiple couches she can offer me. It’s been really cool staying here, the first night she cooked dinner for me, entirely unsolicited, which was really nice of her. I unfortunately have not seen much of my hostess as she has been doing really long sessions of meditative yoga, that start really early in the morning; 5am is when she’s been there the last few days. I have been able to see her in the evening and afternoons, so we have had a pretty good visit. She’s really cool and it’s always great to chill and talk about stuff.
Even with all the time I have just spent doing nothing at Tia’s house, and enjoying every minute, I did manage to get down to the Mall and see a few things. I got to see a couple sections of the Smithsonian, like National Gallery of Art, National Museum of the American Indian, and a small snippet of the Air and Space Museum. I am hoping I can spend some time down there tomorrow and see stuff that I might not have gotten to today.
I managed to get down to the National Gallery of Art which apparently has the only da Vinci painting I the US; something more remarkable in the abstract then in actuality. The painting is done by the great master I just didn’t find it to be his most remarkable work. I would just add that I see da Vinci’s more impressive work still being in the Old World. The rest of the gallery was interesting and I was struck by a bunch of the works there, just not by the ones that are the most hyped.
I then headed over to the National Museum of the American Indian because it was just opened in 2003, as an extension of the Smithsonian collection. Even though there was some really cool exhibits, I was generally disappointed because there was definitely a huge Plains Indian emphasis with a lot of the garments being from those people. Not to say there is not a lot from all over the Americas, there was, it just seemed like there was more time devoted to the Plains then, any other. I suppose it’s a new museum and they will have time to add things as they come in.
From there I was pressed for time so I spent about 10 minutes in the Air and Space Museum, which was definitely pretty cool. They had moved the Wright brother’s plane out of the main foyer, rehabbed it and added a whole exhibit about the brothers. I also saw Spaceship One, the ship that took the X Prize money for being the first privately funded ship to make it to the stratosphere and do it twice in a given period of time. The ship looked somewhat beat up, it was just neat to see something that had gone that far into the sky and hints at possible frequent space travel during my lifetime. The other new addition was from the basket or cabin that was the first balloon to go around the earth non-stop.
After wandering around I headed back toward Tia’s to meet my other cousin Peter for dinner. I hadn’t seen him in at least a couple of years and it was cool to hear what he’s been up to. He was headed overseas to France to get his MBA, at a school that is very well known for its international business emphasis. It sounded he was pretty serious about going to France for a few years, which is in keeping with what I was thinking I was doing with myself with me going to Spain. I hadn’t really ever taken the time to grab a beer with Peter before, it was a good time and something I wouldn’t mind repeating. If I can find a job over in Spain, I told him to look me up and he can come crash on my couch.
I’m sure there is something I have left out this entry, but truthfully this entry has been long enough, I don’t really need to say anything else at this juncture.
I had stopped in that particular spot to have some crabmeat, since I guess the Chesapeake Bay is quite well known for that kind of thing. I have made a resolution to try to stop in local places all over the country to try to sample some of the local cuisine of the area. To be honest, it’s just an excuse to eat some really awesome barbeque in totally random places and eat as little McD’s as possible. As a way to illustrate how serious I am about it, I bought two guides for the trip and one of them was about food.
I didn’t see much of DC, yesterday as I got in about 5pm and most attractions were closed by that time. I spent most of the day trying to connect with my two cousins who live in the city. I have one from either side of my family, Tia from my mom’s and Peter from my dad’s.
I have actually ended up crashing at Tia’s place since she has multiple couches she can offer me. It’s been really cool staying here, the first night she cooked dinner for me, entirely unsolicited, which was really nice of her. I unfortunately have not seen much of my hostess as she has been doing really long sessions of meditative yoga, that start really early in the morning; 5am is when she’s been there the last few days. I have been able to see her in the evening and afternoons, so we have had a pretty good visit. She’s really cool and it’s always great to chill and talk about stuff.
Even with all the time I have just spent doing nothing at Tia’s house, and enjoying every minute, I did manage to get down to the Mall and see a few things. I got to see a couple sections of the Smithsonian, like National Gallery of Art, National Museum of the American Indian, and a small snippet of the Air and Space Museum. I am hoping I can spend some time down there tomorrow and see stuff that I might not have gotten to today.
I managed to get down to the National Gallery of Art which apparently has the only da Vinci painting I the US; something more remarkable in the abstract then in actuality. The painting is done by the great master I just didn’t find it to be his most remarkable work. I would just add that I see da Vinci’s more impressive work still being in the Old World. The rest of the gallery was interesting and I was struck by a bunch of the works there, just not by the ones that are the most hyped.
I then headed over to the National Museum of the American Indian because it was just opened in 2003, as an extension of the Smithsonian collection. Even though there was some really cool exhibits, I was generally disappointed because there was definitely a huge Plains Indian emphasis with a lot of the garments being from those people. Not to say there is not a lot from all over the Americas, there was, it just seemed like there was more time devoted to the Plains then, any other. I suppose it’s a new museum and they will have time to add things as they come in.
From there I was pressed for time so I spent about 10 minutes in the Air and Space Museum, which was definitely pretty cool. They had moved the Wright brother’s plane out of the main foyer, rehabbed it and added a whole exhibit about the brothers. I also saw Spaceship One, the ship that took the X Prize money for being the first privately funded ship to make it to the stratosphere and do it twice in a given period of time. The ship looked somewhat beat up, it was just neat to see something that had gone that far into the sky and hints at possible frequent space travel during my lifetime. The other new addition was from the basket or cabin that was the first balloon to go around the earth non-stop.
After wandering around I headed back toward Tia’s to meet my other cousin Peter for dinner. I hadn’t seen him in at least a couple of years and it was cool to hear what he’s been up to. He was headed overseas to France to get his MBA, at a school that is very well known for its international business emphasis. It sounded he was pretty serious about going to France for a few years, which is in keeping with what I was thinking I was doing with myself with me going to Spain. I hadn’t really ever taken the time to grab a beer with Peter before, it was a good time and something I wouldn’t mind repeating. If I can find a job over in Spain, I told him to look me up and he can come crash on my couch.
I’m sure there is something I have left out this entry, but truthfully this entry has been long enough, I don’t really need to say anything else at this juncture.
Friday, June 13, 2008
Last Two days in Philly
I got into Philly and ended up crashing with a bunch of folks from the couch surfing website. It was kind of random and the first time I'd done it before. I got shown around the house by a girl I haven't seen much, since she works the night shift at a bar, it hasn't been that much of a problem since there are 6 people and a dog in the house I'm staying at. The rest of the house is pretty cool and I spent my first evening sitting around drinking a really good big bottle of Yuengling. For those who might be reading this, Yuengling is America's oldest brewery and makes some really good beer that you can't get in MA for some reason.
I then wandered around the city on my bike for most of the following day taking in a few of the sights. I saw Independence Hall from the outside because I'd been it already and didn't really want to see a bunch of empty tables. I checked out the outside of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, which was neat unto itself, it's painted neoclassical, and the Rocky Statue outside it. I also went all around Philly just checking out city hall and random cool buildings and seeing the scenery. The thing that is really cool about Philly is that it's a planned city and has numbered streets going from North to South which makes it easier to navigate, then say Boston.
I also checked out one of the historic Quaker meeting houses that is around the city. I met an older retired fellow and learned a good deal about Quaker history, on a one to one basis due to the high volume of foot traffic. It would appear that even as early as the 19th century there was discussions in the Quaker commune about the divinity of Jesus and the validity of the trinity. From what this older guy told me the Quakers split up about it some time ago. The church I was in had taken a more universal approached and it sounded like was not exactly overflowing with members. It was a cool learning opportunity, since I thought the Quakers were awe inspiring in their time. It got me thinking about large religious movements in the past, do we really need to form a new church just to have a profoundly positive affect on society and for God? I couldn't really come up with an air tight answer to that question. I just would like to believe that god can move without humanity not wanting to put a new label on it.
I spent today, both getting lost in random places in Philly and going to the Art Museum, which was really cool. They have some of the best collections of rooms from other places of any museum I've been to. What I mean is overly ornate rooms from medieval times and a lot of parlors from the 18th and 19th centuries. They also had a temple from Southern India and
a formal room from a lower dignitary in China; which were truthfully the highlights. I'm just hoping that my pictures came out. I did feel sorry about all the places the museum got this stuff from as I'm sure many native people might want it back in the fullness of time. For example if the revolution hadn't happened, in China I wouldn't think they would have as much stuff as they did. In the mean time before that happens, it's was a cool museum and I really would recommend it to anyone to check out.
I also tried to get to the Eastern State Penitentiary and over stayed my time at the museum, so it was closed. I also tried to go to the Edgar Allan Poe's house which was also more of a historic marker rather then an actual exhibit.
It was a good day and I biked way too much over the last few days my legs kills in ways they never have before, so I'm hoping that it isn't a bad sign. I also need to get a new bike seat some thing I know I've been saying it for a while.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
From Philly
I spent yesterday, getting all my stuff ready and heading down to Philadelphia. Since I managed to forget some of my stuff back in Andover, I had to go back and forth to make sure I had everything. It took a lot more time to get to Philadelphia then I had thought. I think in the future I need to leave earlier when I decided to head out to a new place. It has been good so far to see a part of the country I've only passed though in the past. I've met my hosts and they are neat folks, it was a trick to find the place, as it's a little out of the main section of the city. I'm in West Philly so if I want to head down the Old Section of the city. I was chewing over bringing my bike and so far I'm glad I did, as it will be a great thing for getting around here.
Though as much as I'm going to enjoy biking places, I was also hoping that the heat would have broken by now... but I guess it's June, so heat and being overly warm is going to come with the territory. It looks like I'll be in town until probably Saturday morning. Now I get to go out and see the sites....
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Starting Down the Road
I’m heading out on the open road tomorrow. It's a little disconcerting as I don't know much about where I'm headed and what I'll be doing with myself for the next 7-8 weeks. I just spent a bunch of time today getting some sense of where I'll be and when I'll be trying to get there. It's just those plans are so tentative and could be changed at the drop of a hat, I've never had a life like that before. I usually have had external things making demands on me and making sure I'm where I'm "supposed" to be. I just feel like a piece of clay that has finally gotten out of a mold and has fallen into it's own shape. Though still being young in years, I still have time to find the shape that I will be for the rest of my life.
It is has also been really hard to leave all the people I really like in Boston and Somerville. The small group I've been in at Park St has been great and I really enjoy those that I know there. Hope Fellowship has also been great and I will really miss cooking with the Starlight team every Wednesday for the rest of the summer. All my friends around and some people I’ve just met, I’m really going to miss. I guess reminding myself about how I will miss the place I am leaving, does not really help me to leave easily. I guess I'm always one for the sentimentality at times like this. It can't be wrong to miss the people that you have known for a while?
Since this is the beginning of the blog that I plan to keep though my cross country travels, I will be updating where I am at whenever I make an entry, so people can keep abreast of where I'm currently at. Addresses will be used as necessary. Currently in Andover MA, at the parent's
It is has also been really hard to leave all the people I really like in Boston and Somerville. The small group I've been in at Park St has been great and I really enjoy those that I know there. Hope Fellowship has also been great and I will really miss cooking with the Starlight team every Wednesday for the rest of the summer. All my friends around and some people I’ve just met, I’m really going to miss. I guess reminding myself about how I will miss the place I am leaving, does not really help me to leave easily. I guess I'm always one for the sentimentality at times like this. It can't be wrong to miss the people that you have known for a while?
Since this is the beginning of the blog that I plan to keep though my cross country travels, I will be updating where I am at whenever I make an entry, so people can keep abreast of where I'm currently at. Addresses will be used as necessary. Currently in Andover MA, at the parent's
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)