On our way out of Wisconsin, we did indeed find us some cheese curds, and they were DELICIOUS. I wasn't sure what everyone meant when they talked about the squeak. It is an experience that is indescribable! Not indescribable in the way we use it to talk about beautiful sites or whatever. But seriously, biting into a fresh cheese curd is something you really need to experience for yourself.
We left Wisconsin and entered Minnesota and it was beautiful. Indescribable in the way we mean it when talking about something beautiful. We decided to stop at a state park to eat lunch, but discovered that it is closed. In fact, all of the state parks in Minnesota are closed because they couldn't get the state budget together. Which is awful, because not only did we miss out on what I feel is probably completely stunning scenery, but according to the park ranger that checked us in at Palisades State Park in South Dakota, the state of Minnesota is losing a million dollars A DAY due to its state parks being closed. Crazy! But, hey- their loss, South Dakota's gain.
We settled into our cute little camp site, set up our tent and chairs, and then decided to explore a bit. We actually got a chance to ride our bikes again! We biked around the park, climbed some neat rocks, and then we cooked our dinner over the camp fire. Tom got to use his cast iron pans, so he was happy.
Next on our tour is the rest of South Dakota, heading toward Mount Rushmore!
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Monday, July 11, 2011
On Wisconsin!
This morning we woke up to a fierce storm sweeping through Chicago, so we camped out in our hotel room until the sideways rain stopped, then we loaded up the car again and drove north to visit Aunt Patti and Uncle Les in Wisconsin.
It was a very quick drive and we made it to Wisconsin by lunch. We had fresh veggies from the garden! Om nom nom. Er, well. I had fresh veggies. Tom hissed and dove under the table, crying out in fear and loathing.
The vegetables were delicious.
After lunch, Uncle Les took us on a bike ride along the Glacier-Blenheim trail, which was lovely. It was mostly flat and we rode a total of 9 miles out and back.
By the time we got back, it was just about time for dinner so we had some iced tea and chatted, caught up on family news, and then had spaghetti and tomato sauce. Aunt Patti and Uncle Les had hoped to grill brats for us, but with the weather being so iffy, we went the pasta route. We made up for it though, I had some of Uncle Les's home-brewed beer!
After dinner, we went and got another famous piece of Wisconsin cuisine--custard. Mmmm... yummy.
Tomorrow we are leaving very early in order to get a jump on the drive to Palisades State Park and on the way, we get to stop and purchase another famous Wisconsin delicacy: Cheese curds. I am looking forward to the squeak. =)
It was a very quick drive and we made it to Wisconsin by lunch. We had fresh veggies from the garden! Om nom nom. Er, well. I had fresh veggies. Tom hissed and dove under the table, crying out in fear and loathing.
The vegetables were delicious.
After lunch, Uncle Les took us on a bike ride along the Glacier-Blenheim trail, which was lovely. It was mostly flat and we rode a total of 9 miles out and back.
By the time we got back, it was just about time for dinner so we had some iced tea and chatted, caught up on family news, and then had spaghetti and tomato sauce. Aunt Patti and Uncle Les had hoped to grill brats for us, but with the weather being so iffy, we went the pasta route. We made up for it though, I had some of Uncle Les's home-brewed beer!
After dinner, we went and got another famous piece of Wisconsin cuisine--custard. Mmmm... yummy.
Tomorrow we are leaving very early in order to get a jump on the drive to Palisades State Park and on the way, we get to stop and purchase another famous Wisconsin delicacy: Cheese curds. I am looking forward to the squeak. =)
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Day out in Chicago
This morning we slept in. After the 10 hour drive from Pittsburgh, including the 5 hour drive across Indiana, and the 6 am wake-up time, I feel like we kind of deserved it!
Once we got up and moving, we asked our very nice, and extremely helpful Innkeep whether we could get a train into the city. Turns out, yes! There is a train station about 10 minutes down the road from our Inn, so we drove the car down there. Weirdly enough, there is no all-day parking near the train station (at least, not on Sundays) but we asked an employee, and he confided to us his super-secret free parking spot on a side street a block away.
We got on the Blue Line at Jefferson Park and rode it into the city. We decided to get off at the Park/Lake stop because I had hoped to ride the Loop, but we couldn't quite figure out which train was the elevated one (turns out all of them, but we were unaware at the time) so instead, we wandered out and discovered the theatre district.
At this point, we were getting pretty hungry, so we sought out delicious pizza from Uno's. And it was delicious indeed! Mmm, deep dish cheese pizza from the home of deep dish pizza. Om nom nom. I really liked the sauce they used and thought it was pretty cool that the sauce was spread on top of the cheese instead of underneath. Different and delicious.
After a very satisfying late lunch, we headed down the Magnificent Mile towards Millennium Park in order to see The Bean!
For those not in the know, the Bean is the nickname for a giant metallic sculpture called the Cloud Gate. It is fascinating watching the city and the people being reflected in the surface of the statue.
The park is right near Lake Michigan and the cool breeze coming off the water was an irresistible draw on such a hot day, so we decided to stroll along the wharf towards the Aquarium and the Planetarium. It was a lovely stroll and we got a snow cone and some lemonade along the way. By this time, the sun was starting to set, so we decided to head back, but we needed to find a train stop first.
After a little hiccup where we mistook the Metra for the CTA trains, we found a Red Line stop and rode it to the transfer with the Blue Line. Tom was pretty much done, but he was nice enough to indulge me in one last stop at Logan Park.
What's in Logan Park? The neighborhood of one of my favorite comic artists, Lucy Knisley. She lives in Chicago at the moment, but she is moving back to New York and so she made a comic all about her favorite places in her neighborhood. I guess it makes me a crazy stalker fan, but I was so grabbed by her honest love for the place that I really wanted to see it for myself. So, we went to her favorite local coffee place to give it a try.
Is that weird? Yeah, that's weird. Oh well!
Tomorrow we head to Wisconsin to see Aunt Patti and Uncle Les. Onward to the dairy state!
Once we got up and moving, we asked our very nice, and extremely helpful Innkeep whether we could get a train into the city. Turns out, yes! There is a train station about 10 minutes down the road from our Inn, so we drove the car down there. Weirdly enough, there is no all-day parking near the train station (at least, not on Sundays) but we asked an employee, and he confided to us his super-secret free parking spot on a side street a block away.
We got on the Blue Line at Jefferson Park and rode it into the city. We decided to get off at the Park/Lake stop because I had hoped to ride the Loop, but we couldn't quite figure out which train was the elevated one (turns out all of them, but we were unaware at the time) so instead, we wandered out and discovered the theatre district.
At this point, we were getting pretty hungry, so we sought out delicious pizza from Uno's. And it was delicious indeed! Mmm, deep dish cheese pizza from the home of deep dish pizza. Om nom nom. I really liked the sauce they used and thought it was pretty cool that the sauce was spread on top of the cheese instead of underneath. Different and delicious.
After a very satisfying late lunch, we headed down the Magnificent Mile towards Millennium Park in order to see The Bean!
For those not in the know, the Bean is the nickname for a giant metallic sculpture called the Cloud Gate. It is fascinating watching the city and the people being reflected in the surface of the statue.
The park is right near Lake Michigan and the cool breeze coming off the water was an irresistible draw on such a hot day, so we decided to stroll along the wharf towards the Aquarium and the Planetarium. It was a lovely stroll and we got a snow cone and some lemonade along the way. By this time, the sun was starting to set, so we decided to head back, but we needed to find a train stop first.
After a little hiccup where we mistook the Metra for the CTA trains, we found a Red Line stop and rode it to the transfer with the Blue Line. Tom was pretty much done, but he was nice enough to indulge me in one last stop at Logan Park.
What's in Logan Park? The neighborhood of one of my favorite comic artists, Lucy Knisley. She lives in Chicago at the moment, but she is moving back to New York and so she made a comic all about her favorite places in her neighborhood. I guess it makes me a crazy stalker fan, but I was so grabbed by her honest love for the place that I really wanted to see it for myself. So, we went to her favorite local coffee place to give it a try.
Is that weird? Yeah, that's weird. Oh well!
Tomorrow we head to Wisconsin to see Aunt Patti and Uncle Les. Onward to the dairy state!
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Casualty! And why I will refrain from returning to Indiana.
This morning we left Pennsylvania and started along the Lake Erie Coastal Ohio Trail. It was very pretty, winding through small like-side towns and periodically giving us tantalizing glimpses of the HUGE Lake Erie.
But soon after we entered Ohio, tragedy struck! We were driving through a teeny little town called Lakesville. I was driving and Tom was taking pictures as we went. His camera lens was out the window a bit and suddenly I heard him yelp. We had run smack into a bumblebee! The bee had tumbled into the car and landed in the little bay of the power window switch. He then proceeded to cower, traumatized, in the little cave beneath the window switch.
The poor thing had been loaded up with pollen, which went everywhere. We had clumps on the camera, on the window sill and on the switch bay. We were briefly flummoxed as to how to remove the bee from the window switch well, until I tore some paper from my notebook and Tom convinced it to cling to the end. We left the poor guy on the side of the road, but after being clothes-lined by a Nikon lens at 45 miles an hour, I don't know how well he's gonna do. =(
Thankfully, the rest of the drive was lovely, and there were no more animal mishaps.
We drove along the Coastal Trail, sometimes losing it and visited the Marblehead Lighthouse, which was nice. We almost ran out of gas right on the edge of Ohio. The light came on just as we drove past the last rest stop for 30 miles, so we left the highway and coasted down to a Shamrock station in town called Edon.
And then... Then we entered Indiana. Oh, Indiana. Who lives in Indiana, seriously? I mean, yes. We stayed on the highway the whole way through, which is never the best views. But we drove on the highway through a good chunk of PA as well, and I still like that state! At least they've got hills and views and things. Indiana was just... dull. Flat, boring drive through flat, boring country. The trees were nice looking, but there was no change in them at all.
So, we got through Indiana as fast as possible (5 hours or so, ugh) and headed into Chicago.
Hurray for Droids, by the way. I booked us a room at a Traveler's Inn as we were driving, so we headed straight here, dropped our stuff, showered... and then went to see Transformers 3. I know, I know. We're in a brand new city and we go see a movie?
But, hey, it was fun! Lots of explosions and robots fighting. And wow, did this one take a dark turn that the others really didn't have. I mean, the other movie had people dying, but they were mostly soldiers being stabbed or blown up or whatever.
This one had fleeing, screaming civilians being vaporized. And not just nice, suddenly-there-is-dust-not-a-body vaporized, either. Like, the liquid in their body was suddenly flash-boiled kind of vaporized so that their charred bones scatter and their clothing flutters to the ground like a surrender flag.
...
And on that note! Ha. Anyway, hello Chicago! Tomorrow we will be exploring you!
But soon after we entered Ohio, tragedy struck! We were driving through a teeny little town called Lakesville. I was driving and Tom was taking pictures as we went. His camera lens was out the window a bit and suddenly I heard him yelp. We had run smack into a bumblebee! The bee had tumbled into the car and landed in the little bay of the power window switch. He then proceeded to cower, traumatized, in the little cave beneath the window switch.
The poor thing had been loaded up with pollen, which went everywhere. We had clumps on the camera, on the window sill and on the switch bay. We were briefly flummoxed as to how to remove the bee from the window switch well, until I tore some paper from my notebook and Tom convinced it to cling to the end. We left the poor guy on the side of the road, but after being clothes-lined by a Nikon lens at 45 miles an hour, I don't know how well he's gonna do. =(
Thankfully, the rest of the drive was lovely, and there were no more animal mishaps.
We drove along the Coastal Trail, sometimes losing it and visited the Marblehead Lighthouse, which was nice. We almost ran out of gas right on the edge of Ohio. The light came on just as we drove past the last rest stop for 30 miles, so we left the highway and coasted down to a Shamrock station in town called Edon.
And then... Then we entered Indiana. Oh, Indiana. Who lives in Indiana, seriously? I mean, yes. We stayed on the highway the whole way through, which is never the best views. But we drove on the highway through a good chunk of PA as well, and I still like that state! At least they've got hills and views and things. Indiana was just... dull. Flat, boring drive through flat, boring country. The trees were nice looking, but there was no change in them at all.
So, we got through Indiana as fast as possible (5 hours or so, ugh) and headed into Chicago.
Hurray for Droids, by the way. I booked us a room at a Traveler's Inn as we were driving, so we headed straight here, dropped our stuff, showered... and then went to see Transformers 3. I know, I know. We're in a brand new city and we go see a movie?
But, hey, it was fun! Lots of explosions and robots fighting. And wow, did this one take a dark turn that the others really didn't have. I mean, the other movie had people dying, but they were mostly soldiers being stabbed or blown up or whatever.
This one had fleeing, screaming civilians being vaporized. And not just nice, suddenly-there-is-dust-not-a-body vaporized, either. Like, the liquid in their body was suddenly flash-boiled kind of vaporized so that their charred bones scatter and their clothing flutters to the ground like a surrender flag.
...
And on that note! Ha. Anyway, hello Chicago! Tomorrow we will be exploring you!
Friday, July 8, 2011
Pittsburgh, Day 2
This morning, Pierce, his girlfriend Katie, and Chris showed us around Pittsburgh. It's a beautiful city! Which came as a surprise to me, because the only thing I ever really knew as a coal mining and steel town, so I was expecting an ugly industrial city.
What I found was a city full of trees and wide clean streets and cute little shops!
Our first stop was S.W. Randall's, which is a super cute independent toy store that has been in business for 35 years. I found the game Pass the Pigs! But my favorite part was the hour long conversation I had with the shop keep about webcomics. Or, perhaps it was more that I talked at the poor shop keep for an hour about webcomics while he politely listened because he couldn't escape because he was at work... Er... I'm gonna go with the first one!
After the toy store, we walked down the block to a store called Kards Unlimited. We went there originally because I had said I wanted to find postcards from Pittsburgh and Katie had told me I could find some there. Did I find postcards? Yes. But, more importantly, I found a beautiful, beautiful haven.
This store had EVERYTHING I could ever want and every variety of nerdery that I love. It was wonderful; I could have stayed there all day!
All that geeking out got us hungry, so we took the advice of the book that Luke got Tom for his birthday and went to the Primanti Bros Restaurant for their giant, decadent (and totally delicious) sandwiches.
Afterwards we headed over to Essie's Famous Hot Dog Shop for their french fries known as the Big O. It's basically a giant sack of fries! So simple, yet so brilliant.
After lunch we rode the Monongehela Incline, which is this little railway that runs you up the mountain side to the Grandview City view road. Like I said before, Pittsburgh is a surprisingly beautiful city and we enjoyed a little stroll along the city skyline.
Dinner came from Lulu's Noodles- I got Bubble Tea! We took it to go and brought it back to Chris's apartment, where we rounded out the night by writing up the outline for the 48-hour film that Chris and Pierce are currently working on. They got their genre, character and line at 7:30 and in 2 hours we had a concept, and a working outline. Damn, we're good.
So, thanks for the good time, Pittsburgh! I might just come back and visit you again, someday. For now, I will say farewell. On to the next adventure!
What I found was a city full of trees and wide clean streets and cute little shops!
Our first stop was S.W. Randall's, which is a super cute independent toy store that has been in business for 35 years. I found the game Pass the Pigs! But my favorite part was the hour long conversation I had with the shop keep about webcomics. Or, perhaps it was more that I talked at the poor shop keep for an hour about webcomics while he politely listened because he couldn't escape because he was at work... Er... I'm gonna go with the first one!
After the toy store, we walked down the block to a store called Kards Unlimited. We went there originally because I had said I wanted to find postcards from Pittsburgh and Katie had told me I could find some there. Did I find postcards? Yes. But, more importantly, I found a beautiful, beautiful haven.
This store had EVERYTHING I could ever want and every variety of nerdery that I love. It was wonderful; I could have stayed there all day!
All that geeking out got us hungry, so we took the advice of the book that Luke got Tom for his birthday and went to the Primanti Bros Restaurant for their giant, decadent (and totally delicious) sandwiches.
Afterwards we headed over to Essie's Famous Hot Dog Shop for their french fries known as the Big O. It's basically a giant sack of fries! So simple, yet so brilliant.
After lunch we rode the Monongehela Incline, which is this little railway that runs you up the mountain side to the Grandview City view road. Like I said before, Pittsburgh is a surprisingly beautiful city and we enjoyed a little stroll along the city skyline.
Dinner came from Lulu's Noodles- I got Bubble Tea! We took it to go and brought it back to Chris's apartment, where we rounded out the night by writing up the outline for the 48-hour film that Chris and Pierce are currently working on. They got their genre, character and line at 7:30 and in 2 hours we had a concept, and a working outline. Damn, we're good.
So, thanks for the good time, Pittsburgh! I might just come back and visit you again, someday. For now, I will say farewell. On to the next adventure!
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