Seattle-Badlands

Did you miss us, America?

I am sitting in our Chicago hotel, thinking about the 7 days since we’ve posted. Larry King is on. I supposed everyday is casual Friday when you’re the King.

Seattle

After leaving our beloved Portland, we headed north to the city of grunge and coffee. From our hotel window, we could almost touch the Space Needle and Experience Music Center. I’m sure you can guess where we headed. Experience Music was amazing. We geeked out to Hendrix memorabilia and tons of other Seattle music exhibits. There was an interactive center where you could play guitar, drums and keyboard together, so we pretty much rocked until we were kicked out. We had such an great time, and then realized how we’ve been doing the same thing in my basement for the past six years…

Later, we went to see a show in the music section of Seattle. The bands were Constantine’s, Crystal Antlers and our favorite Hey Marseilles. Cool show. Great vibe… It’s like Philly without the baggage.

Next morning, we made our way to the Pike Port area. …Some photos at the first Starbucks then out to Yellowstone.

(Well, we actually slept that next night in our car about 1hr outside of Yellowstone. Nice!)

Yellowstone

I found my favorite theater is at the Madison Camp of Yellowstone. It’s just a screen in the middle of the park. On our first night, a ranger gave a lecture on the reintegration of the Wolves in Yellowstone. Did you know that there has never been a human death caused by wolves near Yellowstone? 14 deaths by Grizzly bear attack occur in Yellowstone every year!!!

We saw hundreds bison… They are the Sea Lions of Yellowstone.

Here’s what they don’t tell you… THE GEYSERS SMELL LIKE DEATH!!!

Jackson/Jenny Lake

We moved 20 miles south to set up camp next to the Grand Tetons. That night, we headed into town to go to our first rodeo. Before the show, we went to a burger joint that just so happened to be celebrating a ‘Happy Hour’. It was happy, alright. Tom (or should I say John, age 25) and I enjoyed 88-cent pints! Wowza. Great burger and cool people.

The Rodeo was like nothing else. A real American pastime. It was riveting up until the last bull ride (during which the rider was smacked in the head by the bull’s head). As the merry crowd exited, they searched for the young man’s teeth in the soil. Yee-haw!

Yellowstone/Badlands

We woke up at 4am to drive through Lamar Valley. This is the ‘Serengeti’ of Yellowstone. As we began our drive into this section of the park, we were stopped by a ranger and told to proceed with caution, as there were two black bears mating about twenty yards ahead of us. Well, he sure wasn’t lying. I had to give Tom ‘the talk’, and we continued on our way. We saw one more bear, two wolves, and hundreds of Bison.

By the time we made it to the Badlands it was dark. We set up our tent and went to sleep. Morning was amazing. It was as if we had woken up on Mars. The gang gathered for breakfast (cereal with a scoop of Peanut Butter) and then we went out to hike. Pictures to come!

There are more days that we must record, but it’s 2:08am in Chicago. That’s bedtime for me. ‘night.

http://www.myspace.com/heymarseilles

-Beck

Day 15-17 - Redwoods thru Portland

Yo yo! Rip City Williams here in the beautiful Portland, Oregon! It has been a pretty eventful last three days, filled with many things I never thought I would ever do in my life.

First things first, we woke up in San Fran and checked out the Golden Gate Bridge before leaving. There were a bunch of really talented surfers surfing right under the bridge, so we watched them for a bit and moved on up to the bridge itself. We walked out to the middle of the bridge and took some time looking at the skyline and the water beneath. It was a pretty quiet morning, but it was nice to take our time and breathe a bit. Anyway, onward to the Redwoods!

Magellan, our lovely GPS, told us that our campground was located where this hostel was, so when we got up to the place there were two roads. We took the one away from the hostel, and it ended up leading us into a dark scary abandoned road that ended with a "No Trespassing Sign". Fearing for our lives, and having seen way too many scary movies that start out like this, we backed out and asked the hostel for help. Turns out the campground was 8 miles down the road. Thanks Magellan.

When we woke up, we went to Crescent City Harbor and saw some deep-sea fishing boats. We got to take a look around, see some sea lions (which apparently are everywhere), and got some clam chowder before hitting the road. Activity # 2 I never thought I would do; Be in Oregon. Halfway to Portland we stopped in at a fudge shop and picked up some fudge! The old man who owned the store was pretty quiet, but was a pretty cool character. And he gave us a free quarter pound of fudge!

We were met in Portland by Paradise's Aunt El and Uncle Don, and they out us up for both nights. (Shout out to El and Don!) They fed us and we got some sleep before hitting the town the next day.

First, they took us out to breakfast at Petit Provence, a french place. The area, called Alberta street, is only a mile from their house, so we got some exercise too. Then they took us to many of the great sights in Portland; mainly mountains, trees and waterfalls. It's incredible to think that all of this nature is only 20 minutes away from the heart of the city. Next, we went to the Bonneville Dam where we got to see fish ladders and make many "dam" jokes. They never get old.

From there, we hit up the city of Portland, starting with a dinner at Deschute's Brewery. It was great restaurant that made all of it's beer and named it after local sites in the area. Then we hopped over to Powell's Books, which is a popular bookstore that sold new and used books of all types. It took up an entire city block and was four levels high! I only wish I had more time to really sit in there and look through everything, but that would probably take a week to do. Lastly, we went to the Cool Moon Ice Cream Shop where we finished off our Portland experience the only way that seemed fitting; with 10 scoops of Ice Cream. It's called the Real McCall, and we pretty much dominated it.

Although I mentioned a lot of the great things that we got to do in Portland, the real experience we had was from listening to both Uncle Don and Aunt El. We talked about poetry, theatre, music, Portland, Ashland, and everything in between. It goes to show that you can go to a city and see everything that it has to offer, but you truly learn the most from talking to its people.

Peace and Love from Oregon,

Rip City Williams

(P.S. Ford the River!!!)

Day 13, 14: Rice A Roni

So we were sad to see Big Sur go of course. But not so sad to get back on California One -- the drive up the rest of the Central CA coast was beautiful. We stopped for a bit in Santa Cruz to check out a sweet music shop, and managed to get into San Fran at rush hour. Not too bad though. Our hotel here is a nice enough old place.... but the surrounding area.... well maybe we'll skip the Tenderloin neighborhood next time we're in town. We grabbed some awesome Chinese food close by - a shoutout to Embo and Ted for giving some cool recs. After getting kicked out of a piano showroom, we crashed an Apple Developers party (not joking) and later wandered over to Union Square in search of kicks.

This morning, after eating some cornflakes and oatmeal out of heineken cups (still not joking) we hopped on a cable car and headed towards Fisherman's Wharf. Man I love those cable cars. Beck and I tried to high-five the passengers of one coming towards us on the other side of the street - no dice. I bought a 1 1/2 pound roll of sourdough - oh man it was a lot of bread. No joke at all. Met up with Andy Bree and Courtney Schleinkoffer, two of Sean's friends from UArts, spent some cool time with them by the water, Andy was Sean's roommate and played HS baseball with Nick, my roommate! Crazy. Saw some sea lions hanging out by Pier 39, a slightly bathetic addendum to our sighting two days ago, sad face, but got SUNDAES FROM GHIARDELLI SQUARE oh yes. You don't understand, these guys are ice cream naysayers, this was the first time I had legitimate ice cream in a while and man it was good. Next, we headed over to the Haight-Ashbury section of town and hippied out for a while. Don't really remember the next five hours, just kidding parents, we headed out to an Oakland A's game and cheered on a semi-depressing franchise but had a great time because well, the hot dogs were only $1. Tom had 6. We tried to stop him, honest.

That's all folks ! One more drive up the highway at the edge of the country and we're out of this state.

Goodnight from old brown Frisco,

Paradise

Days 11, 12: Big Sur

Greetings,

Big Sur, a region along the California Coast, is a top destination for campers around the world. Kerouac and the gang used to hang there! We passed several state parks, hoping that Pfeiffer, one of the more popular sites, would welcome us. Beneath the 'Welcome to Pfeiffer' sign was a smaller post that read 'Camp Full'.

We decided to check it out anyway, and found many available sites! (I guess they don't change the sign)

By the time we set up camp, it was about 4. We went for a hike to watch the sunset over the pacific. When we reached the top, another mountain blocked our view. sweeeeettt. We could see the ocean, so all was good.

We knew we would be hiking in the dark. We had considered bringing flashlights but decided against it because we're too cool for flashlights. Our hike was interesting. There is no moonlight in the forest. We got lost a bit finding camp but it was great.

The next morning we woke up and went to Anrew Molera State park for a 'World Ocean Day' Nature walk. Our guide, Sarah, showed us the plants of the region. We walked to the Ocean. Beautiful.

Later on, we drove to Point Lobos (Good call, Auntie El) where we watched Sea lions, Otters, and Seals. It was crazy. We had been hiking, then heard the sea lions calling from half a mile away. There were about one hundred of them just chilling on a rock...

We continued to a Nepenthe. This restaurant clings to the coast, 880 ft above the Pacific. Thanks to Grandma Joan, we ate like kings. Paradise - NY Sirloin, Sur Williams - Glazed Duck, Myself- Grilled Swordfish. It was awesome. Definitely a step up from Hot Dogs and Beans!

The California Coast is Beautiful.

-(S)t(ean)Beck

Days 9 and 10

Hey everybody!

Hollywood Williams here, and as you can guess by the name we have successfully made it to the Pacific Ocean! However, much has happened since then.

Yesterday we saw the Grand Canyon. Easily the most unbelievable thing I have ever seen. It's one of those things that you see pictures of in textbooks and postcards but you never really get an understanding of it until it is in front of you. I realized as I was taking pictures that there was absolutely no way of truly capturing the view. It is awe-inspiring, and if you haven't ever been there, GO!

And then we made a long night drive to Hollywood, where we were put up by Sasha in her beautiful L.A. apartment. After catching up on some sleep, we got up and went to the beach where we officially touched water on the West Coast. Also, the water is much cleaner and isn't full of rocks and seaweed. After spending a couple hours at the beach and venturing down the boardwalk, we stopped in at an In-n-Out Burger, one of Cali's finest fast food chains. Awesome burgers! Wish we had some in NY.

We spent a lazy day back at Sasha's, and then Sal and I hit the town to check out the touristy spots, like Hollywood Blvd and The Grove. Important things we learned in L.A. : 1) When you go to In-n-Out, ask for your sandwich to be prepared "Animal" style. It's not on the menu, so it's pretty secretive. 2) Drivers here are vicious! And it's tough to fit in with a mini-van. 3) When you go to a Yogurtland, where they buy frozen yogurt by the ounce, stay away from the heavier toppings and focus more on the yogurt.

Off to Big Sur! I can't wait to see the sun set on the Pacific Ocean.

Peace and Love,

Hollywood Williams

P.S. Thank you, Sasha!!!

Day 6-8: Lake Meredith, Great Sand Dunes, Mesa Verde

Okay I know I know we haven’t updated in two days. But not because we’re lazy- because we’ve been camping for the past two nights, and have had no internet access, or showers for that matter. SO – after we left Austin, we had a pretty crazy driving day – about 10 hours through Texas barely touching any interstates, which meant a lot of amazing scenic drives – man Texas is big. The views changed from big green rolling pastures to red-dirt grasslands to the endless fields of the bottom of the Great Plains. So good, although a little scary at times - we almost got lost in the middle of Texas on a two lane highway with no cars or civilization for miles and miles around, with a nearly empty tank and a thunderstorm on the horizon. But all was well – until Tom hit a bird. Yes, he hit one, and it probably died. RIP little bird, we will meet again.

We finally got to Meredith Lake at sunset and it was more beautiful than we ever thought it would be ! Gigantic lake surrounded by red cliffs, upon which we set up camp in the wind. And man we were completely alone which was surreal. Made a heart-healthy meal out of beans, mac and cheese, and firesmoke before crashing.

On Wednesday we got up super early and started the trip to Colorado.... again awesome views, hills start to pop up out of the Plains which become mountains in New Mexico which all of a sudden bam turn into the Rockies in Colorado. So cool, even cooler than Coors Light would have you believe. We found the Great Sand Dunes and got a campsite at the very last minute before the sites filled up - and went to hike the Dunes without wasting any time. Honestly I would try to describe the unadulterated beauty of the Great Sand Dunes but you should really just look at the pictures; I hope they do the place half the justice it deserves. Barely anyone's ever heard of it, yet it's the most impressive natural phenomenon I've seen in the US (although we are headed to the Grand Canyon in just a few hours). We waded through a creek of melted Rocky snow to get the base of the Dunes, left our shoes at the bottom with an optimistic 'don't take' scrawled in the sand, and spent the whole afternoon climbing them. Colorado Williams and I felt so out of shape climbing them - and I just realized today that it's cause the air must've been so thin at so high an elevation ! Either that or the TEXAS DOUBLE WHOPPERS we ate on Tuesday were still taking their toll. We actually had some vegetables for dinner that night though, that's right all you parents out there, real vegetables.

Today we drove for about 10 hours almost nonstop. Jeez. But now we're in Page, Arizona, pretty close to the Grand Canyon, which we'll hit up early tomorrow. On the way, after stopping on the highway to wait for some construction workers' mountain blasting and later a sweet diner meal, we stopped at Mesa Verde National Park for a couple of hours. Got to see these awesome old Pueblo Native American cliff dwellings, again check out the pictures. But they were so cool. Later we arrived at the Four Corners (the spot where Utah, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico share a point) at about 7:58 only to discover that the monument closes at 8:00! Tom was pretty upset; I think we were planning to be in four places at once (and thus outdo those amateurs from A Walk to Remember). Oh well.

Okay I am once again the only one awake and that should stop being the case. But make sure you check out our picture page! Here's the link:

http://photobucket.com/judisamericandream

More to come. Much love from Mountain Time Zone,

Paradise

Day Five and Six: Austin

I would start this post with "Howdy", but apparently beck did that on the last post from New Orleans (which doesn't make sense), so... Yee-haw!

If you couldn't guess, we're in the Lone Star state right now. We arrived here yesterday after a long day of driving through the marshes of Louisiana to the flat plains of Texas and then a pit stop in Houston. Not much was happening in Houston, so we got back on the road and made it the rest of the way to Austin where we stayed the night at Beck's cousins' house. Uncle Joe (a.k.a Uncle G) made us some chili for dinner followed by some cookies, brownies and peach cobbler for dessert. Nothing like good home cooking! Preferred food choice of starving artists everywhere!

After a good night sleep, we woke up and went to a trailer park eatery to get some authentic Texas style Breakfast Burritos at Torchy's Tacos (awesome!) and then over to Barton Springs Pool. This place was amazing. It is a natural spring that is surrounded by forest and beautiful rocks, and the water contains all different types of plant life and fish. It also had a diving board, which was sorta out of place, but a lot of fun. However, Beck, Sal and I learned something about ourselves; we suck at diving. We're horrible. Especially compared to all the country boys who were showing off with their double back flips. But that's cool, because we're city boys and proud of it. NYC!

Our next stop was the Capitol building, where we took a tour and got to sit in on some actual congressional legislation. However, the bulk of all of the issues had already been settled, so it was more like a "bring-your-kid-to-work" day for the senators.

Then we met up with Uncle G, and he gave us the royal Texas treatment. First, we went to Iron Works, an authentic Texas Style BBQ joint, and we ate an enormous amount of meat and jalapeno peppers. We walked up and down Congress Ave., and hit up an awesome candy shop called Big Top, where Stags bought enough candy to feed the Chinese Army. From there, G took us to a bridge that is famous for having bats live in it, and at sunset they come out in a swarm to feed. Most of the times it's pretty scattered, but we lucked out and got to see them all come out together in a huge swarm. It was one of the coolest things I've ever seen. I can't stress how much little things like this bring a city to life and truly give it an identity.

Later on, we walked up and down 6th street where they have all the bars and live music. We saw a couple of cool bands, and went into a piano place where Beck requested "The Weight" by The Band. They knew a couple verses and played it, and also played a bunch of traveling songs for us after hearing about our trip. We made the trip back to Uncle G's place and are just about to crash for the night. Sal has been asleep for about an hour now, Beck just passed out, and I'm just putting the final touches on this post before going off to sleep. Austin is a beautiful city; definitely and environment I would love to live in. I'm excited to finally start our camping portion of the trip tomorrow.

Peace and Love,

Texas Williams