pictures

We put some links on the Pictures page.  We uploaded photos from NYC to Texas.

More places

Charlotte

We stopped in Charlotte, NC for a night on our way to Savannah.  We stayed at a hotel because Sara gets a discount at Marriots thanks to a program recognizing non-profit volunteers.  I wanted to stop there because I lived 15 minutes from Charlotte for a couple years when I was a kid (in Gastonia, NC).  Paul’s parents took us out for some authentic North Carolinian barbecue.  I ordered a pork filet mignon medium rare.  I thought it would be like ordering a beef filet mignon medium rare, but I was wrong.  Don’t order pork medium rare, uncooked pork is not good IMO.

Savannah

We both read Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, so we were excited for Savannah.  It was also our first camping of the trip (2 nights).  We stayed in a state park about 15 minutes from Savannah.  Our first night we went downtown and walked around the squares.  Savannah has 24 squares in the downtown area, so every block or two you come across another square.

The second day we took a tour of the Mercer House where Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil takes place.  Before we started the tour of the house, we saw Jim William’s sister walking arond the house (she lives there).  That was strange.  Scattered throughout the mansion are photos of some of the characters of the book. In the afternoon we went to Bonaventure Cemetery, also from the book.  The statue featured on the cover of the book was originally in the cemetery, however it was moved to the Telfair museum.  The cemetery had some famous dead people including Johnny Mercer (4-time Academy Award winning song writer) and Conrad Aiken (novelist and poet).  That evening we wanted to get some Southern food which naturally led us to Paula Deen’s restaurant Lady and Son’s.  It had an all-you-can-eat buffet of Southern comfort food such as fried chicken, pork loins, collard greens, biscuits, sweet potatoes, black-eyed peas, corn bread, mac & cheese, etc.  As planned our night ended after the meal in our comatose state of fullness.  The next morning we went to the Telfair Museum to check out the bird statue from the book.  We also got to tour an English Regency home that was part of the Telfair Museum.

Charlotte - We stopped in Charlotte, NC for a night on our way to Savannah.  We stayed at a hotel because Sara gets a discount at Marriots thanks to a program recognizing non-profit volunteers.  I wanted to stop there because I lived 15 minutes from Charlotte for a couple years when I was a kid (in Gastonia, NC).  Paul’s parents took us out for some authentic North Carolinian barbecue.  I ordered a pork filet mignon medium rare.  I thought it would be like ordering a beef filet mignon medium rare, but I was wrong.  Don’t order pork medium rare, uncooked pork is not good IMO.

Savanna - We both read Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, so we were excited for Savannah.  It was also our first camping of the trip (2 nights).  We stayed in a state park about 15 minutes from Savannah.  Our first night we went downtown and walked around the squares.  Savannah has 24 squares in the downtown area, so every block or two you come across another square.

The second day we took a tour of the Mercer House where Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil takes place.  Before we started the tour of the house, we saw Jim William’s sister walking arond the house (she lives there).  That was strange.  Scattered throughout the mansion are photos of some of the characters of the book. In the afternoon we went to Bonaventure Cemetery, also from the book.  The statue featured on the cover of the book was originally in the cemetery, however it was moved to the Telfair museum.  The cemetery had some famous dead people including Johnny Mercer (4-time Academy Award winning song writer) and Conrad Aiken (novelist and poet).  That evening we wanted to get some Southern food which naturally led us to Paula Deen’s restaurant Lady and Son’s.  It had an all-you-can-eat buffet of Southern comfort food such as fried chicken, pork loins, collard greens, biscuits, sweet potatoes, black-eyed peas, corn bread, mac & cheese, etc.  As planned our night ended after the meal in our comatose state of fullness.  The next morning we went to the Telfair Museum to check out the bird statue from the book.  We also got to tour an English Regency home that was part of the Telfair Museum.

Quick updates

Sara and I have been a little lax in our updating of our blog.  I’m going to do some mini-updates on each place we’ve been just we can get caught up!

New Jersey – We left New York on September 21, and stopped near New Brunswick, NJ.  We met up with Sara’s friend Rebecca for coffee and went to a DDD stop for lunch:  The Skylark Lounge.  It was an interesting-looking place (bright colors, 50s-style decorations, big booths) and had a giant menu, but unfortunately our food was a little boring and bland.  Maybe their food is bad or maybe we just made bad selections.

Philly – Our first stop for the night after NYC was Philadelphia, where we stayed at the Chamounix Mansion (hostel).  There was a giant praying mantis hanging out on the front porch.  We met up with Maya and Paul at a burrito place and then went to Naked Chocolate for dessert.  We walked around Fairmount Park, got a “cheesesteak wiz wit” at Geno’s, and toured the Italian Market.  The Italian Market has signs up about the Historic Italian area and what it means to the city, but it consists almost entirely of Latin and Asian shops.

DC – Our next stop was Washington.  Ross and his two roommates Jared and Aaron let us stay at their place for the 4 days we were there.  We went to a ping pong bar (oh yes) with Ross, Corina, Patrick, and Blair, a soul food restaurant for breakfast, DC’s mini-China Town, and a few other places.  Probably our favorite part of DC, though, was the Smithsonian Institution, due to the fact that everything was free.  We spent most of our time going to museums and other Smithsonian things: Natural History, Air and Space, National Gallery of Art, National Archives, Holocaust, the Castle, National Zoo, Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, WWII, Vietnam Memorial… all free.  We did pay for one, the International Spy Museum, but it was worth it.  The museum is setup as more of an experience than the other museums.  When you enter, you go up an elevator to start your training to become a spy.  You take on an identity that you have to memorize, have an introductory video, and then enter “Spy School”, which consists of exhibits and videos on the history of spying throughout world history, various spy gadgets, etc.  There are checkpoints along the way where you are expected to keep your cover and complete tasks (albeit simple tasks that are disappointingly void of danger).

Mannahatta

Sara and I spent 5 days in New York City and only managed to explore Manhattan.  It’s amazing how much STUFF is packed into the relatively small island.  We also only visited one museum, for an hour:  the Museum of the City of New York.  It is exactly like the name describes, putting together the history of the city over the last 400 years through pictures, stories, fossil records, etc.  I’d recommend the museum to anybody; it’s fairly quick and has the wonderful system of “pay as much as you feel like”.

The featured exhibit was a project showing the transition of the city from 400 years ago to today.  400 years ago the island of “Mannahatta” looked a little different.  There might not be any photos of it, but the Mannahatta Project has attempted to recreate it with the magic of computers:

How serene.  Here’s a picture of Manhattan today:

The contrast is astounding to me.  I like imagining the process through which these forests became skyscrapers.  With most cities in the U.S., there are similar plants and animals all around, so the destruction of habitat seems less important.  The deer run away from the construction vehicles to the safety of the neighboring forest.  Manhattan, though, was a unique environment, probably containing many plant and animal species only living on the island.  They didn’t escape to anywhere.  That makes me a lil’ sad.  I suppose similar stories exist in other places in the world, like in Indonesia or Taiwan.  I haven’t been to those places, though.

The benefit of the packed blocks of modern Mannahatta is that Sara and I had an unlimited supply of things to see and do.  For most of our time, we wandered through the interesting neighborhoods and areas of Manhattan and visited with friends and family.  We walked through Harlem, the Villages, Chelsea, Soho, Little Italy, Chinatown, the Theater District, the Financial district, Times Square, Union Square, and probably some other districts and squares.  We happened upon an Italian festival and a German festival.  We played Guitar Hero at Rosa and Josh’s place in Upper Manhattan.  We walked through Central Park with Rosa, Josh, and Nisse.  My sister Georgia took us and Nisse to a great Ethiopian restaurant.  My cousin Andrea treated us to some very good Greek food in Astoria.  Joanna took us to Pizza Mercato near Madison Square, where we were serenaded by this mobile pianist:

Georgia’s friends Liz and Bennett showed us ToyTokyo, which was one of my favorite places in NYC:

There was a lot more, but I should probably stop there.  We’ll post a picture page at some point.  Whew!  Life is as non-stop as you want it to be in NYC.

Also, thank you to the New Yorkers for showing us around, and especially to Georgia and Nisse for letting us stay at their places.

Here we go

Sara and Wes are going to hit the road in about 20 minutes!  It’s been a hectic few days getting our stuff together, but it worked out just fine.  First stop:  New York City.  We’re going to spend five days there, but we don’t really know what we’re going to do.  We’ll play it by ear.  We’ll probably walk around, check out some museums, and hang out with our peoples.  If you think there is something we should do, let us know!