Road Trip to Cali

Hello all! This post will be the first in a series of catch-up posts; hopefully by the end of these you will all be caught up on our adventures!

Catch-up #1: The Cross-country Trip

Let's pick up where we left off; Newport, Rhode Island. We were there until Doug graduated from Naval Justice School on April 1st. After the graduation ceremony, we raced back to our room and packed up the Jeep as quickly as we could. It was cold and rainy, which only made us more anxious to get out of there. We hit the road around 10am with the game plan that we would drive for as long as we could before we got tired, then pull off and find a place to sleep before making the rest of the trip to MI the next day. We ended up making really good time through New York and Canada, so we decided to push on all the way to Doug's parents' house in Grandville, MI. I think we were just anxious to get home and didn't want to spend another night in a hotel. We made it to Grandville by 1am and went to bed happy to be back in MI.

Doug happy to be driving to MI

We only stayed in Michigan from Friday night until Monday morning, but we did a lot of visiting and prepping for our trip during those three days. We had dinner with my grandparents and my family at my parent's house on Saturday; my sister made an amazing cake with a replica of one of Doug's covers (hat) on top that was beautiful and delicious! On Sunday, Doug's family and some friends gathered at his mom and step-dad's house for a fun get-together. Then it was time to get ready for our long drive; we had to get a new GPS for Doug and an update for mine, and we had to get a cat carrier for kitty as well. (We ended up getting one with a pheromone diffuser, which did a great job sedating her for the ride!) We also ended up trading in Doug's Jeep for a more fuel-efficient Chevy Impala, which turned out to be a wonderful investment now that gas is over $4 a gallon.

Meghan's amazing cake!

 We planned on leaving Michigan Monday morning, but after finishing up with buying the car, getting all our road trip necessities, picking up our cat from my parent's house in Holland, and forgetting part of Doug's uniform in Grandville and having to turn around to get it, we didn't actually get going until around 3pm. The best laid plans...however, we did still make it to our planned destination that night - just a lot later than we had expected.

Thus began four days full of driving, driving, and more driving. Keep in mind that we were driving two cars,  so neither of us really got a break. Luckily we made it through with no issues, and I was even able to fit in a brief stop for a phone interview along the way. The cat stayed in my car and handled the ride pretty well, considering how she usually is on car rides. We stayed just outside St. Louis the first night; the second night we were in some tiny town in the panhandle of Texas. On the third night we were treated to the deluxe guest accommodations of the Boeve household (my aunt and uncle who live in Arizona), which felt like heaven after so many nights in hotels. We got to eat home-cooked food, visit with family, and sleep in a non-hotel bed! We were so grateful for their hospitality, especially since we had driven through two time zones that day and were a little thrown off by having to add two hours to our day.

After leaving my aunt and uncles' home, we had one final day of driving. It was definitely the hardest driving for me, since it was all through mountains and my car has a hard time accelerating up anything higher than a speed bump. We made it through without many issues, though, and arrived in San Diego around 5pm. We were so excited to finally be in California and to not be on the road any more!

Here's some pictures of the trip:

St. Louis arch at night

Best rest stop of the trip! It's in New Mexico and it's HUGE. It's also clean, which was surprisingly rare on our trip.

What I always pictured the Southwest would look like.

Beautiful rock formations

Actual desert; I felt like we should be seeing people riding camels at every turn.

Interesting mountains in CA - they looked like mounds of large boulders piled together.

Overall, we had relatively few problems on the trip out here The driving was smooth, our hotels were adequate, and we found decent food along the way. Our only real issue was that every night our cat would find someway to hide herself where were couldn't find her.She can sure squeeze into some tiny places, like between a bed frame and box spring! Trying to find her to leave each morning was an adventure in itself.

That's it for now. Next edition: house hunting in San Diego!  

Catch Up Time!

Blogging is turning out to be harder than I thought!  I keep thinking of things to post, but I never seem to get around to writing them. Hopefully I will get better at keeping this up to date!  In the meantime, here is a catch-up post on our latest adventures.

March 11: Doug's 26th Birthday!  We celebrated by going out for a wonderful dinner at The Canfield House, a restaurant in what was a "world-renowned gambling casino at the turn of the century", according to their website.  (It just looked like a beautiful old house to me, but I'm not very learned when it comes to gambling establishments.) I picked this restaurant because they served prime rib, which is one of Doug's favorite dishes and somewhat hard to find in an ocean-side city full of amazing seafood. He loved his dinner, and I enjoyed a wonderful sampler dish that included lamb and venison. After that we came back and Doug opened a bevy of cards and packages from family and friends, then sampled different cupcakes I had picked up from a recommended bakery. Again, so delicious. We also had a belated birthday celebration with some of Doug's classmates later the next week; we all squished into our small room and had shared a yummy cake.        

Enjoying his birthday meal

 

Cupcakes!

March 12: Doug and I ventured to Boston for a quick day trip. We toured the Sam Adams Brewery, which is a free and fun if short tour where they give you free beer at the end. Neither of us knew before the tour that most of the Sam Adams beer is brewed outside of Boston and that the Boston brewery is mainly their testing and experimenting brewery. This is why the tour is short; not much to see! It was still a fun and informational experience, though.

One of the four ingredients for beer

Brewing tanks

Free tasting; we got to taste three different beers, and we got to keep the glasses!

Enjoying the "chocolate cherry" - a mix of their chocolate beer and cherry wheat beer. Delicious, and unfortunately not made outside of this brewery :(

After the brewery we headed to a bar in South Boston to watch Doug's soccer team, Arsenal, play in some kind of championship game (You can tell how much I pay attention). The bar was an official Arsenal Supporter's Club meeting location, so there were lots of fellow fans to hang out with, and for Doug to commiserate with when Arsenal lost big time.

We left South Boston after the loss and headed towards the site of the USS Constitution, the oldest commissioned war ship in the US Navy. Our friend Ann met up with us there. We got to tour the ship and learn about it's role in the war of 1812, which was where it got the nickname "Old Ironsides" because cannonballs couldn't seem to penetrate its sides. Overall a good tour, but again shorter than we expected.

On the deck of the ship

Inside the ship; lots of cannons!

Where the sailors slept

Sailors aren't meant to be 6'7"...it was a bit dangerous for Doug!

Us in front of the USS Constitution

After the Constitution we walked around Harvard and Harvard Square for a while, then grabbed some food. I got to pet and visit with a beautiful golden retriever while we were there, and we also got to meet Ann's cat Flora, so I was able to get some much needed pet therapy during our time in Boston.

March 25-26: I left Doug behind to work on his mock trial and headed to Boston again. This time I went with one of my new friends, Pilar, who is also a military wife. We drove up to hang out with Ann (same Ann as previous Boston trip), one of my oldest and closest friends. When we got there Ann took us on a walking tour of the city. We followed the Freedom Trail, which leads tourists to some of the historical places around the city. We stopped by the Granary Burying Ground where some famous Bostonians are buried, including John Hancock, Paul Revere, and Samuel Adams. While there, I found a gravestone with the name Nathaniel Shannon on it; I will have to do some research to see if we are related! We also saw the Old South Meeting House, where revolutionary speeches were given, and the church where lanterns were lit to give the signal to Paul Revere that started his famous ride to warn that the British were on their way. We also saw the nation's first public school and the Irish Famine Memorial. Here is a sampling of the pictures I took:

Riding the 1st subway in America

A look at the very old gravestones in the Burying Ground - so intricate!

Burying Grounds. The tall monument in the middle stands over the tomb of Benjamin Franklin's parents.

Paul Revere's grave (original gravestone on right)

Shannon!

Irish famine memorial. There were also statues showing the emaciated state of immigrants when they got here, and how much better they looked after they were in America. Plaques at the memorial explained how angry Bostonians were when the Irish started arriving; one states that they wanted to help them, but didn't want them here. My poor ancestors!

Old South Meeting House

Inventive anti-littering campaign :)

Church where lanterns signaled Paul Revere's ride

Statue commemorating said ride

After our walk we re-energized with delicious desserts from Mike's Pastries, a bakery that was spoken very highly of and that lived up to all the hype. Then we hopped on the T and headed to the Museum of Fine Arts. It is a huge museum, and we only made it through two sections before we were exhausted, but we saw a lot of interesting pieces. There were actually quite a few Herman Miller pieces in one exhibit, as well as pieces from artists in Grand Rapids. I felt a lot of West Michigan pride when I saw those.

Herman Miller representing at the Museum of Fine Arts!

Amazing glass installation - this picture was taken from the 3rd floor!  Artist is Chihuly, for those of you in the know.

 We left the museum and headed back to Ann's house, where Pilar left to head back to Newport. Ann and I went and had dinner at a great Indian restaurant. I had never had Indian food before, and Ann wanted to introduce me. It made a good first impression on me, I must say. Very yummy. Then we headed back to Ann's and got some rest.

The next day Ann and I headed for Newport. I gave her a driving tour of Ocean Drive, which is part of the beautiful coastline with larger homes and mansions. Then we went to the Breakers, one of the famous Newport mansions. It was built by the Vanderbilt family and used as their summer home. The place has 47 bedrooms, if that gives you an idea of how big it is. (only 14 were used for family and guests, however - the rest were for the house staff!) We took a guided tour and got to hear about the extravagance of the place; imported marble from all different parts of the world just to decorate the walls, 22 carat gold paint on the ceilings, precious stones inlaid in the fireplace mantels, intricate mosaics on some of the ceilings, and so on. Every inch of the mansion is covered in opulence. Really, it was kind of ridiculous. But a very interesting sight to see nonetheless. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, so these outdoor ones will have to satisfy your curiosity for now:

The gate at the entrance to the Breakers. Ann is standing in front of it for scale purposes.

View of the mansion from the coastline

View of the mansion from the driveway

There are 10 mansions to tour in Newport, but only 3 are open in the winter, and we were only able to make it to the Breakers anyway. If you are ever in this part of the country, I think they are worth taking a look!

I think that's it for now; Doug only has a few days of school left, and we will be heading out of here next Friday!  We are making a very brief stop at home in West Michigan to get my car and our cat and to visit with our families, and then we are starting our journey to the west. We will be driving across the country to San Diego, and once we get there we will begin our search for a house to rent! With all of that craziness I might not be able to post for a while, but I promise a good long post detailing our adventure to the west coast when we get settled in. Lots of love to you all - thanks for reading!

New York, New York

So it's been a while since my last post - sorry about that!  We have been staying busy hanging out with some of the couples that we have met here, and having lots of fun. 

Doug and I went to New York City a few weekends ago. I had never been and Doug hadn't been since high school, and since we are only 3.5 hours away, we figured now would be a good time to go explore the Big Apple.

We left early Saturday morning and drove to Bridgeport, CT, where we parked the car and bought two commuter rail tickets to Grand Central Terminal. The train arrived right on time and took us the rest of the way into the city.

On the train

                                    

Grand Central Station

Grand Central Station

 

 

 

When we arrived in the city, we walked three short blocks to our hotel to see if they would hold our luggage until check-in time. To our pleasant surprise, our room was ready and they allowed us to check in early. It was a pretty nice room, considering we found it on Priceline for about as cheap as an NYC hotel room can be. It was actually bigger than the room we are living in while we are in Newport!

Fun fact: Did you know that in many hotels in downtown New York, sharing a bathroom with other patrons is common for smaller rooms? We did not know this, and were not willing to test out this new discovery, so we opted for a bigger room with a private bath. I think we made a good choice.

Our hotel room - not too shabby!

We dropped our stuff off and made a rough outline of where we wanted to go, then headed out. We walked to Times Square first; such an awesome sight. So many lights, people, salesmen trying to get us to buy comedy show tickets (seriously, we got stopped 5 times)...it was a wonderful experience.

Times Square, baby!

We even made the discovery that the US military has a recruiting station smack in the middle of Times Square, which we found a little odd. Doug really wanted to go ask the person inside how to get that sort of duty station, but the only person in there at the time was a New York cop. We may have to do some research...

Pointing to the Navy logo

We went into a few stores, but the most memorable was definitely M&M World. I have never seen such a huge supply of candy, or such an elaborate marketing decor (clearly I haven't been to Disney World). We were disappointed in the lack of peanut butter and pretzel M&M choices, however. It was all plain and peanut, plain and peanut.  Still, the chocolate addict within me was in heaven. Here is a small taste of what the store looks like inside:

After Times Square, we headed to the home of one of our favorite TV shows; 30 Rockefeller Center. Some of the other NBC shows are made there as well, and we had heard there was a great observation deck at the top of the building that offered views nearly as good as the Empire State Building, with half the price tag and a quarter of the wait time. We wanted to do a tour of the NBC studios, but they were sold out for the day, so we settled for wandering around their gift shop and admiring all of the hilarious moments from our favorite shows being showcased on t-shirts, mugs, magnets, etc. Then we went to the "Top of the Rock" (their observation deck), which in fact offered some amazing views. Unfortunately, we were in NYC on the windiest day of the year, and being on an outdoor observation deck 30 odd flights up is quite terrifying when the wind is trying to knock you down. We did manage to get some good pictures, though:

Can you spot the New Year's Eve ball?

Central Park!

After 30 Rock, we went to the New York Public Library, which for some reason I thought would be huge. It looks pretty quaint from the outside, though. I blame my unrealistic expectations on the movie The Day After Tomorrow.

Here's the outside:

Doug took advantage of one of the random outdoor desks

And then there's the inside. Such a beautiful, wondrous place. It amazed me that everything was so ornate and beautiful and completely open for the public's use. It made my inner social worker swell with pride to think that our society has allowed something so beautiful and historical to be shared with all, not hidden away where only a select few can appreciate it. And it made my inner nerd giddy with excitement when I saw the vast array of reading material available. I seriously want to live there and just read through everything, one at a time, and then go through and do it again.

Here are some pictures of the inside. They do not allow cell phones or flash photography, and my camera kept defiantly flashing despite my efforts to control it. So if the photos look blurry or not really focused on anything, it might be because I was pointing, shooting, and whisking my camera back under my coat, all while looking around warily for security.

one of the beautiful paintings on the ceiling

Inset of one of the doors; so detailed!

We left the library and walked around a bit longer, then decided to head over to the Theater District. We really wanted to see American Idiot, the musical based on the band Green Day's album, especially because the lead singer Billy Joe Armstrong was actually performing in the show the weekend we were there. However, not sure if you know this or not, but Broadway tickets are slightly expensive. So we decided to try the ticket lottery. This is where you put your name in a big bucket and they draw out a certain number of names, and these people have a chance to buy tickets for a very decent price. They do this about an hour before the show, so it is a bit of a risk if you are dying to see it, but we were okay with not getting to see the show so we didn't really have anything to lose. Unfortunately, our names didn't get drawn, but it was fun standing in the freezing cold gale-force winds with 100 other people waiting for our names to be called. And believe it or not, that last sentence was not sarcastic; it really was fun.

After our lottery loss, we walked a few blocks over to an off-Broadway theater to try to get tickets for Avenue Q, another promising performance. They were sold out for that night, but had tickets available for the Sunday shows, so we bought two for the matinee. By this time we were starving, so we asked the theater attendant for a cheap-ish, close-ish restaurant recommendation. He told us about a burger joint right behind the theater, and we decided to check it out. It was called Mother Burger, and oh my goodness it was delicious. We loved the atmosphere as well; small, casual, and lots of happy people. Both of our burgers were amazing, but Doug got this monster Nacho Burger that we just had to document:

Not the best picture, but you can tell the burger is huge by the incredulous look on his face, right?

After dinner we hailed a cab (we were exhausted and freezing from walking around) and went back to the hotel, where we both promptly crashed. New York sure takes it out of ya.

The next morning (yeah, that was just one day), we headed downtown to the World Trade Center site. It was a terribly heartbreaking image, and we both got choked up just being there. We went to the Memorial and had a hard time getting through all the videos, the memorabilia of those who died, and the wreckage recovered from the site. It was really hard for us to be there, but we felt we should pay respect to those who lost their lives in one of the tragedies of our time. I can't imagine how anyone who lost a loved one could face going to that site, though I suppose people grieve and remember in many different ways. 

After Ground Zero, we decided to go up to Central Park to have a more uplifting experience. We took the subway, and didn't even get lost/robbed/molested once. We did get to enjoy a mariachi band who joined our car for a bit, however. Never a dull moment in NYC.

Central Park was beautiful. I love the amount of green space there is available in such a busy, tightly-packed city. We walked around and checked out the zoo; didn't go in, but we got to see a sea lion sunning itself in the gorgeous sunshine that was out the whole day.

We left the Park and headed towards our off-Broadway theater. The theater attendant had also recommended a Mexican restaurant near there, and we wanted to try it out before our show. It was not as outstanding as Mother Burger, but still very enjoyable. After lunch, we headed to the theater and found our seats for Avenue Q. For those of you who don't know, Avenue Q is a play done with both puppets and live actors, and it is a satire about the disappointment of the "real world" after college. It turned out to be a very, very funny show, and we would definitely recommend it to anyone who is not offended by lewd language/gestures. If that sort of thing does offend you, you would probably be better off seeing one of the other three hundred or so plays going on in New York.

After Avenue Q, it was time to head back to the hotel to gather our luggage so we could catch our train back to Connecticut. We were sad to go, and I wish we had been able to stay another 6 days at least - there is so much to do there! - but unfortunately the real world called and informed Doug that he had lots of schoolwork to get done. We hopped on the train in Grand Central and had a smooth ride back to Bridgeport; then we grabbed our car and made it the rest of the way home safely.  All in all a wonderful trip.  We both had the same things to say on the way back:

1. We LOVE public transportation, and would love to live in a city where we didn't need to own a car.
2. We would love to live in New York City in particular, if we ever find ourselves in a position to be able to do so.
3. We need to go back soon, so we can start to see all the other great experiences this wonderful city has to offer!

On a side note, my own particular revelations were that NYC is a lot cleaner than I thought it would be, and people are a lot nicer than I had heard as well. We had no negativity to report after this weekend, except maybe that Starbucks should have a few tables and chairs in their stores. 

Phew - sorry for the long post!  Apparently the nation's biggest city needs a big post. If you are still reading, thanks for sticking with me :)